South Korea — Natural Disaster Report
Asia · Live status: Elevated (41 active events)
Current situation: 41 natural disaster events are currently monitored in South Korea, with a worst severity of Moderate. Details, sources and timestamps are listed below.
South Korea experiences a distinct summer rainy season, the changma, followed by a typhoon season that brings the country's most damaging weather. Typhoons approaching from the south can produce extreme rainfall and coastal surge along the southern and eastern coasts. Landslides in mountainous terrain and urban flash flooding in Seoul, where dense development limits drainage, are recurring problems. Seismic activity is moderate compared with Japan, but the 2016 Gyeongju and 2017 Pohang earthquakes were significant reminders that damaging earthquakes are possible. Heavy snowfall affects the east coast and mountain regions in winter, and heatwaves have become more severe in recent years.
Live map — South Korea
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 South Korea's earthquake record with another country.
By hazard in South Korea
Each of these has its own page: recent activity, the season it happens in, past events and what to do.
Risk profile
Changma rainy season late June to late July. Typhoons August-September. Urban flash flooding during summer downpours. Heatwaves July-August. Heavy snow December-February on the east coast.
Official emergency authorities
Disaster displacement in South Korea
61,869 internal displacements
Largest single event: 30,553 from wildfire, beginning 22 March 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.
| Year | Displacements |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 61,869 |
| 2024 | 10,522 |
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 — South Korea
A 1% chance of exceeding its 2-year flood flow.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: as currently ongoing · forecast of 19 Oct 2026
A 1% chance of exceeding its 2-year flood flow.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 8-10 days (on 2026-10-27) · 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 South Korea
| Source | Events here, last 12 months | What it will not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| WMO Alert Hub (national weather services) | 186 | 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 | 3 | 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 | 1 | 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.
Frequently asked questions
What natural disasters are currently active in South Korea?
There are currently 41 monitored natural disaster events in South Korea. The overall risk status is Elevated. See the live list on this page for details and sources.
What natural hazards does South Korea face?
South Korea experiences a distinct summer rainy season, the changma, followed by a typhoon season that brings the country's most damaging weather. Typhoons approaching from the south can produce extreme rainfall and coastal surge along the southern and eastern coasts.
When is the main natural disaster season in South Korea?
Changma rainy season late June to late July. Typhoons August-September. Urban flash flooding during summer downpours. Heatwaves July-August. Heavy snow December-February 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 South Korea?
Official warnings for South Korea are issued by Korea Meteorological Administration. The link is 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 South Korea 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.