Dec. 20 (UPI) — Catastrophic weather claimed the lives of hundreds of people in 2024 as increasingly severe natural disasters ripped across the world indiscriminately.
A rash of tornados pounded the United States in the spring while earthquakes and floods brought mass casualties to the Middle East, Asia and the Western Pacific. Summer heat waves were followed by an onslaught of hurricanes that disrupted life in the southeastern United States and a Category 5 super typhoon killed nearly 600 people across southeastern Asia.
The year is on track to be the hottest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization. For the first nine months of the year, the average temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
The global mean temperature “exceeded anything recorded before, and often by a wide margin,” the organization wrote.
The WMO’s State of the Climate report was one of several to warn that climate change threatens to make extreme and deadly weather events more common and more severe. It notes that these disasters also impact the overall health of those impacted, whether it be directly or indirectly, and they widen inequalities.
In the United States alone, there have been at least 24 weather-related disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damages each according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since 1980, the annual average number of events is 8.5. When counting the most recent five years alone — 2019 through 2023 — that average increases to 20.4 events per year.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as its hurricane-force winds spread up to 60 miles from the eye of the storm while it quickly dropped as much as 20 inches of rain.
Helene pushed a surge of water inland across the coast of Florida, accompanied by intense winds. It moved over Florida and Georgia overnight as it approached the Carolinas. By the following day, dozens were confirmed dead and millions were without power across the southeastern United States.
The storm was accompanied by tornadoes in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Its impact was also felt in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
The torrential rains from Helene caused massive damage and disruption in North Carolina where major roads washed away and critical infrastructure was lost. Interstate 40 and Interstate 26 in western North Carolina closed due to the continuing rush of water.
More than 50 people were confirmed dead by the second day after landfall. In the days that followed, the death toll rose to more than 230.
Helene was the strongest hurricane to hit Florida’s Big Bend region north of Tampa in more than 170 years. At its largest, it covered about 400 miles across.
Hurricane Beryl knocked out utilities for 1.2 million customers in Houston in July. The hurricane was the first major storm to come from the Atlantic in 2024, causing at least 60 deaths.
Beryl featured 80 mph winds and torrential rain that caused flooding and left 2.2 million people without power.
Eighteen named storms, including 11 hurricanes, marked an active hurricane season. An average season sees 14 named storms and seven hurricanes. Five of the hurricanes in 2024 were measured at Category 3 or higher.
One of the deadliest natural disasters took place in Afghanistan and Pakistan in May, when flash flooding killed more than 300 people. Hundreds more were forced to flee their homes in Afghannistan’s Baghlan and Takhar provinces.
More than 200 in the Borka district of Baghlan were trapped in their homes due to conditions created by weeks of heavy rainfall. The region was temporarily unreachable for humanitarian aid organizations like the U.N. World Food Program.
The Afghan Ministry of Refugees posted on social media that dozens more people were missing and at least 6,000 homes were partially or totally destroyed.
Papua New Guinea was the site of another of the year’s deadliest natural disasters in May. More than 670 people were killed when an earthquake and landslide hit the Enga province in the northern region of the country.
At least six villages were shaken by the earthquake. Many homes were destroyed as well as the agriculture that is crucial to feeding the people of those villages.
The Enga landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive. It is estimated that at least 100 more died as a result.
Southern Brazil also experienced deadly floods and landslides in May. Nearly 60 people were killed and 30,000 were forced to evacuate as relentless storms dropped heavy rain on the region. Another 373 people went missing and half a million people were without clean water or electricity.
Thirty people were killed when a dam burst near Bento Goncalves, Brazil. The dam served a hydroelectric plant near the city.
Landslides in Kerala — a state in southern India — killed at least 93 people in the early morning of July 30. Military rescue workers were dispatched to the mountainous Wayanad district that was hit with torrential rain.
Sixteen people were found dead in the Chaliyar River, about 250 people were rescued and more than 100 were missing.
The final death toll was nearly 400 people.
More than 200 people were killed during flash floods in southeast Spain and western Europe on Oct. 30. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the floods were the “dramatic reality of climate change.”
Water inundated the streets in riverside towns following the heavy rains from days prior. A high-speed train carrying 300 passengers near Malaga, Spain derailed without any fatalities.
Southeast Asia was struck by one of its strongest storms in a decade in September. Super typhoon Yagi killed nearly 600 people across Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and southern China.
Yagi brought wind gusts of up to 156 mph when it made landfall in Vietnam and moved through southern China. About 400,000 people were evacuated in the Hainan province and more than 1.22 million people were impacted in China alone during the first day of the storm.
The Philippines received more than 15 inches of rain and at least 20 were killed. Myanmar experienced floods and landslides causing dams to burst and homes to collapse. More than 200 people were killed. About 300 people were killed in Vietnam and more than 40 in Thailand.
The Philippines faced another deadly storm a month later when Tropical Storm Trami killed more than 140 people. About half a million people were displaced due to flooding and landslides, caused by about two months worth of rain falling in 24 hours.
It snowed in all 50 U.S. states last winter. States accustomed to snow had more than usual while states that rarely see it received trace amounts.
In December 2023, the United States recorded the second-lowest amount of snow cover since 1966. January told a different story, beginning with a devastating storm system that impacted 30 states on Jan. 9.
Four people died in the storm system, including two in tornadoes. Several states were under blizzard conditions while others received heavy rain and intense wind gusts.
Tornadic activity continued through the spring, scarring the Midwest in multiple tornado outbreaks. Seventy tornadoes emerged in April, including 28 that swept through Nebraska destroying more than 100 homes.
In May, the small-Iowa town Greenfield was nearly erased by a tornado that ripped through the middle of the community. Five people were killed and more than 30 were injured. Greenfield has a population of about 2,000.
