Unraveling Pakistan’s Climate Crisis: When Heatwave and Flood Alerts Become the New Normal

In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a profound and unsettling transformation in its weather patterns. The country’s climate, once guided by the gentle rhythm of four familiar seasons – winter, spring, summer, and autumn – no longer follows its age-old script. The predictable cycle that shaped agriculture, culture, and daily life is rapidly fading, replaced by uncertainty and extremes.

Today, record-breaking heatwaves scorch cities and villages alike, erratic rainfall disrupts farming calendars, and catastrophic floods carve scars across entire regions. The Pakistan climate crisis is no longer a distant warning or an abstract scientific forecast; it has become a lived reality. What was once considered rare is now routine, as climate disasters increasingly define the nation’s new normal, disrupting lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems, and leaving millions struggling to cope with their aftermath.

Unraveling Pakistan Climate Crisis: The Harsh Reality of a Warming Nation

Recently, Pakistan recorded some of the highest temperatures on the earth, with Jacobabad and Dadu crossing the 50°C mark – the temperatures at which the human body struggles to survive. The changing climate of the country has become an everyday reality, so much so that alerts from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) warning of heatwaves and flash floods have become a norm, as common a routine as ringtones on smartphones.

Since 2022, the country has been grappling with a series of severe droughts, floods, and climate-driven crises. The unprecedented floods of 2002 submerged approximately one-third of the country, claiming more than 1,700 lives and affecting 33 million people. The scale of devastation was staggering – at around $14.8 billion in infrastructure losses and $15.2 billion in economic disruption, while nearly nine million people were pushed into poverty.

Critical sectors like Agriculture, housing, transport, and health systems were all crippled, that set the economy back years. According to Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2025, Pakistan ranked as the most climate-affected country in term of extreme weather events in 2022 due to record-breaking monsoon rains.

The 2025 monsoon season and floods has only reinforced this pattern. Heavy rains and flooding have caused an estimated Rs:822 billion (around $2.9 billion) in damages and claimed over 1,000 lives. The agricultural sector suffered the greatest losses – around Rs:430 billion – followed by Rs:307 billion in infrastructure damage. Similarly, more than 312,000 houses were affected nationwide, including 213,000 in Punjab, 6,370 in Balochistan, 3,222 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 3,677 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and 332 in Sindh.

The floods also wiped out over 2,200 livestock and devastated key crops across the country, including 3.4 million bales of cotton, one million tonnes of rice, and up to 3.3 million tonnes of sugarcane.

These figures are not just statistics – they reflect human suffering, economic hardship, and a deepening ecological imbalance. It reveals that each flood is both a natural disaster and an economic catastrophe, further exposing the country’s fragility in the face of a warming planet.

A Climate Notably Different

The latest climate catastrophes serve as a stark reminder of Pakistan’s extreme vulnerability to global warming. Pakistan’s changing climate is no longer a story of random weather fluctuations; it is a clear and alarming sign of the escalating climate crisis – a crisis that demands urgent global and national attention before the cost of inaction becomes irreparable.

Once defined by four relatively predictable seasons, the climate the country once knew is now being replaced by erratic and extreme weather conditions. Winters are shorter and milder, or drier, while summers are longer than usual and increasingly unbearable. Whereas, the monsoon season has become dangerously unpredictable.

This is not normal, and more importantly, this is not temporary. Pakistan’s climate change has crossed new frontiers. The growing effects of climate change for a country that contributes less than 1% to the global greenhouse gas emissions is really to bear a disproportionate share of the consequences.

NDMA Alerts: From Rare Warnings to Daily Routine

Previously, the disaster alerts were issued a few times a year, but now notifications warning of extreme heat, heavy rainfall, and potential glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), or cyclones are released every few days. The NDMA, in coordination with the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), has had to adapt to this new reality of issuing regular weather impact outlooks, early warnings, and community-level guidance against Pakistan’s Changing Climate.

These alerts, which were once considered an exception, are now constant reminders of the climate crisis. For many Pakistanis, receiving a flood or heatwave alert has become as ordinary as receiving a weather updates or a news notifications on mobile phones.

The smartphones buzz with heat advisories in urban centers and alerts about possible landslides, and flash floods dominate local conversations in the mountainous regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Punjab, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Although, the NDMA’s proactive approach is necessary, the very frequency of these alerts reflects how dangerously unstable the Pakistan’s climate change has virtually become.

Why Is Pakistan So Vulnerable?

Several factors contribute to Pakistan’s changing climate and its high vulnerability:

• Geographical Diversity: The country’s varied geography makes it susceptible to a range of climate-related disasters, including glacier melt, droughts, and floods.
• Poor Infrastructure: Many areas lack climate-resilient infrastructure, hence; making even moderate events highly destructive.
• High Dependency on Agriculture: With a majority of the population reliant on agriculture and water from glacier-fed rivers, any disruption in rainfall or temperature patterns can be devastating for the people.
• Limited Resources: Pakistan struggles with financial and technological limitations, which is hindering its ability to implement effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The Human Cost

Pakistan climate crisis is not just an environmental issue – it is a human crisis. It is about children unable to attend school because their classrooms are hot or flooded. It is about farmers losing their crops to unexpected heatwaves or monsoon failures. It is about the people developing respiratory illnesses as temperatures are soaring  high and the air quality is worsening.

In the heatwaves of the recent years, dozens of people have died due to heatstroke, particularly in urban slums with poor ventilation and limited access to clean drinking water. In the meanwhile, displaced families from flood-hit areas continue to live in makeshift shelters, vulnerable to disease outbreaks and economic ruin.

What Can Be Done?

While Pakistan alone cannot reverse global climate trends, it must prepare for what’s coming. Here’s how:

1. Strengthen Early Warning Systems: Continued investment in meteorological forecasting, mobile alerts, as well as community education can save lives during extreme weather events.
2. Climate-Resilient Infrastructure: Roads, homes, dams, and canals need to be built or retrofitted to withstand the increasing intensity of the climate events.
3. Disaster Preparedness: Community-level training and preparedness, particularly in rural and disaster-prone areas, is crucial.
4. Policy and Governance: Strong climate adaptation policies, and implementation of National Climate Change Policy, and coordination between federal and provincial governments are essential.
5. Global Climate Justice: Pakistan must continue to advocate for climate justice at the international platforms by demanding financing and support from the countries that are major polluters.

A Wake-Up Call

The NDMA alerts may ring like ringtones now, but they are actually alarms or urgent calls to action. They are reminders that Pakistan’s future depends on how it confronts the climate crisis today.

Pakistan climate crisis is not the story of hopelessness but of urgency. It is a wake-up call for the world to act before the ringing never stops.