Rising Temperatures And Extreme Weather Hit Asia Hard

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)-Asia is currently warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, fuelling more extreme weather and wreaking a heavy toll on the region’s economies, ecosystems and societies, The Sea surface temperature recorded highest in 2024. The Marine heatwaves in Asia were worst on record.

The Glacier melt specially in Hindu Kush glaciers of Himalyan region has accelerated. Faced with extreme weather events such as Floods and droughts which destroyed lives and livelihoods, there is an urgent need in Asia for Early warnings and action to save lives.

The WMO’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report says that 2024 was the warmest or second warmest year on record (depending on the dataset), with widespread and prolonged heat waves. The warming trend between 1991–2024 was almost double that during the 1961–1990 period. In 2024, heatwaves gripped a record area of the ocean. Sea surface temperatures were the highest on record, with Asia’s sea surface decadal warming rate nearly double the global average.

Sea level rise on the Pacific and Indian Ocean sides of the continent exceeded the global average, heightening risks for low-lying coastal areas. Reduced winter snowfall and extreme summer heat were punishing for glaciers. In the central Himalayas and Tian Shan, 23 out of 24 glaciers suffered mass loss, leading to an increase in hazards like glacial lake outburst floods and landslides and long-term risks for water security. Extreme rainfall wreaked havoc and heavy casualties in many countries in the region, and tropical cyclones left a trail of destruction, whilst drought caused heavy economic and agricultural losses.

“The State of the Climate in Asia report highlights the changes in key climate indicators such as surface temperature, glacier mass and sea level, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region. Extreme weather is already exacting an unacceptably high toll,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.“The work of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and their partners is more important than ever to save lives and livelihoods,” she said.

The report included a case study from Nepal, showing how strengthened early warning systems and anticipatory action enable communities to prepare for and respond to climate variability and change, thereby helping to protect lives and livelihoods. The State of the Climate reports are flagship reports of WMO and provide policy-relevant information for national and regional decision-making.

Temperatures

In 2024, Asia’s average temperature was about 1.04°C above the 1991–2020 average, ranking as the warmest or second warmest year on record, depending on the dataset.

Asia is the continent with the largest land mass extending to the Arctic and is warming more than twice as fast as the global average because the temperature increase over land is larger than the temperature increase over the ocean. Many parts of the region experienced extreme heat events in 2024. Prolonged heatwaves affected East Asia from April to November. Monthly average temperature records were broken one after another in Japan (April, July and October), in the Republic of Korea (April, June, August and September) and in China (April, May, August, September, and November).

Heat waves were also reported in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Myanmar set a new national temperature record of 48.2°C.

Ocean

The entire oceanic area of the WMO Region II in Asia experienced surface ocean warming over the past decades, with particularly rapid rates in the northern Arabian Sea and Pacific Ocean. Average sea surface temperatures increased at a rate of 0.24°C per decade, which is double the global mean rate of 0.13°C per decade.

In 2024, most of the ocean area of Asia was affected by marine heatwaves of strong, severe, or extreme intensity – the largest extent since records began in 1993. The northern Indian Ocean and in the ocean area adjacent to Japan, the Yellow and East China seas were especially affected. During August and September 2024, nearly 15 million square kilometers of the region’s ocean was impacted – one tenth of the Earth’s entire ocean surface, about the same size as the Russian Federation and more than 1.5 times the area of China.

The rates of sea-level rise in the Indian and Pacific Ocean areas bordering Asia are higher than the global mean rate over January 1993–November 2024.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy