5 Weather Wishes We Hope Come True In 2025

Think you had a busy year? So did the weather.

From landfalling hurricanes and destructive tornadoes to deadly floods and widespread drought, 2024 saw billions of dollars worth of weather disasters.

If the weather could commit to some New Year’s resolutions, here are five changes we’d hope to see in 2025.

1​. Fewer Landfalling Hurricanes

With 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes, the 2024 hurricane season was a very active one.

But not only was it active, it was impactful. Of the 11 hurricanes, eight of them made landfall - five of those in the continental U.S.

The season was also historic in many ways.

There were two Category 5 storms, Beryl and Milton. Since 1950, only five other seasons had two Cat 5 hurricanes. Beryl was also the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic, and Milton's peak sustained winds reached 180 mph - a strength we’ve seen only eight other Atlantic Basin storms reach.

In 2025, we hope for less history to be made in terms of hurricane season, and wish that whatever storms do form stay away from land as much as possible.

2​. Fewer Billion-Dollar Disasters

There were 24 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2024 as of the time this article was published, according to NOAA.

That's four disasters shy of 2023's record-setting number of 28.

However, the number for 2024 falls well above the 30-year average of eight to nine billion-dollar events as well as above the 10-year average of 20 events.

The 2024 total includes 17 severe weather events, four tropical cyclones, one wildfire and two winter storms. NOAA attributes at least 418 deaths to these billion-dollar disasters.

Our wish for 2025 is for much less widespread destruction from weather and climate related events.

3​. Quieter Severe Weather

“Among the highest number of reports on record” is not what we like to hear when it comes to tornadoes in a given year.

There were 1,473 confirmed tornadoes in the U.S. through August of 2024 with more than 150 additional preliminary reports for the remaining months of the year. Though not record-setting, this year ranks among only a handful of years with similar high counts. At least 53 deaths were attributed to tornadoes in 2024.

T​hree of the most notable tornado outbreaks occurred from late April through the end of May - each of which produced more than 100 tornadoes as they tore through the central U.S.

And not only was it a year with a lot of tornadoes, but a lot of tropical tornadoes.

Hurricane Beryl produced at least 65 tornadoes - the most of any tropical system in 19 years. When Milton tracked over Florida, it spawned 46 tornadoes, setting the state record for most tornadoes of any modern-era outbreak.

However, one of the most frightening statistics is that each of these storms produced at least one EF3 tornado. Only five EF3 tropical tornadoes were documented in the previous 29 years, but we had six this year alone.

We hope next year is much quieter in terms of severe weather and that fewer tornadoes wreak havoc across the country.

4​. Widespread Drought Relief

Dry January will likely take on a whole new meaning in 2025 with more than a third of the country under drought conditions, or 39.59% of the continental U.S., as of December 24.

Although drought steadily decreased into July, bottoming out at 12%, it more than quadrupled by late October when it peaked at 54%.

In early November, almost 88% of the country was at least abnormally dry, breaking the all time record of 85.28% set in 2023.

And it doesn’t look like Mother Nature has much help in store.

The most recent precipitation outlook for the first three months of 2025 called for drier-than-average conditions for much of the southern tier, which is not good news for many drought-ridden areas.

On the other hand, there are wetter-than-average conditions expected for much of the northern tier which will hopefully have a positive impact on drought from the Northern Plains to the Midwest to the Northeast.

We are hoping a wetter pattern across the South will emerge in the spring of 2025 that will bring more precipitation and hopefully help to diminish drought in those areas.

5​. Fewer Deadly Flood Events

Flooding is the second deadliest weather phenomenon in the U.S., only behind heat - but this year was even deadlier than usual.

The National Weather Service attributed an astounding 166 deaths to floods. This is significantly higher than the 30-year average of 89 fatalities per year.

The year brought one of the most devastating flood events on record as Hurricane Helene tracked from Florida northward into the Appalachians.

Numerous locations across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas received over a foot of rain. The highest preliminary rain total came out of Busick, North Carolina, at a whopping 30.78 inches.

On Sept. 27, the National Weather Service issued over 20 flash flood emergencies, the highest level of flood alert, which was the most issued for any day in 13 years.

Close to 100 people were killed, hundreds of houses were destroyed and entire cities like Asheville, North Carolina, were brought to their knees.

Researchers estimated the rainfall from Helene to have been at least 50% more than it would have been if it weren’t for climate change.

Extreme rainfall will unfortunately continue, but we wish for fewer fatalities associated with flooding in the new year.

C​aitlin Kaiser graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with both an undergraduate and graduate degree in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences before starting her career as a digital meteorologist with weather.com.