Australia — Natural Disaster Report
Oceania · Live status: High (39 active events)
Current situation: 39 natural disaster events are currently monitored in Australia, with a worst severity of Severe. Details, sources and timestamps are listed below.
Australia's hazards are shaped by climatic extremes rather than tectonics. The 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires burned roughly 24 million hectares, destroyed thousands of homes and affected an estimated three billion animals, with smoke causing hundreds of additional deaths. Drought and flooding rain alternate with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle: the 2022 eastern Australia floods inundated Lismore twice within weeks, while previous years brought the Millennium Drought. The northern coast faces tropical cyclones from November to April, and the Great Barrier Reef has suffered repeated mass bleaching from marine heatwaves. Heatwaves are Australia's deadliest natural hazard by historical death toll.
Live map — Australia
Loading live data… · Marker positions are approximate; severity is labelled in each popup. Sources: USGS, GDACS, NASA EONET, NOAA/NWS, EMSC.
Active alerts & recent events
Latest earthquakes
Near a particular city? Earthquake history near a place · disasters reported near a place · compare Australia's earthquake record with another country.
By hazard in Australia
Each of these has its own page: recent activity, the season it happens in, past events and what to do.
- Cold Waves in Australia
- Extreme Weather in Australia
- Floods in Australia
- Heatwaves in Australia
- Severe Storms in Australia
- Storm Surges in Australia
- Wildfires in Australia
Risk profile
Bushfire season roughly September-March, earlier in the north. Tropical cyclones November-April on the northern and western coasts. Flooding, most severe in La Niña years. Drought in El Niño years. Heatwaves December-February. Severe storms and hail on the east coast.
Official emergency authorities
Disaster displacement in Australia
9,909 internal displacements
Largest single event: 5,200 from flood, beginning 2 February 2025.
A displacement is a movement, not a person: somebody forced from home more than once in a year is counted more than once. These are movements caused by disasters only — displacement caused by conflict is counted separately and is not included here.
| Hazard | Displacements in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Flood | 7,213 |
| Storm | 1,992 |
| Wildfire | 631 |
| Mass Movement | 61 |
| Erosion | 12 |
| Year | Displacements |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 9,909 |
| 2024 | 32,175 |
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Global Internal Displacement Database. IDMC publishes annually, so the latest year here is the latest they have finalised — not the current one.
River flood forecast — Australia
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 11-14 days (on 2026-11-01) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 11-14 days (on 2026-11-02) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 11-14 days (on 2026-10-30) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 11-14 days (on 2026-10-30) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 8-10 days (on 2026-10-29) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 11-14 days (on 2026-10-30) · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
GloFAS forecasts are computer model output, published for information only. They are not a flood warning: only national and regional authorities issue flood warnings for their own area. A reporting point is a place on the model's river network, which may sit a few kilometres from the town it is named after. All 259 rivers →
What this site sees in Australia
| Source | Events here, last 12 months | What it will not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| WMO Alert Hub (national weather services) | 1,035 | Each warning comes from one country own alerting authority, so the scale is that agency scale and is not comparable between countries. Many agencies publish no coordinates, and those warnings are placed at the centre of the country rather than where the weather is - the area name is the real answer. |
| NASA FIRMS | 190 | Global, but it sees only what the satellite saw on its pass, and thick cloud hides fire. A quiet day here is not evidence that nothing burned. |
| US Geological Survey | 2 | Global for earthquakes above roughly M4.5, and denser where there are more seismometers. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| GDACS (European Commission / United Nations) | none | Global, but deliberately selective: it alerts on disasters likely to need INTERNATIONAL response. Serious local flooding that a national agency handles alone will not appear here. |
| European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre | none | Global for earthquakes, with the best coverage in Europe and the Mediterranean. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| NASA EONET | none | Global and curated rather than automatic, so it is slower than the raw feeds and carries far fewer events. |
| MeteoAlarm (EUMETNET) | none | Europe only. It publishes no coordinates at all, so every warning here is placed at the centre of its country and the area name is the only reliable indication of where it applies. |
| NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers | none | These two centres warn for the US and Canadian coasts and for the Pacific and Caribbean basins. The Indian Ocean and Mediterranean have their own warning centres, which are not read here. Their routine information statements - the ones that say there is NO tsunami danger - are deliberately not imported, so an empty tsunami list means no threat was issued, not that nothing was checked. |
| NOAA National Hurricane Center | none | The Atlantic and the eastern and central Pacific only. No typhoon in the western Pacific and no cyclone in the Indian Ocean or the southern hemisphere appears here; those come from GDACS and from national services. |
| ReliefWeb (UN OCHA) | none | Global, but it reports on humanitarian RESPONSE. It arrives days after an event rather than during it, and never functions as a warning. |
Not applicable here: US National Weather Service — Covers the United States only. It publishes nothing about any other country, so its absence from a country page is not an outage. ; USGS Volcano Hazards Program — United States volcanoes only - Alaska, Hawaii, the Cascades, Yellowstone, California and the Northern Mariana Islands. It says nothing about Indonesia, Iceland, Italy or anywhere else, so its silence about a foreign eruption is not a judgement about that eruption.
Major historical disasters — Australia
| Event | Type | Date | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–20 Australian Bushfire Season (Black Summer) | Wildfire | Sep 1, 2019 | 34 |
Satellite before and after — Australia
- Black Summer bushfires: Kangaroo Island, Australia, 2019–20 · NASA images from 14 Dec 2019 and 21 Jan 2020
- Eastern Australia floods 2022: Lismore and the Northern Rivers, New South Wales · NASA images from 10 Feb 2022 and 2 Mar 2022
Frequently asked questions
What natural disasters are currently active in Australia?
There are currently 39 monitored natural disaster events in Australia. The overall risk status is High. See the live list on this page for details and sources.
What natural hazards does Australia face?
Australia's hazards are shaped by climatic extremes rather than tectonics. The 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires burned roughly 24 million hectares, destroyed thousands of homes and affected an estimated three billion animals, with smoke causing hundreds of additional deaths.
When is the main natural disaster season in Australia?
Bushfire season roughly September-March, earlier in the north. Tropical cyclones November-April on the northern and western coasts. Flooding, most severe in La Niña years. Drought in El Niño years. Heatwaves December-February. Severe storms and hail on the east coast. Seasons shift from year to year; treat these as the usual pattern, not a forecast.
Which official agency issues disaster warnings in Australia?
Official warnings for Australia are issued by Bureau of Meteorology warnings and Geoscience Australia — Earthquakes. Links to each are on this page. This site aggregates and reports; it does not issue warnings, and in an emergency the national agency is the authority.
What is the deadliest recorded natural disaster in Australia?
Of the events documented on this site, the deadliest in Australia is the 2019–20 Australian Bushfire Season (Black Summer) (2019), with around 34 deaths. Direct deaths; ~450 additional deaths attributed to smoke. This is drawn from documented records held here and is not a complete historical archive.
Where does this disaster data for Australia come from?
Data is aggregated from official sources including USGS, GDACS (EC/UN), NASA EONET, ReliefWeb and national agencies. Every event links to its original source, and update times are shown on each record.
Data sources: USGS, GDACS (EC/UN), NASA EONET, NOAA/NWS, EMSC, ReliefWeb (UN OCHA). See data sources & attribution and methodology. This page does not replace official emergency guidance.