Asia experienced widespread thermal stress during the month, with temperatures across the continent sitting more than two degrees above the long-term benchmark…
Top 5 Countries: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Pakistan
Summary
Asia experienced widespread thermal stress during the month, with temperatures across the continent sitting more than two degrees above the long-term benchmark. Unusually intense late-season tropical systems brought heavy rainfall and flooding to East and Southeast Asia, including Typhoon Dujuan, which caused deadly landslides and power outages in Japan. Meanwhile, a strong El Niño forecast to peak at Very Strong in Sep-Nov continues to alter weather patterns across the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, setting the stage for elevated heat across much of the continent in the coming months.
This month in numbers
The continent recorded a 1-month average temperature anomaly of +2.09°C above the 1961-1990 baseline. Over longer timeframes, Asia maintained a sustained warming trajectory, posting a 3-month anomaly of +1.92°C and a 12-month rolling figure of +1.88°C. In the global context, Central Asian members featured in the top 12-month rankings worldwide, with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan placing 9th and 10th highest among all regions globally over the past year.
Hottest & coolest countries
Middle Eastern nations led the monthly temperature departures across Asia. Iran () was the warmest member with an anomaly of +3.19°C, followed closely by Saudi Arabia () at +3.09°C and Qatar () at +2.89°C. Kuwait () also experienced marked warmth with a +2.73°C anomaly. Conversely, cooler conditions were concentrated in parts of Maritime and Mainland Southeast Asia, where East Timor () recorded the lowest departure from average at +0.29°C, and Thailand () registered +0.75°C.
What's driving change?
The underlying atmospheric state is strongly influenced by ENSO (ENSO), where a strong El Niño with a Relative Niño Index value of +1.69°C is actively reshaping tropical circulation. The physical reality that has amplified continental air temperatures across interior Asia, while has generated erratic rainfall patterns, suppressing monsoon activity across parts of Southeast Asia while allowing torrential downpours elsewhere. Additional atmospheric steering from a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (+0.37) and positive Arctic Oscillation (+1.11) has further helped maintain anomalous warmth across northern and central stretches of the landmass.
Looking ahead
Seasonal forecasts from regional meteorological agencies indicate that above-normal temperatures are expected to persist across most of Asia through the final quarter of the year, with below-average rainfall favoured for the Maritime Continent as El Niño conditions maintain their influence.
Precipitation, Sunshine, Frost and Snow are converted to standard deviations from their own average so they can share an axis with Temperature anomalies.
Metric
Insight
Temperature
10-Yr AverageActual Year
Climate History
85 of 85 events
1912Volcanic
Novarupta (Katmai) eruption
The largest volcanic eruption anywhere in the world in the 20th century - 13 km3 of magma, about thirty times the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption - at Novarupta in Alaska on 6-8 June 1912. Ash reached 100,000 ft and cooled the Northern Hemisphere by roughly 0.3°C over 1912-13. Unlike a tropical eruption such as Pinatubo, a high-latitude eruption's haze stays in its own hemisphere, so it did little to the Southern Hemisphere.
After the Second World War, coal and oil use grew rapidly across Europe, North America and the Soviet Union. Global sulphur dioxide emissions rose from about 30 to about 130 million tonnes a year by 1980, and the sulphate haze they formed masked part of the greenhouse warming underneath - the effect known as 'global dimming'.
Months of heavy summer rain in 1954 sent the Yangtze and its lakes over their banks across central China. Around 33,000 people died, including in the disease that followed, and the flood shaped decades of Chinese flood-control building.
One of the strongest La Niñas since instrument-based ENSO records begin in 1950, and part of a run of cool Pacific years through the mid-1950s. La Niña cools global temperatures slightly for a year or two while it lasts, and shifts rainfall patterns worldwide.
Charles David Keeling begins continuous measurements of atmospheric CO₂ at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, starting at about 315 ppm. The record has risen every year since and is now the longest unbroken direct measurement of CO₂ anywhere - the 'Keeling Curve'.
Typhoon Vera struck Ise Bay near Nagoya on 26 September 1959, the strongest and deadliest typhoon on record to hit Japan. Its storm surge flooded the low-lying city; about 5,100 people died and 1.6 million were left homeless. It led to Japan's Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act of 1961.
On 12 November 1970 a cyclone drove a storm surge across the low islands of the Ganges delta in what was then East Pakistan. Between 300,000 and 500,000 people died - the deadliest tropical cyclone on record.
One of the strongest El Niños on record. It contributed to failed grain harvests in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in 1972, and to a sharp rise in world food prices - an early sign of how far ENSO's reach extends.
For a week in February 1972 blizzards buried much of western, central and southern Iran, dropping several metres of snow on rural areas and wiping around 200 villages off the map. At least 4,000 people died - the deadliest blizzard on record. 1972 is Iran's 2nd-coldest year in this site's 1950-2025 record.
In August 1975 the remains of Typhoon Nina stalled over Henan, dropping over 1,000 mm of rain in 24 hours - far more than the region's dams were built for. The Banqiao dam and dozens of others collapsed; tens of thousands drowned, and the famine and disease that followed took the toll to an estimated 171,000 or more.
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation - a slow natural cycle in North Pacific sea temperatures - switches from its cool to its warm phase in 1976-77. The change was abrupt enough to be called the 1976-77 Pacific Climate Shift: it warmed Alaska and the west coast of North America, and reorganised North Pacific fisheries.
Global sulphur dioxide emissions peak at about 130 million tonnes a year, then begin a long decline as Europe, North America and Japan clean up their air. As the aerosol mask thins, the rate of global warming picks up through the 1980s.
A sulphur-rich eruption in Mexico whose aerosol cloud stayed in the stratosphere for more than two years, cooling the Northern Hemisphere by about 0.2°C.
The strongest El Niño since 1950 on NOAA's Relative Oceanic Niño Index, which strips out the background warming of the tropical oceans before ranking events. On the older index that leaves that warming in, 2015-16 comes out on top instead.
British Antarctic Survey scientists Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jon Shanklin publish their Halley and Faraday measurements on 16 May 1985, showing October ozone over Antarctica had fallen to about two-thirds of earlier decades. The cause is traced to chlorofluorocarbons, and the finding triggers the fastest international environmental response on record.
Signed in 1987 to phase out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, the Montreal Protocol turned out to be one of the most consequential climate treaties ever agreed. CFCs are potent greenhouse gases in their own right, and NOAA estimates the Protocol prevented up to 2°C of warming by 2100 - around 1°C from the emissions avoided, and up to 1°C more by sparing forests and other carbon sinks from increased ultraviolet radiation.
Atmospheric CO₂ passes 350 ppm. In the same year James Hansen told a US Senate committee that global warming was already detectable, the moment it entered mainstream politics. Twenty years later, in 2008, Hansen proposed 350 ppm as the safe upper limit - a level the world had already left behind.
One of the strongest La Niñas on record, arriving straight after the 1986-87 El Niño - a swing from one extreme of the Pacific cycle to the other in barely a year.
Daytime warming catches up with the night-led pattern
Across 1961-90, 81% of the world's land saw nights warming faster than days. Across 1991-2020 the pattern reversed: 70% saw days warming faster, as the industrial haze that had been dimming daytime sunshine was cleaned up. The study compares two fixed thirty-year windows; measured as a turning point, this site's own global series turns around 1982.
Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupts in June 1991, the largest eruption since 1912. Its sulphate haze cooled global surface temperature by about 0.5°C in 1992 and reduced rainfall over land for about two years, before the warming trend resumed.
On the night of 29-30 April 1991 a severe cyclone drove a storm surge of about 6 metres over the coast of south-eastern Bangladesh near Chittagong. At least 138,000 people died. It spurred the building of thousands of cyclone shelters and early-warning systems that have since cut the toll of comparable storms dramatically.
On 6 October 1994 the moraine dam of Lugge Tsho, a glacial lake high in the Bhutan Himalaya, partly gave way and released about 18 million cubic metres of water down the Pho Chhu. The flood reached the Punakha valley 100 km away, killed 21 people and damaged the Punakha Dzong - a warning of the glacial lakes growing as Himalayan glaciers retreat.
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation flips to a warm phase
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation - a slow natural cycle in North Atlantic sea temperatures, roughly 60-70 years long - flips to its warm phase in 1995. Warm phases are linked to more active Atlantic hurricane seasons, wetter summers in parts of north-west Europe and more frequent drought in the central and western United States.
Lake Urmia, once one of the largest salt lakes in the world, has lost more than 90% of the water it held in the 1970s. More than 60 dams on its feeder rivers, irrigation and groundwater pumping did most of the damage; rising temperatures and drought have sped the evaporation.
