An X1.0 solar flare erupted from Active Region 4455 at 11:28 UTC on June 3, 2026, producing R3 – Strong radio blackout conditions on the sunlit side of Earth. This is the third major flare from the same region today, following M9.3 at 01:36 UTC and M7.7 at 07:00 UTC.
Severe Tropical Storm Jangmi made landfall over southern Wakayama Prefecture at 04:30 JST on June 3 (19:30 UTC on June 2), bringing heavy rainfall and strong winds that injured at least 23 people, damaged 57 homes, left more than 60 000 customers without power, and prompted evacuation orders affecting more than 400 000 residents. The storm also triggered the first Level 5 Special Flood Warning issued under Japan’s new five-level disaster alert system.
A rare dust storm accompanied by winds of up to 148 km/h (92 mph) struck Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, at around 17:00 LT on May 31, causing widespread damage, reducing visibility to less than 100 m (328 feet), and disrupting transportation and public events across the city. The same atmospheric setup also produced a tornado in Changling County, Jilin Province, as a broader outbreak of severe weather affected parts of Northeast China.
A rapidly deepening low-pressure system southwest of Western Australia is bringing damaging to destructive winds, severe thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, and coastal hazards to broad areas of the state’s southwest on Sunday, May 31, 2026. Wind gusts of up to 130 km/h (81 mph) are possible southwest of a line from Lancelin to Albany, including the Perth metropolitan area, while dangerous surf, coastal erosion, and inundation affect exposed sections of the coast.
A meteor traveling about 120 700 km/h (75 000 mph) fragmented high above northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 18:06 UTC (14:06 EDT) on May 30, 2026, releasing energy equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT and producing a loud boom reported across New England, according to NASA.
Historic rainfall affected much of Yucatán on May 29, 2026, with Mérida setting a new all-time May rainfall record after 154 mm (6.1 inches) fell in 24 hours. Floodwaters inundated roads, stranded hundreds of vehicles, and caused significant disruptions across the city and surrounding areas.
A Severe Weather Warning remains in effect across a large part of Western Australia as an unusually deep low-pressure system approaches the southwest coast, bringing the threat of damaging to destructive wind gusts, severe thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, isolated tornadoes and very large waves through Monday.
France recorded its hottest May day since records began on May 26, 2026, while temperatures climbed to 37.8 °C in southwestern parts of the country on May 28. Multiple stations across France set new all-time May temperature records this week as a prolonged heat dome pushed daytime temperatures into the upper 30s°C (upper 90s°F) and kept nighttime temperatures unusually high across much of the country.
A submarine eruption that began on May 8, 2026, continues in the central Bismarck Sea, about 130 km (81 miles) southeast of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. The eruption revealed a previously unmapped underwater volcano, now provisionally named Titan Ridge Volcano, in a remote and tectonically active area of the Pacific Ocean.
Eleven people have died after getting into difficulty in open water across the UK during a record late-May heat episode. The fatalities include nine children and two adults. The Met Office said 35.1°C (95.2°F) at Kew Gardens on May 26 provisionally broke the UK May and spring temperature record for the second consecutive day.
