In the 08/12/2025 edition:
Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction updates for August 12, 2025 highlight major global events, research findings, and resilience strategies from leading experts.
News: Atmospheric rivers may be diminishing on the west coast and surging in the east, study finds
By Inside Climate News on Aug 11, 2025 04:56 pm
Over a 20-year period, atmospheric rivers could double the amount of rain falling on part of the Southeast, the researchers found.
News: Stop Disasters: The game that turns disaster prevention into a real-life challenge
By United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Aug 11, 2025 03:50 pm
What if you were in charge of protecting a community from the next big disaster? Would you know where to start – and what to prioritise when resources are tight?
News: North Atlantic faces more hurricane clusters as climate warms
By Fudan University (FDU) on Aug 11, 2025 02:53 pm
A new study published in Nature Climate Change confirms hurricane clusters are becoming more frequent in the North Atlantic in recent decades—a trend projected to continue in the near future.
News: Why you might get bumped from a flight during a heat wave
By Yale Climate Connections on Aug 11, 2025 02:44 pm
Hot air makes it harder for engines to get a plane airborne – a problem that is set to get more common as the climate warms.
News: Triple whammy: how 3 types of drought crippled southern Australia this year
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 11, 2025 02:44 pm
Across southern Australia over the past six months, three interconnected phases have unfolded in rapid succession: flash drought, green drought and fodder drought.
News: In northern Pakistan, indigenous ice stupas offer a nature-based water solution
By Dialogue Earth on Aug 11, 2025 02:43 pm
Communities in Gilgit-Baltistan have adopted a regional water storage technique to tackle seasonal scarcity, but experts are pushing for longer-term solutions
DRR Community Voices: Resilience as climate justice: India’s fight against loss and damage
By Dr. Sanjay K. Srivastava on Aug 11, 2025 01:03 pm
India, a leading voice for climate equity, faces escalating loss and damages. Yet, in September 2024, despite record discharge from the Kosi River in Bihar, infrastructure measures prevented a full-scale flood.
News: Countries show what works for a heat-resilient future
By United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Aug 11, 2025 12:57 pm
UNDRR is supporting governments and development organizations to scale up heat resilience through a coordinated, whole-of-society response. There are promising examples emerging from national and local governments.
News: It’s challenging to predict extreme thunderstorms — improving this will help reduce their deadly and costly impacts
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 08, 2025 04:07 pm
Our ability to predict extreme weather from thunderstorms is unsettlingly poor, even in the hours leading up to the event. Improvements in understanding, detecting and predicting extreme thunderstorms are badly needed.
News: As the Colorado River slowly dries up, states angle for influence over future water rights
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 08, 2025 04:06 pm
The Colorado River is in trouble: Not as much water flows into the river as people are entitled to take out of it. A new idea might change that, but complicated political and practical negotiations stand in the way.
News: New study links 2023 Maui wildfire to spike in suicide, overdose
By University of Hawai’i on Aug 08, 2025 04:06 pm
Deaths by suicide and drug overdose significantly increased in the aftermath of the August 2023 Maui wildfire, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
News: Rogue waves aren’t freaks of nature — they’re just a ‘bad day’ at sea
By Georgia Institute of Technology on Aug 08, 2025 04:05 pm
On New Year’s Day 1995, a monstrous 80-foot wave in the North Sea slammed into the Draupner oil platform. Its biggest impact was what it left behind: hard data. It was the first time a rogue wave had ever been measured in the open ocean.
News: The flood warnings that save lives
By British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Aug 08, 2025 03:07 pm
When floods hit, getting clear, timely warnings out to people becomes lifesaving, but too often these messages fail. The BBC asks disaster experts about how to get it right.
News: Climate change likely intensified heavy monsoon rain in Pakistan, exacerbating urban floods that impacted highly exposed communities
By World Weather Attribution on Aug 07, 2025 06:29 pm
From late June 2025, intense monsoon rainfall led to severe flooding in northern Pakistan, particularly in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
News: Scientists just found a massive earthquake threat hiding beneath Yukon
By University of Victoria on Aug 07, 2025 06:29 pm
New research led by the University of Victoria (UVic) has illuminated a significant and previously unrecognized source of seismic hazard for the Yukon Territory of northwestern Canada.
News: Building wildfire-resistant homes after disasters will save billions
By Headwaters Economics on Aug 07, 2025 06:22 pm
Thousands of Americans lose their homes to wildfires every year, triggering a cascade of economic consequences. Rebuilding to wildfire-resistant standards offers a chance to reduce the risk of future disasters.
News: Uncertainty-aware water risk models could improve flood and drought preparedness
By NYU Tandon School of Engineering on Aug 07, 2025 06:19 pm
Researchers are calling for a more reliable approach to understanding water-related hazards by explicitly accounting for uncertainty in their predictions, arguing this could improve how communities prepare.
News: Wildfire season is starting weeks earlier in California – a new study shows how climate change is driving the expansion
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 07, 2025 06:08 pm
Fire season is expanding in California, with an earlier start to wildfire activity in most of the state. In parts of the northern mountains, the season is now starting more than 10 weeks earlier than it did in the 1990s, a new study shows.
News: Japanese Govt to classify large-scale infrastructure failures as disasters; disaster relief to become available for such incidents
By Japan News, the – Yomiuri Shimbun on Aug 07, 2025 05:43 pm
The government will classify large-scale failures in the functions of infrastructure as disasters under its new guidelines for such incidents.
News: Scientists reveal how soil moisture amplified 2023’s record heatwave in North China
By Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences on Aug 07, 2025 02:35 pm
A new study published in Earth’s Future by researchers has pointed the dual drivers behind this unprecedented heat: large-scale atmospheric circulation and an unusually strong soil moisture feedback
News: Nature study on economic damages from climate change revised
By Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research on Aug 07, 2025 02:24 pm
The core findings hold: economic damages from climate change till mid-century are substantial and outweigh the costs of mitigation, they are mainly driven by temperature changes and affect regions with low incomes and low historical emissions most.
News: Unseasonal fires trigger above-trend catastrophe losses in first half 2025
By Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re) on Aug 07, 2025 01:13 pm
It is estimated that global insured catastrophe losses reached USD 80 billion in the first half of 2025, above trend.
News: Climate Action Plans forget that their cities are people, not buildings and vehicles
By CounterCurrents on Aug 06, 2025 06:15 pm
When Mumbai launched its Climate Action Plan in 2022, it made headlines for the ambitious nature of its policies. However, a closer look reveals that the plan made one notable omission: the people of Mumbai.
News: Is climate change affecting your car insurance rates?
By Context on Aug 06, 2025 06:11 pm
After wreaking havoc on the homeowners’ insurance market in the United States and beyond in recent years, climate change is coming for your car insurance premium.
News: Study demonstrates excellent potential of earthquake early warning system in Alaska
By Seismological Society of America on Aug 06, 2025 06:07 pm
For a wide variety of earthquake scenarios in Alaska, an earthquake early warning (EEW) system could provide at least 10 seconds of warning time for hazardous shaking, according to a new report.
News: South African study finds 4 low-income communities can’t cope with global warming: what needs to change
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 06, 2025 02:55 pm
In South Africa’s city of Pietermaritzburg, four low-income urban communities have experienced drought, heatwaves, severe hailstorms, devastating flooding events that killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands as a result of climate change.
News: Heat, work, and worry: How is outdoor employment linked to concern about extreme heat?
By Yale Program on Climate Change Communication on Aug 06, 2025 01:36 pm
Beyond the health risks, extreme heat has economic consequences. Without action, heat-related work disruptions could cost outdoor workers in the United States $55.4 billion annually by midcentury, impacting food production, construction, and supply chains
News: Building climate resilience in Catalonia
By REVOLVE Media on Aug 06, 2025 01:25 pm
Catalonia combines nature-based solutions and innovation to strengthen local resilience against climate-driven extreme weather events.
News: 6 ways modern communities are channelling traditional water wisdom for climate resilience
By United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Aug 06, 2025 09:54 am
Across the world, communities have engineered water systems that are low-tech, sustainable, and deeply integrated with local ecosystems. These 6 examples show how ancient methods are being revived and reimagined as practical tools to tackle currentrisks.
News: What the world can learn from Korea’s 15th-century rain gauge
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 05, 2025 08:35 pm
The monsoon regions of the world, where societies have weathered cycles of drought and deluge for thousands of years, hold essential lessons about rainwater monitoring and conservation.
News: Storm Floris: The weather is rarely this windy in August – which makes it more dangerous
By Conversation Media Group, the on Aug 05, 2025 05:01 pm
Such conditions are unusual for the summer months, when warmer Atlantic sea temperatures typically weaken these temperature gradients and shift them farther north, closer to the polar regions. However, it is not uncommon for such storms to occur in August
News: Climate disasters are killing small businesses
By Grist Magazine on Aug 05, 2025 04:40 pm
The natural tendency for many small business owners [is] to be reluctant to really engage with the risks that they’re exposed to.
News: A new wave in disaster financing: Parametric insurance for tsunami
By Tohoku University 東北大学 on Aug 05, 2025 04:29 pm
Researchers at Tohoku University worked together with Swiss RE International SE (Japan Branch) to come up with solutions for more sustainable and cost-effective parametric insurance that supports both victims and disaster risk financing policymakers.
News: Why India’s heat action plans aren’t cooling cities
By Context on Aug 05, 2025 04:11 pm
India is heating up, but its cities are stuck with short-term fixes, lacking the money and planning to protect millions.
News: Tsunami warning puts focus on Waikīkī evacuation plan modeled by UH
By University of Hawai’i on Aug 05, 2025 02:27 pm
A tsunami warning that sparked mass evacuations and traffic gridlock in many areas across the state, including Waikīkī, is drawing renewed attention to a 2022 University of Hawaiʻi study that modeled how to save lives during a short-notice tsunami even