One of the strongest El Niños on record, and the one the textbook El Niño pattern is usually drawn from. It pushed 1998 to what was then the warmest year ever measured, and set off the first global-scale coral bleaching event.
From late October 1997 to January 1998, torrential rains brought East Africa its worst flooding since 1961. The 1997-98 El Niño coincided with an extreme positive Indian Ocean Dipole - by NOAA's Dipole Mode Index, September-November 1997 is the strongest positive IOD season since 1871. Floods and the disease outbreaks that followed, including Rift Valley fever, killed thousands.
From July to September 1998 the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna flooded together, covering more than two-thirds of Bangladesh for over two months. About 30 million people were affected, some 1,050 died, and more than 2 million tonnes of rice were lost.
Months of heavy summer rain in 1998 brought the Yangtze and its tributaries to repeated flood crests. More than 3,600 people died - estimates run up to about 4,150 - and around 14 million were still homeless as winter approached.
A strong La Niña that ran for three winters after the record 1997-98 El Niño, peaking at an ONI of -1.53. It pulled global temperatures back below 1998's record for several years, and brought the usual La Niña pattern of dry winters across the southern United States and wet years in Australia and Indonesia.
Pacific Decadal Oscillation flips back to a cool phase
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation - a slow natural cycle in North Pacific sea temperatures - flips back to its cool phase around 1998-99. The cool phase that followed is one reason global surface warming appeared to slow in the 2000s, as more heat went into the deep Pacific.
On 29 October 1999 a super cyclone with winds of about 250 km/h struck the coast of Odisha, driving a storm surge far inland. The state government counted 9,885 dead. The disaster led Odisha to build the cyclone shelters and evacuation system that have saved many lives in the cyclones since.
Typhoon Rusa crossed South Korea on 31 August 2002, and 870.8 mm of rain fell in a single day at Gangneung on the east coast - the highest daily total ever recorded in Korea. At least 233 people died, the country's deadliest typhoon in more than 40 years, and damage reached about US$4.2 billion.
2004 is Japan's 12th-warmest year in this site's 1950-2025 record. Ten typhoons made landfall in Japan in 2004, the most since records began after the Second World War; the previous record was six. The same summer Tokyo reached 39.5°C on 20 July, its highest temperature since records began in 1923, and had 38 days in a row at 30°C or above.
Cyclone Gonu, the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea, reached winds of 240 km/h before striking Oman's eastern tip on 6 June 2007 - the strongest cyclone ever to hit the Arabian Peninsula. Up to 610 mm of rain flooded the wadis around Muscat; at least 49 people died and damage reached about US$4 billion.
From the winter of 2006-07 Syria and the wider Fertile Crescent had the worst three-year drought in the instrumental record. Crops failed across the north-east, and as many as 1.5 million people left farming areas for the edges of the cities. A 2015 study found human-caused warming made a drought that severe two to three times more likely.
From late January 2008 snow and freezing rain swept southern and central China, the region's worst winter weather in half a century. Ice brought down power lines and stranded millions of people travelling home for the Chinese New Year; at least 129 died and losses passed US$20 billion.
Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta on 2 May 2008, and its storm surge swept far inland. About 84,500 people were confirmed dead and 53,800 were missing - around 138,000 in all, Myanmar's worst natural disaster and the deadliest tropical cyclone of the 21st century so far.
A moderate-to-strong El Niño that peaked around the turn of 2009-10. It helped make 2010 one of the warmest years on record at the time, and was followed straight away by the strong La Niña of 2010-12.
In January 2009 storm rainfall of 145.8 mm in a day brought extensive flash flooding across the Brunei-Muara, Tutong and Belait districts, and landslides blocked roads. Bandar Seri Begawan flooded again in May 2013, when 181 mm fell in a single day.
On 26 September 2009 Tropical Storm Ketsana, known locally as Ondoy, dropped 455 mm of rain on Manila in 24 hours, the most in more than 40 years. About 80% of the capital flooded; across 25 provinces 464 people died and more than 2 million homes were damaged.
Globally, heatwave days have roughly doubled each decade since 2010 - from an average of 5.3 a year in the 2000s to 11.5 in the 2010s and 18.9 so far in the 2020s, weighted by land area across 169 countries. El Niño has not become more extreme. The whole temperature distribution has shifted upwards, so the same natural El Niño and La Niña cycle now pushes far more days over fixed extreme-heat thresholds.
A strong double-winter La Niña peaking at an ONI of -1.57. It gave Australia its wettest two years on record and the Queensland floods of 2010-11 - so much rain fell on land that global sea level briefly dropped in 2011 - and it fed drought in the Horn of Africa and in Texas.
In early December 2010, after an unusually long, dry autumn, a fire swept across Mount Carmel near Haifa. It burned about 5,000 hectares, forced 17,000 people from their homes and killed 44 - most of them prison-service cadets whose bus was caught by the flames - the deadliest civil disaster in Israel's history at the time.
The record heat of 2010 across the Middle East and North Africa
Record heatwaves across south-west Asia, the Middle East and northern Africa left large areas 2-3°C warmer than average for the whole of 2010. Israel had its hottest year by a wide margin, and Turkey and Tunisia their warmest on record.
A dzud - a summer drought followed by a winter of deep snow and extreme cold - killed about 10 million livestock in 2009-10, more than a fifth of Mongolia's national herd, and hit the livelihoods of over a quarter of the population.
Monsoon floods that swept down the Indus in July and August 2010, killing 1,985 people and directly affecting about 20 million - at the time the worst floods in Pakistan's history.
A run of tropical storms and heavy monsoon rain made 2011 the worst flood season on the lower Mekong since 2000. In Cambodia floods reached 18 of the 24 provinces, affected more than 1.2 million people and killed 247.
Months of heavy monsoon rain in 2011 flooded much of central Thailand, including industrial estates and parts of Bangkok. 815 people died, 13.6 million were affected, and damage and losses reached about US$46.5 billion - among the costliest floods anywhere.
Atmospheric CO₂ passes 400 ppm at Mauna Loa on 9 May 2013 - a level the planet had not seen for 3-5 million years, since the Pliocene, when sea levels were many metres higher.
Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines on 8 November 2013 with winds estimated at up to 314 km/h - possibly the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded at landfall. Its storm surge devastated Tacloban, and about 6,300 people died.
Extreme rain on 13-17 June 2013, at the start of the monsoon, sent the Mandakini river through the Kedarnath valley, a major pilgrimage route in the Himalaya. More than 6,000 people died - one of India's worst natural disasters.
Weeks of north-east monsoon rain from mid-December 2014 brought the worst floods in decades to Malaysia's east coast. More than 500,000 people were affected, most in Kelantan, more than 100,000 were evacuated, and damage passed RM1 billion.
The strongest El Niño on record by raw ONI - though on NOAA's newer RONI index, which strips out background tropical-ocean warming, 1982-83 ranks slightly ahead instead. 2016 became the hottest year on record at that time (+1.0°C above pre-industrial).
The eleven warmest years ever measured are 2015 through 2025, an unbroken run - the longest sustained stretch of record warmth in the 176-year instrumental record. 2023 and 2024 each broke the previous record in turn.
In May 2015 temperatures across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana stayed above 43°C day after day, peaking at 48°C, and about 2,500 people died - more than 1,700 in Andhra Pradesh alone. Attribution scientists found a repeat of that heat around ten times more likely than it once was.
In November 2015 Cyclone Chapala, one of the strongest ever seen in the Arabian Sea, became the first hurricane-strength storm on record to make landfall in Yemen. A week later Cyclone Megh struck the same coast and the island of Socotra again - two such storms in succession, which the WMO called 'an absolutely extraordinary event'.
2016 is Vietnam's 4th-warmest year in this site's 1950-2025 record. The very strong 2015-16 El Niño brought Vietnam its worst drought in 90 years. The Mekong fell to its lowest level since 1926, and seawater pushed 40-95 km up the delta's rivers, salting up to half of its farmland; nearly 2.3 million people were short of food or water.
In mid-May 2016 the storm that became Cyclone Roanu brought days of torrential rain to Sri Lanka. At Aranayake in Kegalle district a hillside collapsed and buried three villages, and across the country floods and landslides killed more than 100 people and displaced over 230,000.
On 25-26 May 2017 the south-west monsoon, reinforced by the system that became Cyclone Mora, brought torrential rain to Sri Lanka. Floods and landslides hit 15 of the country's 25 districts and killed more than 200 people.
On 25 October 2018 a sudden storm sent a flash flood down a valley near the Dead Sea's hot springs, sweeping away a group of schoolchildren and teachers on a school trip. About 20 people died, most of them children aged 12 to 14, and the tragedy led to the resignation of two ministers.
