Fatal landslides in May 2026

Satellite image of the aftermath of the 26 May 2026 landslides in Yongchuan District, Chongqing. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission, captured on 3 June 2026. In May 2026 I recorded 51 fatal landslides causing 185 fatalities. 2026 is proving to be atypical in terms of the temporal pattern of fatal landslides. This is my regular update for the number of fatal global landslides, focusing on May 2026. As usual, this data has been collected in line with the methodology described in Froude and Petley (2018) and in Petley (2012). References are listed below – please cite these articles if you use this analysis. Data presented in these updates should be treated as being provisional at this stage as I will reanalyse them prior to formal publication, and other events will emerge. Note that this data excludes landslides triggered by earthquakes (see below). The headline figures are as follows: May 2026: 51 fatal landslides causing 185 fatalities. This is the monthly number of landslides by month in 2026 to the end of May:- The number of global fatal landslides in 2026 by month to the end of May. Last month I noted that 2026 was proving to be atypical in terms of the pattern of fatal landslides. This has continued through May, with the total number recorded in this month being lower than for both February and March. This may indicate that patterns of rainfall this year are different from the norm. More research is needed. My preferred way of presenting this data us to use the cumulative total by pentad. This graph is to pentad 30, which ends on 30 May:- The cumulative total number of global fatal landslides in 2026 by pentad to the end of May. So, to 30 May 2026 the cumulative total number of fatal landslides was very significantly higher than the long term mean and above the exceptional year of 2024. However, note that the cumulative total was very close to the 2024 total – this year did not experience the early acceleration in the rate of cumulative landslides that we saw in 2024. As always the final annual total will heavily depend upon rainfall patterns in East and South Asia in the northern hemisphere summer months. Major events included the multiple landslides in Yongchuan, Chongqing, China on 24 May. The 8 June 2026 M=7.8 earthquake in the Philippines also triggered landslides – to date I have recorded six separate events causing 31 fatalities, but this may be incomplete. I am now working on the June 2026 data. References Froude, M. and Petley, D.N. 2018. Global fatal landslide occurrence from 2004 to 2016. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 18, 2161-2181. Petley, D.N. 2012. Global patterns of loss of life from landslides. Geology 40 (10), 927-930. Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.