The World Meteorological Organization found that 2025 was among the driest years for the world’s rivers, with global terrestrial water storage about 42% below normal. Using simulations from 13 global hydrological models driven by observations, the WMO reported that only about a third of rivers were in the normal range, 36% of global river basin area had below or well-below normal flows, and 21% had above- or much-above-normal flows. The last seven years produced the fewest rivers with normal flows since 1991, and WMO secretary general Celeste Saulo said global terrestrial water storage has declined since 2014, 16. WMO director of hydrology Wayne Jenkinson called the analysis a call to action and urged expanded data collection and sharing to protect people’s lives and wellbeing. Glaciers lost 400 gigatons of ice in 2025, adding about 1.1 millimeters to global sea level, and each of the world’s 19 major glacial regions lost ice mass for the fourth consecutive year. The report ties depleted river flows to climate-driven extremes and lists concrete impacts this year, including record-low Danube levels that forced shutdowns at Hungarian and Romanian nuclear reactors and mounting threats to the Mississippi, Nile, Niger and Zambezi from pollution, drought and saltwater intrusion.
