AI Insight
In July 2026, researchers recorded 100 fatal landslides globally causing 413 fatalities, marking the highest July total ever documented in this dataset and the third-highest monthly total overall. The year 2026 shows an atypical temporal pattern but tracks close to the record year of 2024 in cumulative totals. The surge in July landslides primarily reflects an intense start to the South Asian Summer Monsoon season.
Why it matters
This data reveals an unusually severe landslide season in 2026, particularly affecting South Asian regions during monsoon periods. Understanding these patterns helps identify high-risk periods and regions for improved early warning systems and disaster preparedness planning.
Understand the Science
In July 2026 I recorded 48 fatal landslides causing 413 fatalities. This year continues 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 July 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.
The headline figures are as follows:
July 2026: 100 fatal landslides causing 413 fatalities.
This is the number of landslides by month in 2026 to the end of July:-
We saw a massive uptick in fatal landslide occurrence in July 2026; indeed, this is the first time I have recorded 100 or more landslides in that month, and it is the third highest total in my dataset. This largely reflects an intense start to the South Asian Summer Monsoon.
My preferred way of presenting this data us to use the cumulative total by pentad. This graph is to pentad 42, which captures almost all of the July data (two landslides that occurred on 31 July 2026 are not included):-
The steepening of the curve that is associated with the Northern Hemisphere rainy season is evident. 2026 continues to run a long way above the long term mean, and very close to the record year of 2024, even though the monthly pattern is markedly different.
It will be interesting to see what August 2026 brings.
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 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
Source: Fatal landslides in July 2026