Nine small earthquakes struck the Pardis area east of Tehran overnight on May 12 and 13, 2026, including a M4.6 event near the border of Tehran and Mazandaran provinces, renewing attention on seismic risks around the Iranian capital.
A rare tornado struck Yongfu Town in Zhangping, China’s Fujian Province, on the afternoon of May 12, 2026, damaging dozens of flower nurseries and greenhouses in the area.
Darwin VAAC is reporting a rare volcanic ash emission from a submarine volcano in the Bismarck Sea Volcanic Province, Papua New Guinea, since Monday, May 11, 2026. By Wednesday, May 13, ash was rising to about 4 km (13 000 feet) above sea level, while satellite imagery showed water discoloration near the advisory area. Meteorological cloud partly obscured the ash in the latest imagery, but Himawari-9 observations and model guidance continued to support the advisory.
A major spring storm developing over Alberta will bring widespread damaging winds, rain, and localized snowfall across parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan beginning Wednesday night, May 13, 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) warns.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) raised Mount Kupreanof to Aviation Color Code Yellow and Volcano Alert Level Advisory at 17:01 UTC on May 12, 2026, after seismic activity and sulfur dioxide emissions increased over recent months at the Alaska Peninsula volcano.
Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) raised the alert level for Lewotobi Laki-laki in East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, from Level II to Level III at 13:00 WITA (05:00 UTC) on May 12, 2026. The decision followed increased deep volcanic earthquakes, persistent non-harmonic tremor, inflation, and surface activity from May 1 to 11. Residents and tourists were told to avoid activity within a 5 km (3.1 miles) radius of the eruption center.
Severe thunderstorms produced giant hail up to 11.4 cm (4.5 inches), damaging winds, power outages, and road blockages across parts of Texas on May 10 and 11, 2026, after the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) placed parts of west-central and north-central Texas under an Enhanced Risk. SPC storm reports included baseball-size hail in several counties, wind damage near Hamilton, more than 18 000 power outages in the Austin area, and gusts up to 135 km/h (84 mph) near Corpus Christi NAS.
Severe storms and heavy rain killed 4 people and injured 16 others across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwestern Pakistan, on May 10–11, 2026, after walls and roofs collapsed in several districts. The affected districts include Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, and Shangla, while Pakistan’s NDMA warned of continued rain, flash flooding, debris flows, and elevated GLOF risk in northern mountain catchments.
Severe storms affecting South Africa from May 4 to 11, 2026, have caused at least 4 deaths, displaced more than 2 000 people, and disrupted infrastructure and essential services across multiple provinces, prompting authorities to declare a national disaster. The declaration covers the Western Cape, North West, Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and Mpumalanga provinces. This is the fifth national disaster declaration since November 2025 and the fourth so far this year.
Indonesia’s North Halmahera government permanently closed climbing access to Mount Dukono after 3 climbers were found dead following the May 8, 2026, eruption on Halmahera Island, North Maluku. BNPB said the area had already been under a total climbing closure since April 17, before the closure was reinforced through a May 8 Regent decision barring operators, managers, and climbing-service providers from issuing permits.
