2025 featured geographically concentrated flood anomalies shaped by shifting large-scale atmospheric circulation and ocean–atmosphere variability, with antecedent hydrologic conditions and topography amplifying impacts in several regions. The year ranked in the lower tier of the past two decades for flood exposure, totalling over US$ 28 billion in damages and 4,200 flood-related fatalities globally.
Floods arise from the interaction of meteorological extremes with antecedent hydrologic states, river–floodplain dynamics and downstream controls. Flood impacts occur when such interactions are superimposed on concentrated areas of people and assets. Here, we examine modelled compound pluvial, fluvial and coastal flooding events that occurred globally in 2025. Considering extremes as the exceedance of a local 5-year discharge threshold (Q5yr) and the normalized annual maximum streamflow (NAMS), both defined based on data from 2004 to 2025, we provide a globally uniform picture of where flood potential and societal exposure co-occurred in 2025.
Sources:
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-026-00779-x .
Provided by the IKCEST Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service System
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