Overview
- World Weather Attribution analyzed Cyclones Senyar and Ditwah and found sea surface temperatures about 0.2°C above recent norms, which would have been roughly 1°C cooler without human-driven warming.
- Scientists estimate heavy five-day rainfall increased by 9–50% in the Malacca Strait region and by 28–160% over Sri Lanka, with ranges reflecting differences across datasets.
- More than 1,600 people were confirmed dead across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, with hundreds missing and millions affected by flooding and landslides.
- Sri Lanka’s losses are preliminarily put at $6–7 billion and Indonesia’s recovery needs exceed $3 billion, while some reporting places regional losses near $20 billion.
- Researchers could not precisely apportion climate change’s contribution due to model limits and regional dynamics such as La Niña and the Indian Ocean Dipole, and they note deforestation, urbanization and rare storm tracks, including Senyar’s westward Malaysia landfall, worsened impacts.