www.naturalhazards.govt.nz
With home buying season on our doorsteps, NHC wants homebuyers to go into a purchase with their eyes open about natural hazards.
Newsroom
Ratepayers in Edgecumbe, Westland, Christchurch and around NZ are paying an unprecedented price for increasingly frequent severe weather events, writes Jonathan Milne.
www.abc.net.au
An emergency alert was issued for the town of Cardwell shortly after midnight as floodwaters continue to rise for a third day.
Four people were killed and thousands of homes flooded when 307mm of rain fell on Auckland in four days from January 27, 2023.
OurAuckland
Auckland Transport’s flood recovery programme is ahead of schedule with 80% of more than 800 large road slips repaired
Wildfires like the Los Angeles blazes destroy so much, but they often spare some evidence of the cause of their ignition
UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain says that two very wet years followed by a very dry one helped to turn the Los Angeles wildfires into raging infernos. This phenomenon of “hydroclimate whiplash,” he says, is expected to occur in more and more places as the world warms.
NBC News
The federal government covers a lot when it comes to fire recovery. But rebuilding takes a long time and not everything is included, even when politics doesn't get involved.
RNZ
The simple gable roof house is still standing after wildfire teared through the neighbourhood.
The Conversation
For insurers, it’s simply becoming too expensive to do business in California. That will have ripple effects on the cost of insurance around the globe.
Regional council chairman Doug Leeder said the cases raised issues across the local government sector in terms with how they deal with natural disasters.
RNZ
First Person - RNZ Pacific reporter, Iliesa Tora, reflects on the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption, saying people need to take tsunami warnings seriously.
Earth.Org
While the exact causes of the ongoing LA fires are still under investigation, there is no doubt that California's climate exacerbated them.
RNZ
As the death toll rises from LA's wildfires, experts say New Zealand is set to get more flammable, and make it harder for some to get insurance.
RNZ
A University of Canterbury student who saw his neighbour's house burn down in a wildfire has been part of a research project aiming to protect rural homes from future blazes.
NPR
These photos chronicle the catastrophic scale of destruction from wildfires in California that started on Jan. 7.
NBC News
California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted President-elect Donald Trump’s response to the California wildfires in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” recorded Saturday, saying, “Mis- and disinformation I don’t think advantages or aids any of us.”
NPR
Satellite images show the extent of devastation from multiple wildfires burning in Los Angeles County. The fires have killed at least 10 people and destroyed thousands of structures.
NBC News
The blazes are the result of a combination of suburban sprawl in fire-prone areas, fierce Santa Ana winds, dry conditions fueled by climate change and the limits of firefighting.
www.abc.net.au
Floods and devastating storms gave way to heatwaves in a year that broke all previous temperature records, according to international climate agency Copernicus.
RNZ
UXOs contaminate the Pacific but there's little clean-up funding despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on new defense infrastructure.
www.abc.net.au
As wildfires raged across Los Angeles, it took just days for another disaster to rear its head — the city seemed to be running out of water to fight them.
www.stuff.co.nz
Massive wildfires are tearing across the Los Angeles area with devastating force.
Mother Jones
A scientist explains the role of climate change, infrastructure, power lines—and goats.
Callaghan Innovation
Traditional physical flood models are computationally intensive and take up to 24 hours to run, limiting their utility in rapidly evolving flood scenarios. An AI model developed by NIWA runs in 1-2 minutes, providing near-instantaneous flood impact forecasts. Using the 2021 Buller River flood as …
Natural hazard risk is a reality of living in New Zealand. Use this checklist to make sure you understand the risk profile of a property, before you buy.
www.stuff.co.nz
Humanitarian crises are intensifying due to conflict and climate change. The United Nations, through OCHA, leads efforts to bring the world together to tackle humanitarian emergencies and save the lives of people caught in crises.
World Meteorological Organization
WMO’s State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record.WMO’s flagship report showed that:
GNS Science | Te Pῡ Ao
GeoNet 19 February 2025
NPR
These photos chronicle the catastrophic scale of destruction from wildfires in California that started on Jan. 7.
NZ Herald
While The Front Page is on its summer break, we are revisiting some of the biggest news stories from 2024. New episodes return on January 13th. A...
More than 200,000 people were killed in the natural disaster.
The active fault datasets displayed on this website are prepared by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited (GNS Science).
www.civildefence.govt.nz
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is the Government lead for emergency management. We help build a safe and resilient Aotearoa New Zealand by empowering communities before, during and after emergencies.
There are 161 potentially active volcanoes in the United States. According to a 2018 USGS assessment, 57 volcanoes are a high threat or very high threat to public safety.
Collected articles from New Zealand and around the world on natural hazards, emergencies and preparedness Keep Reading
Collected news from New Zealand and around the world on natural hazards, emergencies and preparedness Keep Reading
Natural Hazards