Key points
- 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest year on record: WMO
- Most of ocean area of Asia was affected by heatwaves in 2024: WMO
- The warming trend between 1991–2024 was almost double
ISLAMABAD: Asia is currently warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, fueling more extreme weather and wreaking a heavy toll on the region’s economies, ecosystems and societies, according to a report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Dawn News cited a report published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on June 23 as saying, 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest year on record, depending on the dataset, with widespread and prolonged heatwaves.
The warming trend between 1991–2024 was almost double that of the 1961–1990 period.
“Variations in surface temperature have a large impact on natural systems and on human beings,” the report said.
Weather patterns
WMO emphasised in the report that the only way to adapt to these increasingly polar weather patterns is to install more comprehensive early warning systems, which are coupled with capacity-building measures that enable communities to be more resilient.
Dawn reported that in 2024, most of the ocean area of Asia was affected by heatwaves of strong, severe, or extreme intensity – the largest extent since records began in 1993.
During August and September 2024, nearly 15 million square kilometers of the region’s ocean was impacted – one tenth of the Earth’s entire ocean surface, about the same size as the Russian Federation and more than 1.5 times the area of China, Dawn reported as citing the WMO report.
The WMO report also appreciated the success that Nepal has had in installing early warning systems, which monitor flooding risks, among other things, even as it said that more comprehensive action was necessary.
