World's water cycle becoming more unpredictable, UN warns

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Thursday that the global water cycle is growing increasingly erratic and swinging rapidly between extreme droughts and intense floods. 

Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General said "We always say that weather respects no borders. A river basin is fed by water upstream, often in another country. And a glacier disaster in one country can lead to devastation in another, as we saw with the recent tragedy of China and Nepal. This is why we need shared data, shared standards, and shared early warnings." 

In 2025, only about 36% of global river basins experienced normal water flow conditions, marking another consecutive year where normal flows were in the minority, according to a WMO report.