Executive summary
Heatwaves in South Sudan during 2025 caused severe and unequal impacts, with women and girls facing disproportionate health, livelihood and social consequences. World Weather Attribution analysis finds that human-caused climate change has made extreme heat more frequent and intense, turning heatwaves into a near-constant threat. The study highlights how climate change interacts with gender inequality, poverty and limited access to services to amplify risk and deepen existing vulnerabilities.
What happened
In 2025, South Sudan experienced repeated periods of extreme heat, with very high daytime temperatures and persistently warm nights. These conditions affected both urban and rural communities, increasing heat stress, water scarcity and food insecurity.
Women and girls were particularly affected due to their roles in water collection, caregiving and outdoor labour, which increased exposure during the hottest parts of the day. Heat also disrupted education, healthcare access and household livelihoods, compounding existing social pressures.
What the attribution analysis found
World Weather Attribution finds that climate change significantly increased the likelihood and intensity of the extreme heat experienced in South Sudan. Rising global temperatures have shifted baseline conditions, making prolonged periods of dangerous heat far more common than in a pre-industrial climate.
The analysis shows that temperatures associated with recent heatwaves would have been extremely unlikely without human-induced warming. As warming continues, similar or more severe heat conditions are expected to occur even more frequently.
Confidence in the attribution is high, given the strong and well-understood relationship between global warming and extreme heat.
Gender, vulnerability and unequal impacts
A central conclusion of the study is that gender inequality strongly shapes heat impacts. Limited access to cooling, healthcare and decision-making power increases vulnerability among women and girls.
Heat exacerbated risks related to maternal health, food preparation, water access and personal safety. In some cases, girls’ education was disrupted as households prioritised coping strategies over school attendance.
How climate attribution fits into heat risk reporting
Climate attribution helps connect rising heat exposure to human-caused climate change while also highlighting that impacts depend on social conditions. In this case, attribution shows that climate change is increasing heat hazards, while inequality determines who bears the greatest burden.
For risk reporting, this underscores the need to integrate social vulnerability into climate risk assessments.
Why this matters for organisations
For humanitarian agencies, governments, NGOs and organisations operating in South Sudan, the findings demonstrate that extreme heat is both a climate and a social risk. Programmes focused solely on hazard reduction risk overlooking the groups most affected.
Heat-related impacts on health, livelihoods and education also have long-term development and stability implications.
How to use this in your own risk work
Organisations should incorporate gender-sensitive heat risk assessments, prioritise access to water, cooling and healthcare, and design adaptation measures that reduce exposure for women and girls. Addressing social vulnerability alongside climate hazards will be essential to reducing heat-related harm.
Source
World Weather Attribution (2025). Women and girls continue to bear disproportionate impacts of heatwaves in South Sudan that have become a constant threat.
https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/women-and-girls-continue-to-bear-disproportionate-impacts-of-heatwaves-in-south-sudan-that-have-become-a-constant-threat/