(ANN): Tornados in the southern Philippines, tropical storms ravaging landlocked Laos – just a few of the severe weather aberrations happening across Southeast Asia right now.
According to risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft, these extreme weather events are likely to continue in the future given the impact of climate change and modern living environments.
A tornado swept through a coastal village in the Philippines on Sunday evening, toppling trees and tearing off roofs, injuring two people, police and disaster officials said.
Over 300 people fled to the village’s covered court as the whirlwind streaked across several communities in Barangay village Lapu-lapu in Agdao district shortly after 8:45pm, according to Chief Inspector Milgrace Driz, spokesperson of the Southern Mindanao police.
It was the latest severe weather anomaly to hit the country after Tropical Storm Josie passed over parts of the Philippines at the weekend killing five people, with six more missing.
In Laos, Khammuan and Borikhamxay provincial authorities have warned villagers living along rivers to be on alert of possible flooding after tropical storm Son-Tinh lashed northern and central provinces.
Flooding triggered by the same tropical storm over Laos affected 13 Thai provinces and 2,369 families between July 17 and 22, the Thai Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said on Sunday.
Heavy rain triggered by Typhoon Son-Tinh has left 19 dead, 13 missing and 17 others injured in northern and north-central provinces of Vietnam.
Floods also levelled 217 homes and damaged nearly 10,000 others.
According to the Crop Production Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 59,000 hectares of rice and 2,000 hectares of maize and other crops in the Red River Delta were inundated.
‘Extremes more likely’
In the north-central region, nearly 51,000ha of rice and 13,400ha of maize and other crops sustained damages.
The UN has warned that “extreme weather events are set to occur more frequently” due to warming global temperatures.
Stanford researchers, who published their work in the journal Science Advances, analysed the likelihood of warm, dry, and excessively rainy periods in the coming years, all already exacerbated by rising global temperatures and sea levels.
The findings suggest that even if all countries met the commitments of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, heatwaves are five times more likely to occur in 50 percent of Europe and more than 25 percent of East Asia.
In addition, heavy rainfall is three times more likely to occur in 35 percent of North America, Europe and East Asia.
