The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
I have now collated my initial dataset for fatal landslides that occurred in October 2024. As always, this will be subject to some modification as I work through the data, but I can provide a good indication of the likely numbers now.
In October 2024, I have recorded 49 fatal landslides globally, which have claimed 145 lives. As expected, the monthly total is down from the Northern Hemisphere summer months – this is the lowest monthly total since April. However, this is still the second highest October total in my dataset, beaten only by the total for 2005. Thus, even as the Northern Hemisphere monsoon season has abated, the number of fatal landslides has remained unusually high.
As a consequence, 2024 continues to break all previous records for landslide occurrence. This is the monthly cumulative total graph, with previous years in light grey:-
The annual pattern is better shown with pentad (five day) data. As usual, I have included two more typical years for reference:-
The data shows that 2024 continues to run at an exceptionally high rate, even if the average daily number has started to reduce.
In terms of specific events, there were two mass fatality landslides. On 3 October, 19 people were killed by a landslide at Donja Jablanica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whilst on 23 October, 20 people were killed by a landslide at Sitio Purok B, in Talisay in the Philippines. Both of these events were channelised debris flows. I have recorded several other landslides in the Philippines in October, triggered by two tropical cyclones, and several landslides in India, Brazil and Indonesia.
To the end of October, I have recorded 679 fatal landslides in 2024, which have claimed 4,460 lives (excluding landslides triggered by earthquakes).