Recently, The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report was released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Key highlights
- It highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.
- As Asia is warming faster than the global average, it is witnessing more extreme weather, climate, and water-related events than any other region across the world.
- In 2023, there were 79 events associated with hydrometeorological hazards, affecting more than nine million people and directly killing over 2,000, across Asia.
- 80% of these events were flood and storm events. It also mentioned that extreme heat is becoming more severe in Asia.
- Over 60 per cent of the 2,000 deaths due to disasters were associated with flooding and over 15 per cent with storms.
- The Indian sub-continent experienced six tropical cyclones in 2023 which formed in the North Indian Ocean. The cyclone activity was slightly above the average of 5.4 cyclones, the report noted.
- Four out of the six cyclones – Mocha, Hamoon, Midhili and Michaung – formed over the Bay of Bengal and two – Biparjoy and Tej – formed over the Arabian Sea.
- The extremely severe cyclonic storm Mocha made landfall along the Rakhine Coast in Myanmar on May 14 and killed 156 people.
- In India, Michaung made landfall in south Andhra Pradesh on December 5 and claimed 22 lives.
