Extreme weather threats
Weather disasters, including floods, storms, and heat waves, have claimed more than 600,000 lives and affected more than four billion people in the last 20 years - and these weather-spawned disasters are becoming more frequent, according to a UN report issued Nov. 23, 2015.
New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman used the term "global weirding" to describe what happens as global temperatures rise - weather gets weird, "the hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous."
In this photo, floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina pour through a levee along Inner Harbor Navigational Canal near downtown New Orleans, Aug. 30, 2005. More than 1,800 died.
The U.S. and China reported the highest numbers of weather-related disasters the past 20 years.
Drought in India
An Indian man walks across the dried-out bed of Lake Ahmad Sar as extreme heat conditions prevail in Ahmedabad, May 28, 2015. Hospitals in India battled to treat victims of a blistering heat wave that claimed more than 1,700 lives in just over one week -- the highest number recorded in two decades.
In total, an average of 335 weather-related disasters were recorded per year between 2005 and 2014, an increase of 14% from 1995-2004, and almost twice the level recorded during 1985-1995.
According to the UN report, entitled "The Human Cost of Weather-related Disasters 1995-2015," the 10 countries with the most affected people were China, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam, Kenya and Ethiopia.
California wildfires
A man on a rooftop looks at approaching flames as the Springs Fire continues to grow on May 3, 2013 near Camarillo, California. California is suffering from a devastating drought that has led to an increasingly dangerous fire season each year of this decade.
The UN report said 164,000 deaths were from extreme temperatures, 157,000 from floods, 22,000 from drought and 20,000 from landslides and wildfires. Eighty seven million homes were damaged or destroyed over the period of the survey.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) estimates that the true figure on disaster losses - including earthquakes and tsunamis - is between $250 billion and $300 billion annually.
Hurricane Sandy
Rescue workers (lower left) walk past homes wrecked by Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 31, 2012 in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
The hurricane went through Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba before devastating the New Jersey and New York City coastlines. The storm was blamed for 165 deaths and caused at least $50 billion in damage.
Gautemala mudslides
Rescue team members retrieve the body of a landslide victim in Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Oct. 2, 2015.
Hundreds of rescue workers dug through sludge and rock looking for survivors of a massive mudslide in Guatemala that killed at least nine people and left as many as 600 missing, burying homes in a town on the edge of the capital in one of the worst mudslides to hit the poor Central American country in recent memory.
"Flood of the century"
Dead cows are seen in a flooded area in Srinagar a week after the worst flooding in more than a century, Sept. 15, 2014.
The main city in Indian Kashmir "drowned completely" under floodwaters, according to a senior official. The deadly inundation affected about two million people in neighboring Pakistan and threatened its all-important cotton industry.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) estimates that the true figure on disaster losses - including earthquakes and tsunamis - is between $250 billion and $300 billion annually.
California drought
A field of dead almond trees is seen in Coalinga in the Central Valley, California, May 6, 2015.
California is in its fourth year of a record-breaking drought creating an extremely parched landscape.
Syrian sandstorm
A general view of Homs city is seen during an unprecedented sandstorm in Syria on Sept. 7, 2015, which left at least 12 people dead and sent hundreds to hospitals.
Though such storms do occur in the region, this one was rare because it was out of season and unusually dense.
Syrian sandstorm
Children wearing face masks play foosball during a sandstorm in Homs, Syria, Sept. 7, 2015.
As temperatures rise heat waves contribute to air pollution creating additional health risks including risk of heart attack, strokes and asthma.
Carolina floods
A car that was stranded is submerged in floodwaters along Lee's Landing Circle in Conway, South Carolina Oct. 7, 2015.
"We haven't had this level of rain in the low-country in a thousand years -- that's how big this is," said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Days of record rainfall and catastrophic flooding left at least seventeen people dead in South Carolina and two dead in North Carolina, Oct. 6, 2015.
Margareta Wahlström, head of UNISDR, said: "Weather and climate are major drivers of disaster risk and this report demonstrates that the world is paying a high price in lives lost.
Tropical Storm Erika - Haiti
A boy walks past houses destroyed by a mudslide caused by the rains from Tropical Storm Erika in Montrouis, Haiti, on Aug. 29, 2015.
Erika left at least 20 people dead when it swept over the tiny island nation of Dominica as the system barreled through the Caribbean threatening Haiti.
Economic losses are a major development challenge for many least developed countries battling climate change and poverty.
Waves
Waves crash against the promenade wall on Dec. 10, 2014 in Prestwick, Scotland. High winds and large waves hit the North West Coast of the UK and Northern Ireland.
Australia drought
An area of vegetation can be seen amongst drought effected farmland in South Australia, Nov. 12, 2015.
The worst drought the country experienced was from 2003 to 2012, with many parts of Australia still experiencing significant drought.
European heat wave
A man cools off by a water fountain in the Greek city of Thessaloniki on July 28, 2015 as a heatwave engulfs the Mediterranean country with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.
In the past 20 years heat waves accounted for 148,000 deaths with 92% of them coming from high-income countries. Europe accounted for 90%.
Floods in France
A boy stands next to rubble and damaged cars after violent storms and floods in Biot, southeastern France, on Oct. 4, 2015. Violent floods along the French riviera killed 13 people.
Floods accounted for 47% of all weather-related disasters from 1995-2015, affecting 2.3 billion people and killing 157,000.
Tornado in Arkansas
Resident Mark Wade looks through debris where homes once stood before the area was destroyed by a tornado on April 29, 2014 in Vilonia, Arkansas. Deadly tornadoes ripped through the region leaving more than a dozen dead.
One study published in Climate Dynamics indicated that changes in heat and moisture due to a warmer climate could be playing a role in tornados becoming more frequent and severe.
Buffalo snow
Tami Normile and Richard Brooks attempt to remove some of the five feet of snow from a roof top on Nov. 20, 2014 in the Lakeview neighborhood of Buffalo, New York.
The record setting Lake effect snowstorm dumped up to six feet of snow in less than 24 hours closing a one hundred mile section of The New York State Thruway as well as other major roads around Buffalo.
China heat wave
A giant panda puts itself on a huge ice cube to cool off during heat wave in a zoo in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Aug. 4, 2015.
According to Dr. Amanda Staudt, National Wildlife Federation climate scientist, climate change brings with it more frequent and severe heat waves which affect wildlife as well as humans.
Typhoon Haiyan
A couple prays in front of a cross during a memorial ceremony marking the first anniversary of Super Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, at a mass grave in the village of Vasper, Tacloban City, central Philippines on Nov. 8, 2014.
Haiyan, the strongest typhoon ever to hit land with 195 mph winds, claimed more than 7,350 lives as it swept in off the Pacific Ocean in Nov. 2013, with its record winds and once-in-a-generation 15 to 19 foot storm surges flattening entire towns.
Asia accounts for the lion's share of disaster impacts including 332,000 deaths and 3.7 billion people affected in the past 20 years. The deaths included 138,000 caused by Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in 2008.