Global Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard
Asia
Asia accounts for 32.2% of global weather/climate economic losses and 37.5% of deaths, 1980-2025 (see Loss Normalization), broken down by phenomenon and cause below. This page also runs an IPCC AR6 Chapter 12 consistency check phenomenon by phenomenon, and hosts every live-computed variable this dashboard tracks at continent scale for Asia -- not every phenomenon runs for every continent; see the "Not Yet Available" note below for what Asia's source data doesn't yet support.
Summary Judgment — Asia
– of – tracked variables for Asia show a detected change (– increasing, – decreasing) — see the tiles below for each one.
AR6 reports observed drought increases in parts of East and Southwest Asia, and an observed increase in the intensity of strong tropical cyclones affecting East and Southeast Asia. The continent-wide indices tracked here show a sub-threshold drought trend and no detected change in tropical cyclone energy — plausibly diluted by aggregating across a large, climatically diverse continent, rather than contradicting the more localized AR6 findings. Fire weather (AR6: lengthening in North Asia) and realized burned area or combustion (tracked here: a detected decrease) measure different quantities, the same distinction drawn on the Wildfire page.
Source: AR6 WGI Regional Fact Sheet — Asia — this site detects observed historical trends only, never projections, so this comparison draws only on AR6's observed findings, excluding its projected ones.
Consistency with IPCC AR6 Chapter 12
Each phenomenon this site tracks for this continent, checked against AR6 WG1's Chapter 12 regional fact sheet -- see the Summary Judgment above for the fuller narrative version of this same comparison.
| Phenomenon | GWX finding | AR6 Ch.12 consistency |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Computing… | Partially consistent |
| Flooding | Computing… | Partially consistent |
| Wildfire | Computing… | Not directly comparable |
| Winter Storms | Computing… | Not directly comparable |
| Tropical Cyclones | Computing… | Partially consistent |
Each note above draws only on AR6's observed findings, excluding its projected ones, the same standard the Summary Judgment box applies. Source: AR6 WGI Regional Fact Sheet — Asia.
Economic Losses & Loss of Life — Asia's Share
Asia's position within the same global economic-loss and mortality totals shown on the Loss Normalization page -- not a separate, continent-specific breakdown by phenomenon (no source publishes a full continent x phenomenon matrix; OWID and the World Bank give continent totals and phenomenon totals separately, not both at once). This page reuses those continent-level numbers, calling out Asia's row.
Economic losses, 1980–2025
Asia accounts for 32.2% of global weather/climate economic losses.
- North America $2,913.4B 51.2%
- Asia $1,833.3B 32.2%
- Europe $584.4B 10.3%
- South America $162.6B 2.9%
- Oceania $134.5B 2.4%
- Africa $60.1B 1.1%
Loss of life, 1980–2025
Asia accounts for 37.5% of global weather/climate deaths.
- Asia 663,197 37.5%
- Africa 642,787 36.3%
- Europe 337,192 19.1%
- North America 65,487 3.7%
- South America 56,280 3.2%
- Oceania 3,767 0.2%
Both pies are constant-2025-dollar / EM-DAT totals, same sourcing and methodology as the Loss Normalization page -- see that page for the full reconstruction methodology, inflation adjustment, and citations.
Extreme-weather and climate trends for Asia, drawn from the same underlying data as GWX's global variables, aggregated (or, for tropical cyclones, grouped by the ocean basin(s) that border this continent) to just this continent rather than the whole planet. Not every phenomenon this site tracks has a per-continent breakdown yet (see below for what's still missing and why) -- the tiles here show only a computed Asia-scoped index, never a global figure relabeled. Clicking a tile opens that variable's full interactive chart, scoped to Asia. See the Methodology page for the full per-continent coverage status behind what appears here and what doesn't.
Detection of Long-Term Change — Asia
Flooding — Asia
Asia's live GloFAS chart appears above, in the tile grid (both the percentile-based "high flow" series and GloFAS's Alert/Warning/Severe return-period tiers). The literature finding below supplies context the live index alone doesn't capture, rather than standing in as a placeholder for it.
A gap rather than a forced trend claim: a global streamflow-trends study found Asia's gauge records average only about 17 years in length in the Global Runoff Data Centre database -- considerably shorter than other continents' -- which materially limits any defensible long-term flood-trend statement for Asia specifically. Not yet resolved with a longer-record alternative.
Do, Westra & Leonard 2017, Journal of Hydrology 552 -- full citation in the Library.
Not Yet Available for Asia
Listed rather than silently omitted -- these gaps reflect what this site currently breaks out by continent, not a judgment that the phenomenon doesn't matter here.
- Heat Waves / Temperature Extremes
- The underlying GSN station network's density varies widely across continents: Europe and North America both clear a usable bar (see those pages), but Asia (peaks at 121 qualifying stations), Africa (37), South America (33), and Oceania (56) all stay well under 100 at their historical peak, too sparse to say "what changed" rather than "where the stations are."