Floods, earthquakes, wildfires and heat waves: the worst natural disasters of 2015

Floods, cyclones, wildfires, heat waves, earthquakes and landslides made 2015 a devastatingyear for a lot of people around the world. We take a look at some of the worst natural disasters of the past year.

January 2015

Flooding in southeastern Africa

Unusually heavy rains hit Malawi and caused widespread flooding,leaving200 people dead or missing and 120,000 forcedfrom their homes, according to UNICEF. The aid agency said it was "a race against time" to reach displaced communities, as stagnant water and poor sanitation threatened to kill childrenin one of the poorest countries in southern Africa. In neighbouring Mozambique, the rains caused extreme flooding of river basins and cut off communities.Twenty-five people were reportedly killed in thatcountry.

RAW: Flooding in Mozambique

10 years ago

Duration 1:04

Residents dealing with missing children, lost and damaged property and an impassable river

March 2015

Cyclone Pam rips throughVanuatu

Winds of 270 kilometres anhour tore through the 65-islandSouth Pacific archipelago, home to about 267,000 people. One of the heavily damaged areas was the capital,Port Vila, where47,000 people live. Thedestructionwas even worse on the outer island of Tanna, where the Australian military estimated about 80 per cent of the buildings were flattened, and the hospital and airport were damaged. To complicate matters, the island's remote location made it difficult for rescuersto get through. Throughout Vanuatu, an estimated 11 people were killed and thousands were left homeless.

April 2015

Deadly earthquake devastatesNepal

On April 25, a7.8 magnitude earthquake left more than 8,000 people dead in Nepal andturnedmuch of the country, including the capital, Kathmandu,into a disaster zone. The earthquake triggered an avalancheon Mount Everest that killed 19 climbers.About three weeks later, a7.3 magnitude earthquake rocked Nepalagain,killing dozens more people, injuring hundreds and terrifying the country's citizens just as they were trying to rebuild from the first disaster.

May/June 2015

Heatwaveskill thousands in India and Pakistan

By the end of May, about 2,200 people in India were dead from a raging heatwave that began in April. Temperatures went up to 47 C. Most of the people killed were in Andhra Pradesh and Telanganastates in the southernpart of the country.

In June, the worst heatwave in at least a decade hit southern Pakistan, particularly theport city of Karachi. More than 830 people died as temperatures reached as high as 45 C. Karachi's inefficient power grid and shortage of potable water were blamed for worsening the situation. On the worst days, people in the city of 20 milliontried to get water from broken pipes.

July 2015

Flash floods hit Pakistan

Triggered by monsoon rains, flash floods killed more than 100 people in various parts of Pakistan and left tens of thousands homeless, according to the country's National Disaster Management Authority. More than 2,000 villages were flooded.

Almost 3,000 homes collapsed or suffered damage. In the northwestern city of Chitral, homes, mosques, hotels, bridges and a power station were destroyed.

Wildfires force largestevacuation in Saskatchewan's history

Hot weather, very dry conditions and lightning strikes contributed to hundreds of wildfires in western Canada during the summer of 2015. In Saskatchewan,more than 13,000 people wereforced from their homes in the largest evacuation effort in the province's history. The Canadian military was dispatched to help in the hard-hit La Ronge area, about380 kilometresnorth of Saskatoon.

• 'Unprecedented' wildfires force out 13,000 Sask. evacuees

The increased wildfire activity in 2015 and the ballooning firefighting costs promptedSaskatchewan Premier Brad Wall andB.C. Premier Christy Clark to call for a national forest fireplan by next year.

September 2015

California wildfires

California suffered one of its worst forest fire seasons on record in 2015as wildfires raged in northern parts of the state. One fire, north of San Francisco, was the fourth-worst blaze in California's history, with three people killed and more than 1,000 homes destroyed.

A separate fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills killed two people and ruined more than 500 homes. A volunteer firefighter lost his own home while out battling blazes. Thousands of people were evacuated from dozens of communities. According to the CalFire website, there were more than 6,200 wildfires throughout the statein 2015, burning about 125,000 hectares of land. Compare that to 2014, when Cal Fire documented about 4,200wildfires that burned about77,000 hectares.

Chile earthquake

On Sept. 16, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake killed 11 people in central Chile and triggered tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii and California. More than one million people fled their homes and waves up to 4.5 metres high slammed into Chile's northern port city of Coquimbo, washing large fishing boats up onto the streets.

Still, many people who remember the devastating 8.8. magnitude quake of2010, which caused a massive tsunami and killed more than 500 people,were relieved the death toll and destruction wasn't worse.When September's earthquake struck, the Chilean government ordered evacuations from coastal areas and said it hadlearned from previous disasters.

Japan floods

Heavy rain after Tropical Storm Etau pummelled Japan in September and triggered huge floods, forcing thousands of people from their homes. When theKinugawa River broke through a flood berm in Joso near Tokyo, it washed away entire houses and left hundreds of people stranded. Many waited on rooftops to be rescued.

October 2015

U.S. floods

U.S. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency after HurricaneJoaquin-relatedstorms slammed South Carolina with floods. Streets and roads turned into rivers, leaving many people trapped in their cars. A dozenpeople died of weather-related causes in South Carolina and neighbouring North Carolina.

One woman died when her SUV was swept away by floodwaters; another man drownedafter he drove around a barricade. A transportation worker was also among thosekilled.South Carolina GovernorNikki Haleysaid 550 roadsand bridges had to be closed across the state.

November 2015

Deadly Australian wildfires

Four people were killed and hundreds of homes were evacuated as wildfires raged across southwest Australia in November. Fierce winds and a heat wave were blamed for making the fires worse as firefighters tried to contain them. November is summertime in the southern hemisphere, and wildfires are common across much of Australia during the season.

Burma landslide

On Nov. 21, a landslide in Burma, also known as Myanmar, killed more than100 people whena 60-metre high mountain of dirtdiscarded by mining companies collapsed. The disaster happenedin the mining community ofHpakantin the jade-rich northern part of the country.

At first, officials said the dead were mostly men picking through the mining waste looking for jade to sell a common occurrence in the extremely poor town. Later, they said the landslide happened in the middle of the night and buried more than70 makeshift huts where the miners slept.

December 2015

Chennai floods afterheaviest rainfall in 100 years

Massive floods in India drove thousands of people from their homes in Decemberafter the heaviest rainfall in more than a century hit the state of Tamil Nadu. More than 250 people died some by electrocution before authorities turned power off in some areas.

Vast swaths ofChennaiIndia's fourth-largest city wereunder up to three metres of water.Homes and cars were submerged, and people escaped their homes using ladders or jumping out windows onto makeshift rafts.