Signal 21 highest-impact weather events from April 2025 to April 2026

Summary

The report ranks weather disasters from April 2025 to April 2026 in three categories, deaths, people affected and economic damage, and picks the top ten in each. After removing overlaps and merging events that spanned several countries, 21 distinct events remain. The data come from EM-DAT, run by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, and each event was checked for whether human-induced climate change raised its likelihood or intensity. Event-specific attribution studies were used where available and evidence from comparable events otherwise, and most events turned out to have been worsened by climate change. No heatwave made the top ten in any category, which the report says may be chance but may also reflect heavy under-reporting of heat across most of the global South. The Pakistan floods and tropical storm Senyar stand out for large impacts in all three categories.