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The Nationwide Alert Pakistan has entered what its disaster authority is calling a “critical” weather window. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday issued a nationwide alert, warning of thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, urban flooding, and an elevated risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) across the country’s northern regions over the next 12 to 24 hours. Vulnerable Regions The alert identified Hunza and Skardu areas in the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region in the north and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest among the most vulnerable areas to a possible climate disaster. Authorities also warned of flooding in capital Islamabad, and other urban areas, including Rawalpindi and its adjoining areas. Melting Glaciers Pakistan is home to some 13,000 glaciers – the most in the world after the polar icecaps. And global warming is fast melting them. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), melting glaciers across Pakistan’s Hindu Kush, Himalayas and Karakoram mountain ranges have formed more than 3,000 glacial lakes in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Of those, 33 have been assessed as vulnerable to hazardous outbursts, with more than 7.1 million people living around them at risk. Funding Gap The 2022 floods remain the benchmark for how devastating climate disasters in Pakistan could turn. The floods killed nearly 1,700 people, displaced more than 30 million, caused $14.8bn in property damage, and wiped out $15.2bn from Pakistan’s gross domestic product. Pakistan hosted a donor conference in Geneva in January 2023, where about $11bn was pledged by various countries and international financial institutions for flood recovery. But according to the UN’s humanitarian coordination agency, OCHA, only about $4.5bn had been delivered by June 2025, largely for housing, transport and flood risk management projects.