GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

JUNE 2025

ASIA

At least 32 people have been killed in Pakistan in recent flash flooding caused by heavy rains, including a family of tourists who died after being swept away by floodwaters while apparently awaiting rescue. Videos of the family stranded on a small piece of land as the raging Swat River in northern Pakistan swept them away were shared widely on social media, prompting anger towards the provincial government as witnesses said the family waited helplessly for more than an hour. Flash floods and heavy rains have killed 32 people, including 16 children, in Pakistan in the past 36 hours; 13 were from Punjab province and 19 from the north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the tourist family died. Sheikh Waqas Akram, the central information secretary of the former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said they had suspended four senior officials from the Swat administration and emergency rescue department. Akram said the chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, had ordered an inquiry and asked that the report be submitted in a week, in documents seen by the Guardian.

UNITED STATES

Tens of millions of people across the Midwest and East braced on Sunday for another sweltering day of dangerously hot temperatures as a rare June heatwave continued to grip parts of the US. Most of the north-eastern quadrant of the country, from Minnesota to Maine, was under some type of heat advisory on Sunday. So were parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  The temperature had already reached 80°F (26.6 °C) in the Chicago area by 7.30 am on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasts called for heat indices of between 100 and 105°F.  The heat index in Pittsburgh was expected to top 105°F. The temperature in Columbus, Ohio, was 77°F at 8.30 am. Highs there were expected to reach 97°F with a heat index around 104°F.  Forecasts called for a heat index of 100°F in Philadelphia on Sunday, with a 108F heat index on Monday. The city’s public health department declared a heat emergency starting at noon on Sunday and ending on Wednesday evening. Officials directed residents to air-conditioned libraries, community centers, and other locations, and set up a “heat line” staffed by medical professionals to discuss conditions and illnesses made worse by the heat. At Lincoln Financial Field, officials said each fan attending Sunday’s FIFA match would be allowed to bring in one 20-oz plastic bottle of water.

Flash flooding caused by torrential rains killed at least six people – including a six-year-old child – in northern West Virginia, and rescue crews were searching for missing people on Sunday, while authorities were assessing damage to roads, bridges, natural gas lines, and other infrastructure.  Officials said 2.5-4in (6-10cm) of rain fell in parts of Wheeling and Ohio County within about a half-hour on Saturday night.  “We almost immediately started getting 911 calls for rescue of people being trapped,” Lou Vargo, Ohio county’s emergency management director, said at a news conference on Sunday. “During this time, we had major infrastructure damage to roads, bridges, and highways, where we couldn’t respond to a lot of incidents. So we were delayed in getting there because there was just so much damage.”

EUROPE

Amber heat alerts have been issued in England as the UK experiences its hottest day of the year so far, with a temperature of 32.2C recorded at Kew in west London.  The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued the warning on Thursday. It stated there could be “a rise in deaths” across all nine English regions, with “those aged 65 and over or people with health conditions” particularly at risk as the temperature is expected to rise sharply. The UKHSA said “significant impacts” were also likely across health and social care services in England. The alerts came into force at midday on Thursday and were expected to remain in force until 9 am on Monday.  The Met Office warned the public this week that temperatures could rise in parts of the country, with the hottest area, Humberside, predicted to reach 33C on Saturday and London expected to be above 30C.

AFRICA

Significant flooding affected Nigeria last week, with more than 150 deaths reported so far. Heavy rain struck the north of the country on Wednesday night and continued into Thursday, leading to flooding along the Niger River, displacing thousands and destroying hundreds of homes. The district head said it was the region’s worst flood in 60 years.  Heavy rain is not unusual at this time of year in Nigeria. The country has a tropical climate and is influenced by the West African monsoon, with the wet season running from April until October. This type of seasonality is linked to land-sea temperature differences, alongside the shifting intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), a band of low pressure roughly around the equator that shifts north and south with the angle of the sun.  From March to September, the sun favors the northern hemisphere, meaning there is greater incoming solar radiation here during this time. As land heats up faster than water, this creates surface low pressure over West Africa as air ascends over the region, which then allows moister air to move in from the Atlantic to later fall out as rain.

AUSTRALIA

Abnormally high tides, strong winds, and large waves have lashed Australia’s south-eastern coastlines this week, damaging jetties and infrastructure in communities facing “no end of problems” from an increase in severe conditions. Prolonged winds whipped up large waves in the Southern Ocean, which have hammered south and west-facing coastlines across South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania, said the senior meteorologist Angus Hines from the Bureau of Meteorology. “If the wind pushes in the same direction for a long time … it actually starts to push the water against the country, and that can cause tidal levels to rise above where they would normally be,” he said.  Those winds, combined with a low-pressure system and the alignment of the sun and the moon, the gravitational pull of which causes tides to rise and fall , have led to higher than normal tides in several locations.  On Tuesday, tides in Outer Harbor, north of Port Adelaide, were about 65cm above the highest astronomical tide (a measure of the typical high-tide mark for the month, without additional weather effects).