Deadly Asian floods seen as a climate warning

Southeast Asia is being pummeled by unusually severe floods this year, as late-arriving storms and relentless rains wreak havoc that has caught many places off guard.

- BY ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL AND ANTON L. DELGADO

Deaths have topped 1,500 across Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with more than 1,000 still missing in floods and landslides. In Indonesia, entire villages remain cut off after bridges and roads were swept away. Thousands in Sri Lanka lack clean water, and Thailand's prime minister acknowledged shortcomings in his government's response.

Malaysia is still reeling from one of its worst floods, which killed three and displaced thousands. Mean while, Vietnam and the Philippines have faced a year of punishing storms and floods that have left hundreds dead.

What feels unprecedented is exactly what climate scientists expect: more pun ishing storms, floods and devastation.

"Southeast Asia should brace for a likely contin uation and potential wors ening of extreme weather in 2026 and for many years im mediately following that," said Jemilah Mahmood, who leads the think tank Sunway Center for Planetary Health in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Asia faces full force of climate crisis

Climate patterns last year helped set the stage for 2025’s extreme weather.

Atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon diox ide jumped by the most on record in 2024. That "tur bocharged" the climate, the United Nation’s World Mete orological Organization says, resulting in more ex treme weather.

Asia is bearing the brunt of such changes, warming nearly twice as fast as the global average. Scientists agree the intensity and fre quency of extreme weather events are increasing.

Higher ocean tempera tures provide more energy for storms, making them stronger and wetter, and ris ing sea levels amplify storm surges, said Benjamin Hor ton, a professor of Earth sci ence at the City University of Hong Kong.