WMO says 2025 was among the driest years for global river flows in 35 years
Science & ClimateWell-covered
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The Facts
- The WMO said 2025 was among the driest years for global river flows in 35 years.
- About 36% of global river basins had below-normal flows in 2025.
- Global terrestrial water storage has declined since 2014-2016, according to the WMO.
- Terrestrial water storage includes groundwater, lakes, glaciers, snow, soil moisture and vegetation.
- The WMO reported glacier mass loss for a fourth consecutive year across major glacier regions.
- The WMO said declining stored water reduces the buffer available during dry years.
- The WMO warned that water-resource trends could affect populations and economies.
Context
What does terrestrial water storage mean?
It is freshwater held on or beneath land, including groundwater, lakes, rivers, snow, ice, soil moisture and water in vegetation. Guardian Yahoo News
Why do declines in stored water matter?
The WMO says stored water acts as a buffer during exceptionally dry years, so its decline raises concerns about future water supplies. Yahoo News Reuters
Were water conditions uniform worldwide?
No. The WMO reported especially low groundwater levels in Central and Eastern Europe, while much of Northern Europe was above its long-term level. tagesschau.de newsORF.at
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- The thinning multi-year water buffer — glacier loss, declining stored water since the mid-2010s — matters more than any single dry year's rainfall totals.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the fix is global emissions cuts to stop the underlying decline, or basin-by-basin accountability for who rebuilds the storage that has already drained.
- Why they won’t converge
- This split is about values: whether the drawdown is a shared global emissions problem demanding collective cuts, or a basin-level failure demanding local accountability for rebuilding storage — a disagreement facts about flow and glacier loss cannot settle.
How left and right read it
Fresh water is a shared inheritance, and the reserves that carry communities through a bad year are being drawn down. That is why a fourth straight year of glacier loss and a decline in stored water since the mid-2010s matter more than any single dry season: with 36% of river basins below normal, the buffer itself is thinning. The cause is not mysterious. Cut emissions, and protect what remains.
“The water cycle you were taught in school is being thrown off balance by fossil fuel pollution, bringing a host of dangerous consequences including shrinking rivers, disappearing glaciers and wild swings between floods and drought” — CNN International
Surviving a dry year depends on the reserve behind the tap, and stored water — groundwater, lakes, snow, soil moisture — has been thinning since the mid-2010s. That is why the shrinking buffer the WMO describes matters more than one dry season: with about 36% of basins below normal, the burden is uneven. Resilience is built basin by basin. So who is accountable for rebuilding storage where it has actually drained?
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Wire services (3)
Independent coverage (50)
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