Key Takeaways
- This article looks at how very hot nights, heavy rain and power cuts feel in the body in countries such as Sudan (Africa), Niger (Africa), Chad (Africa), Bangladesh (Asia), Pakistan (Asia), Mozambique (Africa), Madagascar (Africa), Malawi (Africa), Somalia (Africa), Ethiopia (Africa), Benin (Africa), Burkina Faso (Africa), Sierra Leone (Africa), Vanuatu (Oceania), Solomon Islands (Oceania), Fiji (Oceania), Papua New Guinea (Oceania) and Myanmar (Asia).
- It focuses on simple, daily moments: trying to sleep when the air never cools, keeping books dry when the floor floods, or working and studying when the lights go off.
- It shows that climate change is already changing life in many of these places by December 2025, even when their names appear only as small lines in reports or stay grey on global maps.
- It invites readers, including those in countries like the Netherlands (Europe) or Portugal (Europe), to notice how their own local weather shapes sleep, work, study and mood.
- It offers a gentle exercise: think about today’s weather, how it holds life back, and one thing that is still loved about it, then connect that story with someone living under another difficult sky.
Story & Details
What this article is about
The subject is simple and very physical: how heat, rain, wind and darkness feel on the skin, in the lungs and in the mind. Reports talk about average temperatures, extreme events and vulnerable populations. People talk about wet pillows, buzzing mosquitos, muddy floors and sudden silence when the fan stops. Both levels describe the same world.
By December 2025, more heatwaves, heavier rain and stronger storms are already part of daily life in many regions. Yet the places that live with them most often are rarely at the centre of global headlines or statistics. Many of them stay as pale, anonymous shapes on global maps. Here, they step into the light through very small, very human scenes.
Hot nights that do not cool down: Sudan (Africa), Niger (Africa), Chad (Africa)
In parts of Sudan (Africa), Niger (Africa) and Chad (Africa), some nights feel almost the same as noon. The sun is gone, but the heat stays close to the ground. The air is thick, still and heavy. The body looks for rest and cannot find it.
People use what they have. A fan, if there is electricity. A small air conditioner, if someone is lucky enough to afford one. A piece of cardboard moving back and forth in a slow rhythm. A mat on the flat roof, hoping for a little breeze above the house. A chair by the door, watching the dark street and listening for wind.
Sleep comes in short pieces. Many wake up tired before the new day even begins. That tiredness does not appear in charts, but it lives in every task the next morning, from carrying water to staying awake in school.
Humid heat and buzzing nights: Burkina Faso (Africa), Benin (Africa), Sierra Leone (Africa)
In countries like Burkina Faso (Africa), Benin (Africa) and Sierra Leone (Africa), heat mixes with strong humidity. The body does not only feel hot. It feels sticky. Sheets stay damp. Clothes cling to the skin.
At night there is a constant choice. Close windows and doors to keep out insects and reduce the risk of malaria, but let the room stay hotter. Or open everything to let in air, and accept more mosquitos, more bites and more itching. Many families live inside this small, nightly negotiation, deciding which discomfort hurts less.
Fans, if they exist, sometimes turn slowly because the power is weak or expensive. Nets protect some beds. Others sleep without them and wake up scratching their arms and legs. The climate is not a distant idea for these households. It is the reason why a child moves from one end of the bed to the other, again and again, hoping for a cooler spot.
Rain that turns streets into rivers: Bangladesh (Asia) and Pakistan (Asia)
In Bangladesh (Asia) and Pakistan (Asia), rain can be both a friend and a sudden, dangerous guest. A light shower cools the air and waters crops. A heavy rain that does not stop can bring water into every part of life.
During intense monsoon periods, streets in low areas can turn into brown rivers. Water presses under doors and into rooms. Mattresses, school notebooks, uniforms, work tools and family documents all risk getting soaked. For many families, replacing these things is not easy.