On 23 July 2018 Kumagaya reached 41.1°C, then the highest temperature ever recorded in Japan, and the next day the Japan Meteorological Agency declared the heat a natural disaster. More than 1,000 people died and tens of thousands were taken to hospital with heatstroke. It was part of a record heatwave across north-east Asia.
From mid-July to mid-August 2018 hot high-pressure systems sat over the Korean peninsula. Hongcheon reached 41.0°C, the highest temperature recorded in South Korea since observations began in 1907, and Seoul hit an all-time record of 39.6°C. North Korea also set national records.
After days of heavy monsoon rain, a saddle dam of the unfinished Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower project in southern Laos gave way on the night of 23 July 2018. The flood swept through 19 villages in Attapeu province, killing 71 people and displacing about 14,400, and carried on across the border into northern Cambodia.
In late June and early July 2018, days of torrential rain fell across south-western Japan, bringing floods and landslides to 15 prefectures. At least 225 people died, the country's deadliest rain disaster since 1982. A severe heatwave followed within days, hampering the clean-up.
In mid-October 2019, during unusually hot, dry and windy weather, more than 100 fires broke out across Lebanon in two days, from the Chouf mountains to the outskirts of Beirut. More than 1,200 hectares of forest burned in three days - the country's worst fires in decades.
Global fossil CO₂ emissions fell about 5.8% in 2020, from 37.0 to 34.8 billion tonnes, yet atmospheric CO₂ still rose 2.5 ppm - the dip barely registers in the atmospheric record. Emissions were back to pre-pandemic levels by 2022.
New international shipping rules cut the sulphur allowed in ship fuel from 3.5% to 0.5% almost overnight, removing about 8 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide a year. With less sulphate haze over the oceans, it may have added around 0.1°C of warming by 2023-24.
Three consecutive La Niña winters - a 'triple dip', which has happened only a handful of times since 1950 - peaking at an ONI of -1.11. It held global temperatures slightly below where the warming trend would otherwise have put them, and coincided with five failed rainy seasons in a row in the Horn of Africa and severe flooding in eastern Australia in 2022.
On New Year's Eve 2019-20, 377 mm of rain fell in 24 hours at Halim airport in East Jakarta - the heaviest since records began in the city. Floods swamped greater Jakarta, killing at least 66 people and driving 60,000 from their homes, the worst flooding there since 2007.
Slow-moving Cyclone Seroja brought days of torrential rain to Timor-Leste in early April 2021. Floods and landslides killed more than 40 people and swamped much of Dili, in what the prime minister called one of the most devastating disasters the country had seen in 40 years.
On 20 July 2021 Zhengzhou recorded 201.9 mm of rain in a single hour - the most ever measured in an hour in mainland China - flooding its metro system. Floods across Henan province that month killed between 302 and 398 people.
On 15 June 2021 heavy early monsoon rain set off landslides that briefly dammed the Melamchi River north-east of Kathmandu. When the dam burst, a flood of mud and boulders tore through Melamchi town, killing about 21 people and destroying more than 500 homes.
From 28 July 2021 wildfires burned across Turkey's southern coast, led by the Manavgat fire near Antalya; about 170,000 hectares burned, the most in any season on record, and 8 people died. Two weeks later, on 11 August, 292 mm of rain in a day at Bozkurt on the Black Sea coast set off floods that killed 82 people.
More than 70 days of heat in summer 2022, often above 40°C, made it China's most severe heatwave since national records began in 1961. Yangtze basin rainfall was the lowest since 1961, and in Sichuan, which relies on hydropower, electricity output fell by half in August, closing factories.
Record monsoon rain left roughly a third of Pakistan under water by late August 2022. More than 1,700 people died, over two million homes were damaged and 33 million people were affected. World Weather Attribution found climate change likely intensified the rainfall.
A strong El Niño arriving on top of long-term greenhouse warming, with the cut in shipping sulphur from the 2020 fuel rule adding a little more. Together they produced the record global temperatures of 2023 and 2024.
On 3 August 2023 a mass of rock and ice broke away near the Buba glacier above the mountain resort of Shovi in Georgia's Racha region, releasing meltwater and a debris flow down the valley. At least 32 people died, and much of the resort was destroyed.
