Severe thunderstorms hit New South Wales, Australia on February 9, 2023, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging winds. The storm caused officials to issue flash flooding warnings and prompted the NSW State Emergency Service to respond to over 600 calls for help.
New activity/unrest was reported for 5 volcanoes from February 1 to 7, 2023. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 17 volcanoes.
Thousands of buildings in New Zealand’s Auckland area are currently unsafe for living after the region was hit by extreme rainfall and severe flooding at the end of January. The amount of rain that fell in a matter of days made January 2023 Auckland’s wettest month in at least the last 170 years. The flooding has put the public’s focus on nature-based alternatives to traditional stormwater systems.
Tropical Cyclone “Gabrielle” has formed in the Coral Sea as the 3rd named storm of the 2023 Australian region cyclone season. The forecast track takes it near Norfolk Island as a severe category 3 before moving toward New Zealand. The cyclone could bring more rounds of heavy rain to parts of North Island, New Zealand, particularly the Auckland area where extremely heavy and record-breaking rainfall amounts were registered recently.
At least 40 people have lost their lives and 200 houses have been swept away by a series of landslides caused by heavy rains in the Peruvian department of Arequipa. The landslides began on Sunday, February 5, 2023, and affected the town of Secocha and other localities in the province of Camaná.
A second powerful aftershock measuring M7.5 (USGS) / M7.7 (EMSC) on the richer scale hit Turkey – Syria border region at 10:24 UTC on February 6, 2023. The quake follows the extremely damaging and deadly M7.8 quake at 01:17 UTC today.
A powerful earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.8 hit the highly populated Turkey – Syria border region at 01:17 UTC (04:17 local time) on Monday, February 6, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 17.9 km (11.1 miles). EMSC reports M7.8 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Numerous moderate to very strong aftershocks were registered, including M6.7 at 01:28 and M7.5 at 10:24 UTC.
At least 13 people were reported dead and more than 100 homes destroyed as of early Saturday morning (UTC), February 4, 2023 as a result of the more than 150 wildfires burning across Chile. Most of the wildfires are in Biobío and neighboring Ñuble.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, a major source of water supply in California, has reached its highest level since 1995, raising hopes for an end to the drought but also concerns about the possibility of flooding due to rapid melting.
Indonesia has been hit by severe floods in recent days as heavy rainfall pounded the regions of Java and southwestern Borneo. According to the ASEAN Disaster Information Network (ADINet), floods have flooded thousands of homes.