In recent years, studies have shown that human-driven climate change makes some of these heavy rains stronger and more likely, including deadly floods in Pakistan (Asia). Houses collapse, crops are damaged and many people must leave home for safer ground. Yet when the water goes down, people often return to the same spots because work, land, neighbours and memories are there.
Even after a flood, many adults still go out the next day to sell food, drive rickshaws, teach, or clean, even if shoes are still wet. Children may go back to school with damp books and a floor that smells of mud.
Cyclones that redraw the map: Mozambique (Africa), Madagascar (Africa), Malawi (Africa)
For Mozambique (Africa), Madagascar (Africa) and Malawi (Africa), cyclones are not abstract weather events. They are storms that break trees, knock down power poles, flood fields and tear off roofs. Tropical Cyclone Freddy in 2023 and Cyclone Gamane in 2024 were two recent examples that brought heavy rain, wind and flood damage to these countries, with lives lost and hundreds of thousands of people affected.
When a cyclone approaches, people often secure doors with whatever wood or metal they can find. They move valuables and food to higher shelves. Some travel to stronger buildings, schools or churches if there is time. Some pray. Others simply wait, listening for the first loud gusts and for the roof to hold.
After the storm, the sky may turn blue again, but the landscape has changed. A wall is gone. A bridge has fallen. A field is covered in water and stones. Families begin the slow work of cleaning, repairing and planting again, even while knowing that another cyclone may come in a year or two.
Lights out in the storm: Ethiopia (Africa), Malawi (Africa), Somalia (Africa), Sudan (Africa)
In parts of Ethiopia (Africa) and Malawi (Africa), a strong storm often means the same thing inside the house: the lights go out. Thunder arrives, the power cuts, and the search for a candle, battery lamp or phone torch begins.
The fan stops in a second, and with it the breeze that made a very hot evening bearable. If a water pump depends on electricity, taps fall dry. School work becomes harder as children try to read near small flames or glowing screens. Some parents ask children to sleep instead, because studying in the dark feels too hard or unsafe.
In areas of Somalia (Africa) and Sudan (Africa), electricity can be irregular even without a storm. Some families or small shops use fuel generators. These machines are noisy and expensive to run, so they are often turned on only for short moments: to pump water, cool a freezer, run a small workshop or charge phones. When the engine stops, the sound of insects, voices and distant dogs fills the air again, along with heat and darkness.
Constant “plan B” living builds quiet fatigue. People adapt and keep going, but the effort of adapting all the time also has a cost.
Islands close to the waterline: Vanuatu (Oceania), Solomon Islands (Oceania), Fiji (Oceania)
On islands such as Vanuatu (Oceania), Solomon Islands (Oceania) and Fiji (Oceania), the sea gives food, work and beauty. The same sea is rising and pushing closer to homes, roads, churches and graveyards.
Stronger storms bring higher waves and salt water into gardens. High tides now reach spots that used to stay dry. Some coastal villages in Fiji (Oceania) have already moved to higher ground, and national plans speak of many more possible relocations in the coming decades. In some parts of the Pacific, sea levels are rising faster than the global average, which adds pressure on small islands with most people living near the shore.
At night, people hear waves hitting a little nearer than before. Some talk about the need to move inland. Others feel torn between safety and the wish to stay close to the graves of grandparents and to fishing grounds. The word “planned relocation” sounds technical, but for these communities it means leaving a home village and trying to build a new one, often with fewer guarantees than before.
In these islands, people still go fishing, welcome tourists, sing in church, play rugby and attend school. Life continues, even as salt water slowly rewrites the shape of the coast.
Hills that can move: Papua New Guinea (Oceania) and Myanmar (Asia)
In parts of Papua New Guinea (Oceania) and Myanmar (Asia), steep hills and intense rain live side by side. When very heavy downpours fall for hours or days, the ground on a slope can begin to slide. Soil, rocks and trees move together, and houses built on or under the hill can be hit.
At night during long rain, many adults listen not only to drops on the roof, but also to deeper sounds: a crack in the earth, a sudden rumble, a change in the way water flows near the house. Children may sleep without worry, knowing only that school might be closed if the road is blocked.
