This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As climate change makes extreme weather more frequent and intense, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and storms are increasingly disrupting roads, railways, airports and waterways. Roads have been closed in Germany during this summer's heat waves, for example, while travel has been chaotic on railways in the UK.
But climate change does not affect every form of transport in the same way. Floods can wash away roads or inundate subway lines, heat waves can bend steel railway tracks and droughts can leave cargo ships stranded in shallow rivers. The result is more than canceled journeys.
When one part of the transport network fails, disruption can quickly spread across a country or even a continent, affecting deliveries, businesses and everyday life. Heavy rain can flood streets and tunnels or trigger landslides, blocking roads and damaging bridges. Heat softens asphalt, expands concrete and deforms road signs.
Smoke from wildfires and dust storms can also reduce visibility, turning an ordinary drive into a dangerous one. In London, bus drivers are due to strike over working in hot weather, saying temperatures inside their cabs can exceed 40°C (104°F). The biggest disruptions can occur when different forms of extreme weather combine.
For roads, heavy rain combined with strong winds during Storm Claudia in Wales in 2025 caused flooding. During the storm, trees and power lines came down, blocking routes and making them dangerous to use. Railways are especially vulnerable to floods and extreme heat.
In southern Germany in 2024, heavy rainfall triggered a landslide that derailed a high-speed train, while flooding caused widespread rail cancellations and delays. Heat waves stranded passengers for hours on a train stuck in a tunnel in Birmingham in 2022 after extreme heat damaged overhead power lines; passengers described the train as feeling "like a sauna." On a Paris–Brussels train in the same year, temperatures reportedly reached about 45°C (113°F) after the air conditioning failed, leaving hundreds of passengers trapped in sweltering conditions. High temperatures reduce aircraft performance and can even damage runways.
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