In August 2025, I recorded 104 fatal landslides leading to 2,365 fatalities, a record total number of landslides for August.
Loyal readers will know that each year, August is one of the two peak months for fatal landslides. In 2025, I recorded 104 fatal landslides leading to 2,365 fatalities (but please see below as I have severe doubts about the latter number).
This is an unusually high level of loss both in terms of the number of fatalities and the number of events.
This is the monthly total number of landslides for 2025 to the end of August:-
Loyal readers will also be aware that I like to use pentads (five day blocks) for inter-annual comparisons. This is the 2025 plot to pentad 49 (2 September 2025):-
The graph demonstrates that to the end of August, 2025 was running a very long way above the long term mean number of landslides, and indeed was close to the absolutely exceptional number recorded in 2024.
The number of fatal landslides in August 2025 was dominated by events in South Asia, and in particular in India. That will need further analysis in due course. In terms of fatalities, the total was driven by the 31 August 2025 landslide at Tarasin in Sudan, which is reported to have killed 1,573 people. However, as I noted in a blog post, I have severe doubts about this total. At this stage, I do not have a reliable alternative total, so I have included the number as reported locally.
In terms of the number of fatal landslides, 2025 had the highest August total in my dataset. The previous highest total was 78 in 2018.
August 2025 was the third warmest August globally in the instrumental record, but it was cooler than both 2023 and 2024. In this case, it appears that the rainfall pattern from the summer monsoon in South Asia has had a major impact.
Reference
Froude M.J. and Petley D.N. 2018. Global fatal landslide occurrence from 2004 to 2016. Natural Hazards and Earth System Science 18, 2161-2181. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2161-2018