At the same time, these countries face extreme heat events. In recent years, heatwaves across South and Southeast Asia, including Myanmar (Asia), have closed schools, hit workers and strained health systems. For many families, the same year can bring both very hot weeks and very wet, dangerous days.
Grey countries and faraway readers: Netherlands (Europe), Portugal (Europe) and others
Global charts often show strong colours over large, richer countries and pale or “grey” colours over smaller or poorer ones. The term “grey countries” in this article refers to those places that are often missing from graphs or databases, even when their people are already living with clear climate impacts.
Someone in a small commuting city in the Netherlands (Europe) or in a coastal town in Portugal (Europe) may read about these “grey countries” while sitting in a quiet apartment, a student room or a night bus. The local weather might seem mild in comparison, but it still shapes daily life. On hot weeks, sleep is shorter and air conditioning or fans cost money. In very wet months, bikes and trains are affected, and time outdoors changes.
Researchers and journalists have also started to describe how climate change alters everyday life in many other places: higher food and energy prices, more nights with poor sleep, more bad air days and seasonal allergies that start earlier or last longer, even far from the Sahel or the Pacific.
A tiny exercise in connection
This article imagines a simple exercise that anyone, anywhere in the world, can try. It has four steps.
First, name the country and city where life happens day to day, whether that is in Sudan (Africa), Bangladesh (Asia), Fiji (Oceania), the Netherlands (Europe), Portugal (Europe) or anywhere else.
Second, describe the weather today in plain words: hot, cold, rainy, very wet, dry, windy or heavy with humidity.
Third, name one way this weather limits something important: sleeping well, working outside, concentrating at school, moving through the city, visiting relatives or friends.
Fourth, look for one thing that is still loved about this climate, even when it is hard: the smell after rain, a familiar wind, the colour of the sky at dusk, the sound of frogs after a storm.
Sharing such a small description with someone in another country can turn abstract news into a shared picture. One person may be reading this under a tin roof in Mozambique (Africa) after a cyclone season, another under a concrete ceiling in Pakistan (Asia) after a long monsoon, another on a boat or in a hostel room in Vanuatu (Oceania), and another in a heated flat in the Netherlands (Europe).
A short Dutch language note
In the Netherlands (Europe), many workers find jobs through a Dutch temporary employment agency. In Dutch, the word for such an agency is “uitzendbureau”. The term is common in everyday life and literally refers to an office that “sends workers out” to different companies. During heatwaves or storms, people who work through a Dutch temporary employment agency may also face hard conditions: very hot warehouses, long commutes in the rain or shifts that end late at night when public transport is disrupted.
Conclusions
Extreme heat, heavy rain, storms and power cuts are often discussed in global meetings, strategies and risk indexes. In daily life they appear as small details: cold water kept in a clay pot, a family sleeping on the roof, a school desk still damp from a recent flood, a candle stub used down to the last centimetre during a blackout, a seawall made of sandbags in front of a house, or a wooden house on a hill that now has small cracks nearby.
By December 2025, it is already clear that many of the hardest-hit places are not the ones most often seen on the news ticker. Countries such as Sudan (Africa), Niger (Africa), Chad (Africa), Burkina Faso (Africa), Benin (Africa), Sierra Leone (Africa), Ethiopia (Africa), Malawi (Africa), Somalia (Africa), Mozambique (Africa), Madagascar (Africa), Bangladesh (Asia), Pakistan (Asia), Vanuatu (Oceania), Solomon Islands (Oceania), Fiji (Oceania), Papua New Guinea (Oceania) and Myanmar (Asia) live with strong climate impacts while often remaining “grey” in the global imagination.
Yet people in those countries laugh, study, love, build and rebuild. People in other regions, including the Netherlands (Europe) and Portugal (Europe), also live with changing weather and growing climate pressure, even if in different forms.
