Pakistan's deadly floods worsened by global warming: study – DW – 08/07/2025
Pakistan's monsoon rain was likely heavier because of climate change, making floods more dangerous, a new study found.
The report from World Weather Attribution, a group of international scientists who study global warming's role in extreme weather, was released on Thursday.
Pakistan's monsoon rains, which typically occur from June to September, are variable. The country recorded more than a third more rain, or 36%, in July this year than last year, according to the country's meteorological department.
But the rainfall is around 10% to 15% heavier because of climate change, according to the WWA researchers, who analyzed precipitation from June 24 to July 23 in Pakistan.
A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, climate scientists say, which can make rain more intense.
"Every tenth of a degree of warming will lead to heavier monsoon rainfall," said Mariam Zachariah, lead author of the WWA study and an environmental researcher at Imperial College London.
Pakistan's government reported at least 300 deaths, nearly half of them children, due to the floods, heavy rain and other weather between June 26 and August 3, 2025.
Most of the victims were crushed by collapsing buildings.
Pakistan's rapid urbanization, with people often living in makeshift homes in flood-prone areas, makes the South Asian country especially vulnerable in the monsoon season, the report noted.
"Half of Pakistan's urban population lives in fragile settlements where floods collapse homes and cost lives," Maja Vahlberg of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, who also helped author the WWA report, said in a statement. "Building flood-resilient houses and avoiding construction in flood zones will help reduce the impacts of heavy monsoon rain."
Pakistan, which has a population of 250 million, has experienced several severe monsoon seasons resulting in widespread and destructive flooding.
This year's flooding comes after catastrophic high waters in 2022 saw more than 1,700 people die during the monsoon.
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Earlier this week, Pakistan's disaster management authority issued fresh flood alerts, warning that rainfall could swell major rivers and trigger flash floods across the upper and central regions.
Heavy monsoon rains have resulted in a series of disasters that have battered South Asia, especially the Himalayan mountains, in the last few months.
Earlier this week, a village in northern India was hit by floods and landslides, killing at least four people and leaving hundreds missing.
Overflowing glacial lakes resulted in flooding that washed away a key bridge connecting Nepal and China, along with several hydropower dams in July.
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