On 10-11 May 2024 torrential rain sent flash floods through 21 districts of Baghlan, Takhar and Badakhshan in north-eastern Afghanistan, washing away whole villages. More than 300 people died, most of them in Baghlan, and nearly 9,000 homes were destroyed or damaged.
On 27-28 September 2024 nine stations around Kathmandu recorded their highest 24-hour rainfall since current measurements began in 1970, up to 322 mm. Floods and landslides across 44 districts killed about 250 people, and the Koshi barrage passed its largest flow since 1968.
Typhoon Yagi hit northern Vietnam near Haiphong on 7 September 2024, the strongest storm to strike the country in at least 30 years. Floods and landslides across the north killed nearly 300 people, damaged 232,000 houses and swamped 190,000 hectares of rice, with losses of about US$3.5 billion.
On 16 April 2024 the United Arab Emirates had its heaviest rainfall in at least 75 years. Khatm Al Shakla near Al Ain recorded 254.8 mm in 24 hours, and Dubai International Airport about 144 mm - roughly two years' worth in a day - flooding roads, homes and the airport itself.
Warm Spell Duration Index (WSDI) - days in a 6+ day run above the local 90th-percentile temperature for that time of year. Equal-weight mean across 23 countries.
Heatwave days per year2024 (Record)10-yr avg
Data: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (ERA5-derived), aggregated by 4BYO across member countries. Refreshed roughly 1-2x/year, ~7-8 months behind present.
Source: Copernicus ERA5 (countries) · NOAA Climate at a Glance (continents, US states & climate regions) · Met Office (UK) · GPCC (rainfall, snow) · World Bank CCKP (frost). Anomalies are vs the 1961–1990 baseline. See methodology.
4byo continent aggregate · equal-weight mean of member country monthly absolute temperatures (OWID/CRU TS); precipitation: GPCC (DWD). - Anomalies vs 1901-2000 mean
How spring and autumn have shifted in Asia. Spring is defined as the date monthly temperatures first rise above the long-term annual mean (15.2°C, from 1940–1969); autumn is the date they fall back below it. Temperature swings 19.2°C peak-to-peak across the year - a classic four-seasons rhythm.
Shifting summer
21 Days Longer
Warm Season
1940–1969 Baseline: 9 Apr → 20 Oct · 194 days
2016–2025 Now: 27 Mar → 28 Oct · 215 days
−13d+8d
JanJFebFMarMAprAMayMJunJJulJAugASepSOctONovNDecD
Spr 13 Days EarlierAut 8 Days Later
baseline avgrecent avgClickTap for decades
1940–19692016–20251940–1969 annual mean
Baseline vs recent monthly temperature climatology. Biggest warming: Mar (+2.1°C).
4byo continent aggregate · OWID/CRU TS country monthly temperatures & precipitation: GPCC (DWD). Baseline: first 30 yrs on record. Recent: last 10 yrs on record.
Live GDACS alerts in Asia - Red (Major), Orange (Severe) or Green (Moderate) - and the long-term record of weather and climate disasters.
Live Alerts
Loading…
Alerts, Last 12 Months
Major
8
6.8 a year since 2021
Severe
15
15 a year since 2021
Moderate
1,130
Weather Disasters, 2025
Disasters
157
142 a year, 2016-2025
Deaths
6,139
5,554 a year, 2016-2025
Weather Disasters, 2016-2025
Most Frequent
Flood
702 of 1,416 disasters
Deadliest
Flood
32,790 of 55,543 deaths
Disasters: EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain, via Our World in Data - 10+ deaths, 100+ people affected, or a declared emergency or call for international help. Alerts: GDACS.
The natural climate patterns that measurably shape seasonal temperature or rainfall in Asia, from this site’s own data since 1950 - long-term trends removed, and ENSO’s share taken out before scoring the others, so each is credited only for what it adds.
El Niño / La Niña (ENSO)moderate link
The tropical Pacific’s warm and cool swings - the biggest natural driver of year-to-year climate.
Now: El Niño (strong) · RONI +1.7°C(Jul-Sep 2026)
Forecast - 100% very strong at peak, Sep-Nov, then neutral by Apr-Jun 2027 (NOAA). La Niña from Sep 2027 in SNU’s AI model.
A moderate or strong link for 59% of the places in this group.
Every figure on this page is sourced from official, openly published climate datasets. Anomalies are calculated against the 1961–1990 baseline (temperature) and 1991–2020 (rainfall, sunshine, frost) - see the Methodology & Sources page for the complete dataset list and update calendar.