Not every person needs to become a specialist in climate science. It already helps when more people can put simple words to how the local sky feels and can listen when others do the same. When stories about hot nights, sudden floods, shaking hills and dark rooms are shared, countries stop being distant shapes on a map and become places where real lives unfold. That change in attention is small, but it is a beginning.
Selected References
[1] Climate Adaptation Platform. “Climate Change’s Impact on Everyday Life.” Article, 24 June 2025. https://climateadaptationplatform.com/climate-changes-impact-on-everyday-life/
[2] World Bank. “An Unsustainable Life: The Impact of Heat on Health and the Economy of Bangladesh.” Report, 2024. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099111024033034518
[3] Associates for Innovative Research; Concern Worldwide. “Extreme Heat in Bangladesh: A Study about Heat Wave Exposure, Vulnerability, Impact and Response Options.” August 2025. https://admin.concern.net/sites/default/files/documents/2025-08/HEAT%20study%20v%2017072025%20FINAL%20with%20frontpage.pdf
[4] Reuters. “Rising Heat Cost Bangladesh $1.8 Billion Last Year, Says World Bank.” 16 September 2025. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/rising-heat-cost-bangladesh-18-billion-last-year-says-world-bank-2025-09-16/
[5] World Weather Attribution. “Climate Change Increased Rainfall Associated with Tropical Cyclones Hitting Highly Vulnerable Communities in Madagascar, Mozambique & Malawi.” 11 April 2022. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-increased-rainfall-associated-with-tropical-cyclones-hitting-highly-vulnerable-communities-in-madagascar-mozambique-malawi/
[6] World Meteorological Organization. “Tropical Cyclone Freddy Hits Madagascar and Mozambique.” News release, 23 February 2023. https://wmo.int/media/news/tropical-cyclone-freddy-hits-madagascar-and-mozambique
[7] World Weather Attribution. “Climate Change Made the Deadly Heatwaves that Hit Millions of Highly Vulnerable People Across Asia More Frequent and Extreme.” 14 May 2024. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-made-the-deadly-heatwaves-that-hit-millions-of-highly-vulnerable-people-across-asia-more-frequent-and-extreme/
[8] Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). “676 Communities Face Possible Relocation in Fiji as Climate Impacts Escalate.” 13 August 2025. https://www.sprep.org/news/676-communities-face-possible-relocation-in-fiji-as-climate-impacts-escalate
[9] Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). “Water Security Research to Assist Coastal Communities to Relocate in the Pacific.” 18 July 2024. https://www.aciar.gov.au/media-search/news/water-security-research-assist-coastal-communities-relocate-pacific
[10] United Nations Development Programme. “UNDP Climate Resilience Project – Documentary Film.” YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JMVjW6Y36Y
Appendix
Blackout
A blackout is a period when electricity stops working in an area, sometimes for a few minutes and sometimes for many hours, often because of storms, heat, technical problems or limits in the power system.
Cyclone
A cyclone is a very strong rotating storm that forms over warm oceans and brings intense rain, high waves and powerful winds; in different regions similar storms are also called hurricanes or typhoons.
Grey countries
Grey countries, in the sense used here, are nations that appear only weakly or not at all in global charts, media stories or statistics, even though their people already live with strong climate impacts in daily life.
Planned relocation
Planned relocation is the organised and usually permanent move of a group of people from one place to another because their original home area has become too risky, for example due to sea level rise, coastal erosion, repeated floods or landslides.
Sahel
The Sahel is a long, semi-dry belt of land south of the Sahara Desert, stretching across several African countries from west to east, where people live with strong heat, marked dry and rainy seasons and growing pressure from climate change.
Temporary employment agency
A temporary employment agency is a company that connects workers with short-term or flexible jobs at other firms, often handling contracts, pay and scheduling while workers move between different workplaces.
Uitzendbureau
Uitzendbureau is the Dutch word for a temporary employment agency, combining “uitzenden” (to send out) and “bureau” (office), and it is widely used in the Netherlands to describe organisations that place people in temporary jobs.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 