Weather of 2026
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of weather events that occurred on Earth in the year 2026.
Deadliest events
| Rank | Event | Date(s) | Deaths (+Missing) | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Storm Harry | January 16-23 | 390+ | [1] |
| 2 | January 2026 North American winter storm | January 22-30 | 174+ | [2] |
| 3 | 2026 West Bandung landslide | January 24 | 80+ | [3][4] |
| 4 | 2026 Kenya Floods | March 6 – present | 71+ | [5] |
| 5 | Intense Tropical Cyclone Gezani | February 4 - 18 | 63+ | [6] |
| 6 | February 2026 North American blizzard | February 20 – 24 | 30 | |
| 7 | 2026 Chilean wildfires | January 29 – February 4 | 21 | [7] |
| 8 | Tropical Cyclone Fytia | January 29 – February 4 | 15 | |
| 9 | Storm Kristin | January 27 – 31 | 14 | [8] |
| 10 | January 30 – February 2, 2026 North American bomb cyclone | January 30 – February 2 | 13 |
Types
Cold snaps and winter storms
From January 22-27, a deadly winter storm affected Northern Mexico, United States and Atlantic Canada, causing many warnings, freezing temperatures and more than 170 deaths over the area. On January 28, the storm moved out to the open Atlantic Ocean, followed by another storm which affected almost all the same regions.
Tornadoes
January
On January 4, a tornado struck the Frattocchie area in Marino, Italy, after reportedly coming from the sea. 30 trees were downed, and several structures and vehicles sustained damage. The tornado was rated as an IF1.5 on the International Fujita Scale.[9][10][11][12] A few days later, a small tornado event occurred in Oklahoma early on January 8, with 5 tornadoes being confirmed, one of which was rated EF2 after it tore the roof off of a house southwest of Purcell.[13][14] This tornado caused one injury along its path when it rolled a semi-truck as it crossed I–35 in the southern part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.[15][16] That day, a significant tornado struck the town of Kalpaki, Greece. The tornado destroyed a farm killing 30,000-40,000 chickens. Two other buildings were heavily damaged, with partially collapsed walls, the tornado was rated as an IF2 tornado on the International Fujita Scale[17][18] Two days later, a tornado struck the city of São José dos Pinhais, Brazil. The tornado wrecked a warehouse and damaged at least 350 homes, as well as several walls, utility poles, and trees. An estimated 1200 people were impacted, with two families being displaced and two people lightly injured. The winds reached an estimated 180 km/h (112 mph), and the tornado rated a low-end F2.[19][20]
Tropical and subtropical cyclones
Tropical cyclones are primarily monitored by 10 warning centers around the world, which are designated as a Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) or a Tropical Cyclone Warning Center (TCWC) by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These centers are: National Hurricane Center (NHC), Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Météo-France (MFR), Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Papua New Guinea's National Weather Service (PNGNWS), Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS), and New Zealand's MetService. Unofficial, but still notable, warning centers include the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA; albeit official within the Philippines), the United States's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), and the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center.
Extratropical cyclones and European windstorms
Storm Anna caused widespread chaos at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, particularly on January 2, 2026, where a combination of heavy snow and shifting crosswinds led to the cancellation of over 325 flights and delayed more than 635 others.[21] The disruption at Schiphol hit KLM and easyJet hardest, with KLM alone cancelling roughly 30% of its schedule due to the airport's reduced runway capacity.[22] The storm brought wind gusts of up to 90 km/h along the northern coast of the Netherlands.[23] In Sweden, meteorologists recorded extreme accumulations, with up to 50 centimetres (nearly 20 inches) of snow falling in parts of central Sweden on New Year's Day and January 2, leaving thousands of households without power.[24] In the Netherlands and Germany, the storm's tail end brought freezing rain and black ice, leading to hazardous road conditions and the deployment of specialized snow removal equipment like the Lavastorm truck on major highways.[25] Meanwhile, in Poland, the storm's heavy snow paralyzed the S7 motorway, leaving hundreds of travelers stranded in sub-zero temperatures with traffic jams stretching up to 20 kilometres.[26]
Wildfires
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Australia
On January 7, extreme conditions in Victoria, Australia, allowed for a massive fire outbreak, burning over 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres), destroying over 300 structures, and resulting in one death.[27][28]
Chile
From 16 January 2026, major wildfires burned in the regions of Biobío and Ñuble, destroying at least 800 structures, resulting in over 50,000 forced to evacuate and 21 fatalities.[7]
Heatwaves
In late January, much of Australia experienced a prolonged, extreme heatwave, with 12 locations recording temperatures above 49°C, and two, Andamooka and Port Augusta reaching 50°C on 29 and 30 January.[29]
World Weather Attribution said that, even considering the progress of global warming, March 2026 heatwaves in Western North America were "rare events" that would have been "virtually impossible" without human-induced climate change.[30]
In March, NASA reported that, for the second consecutive year winter arctic sea ice declined, matching the lowest level since records began in 1979.[31]
NOAA's NCEI reported that the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) average temperature in March 2026 was 5.2 °C (9.4 °F) above the 20th century average—the warmest March in the 132-year record.[32] Also, the year from April 2025 to March 2026 was deemed to be the warmest ever recorded for the CONUS in records since 1895, and January–March 2026 was the driest on record for the CONUS.[32]
Timeline
January
- January 6–10 – Storm Goretti
- January 8–9 – La Farge, Wisconsin, recorded 2.29 in (58 mm) of rain, a record 24-hour amount for January.[33]
- January 15 – Two people died due to severe winter storms in the Russian Far East.[34]
- January 15–22 – 10 people died due to landslides and flooding caused by heavy rainfall during a storm which devastated parts of the North Island of New Zealand.[35]
- January 22–27 – A major winter storm crossed the United States and Atlantic Canada causing more than 173 fatalities.[36]
February
- February 3–7 – Tropical Storm Penha impacts Northern Mindanao and Visayas in the Philippines causing 12 fatalities and $25.5 million in damages.
- February 4–18 – Cyclone Gezani impacts the Toamasina Province in Madagascar causing 63 fatalities and $142 million in damages.
- February 20–24 – A blizzard affected the Northeast United States.
March
- March 6–Present – 2026 Kenya floods
- March 20 – The previous U.S. national heat record of 108 °F (42 °C) for the month of March was broken with a temperature of 112 °F (44 °C) at Buttercup and Squaw Lake in California.[37]
- March 20–27 – Cyclone Narelle landfalls four times around Australia in Queensland, Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
April
- April 2–11 – Cyclone Maila impacts Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
- April 8–Present – Typhoon Sinlaku formed off Pohnpei and it rapidly intensified into a Category 5 Super Typhoon four days later while moving west northwest slowly. It made landfall on Saipan and Tinian just before midnight on April 14, becoming the second strongest to make landfall on the island behind Typhoon Yutu of 2018.
