The Burma earthquake, the great tragedy of a generous 2025 in natural disasters

The March 28 earthquake in Burma, which caused more than 2,200 deaths, was the worst natural disaster in 2025, although a more sustained phenomenon, a succession of heat waves in Europe, resulted in 16,500 deaths attributable to extreme temperatures this year. Generous in disasters until the end, 2025 said goodbye with a storm of rain in Southeast Asia that mainly affected Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with about 2,000 deaths. The wildfires in California and the Iberian Peninsula and the passage of Hurricane Melissa through the Caribbean were other dramatic episodes in the year that is ending.

Tragic Earthquakes in Burma and Afghanistan

With an intensity of 7.7, the Burma earthquake, near Mandalay, affected 17 million inhabitants and had devastating effects due to a ground rupture of almost 500 kilometers.

More than four million people were left without drinking water and six months later about 200,000 were still displaced.

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Another fateful earthquake was the one that shook the Afghan province of Kunar in August, with a magnitude of 6 and causing about 2,200 deaths. The 7.5 in northern Japan this December 8th caused only injuries (33), despite its intensity. A June earthquake in the Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) was the largest of the year (8.8) and the sixth in history. Although there was only one death, it triggered tsunamis of different dimensions in Japan, the USA, Mexico, Peru or Chile.

Deadly Rains

The storm that affected Southeast Asia from the end of November, driven by a typhoon in the Strait of Malacca, had devastating effects, with figures still provisional due to the high number of missing persons. In Indonesia, the dead are already more than 1,000, in Sri Lanka around 650 and in Thailand almost 300.

During the monsoon period, a thousand people died in Pakistan due to rains and floods.

According to the United Nations, climate change has worsened the vulnerability of many Asian countries that this year also suffered destruction and death from torrential rains. In the Philippines, Typhoon Kalmaegi left 250 dead in November. There were also floods in Nigeria, with 160 deaths in May; Texas, with 120 in July; Mexico, with more than 80 in October; or Morocco, with 37 in December. Five category 5 storms were recorded: Cyclone Errol in Australia, Hurricanes Erin and Humberto in the Atlantic, and Melissa in the Caribbean, and Typhoon Ragasa in the Northwest Pacific. Melissa was the most damaging hurricane, with more than 100 deaths, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti. Tropical storms particularly battered the Mexican Pacific, which suffered 17 this year.

Heat waves and fires

Currently, more than 540,000 people die each year worldwide due to heat waves, according to the WHO. In this 2025, Europe suffered the fourth warmest summer in its history, with thermal anomalies that especially affected the Iberian Peninsula. Of the 16,500 deaths attributable to heat on the continent, almost a quarter, 3,832, corresponded to Spain. The United States suffered a dozen waves, from dates as early as May. Directly related, the wildfires left a tragic mark throughout the year, starting with those in January in Los Angeles County (California). The one in Palisades burned almost 9,500 hectares and the one in Eaton about 5,700. Three weeks of fires resulted in 31 deaths and 150,000 evacuees. In Europe, around a million hectares burned, again with the Iberian Peninsula as the main affected area. The fire season closed on October 31 in Spain with more than 350,000 hectares burned, the worst figures since 2015, and eight deaths. In Portugal, 270,000 hectares burned and seven people died.

A Historic Eruption and Tornado

2025 will go down in the history of volcanology for the first eruption in 12,000 years of the Hayli Gubbi, in Ethiopia, with an ash emission of 14 kilometers high and serious consequences for the air quality in the area. In North Dakota (USA), the first EF5 category tornado (extreme damage) since 2013 was recorded in June. With winds of 340 km/h, it caused three deaths.