The frequency of intense natural disasters (defined here as events triggered by hazards of nature and causing at least 100 deaths or affecting the survival needs of at least 1,000 people) increased notably from the 1970s to the 2000s. Intense hydrometeorological disasters (related to floods and storms), and climatological disasters (related to droughts and heat waves) to a lesser extent, accounted for most of the worldwide increase in natural disasters. Around half of these occurred in Asia and the Pacific (“Asia-Pacific” from here on); nearly three-fourths of these were intense hydro-meteorological disasters.