Asia is warming in line with the rest of the world. The page above shows the latest monthly temperature anomaly versus the 1961-1990 baseline, the long-term annual trend, and the region's rank in the historical record. The headline panel also shows the long-term trend rate per decade and the warmest and coolest years on file.
Which climate drivers affect the weather in Asia?
Measured from seasonal temperature and rainfall in Asia since 1950, with the long-term warming trend removed (and ENSO's own share removed before scoring the other drivers), the climate drivers with a clear effect here are: El Niño / La Niña (ENSO) - a moderate or strong link for 59% of the places in this group; the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) - a moderate or strong link for 100% of the places in this group; the Pacific-North American pattern (PNA) - a moderate or strong link for 100% of the places in this group; the Arctic Oscillation (AO) - a moderate or strong link for 79% of the places in this group. There are also weaker links to the IOD. Their current state is shown in the Climate Drivers section of this page.
What extreme weather affects Asia?
In 2025, the latest complete year, the international disaster database EM-DAT recorded 157 weather and climate disasters in Asia, against an average of 142 a year in 2016-2025, with 6,139 deaths. Over those ten years the most frequent type was flood (702 of 1,416) and the deadliest flood. GDACS, the UN and European Commission's disaster alert system, issued 8 Major (Red) and 15 Severe (Orange) alerts for Asia in the last 12 months. Live alerts are on this page and on the Extreme Weather tracker.
Where does the climate data for Asia come from?
Climate data for Asia comes from Our World in Data, sourcing Copernicus ERA5 and HadCRUT5 (national temperature anomaly) and the Global Carbon Project via Our World in Data (CO₂ emissions), refreshed every month, when the upstream temperature and rainfall data are refreshed.
What is the climate baseline used on this page?
Anomalies on this page are calculated against the 1961-1990 climatological baseline, which is the standard reference period used by the Met Office, NOAA, IPCC and most national climate services. Some panels also show the source-native 1901-2000 (NOAA) or 1991-2020 (WMO) baselines for verification. See Methodology & Sources for the full reference.
Which areas does the Asia climate data cover?
The Asia climate profile covers China, India, Indonesia, Japan and surrounding areas. The world's largest landmass - temperature trends across the continent
How often is the Asia climate update refreshed?
The Asia climate update is refreshed monthly, typically a few days after the previous month closes and the upstream provider (Met Office HadUK-Grid, NOAA Climate at a Glance, Copernicus ERA5 or the Global Carbon Project) publishes its update. See the Climate Rankings for cross-region comparisons.
What counts as a Heatwave Day on the Asia climate page?
Heatwave Days use the Warm Spell Duration Index (WSDI) - the WMO/ETCCDI-standard heatwave measure: days that are part of a run of 6 or more consecutive days above the local 90th-percentile temperature for that calendar day. The 90th-percentile threshold varies by time of year (a hot day in January is judged differently to one in July) but is fixed to the 1961-1990 baseline for every year shown - it does not shift as the climate warms, which is why Heatwave Days trend upward over time.
Does the Asia climate page include frost and snow data?
Yes. Frost Days (days with a minimum temperature below 0°C, World Bank CCKP) and snow water-equivalent (GPCC) are shown alongside temperature and precipitation, each measured against the 1961-1990 baseline where a like-for-like historical comparison is available.
What major climate events has Asia experienced?
Major climate events in Asia include The Yangtze floods of 1954; The shrinking of Lake Urmia (1995-2025); Cyclone Gonu, 2007; The record heat of 2010 across the Middle East and North Africa; Malaysia's monsoon floods, 2014-15; Japan's heatwave of 2018; The Henan floods of 2021; Nepal's September floods, 2024. The Climate History panel on this page lists 85 sourced events and pattern shifts relevant to Asia, the earliest from 1912 - 52 about Asia itself and the rest global context such as volcanic eruptions and El Niño events. Each entry carries its own sources and can be searched, filtered to local events or by category, and sorted by date; scrolling the list moves a cursor across the chart above so you can see where each event falls in the record.
Where does the Climate History list for Asia come from, and how is it checked?
It is a hand-reviewed register, not an automatic feed. Every entry is sourced, and each one records how it was verified - against this site's own data series, against a peer-reviewed paper, or against the public record of the event. The rest give global or national context shared with wider pages. Where a figure is narrower than it first appears, or a famous claim does not hold locally, the entry says so.
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