00:00Record heat, massive fires, deadly floods.
00:13August has barely begun, but the summer of 2025 is already marked by a cascade of destructive
00:21and deadly weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
00:25The World Meteorological Organization confirms 2024 as the warmest year on record at about
00:321.55 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level.
00:37That deceptively small jump makes a huge difference.
00:41Higher temperatures increase evaporation so that more water is stored in the atmosphere.
00:48This in turn increases the risk of heavy rainfall and flooding.
00:53Early in May, temperatures exceeded 50 degrees Celsius in the United Arab Emirates.
00:59On 1st of August, the thermometer hit 51.8 degrees Celsius, just under the all-time record of
01:0752 degrees.
01:10The entire Gulf region is suffocating.
01:13The Saudi capital Riyadh recorded temperatures of 44 degrees Celsius, while Kuwait frequently
01:19hit 50 degrees Celsius.
01:22As did Iraq, where air conditioning has become vulnerable to chronic power cuts, and water
01:27reserves are at their lowest level in years.
01:31Turkey saw the 50 degrees Celsius threshold exceed for the first time.
01:36The town of Silopi on the border with Iraq and Syria reached 50.5 degrees Celsius on 26 July.
01:44The country has experienced thousands of fires this summer amid a severe drought.
01:53In Asia, meanwhile, Japan broke its all-time temperature record on 5 August 2025 with 41.8
02:01degrees Celsius in the city of Issesaki, northwest of Tokyo.
02:07The country's iconic cherry trees, emblematic of the archipelago, are blooming earlier than
02:13ever due to the heat.
02:16On 5th of August 2025, Hong Kong saw the highest rainfall total for August in more than 140 years
02:23of record-keeping, 35.5 cm in a single day.
02:28On mainland China a week earlier, severe weather killed at least 44 people and left 9 missing
02:35in rural districts north of Beijing.
02:39266 people, nearly half of them children, have already lost their lives in Pakistan due to
02:46torrential rains sweeping across the country.
02:50The 2025 monsoon, which started early, was described as unusual by authorities.
02:55Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, recorded 73% more rainfall in July than in 2024.
03:06People come to Scandinavia to seek cooler climates.
03:09But since July, Norway, Sweden and Finland have experienced sustained temperatures more typical
03:16of the Mediterranean.
03:18August 3 marked the end of a 22-day period with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius in
03:24Finland, a record.
03:26In Rovaniemi, a Finnish city north of the Arctic Circle, temperatures reached 30 degrees Celsius,
03:33higher than in southern Europe at the same time.
03:36Canada is also experiencing one of the worst forest fire seasons on record, amplified by drought
03:43and above-normal temperatures.
03:45Other parts of the world are also burning, from Scotland to Arizona and Greece.
03:51According to the European Union's Copernicus Weather and Climate Observatory, total smoke
03:56and greenhouse gas emissions since the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere are among
04:02the highest ever recorded.
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