New Zealand — Natural Disaster Report
Oceania · Live status: Low (3 active events)
Current situation: 3 natural disaster events are currently monitored in New Zealand, with a worst severity of Minor. Details, sources and timestamps are listed below.
New Zealand sits on the boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates and is one of the most seismically active developed nations. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake killed 185 people and, through widespread liquefaction, made large parts of the city unbuildable — a case study in how ground conditions can matter as much as magnitude. The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake ruptured more than twenty faults at once. The North Island contains the Taupō Volcanic Zone, including Ruapehu, Tongariro and White Island, where a 2019 eruption killed 22 visitors, and the caldera systems capable of very large eruptions. Ex-tropical cyclones bring flooding, as Cyclone Gabrielle did in 2023.
Live map — New Zealand
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 New Zealand's earthquake record with another country.
By hazard in New Zealand
Each of these has its own page: recent activity, the season it happens in, past events and what to do.
- Cold Waves in New Zealand
- Earthquakes in New Zealand
- Heavy Rains in New Zealand
- Severe Storms in New Zealand
Risk profile
Earthquakes and tsunami risk year-round, highest along the Alpine Fault and Hikurangi subduction zone. Volcanic activity in the Taupō Volcanic Zone, continuously monitored. Ex-tropical cyclones January-April. Flooding and landslides during heavy rain. Alpine avalanches in winter.
Official emergency authorities
Disaster displacement in New Zealand
530 internal displacements
Largest single event: 200 from flood, beginning 23 October 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 | 349 |
| Storm | 94 |
| Wildfire | 82 |
| Mass Movement | 5 |
| Year | Displacements |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 530 |
| 2024 | 1,693 |
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 — New Zealand
A 13% chance of exceeding its 2-year flood flow; 1% for the 5-year.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 8-10 days (on 2026-10-28) · 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 2026-10-31) · 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 New Zealand
| Source | Events here, last 12 months | What it will not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| WMO Alert Hub (national weather services) | 129 | 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. |
| European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre | 39 | Global for earthquakes, with the best coverage in Europe and the Mediterranean. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| US Geological Survey | 14 | 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) | 1 | 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. |
| NASA FIRMS | none | 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. |
| 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.
Frequently asked questions
What natural disasters are currently active in New Zealand?
There are currently 3 monitored natural disaster events in New Zealand. The overall risk status is Low. See the live list on this page for details and sources.
What natural hazards does New Zealand face?
New Zealand sits on the boundary between the Pacific and Australian plates and is one of the most seismically active developed nations. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake killed 185 people and, through widespread liquefaction, made large parts of the city unbuildable — a case study in how ground conditions can matter as much as magnitude.
When is the main natural disaster season in New Zealand?
Earthquakes and tsunami risk year-round, highest along the Alpine Fault and Hikurangi subduction zone. Volcanic activity in the Taupō Volcanic Zone, continuously monitored. Ex-tropical cyclones January-April. Flooding and landslides during heavy rain. Alpine avalanches in winter. Seasons shift from year to year; treat these as the usual pattern, not a forecast.
Which official agency issues disaster warnings in New Zealand?
Official warnings for New Zealand are issued by GeoNet — geological hazard monitoring and MetService severe weather. 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.
Where does this disaster data for New Zealand 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.