Bhubaneswar: Asia was the worst disaster-hit region in the world last year amid intensifying weather and climate change threats and global warming, a report by the UN's weather agency stated.

The report "State Of The Climate In Asia 2023" by the World Meteorological Organisation https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148886  informed that more than nine million people were affected and over 2,000 casualties in 79 extreme weather events reported as floods and storms hit the region in the said period.

The report said floods and storms caused maximum damage while trends of ice melt and heat waves continued to accelerate. Over 80 per cent of the reported hydrometeorological hazards in Asia were flood and storm events. Over 60 per cent of the 2,000 deaths due to disasters were associated with flooding and over 15 per cent with storms, the ‘State of the Climate in Asia 2023’ report released on Tuesday said. Storms affected the largest number of people and caused the most economic damage during 2023.

The continent and its surrounding seas and oceans also registered higher rate of temperature warming than the global average which led to extreme weather conditions. Between 1961-1990, the warming trend in Asia has nearly doubled with the continent's mean temperature the second highest on record in 2023. Particularly high temperatures last year were seen in areas from western Siberia to central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, while countries like Japan and Kazakhstan experienced record heat, the report found.

In India, the impacts of extreme weather events were felt strongly as the country experienced severe heatwaves, rainfall-induced floods, glacial lake outbursts and tropical cyclones.

Stressing on the need for increased efforts towards disaster risk prevention in Asia, the report warned that key climate change indicators, such as surface temperature, glacier melting, and sea level rise, signaled worsening conditions.

Following the release of the report, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms. “Climate change has exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies and, most importantly, human lives,” Saulo added. In India, Ballia and Deoria districts in Uttar Pradesh saw the deaths of over 100 people, many of them senior citizens with co-morbidities due to heat stroke. Temperatures were in the 42-43 degrees Celsius range in the region during these heat-related deaths, the report said.

A prolonged heatwave also affected much of Southeast Asia in April and May, extending westwards in Bangladesh and eastern India, and parts of China too.

Flood events occurred in India during August 2023 and Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand recorded 25 deaths as well as extensive damage to infrastructure and agriculture, the report said.

The Indian sub-continent also experienced six tropical cyclones in 2023 which formed in the North Indian Ocean. The report also took note of the “significant glacial lake outburst flood” that occurred in South Lhonak Lake in Sikkim on October 4 last year. The incident had overtopped and breached the Chungthang dam downstream on the Teesta River and killed over 40 people, according to the Sikkim government.

“This type of disaster is increasingly observed because of climate change-induced glacier retreat and highlights the compounding and cascading risks faced by vulnerable mountain communities,” the report said.