United States — Natural Disaster Report
North America · Live status: Critical (560 active events)
Current situation: 560 natural disaster events are currently monitored in United States, with a worst severity of Extreme. Details, sources and timestamps are listed below.
The United States experiences a greater variety of severe natural hazards than any other country. Tornado Alley in the central plains produces more tornadoes than the rest of the world combined, as cold dry air from Canada meets warm moist air from the Gulf. The Gulf and Atlantic coasts face hurricanes: Katrina in 2005 flooded most of New Orleans after levee failures, and Helene in 2024 showed that inland flooding hundreds of kilometres from landfall can be just as deadly. The West Coast sits on the San Andreas system and the Cascadia subduction zone, which is capable of a magnitude 9 earthquake and Pacific-wide tsunami. Western wildfires have grown dramatically in size and speed, and the Southwest faces long-term megadrought.
Live map — United States
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 United States's earthquake record with another country.
By hazard in United States
Each of these has its own page: recent activity, the season it happens in, past events and what to do.
- Cold Waves in United States
- Earthquakes in United States
- Extreme Weather in United States
- Floods in United States
- Heatwaves in United States
- Hurricanes in United States
- Other Hazards in United States
- Severe Storms in United States
- Storm Surges in United States
- Tornadoes in United States
- Volcanic Activities in United States
- Wildfires in United States
Risk profile
Hurricane season June-November, peaking August-October. Tornado season March-June, centred on the plains and Southeast. Wildfires June-November in the West, year-round in California. Earthquakes year-round on the West Coast and in Alaska. Winter storms and extreme cold, December-March. Southwest drought as a long-term condition.
Official emergency authorities
Disaster displacement in United States
742,273 internal displacements
Largest single event: 315,483 from wildfire, beginning 7 January 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 |
|---|---|
| Wildfire | 373,997 |
| Storm | 194,402 |
| Flood | 172,515 |
| Mixed disasters | 1,327 |
| Mass Movement | 32 |
| Year | Displacements |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 742,273 |
| 2024 | 11,003,215 |
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 — United States
No chance of exceeding even its 2-year flood flow in this forecast.
GloFAS alert level: Inactive · Peak expected: in 5 days (on 2026-10-24) · 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: in 2 days (on 2026-10-21) · 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 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 2 days (on 2026-10-21) · 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
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
A 1% chance of exceeding its 2-year flood flow.
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 5 days (on 2026-10-24) · 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
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 United States
| Source | Events here, last 12 months | What it will not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| US National Weather Service | 33,161 | Covers the United States only. It publishes nothing about any other country, so its absence from a country page is not an outage. |
| WMO Alert Hub (national weather services) | 13,964 | 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 | 72 | 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 | 32 | Global for earthquakes above roughly M4.5, and denser where there are more seismometers. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| NASA EONET | 30 | Global and curated rather than automatic, so it is slower than the raw feeds and carries far fewer events. |
| GDACS (European Commission / United Nations) | 5 | 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. |
| USGS Volcano Hazards Program | 5 | 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. |
| European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre | none | Global for earthquakes, with the best coverage in Europe and the Mediterranean. It publishes nothing about any other hazard. |
| 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. |
Major historical disasters — United States
| Event | Type | Date | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Hurricane Helene | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Sep 26, 2024 | 249 |
| Hurricane Wilma, 19 October 2005 — the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Oct 19, 2005 | 23 |
| 2005 Hurricane Katrina | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Aug 29, 2005 | 1,833 |
| The 1999 Hector Mine Earthquake | Earthquake | Oct 16, 1999 | — |
| 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake | Earthquake | Oct 17, 1989 | 63 |
| 1962 Columbus Day Storm | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Oct 12, 1962 | 46 |
| Hurricane Hazel, 15 October 1954 | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Oct 15, 1954 | 1,200 |
| The 1939 California Tropical Storm, 25 September 1939 | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Sep 25, 1939 | 93 |
| The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 — the "White Hurricane" | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Nov 7, 1913 | 250 |
| 1900 Galveston Hurricane | Hurricane / Cyclone / Typhoon | Sep 8, 1900 | 8,000 |
Satellite before and after — United States
- Hurricane Harvey 2017: floods across the Texas coastal plain · NASA images from 18 Aug 2017 and 31 Aug 2017
- Missouri River floods 2019: Nebraska and Iowa · NASA images from 20 Oct 2018 and 20 Mar 2019
- Camp Fire 2018: Paradise, California · NASA images from 6 Nov 2018 and 25 Nov 2018
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Frequently asked questions
What natural disasters are currently active in United States?
There are currently 560 monitored natural disaster events in United States. The overall risk status is Critical. See the live list on this page for details and sources.
What natural hazards does United States face?
The United States experiences a greater variety of severe natural hazards than any other country. Tornado Alley in the central plains produces more tornadoes than the rest of the world combined, as cold dry air from Canada meets warm moist air from the Gulf.
When is the main natural disaster season in United States?
Hurricane season June-November, peaking August-October. Tornado season March-June, centred on the plains and Southeast. Wildfires June-November in the West, year-round in California. Earthquakes year-round on the West Coast and in Alaska. Winter storms and extreme cold, December-March. Southwest drought as a long-term condition. Seasons shift from year to year; treat these as the usual pattern, not a forecast.
Which official agency issues disaster warnings in United States?
Official warnings for United States are issued by National Weather Service, FEMA and USGS Earthquake Hazards. 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 United States?
Of the events documented on this site, the deadliest in United States is the 1900 Galveston Hurricane (1900), with around 8,000 deaths. Estimates range 6,000–12,000. This is drawn from documented records held here and is not a complete historical archive.
Where does this disaster data for United States 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.