A shocking report has revealed the ‘sitting duck’ cities most vulnerable to climate disasters.
The report, produced by the Financial Times, warns that Amsterdam, Houston, and New York City are at risk of being battered by flooding, while Austin is at high risk of deadly infernos.
Meanwhile, several densely populated cities are at risk of both heatwaves and flooding.
This includes Lisbon, Naples, Athens, and Christchurch.
Worryingly, experts say that they don’t know when these disasters could hit.
‘But at the global level, they are becoming more probable,’ said Guillermo Rein, a fire sciences professor at Imperial College London, speaking to the Financial Times.
‘In the next year there’s going to be a big wildfire destroying a big community.
‘But we have absolutely no idea where that is going to happen.’
Scientists warn that climate change is making the conditions for extreme weather events like the LA wildfires (pictured) more likely, putting more cities at risk
Described by climate scientists as ‘sitting ducks’, scientists say that some cities have been ‘lucky’ to not experience an extreme climate event so far.
These are areas where the natural geography, climate conditions, and city planning have combined to create an exceptional risk.
Yet many of these cities have already come perilously close to destruction.
In August last year, Athens, which is home to 3.6 million people, narrowly escaped catastrophic destruction as a wildfire reached the outskirts of the city.
The fire scorched 40 square miles (103 square km) of land northeast of the city, killing one woman and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
However, the flames stopped just short of entering the city centre where they could have caused serious damage.
Dr Thomas Smith, an expert on environmental geography from the London School of Economics and Political Science, told the Financial Times: ‘What was missing was the wind element.’
Had there been strong winds, like the Santa Ana winds which drove the LA wildfires, the situation might have been far more severe.
Athens, considered a sitting duck city, was almost hit by a devastating fire last year after a wildfire ignited northeast of the city
The fire scorched 40 square miles (103 square km) of land northeast of the city, killing one woman and forcing thousands to flee their homes, but Athens itself survived thanks to an absence of strong winds
For sitting ducks like Athens, a major risk factor comes from their proximity to the wilderness.
As cities spread, they push further out into the surrounding grasslands, forests, and fields where wildfires can start.
Scientists call this area the wildland-urban interface and estimate that it makes up about 4.7 per cent of the planet’s surface.
In Europe, the wildland-urban interface covers 15 per cent of the continent and is home to more than 60 per cent of the population.
That puts cities such as Naples, Lisbon, and Athens at high risk of wildfires.
While climate change does not directly cause wildfires, it makes the conditions for intense blazes significantly more likely.
The risks of fire are increased by a warming climate which create dry vegetation, extreme high temperatures, and strong winds.
The World Weather Attribution – a network of researchers from the US, UK and a number of other European countries – warned the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the LA wildfires were about 35 per cent more likely due to global warming.
Athens’ high fire risk is partly due to its proximity to wilderness. Experts say that the ‘wildland-urban interface’ (shown in dark orange) where cities meet wild land is particularly prone to fires
In the UK, unusually warm spring weather means the country has already passed the record for land destroyed by wildfires.
Since the start of 2025, more than 113 square miles (292 square km or 29,200 hectares) of land has been consumed by fires raging across the country.
However, it is not only wildfires which pose a threat to sitting duck cities around the world.
According to an analysis by Moody’s, a financial research firm, roughly 2.4 billion people now live in areas that are at risk of inland river or flash flooding.
In the US, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, New York, and Sacramento are all at extreme risk of flooding due to climate change.
Dallas in particular is especially threatened by flooding due to the city’s rapid growth.
As Dallas has grown, city planners have added concrete or asphalt areas which cannot absorb water.
When heavy rain comes, it runs off these impermeable surfaces and rapidly collects to trigger flash flooding.
In 2022, a sudden deluge of 38 cm of rain in 24 hours triggered a flood which submerged homes and swept away cars in Dallas
In 2022, a sudden deluge of 38 cm of rain in 24 hours triggered a flood which submerged homes and swept away cars.
Other cities considered sitting ducks for flooding include Amsterdam, Ahmedabad, and Buenos Aires.
Just like the risk posed by wildfires, the changing climate has made flooding more frequent and more severe.
Following devastating flooding in Valencia, Spain last year scientists said that the catastrophic event was fuelled by climate change.
Dr Friederike Otto, head of the World Weather Attribution at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, said: ‘No doubt about it, these explosive downpours were intensified by climate change.’
An increasingly warm climate has even made some cities vulnerable to both wildfires and flooding.
Wildfires destroy vegetation such as trees which makes the soil less able to absorb water.
This means that areas which have recently experienced wildfires are more likely to be affected by flash flooding if heavy rain follows.
Scientists say that the devastating flooding which struck Valencia last year (pictured) was made more severe by climate change
According to some research, the elevated risk of flooding can persist for up to a decade after a fire in some areas.
The cities considered sitting ducks for both fire and flooding are Lisbon, Athens, Naples, Cape Town, Sydney, and Christchurch.
Recent studies have found that a number of major cities, including Dallas, are now undergoing a process dubbed ‘climate whiplash’.
This means they are facing both increasingly severe periods of dry weather and more extreme wet periods.
These cycles of drought and flooding make cities more vulnerable to climate disasters and give authorities less time to prepare for changing conditions.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .