Earth Changes · Daily Report · November 3, 2026, 6:30 AM CST
The National Weather Service has 58 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 43 flood warnings across AZ, CO, FL, LA and more.[1]
Meanwhile, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck 24 km NNW of Rioblanco, Colombia at 9:13 a.m. UTC on Nov. 3, about 10 km (≈6 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[2]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact GREEN. It was one of 11 quakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past day.
Elsewhere, Great Sitkin volcano is at alert level WATCH (aviation color code ORANGE), the Alaska Volcano Observatory says. Its latest update: “Slow eruption of lava within the summit crater continues.”[3]
Today at a Glance
- 11 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M5.4
- 58 severe or extreme U.S. weather alerts
- 3 U.S. volcanoes above normal, including Great Sitkin, Kilauea
- 3 sinkhole reports in the news
Where It’s Happening
Numbered pins match the list under the map. Storm and quake pins are the agencies' reported centers; sinkhole pins mark the town named in the report. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors.
1. Extreme Weather
The National Hurricane Center is tracking no active tropical storms.[4]
Across the United States, the National Weather Service has 58 alerts rated severe or extreme in effect.[1]
| Alert | Number | States |
|---|---|---|
| Flood Warning | 43 | AZ, CO, FL, LA, NM, UT |
| Storm Warning | 9 | PK |
| Flood Watch | 4 | FL, IA |
| Flash Flood Warning | 1 | AZ |
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 1 | PK |
The Storm Prediction Center says its highest risk level for severe thunderstorms today is marginal, on a scale that runs marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate, high.[5]
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 11 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[6] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.4 | 24 km NNW of Rioblanco, Colombia | Nov. 3, 9:13 a.m. UTC | 10 km | GREEN |
| 5.3 | 81 km SSE of Palekastro, Greece | Nov. 2, 4:49 p.m. UTC | 49 km | — |
| 5.1 | 50 km WSW of Huarmey, Peru | Nov. 2, 3:28 p.m. UTC | 67 km | — |
| 4.9 | 101 km SSE of Palekastro, Greece | Nov. 3, 11:03 a.m. UTC | 46 km | — |
| 4.8 | 6 km S of Asahi, Japan | Nov. 3, 5:40 a.m. UTC | 52 km | — |
| 4.7 | 74 km E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia | Nov. 3, 3:13 a.m. UTC | 76 km | — |
| 4.7 | 193 km ENE of Nagqu, China | Nov. 2, 3:35 p.m. UTC | 10 km | — |
| 4.7 | south of the Fiji Islands | Nov. 2, 2:05 p.m. UTC | 502 km | — |
PAGER is the USGS estimate of likely deaths and damage: GREEN means little or none expected, RED means extensive. A dash means none was issued.
3. Volcanoes
In the United States, 3 volcanoes are above normal background activity, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s observatories:
| Volcano | Alert / aviation code | Latest word from scientists |
|---|---|---|
| Great Sitkin | Watch / Orange | Slow eruption of lava within the summit crater continues.[3] |
| Kilauea | Watch / Orange | Precursory low-level eruptive activity before episode 56 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began around 11:43 a.m. HST on Monday, November 2.[7] |
| Ahyi Seamount | Advisory / Yellow | No signs of unrest in satellite data; no significant geophysical signals.[8] |
Alert levels run Normal, Advisory, Watch, Warning. Aviation codes run Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.
Video: Reuters, November 3, 2026 — “Lava flows from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano”. Matched to this report by the storm, volcano or place name in its title.
4. Sinkholes
No government agency publishes a live national sinkhole feed, so these come from today’s local news:
- Page Six reports, “Nicolas Cage says he’s ‘currently homeless’ after giant sinkhole opened up next to his L.A. mansion Published Nov. 2, 2026, 4:37 p.m. ET See more of our coverage in your search results.”[9]
- KCRA reports, “Man rescued after falling into sinkhole, truck seen teetering on edge VIDEO:”[10]
- Sedona: AZ Family reports, “Sedona flash flood rips out driveways, opens massive sinkholes near Sedona Residents scrambled to escape midday flash floods that left homes damaged and neighborhoods buried in mud.”[11]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: Reuters, November 3, 2026 — “'Severe' Cyclone Murasu hits India's east coast”. Also in the news. Picked because its title names a natural hazard; it may not be covered in the data above.
Video: Associated Press, November 3, 2026 — “Flash flooding triggers evacuations in Southwest”. Also in the news.
5. What the Experts Say
These are the words of the scientists and forecasters who watch these hazards for a living, quoted exactly.
“Thunderstorms with potential for isolated severe wind gusts and perhaps a brief tornado or two will be possible today from the Sabine and Lower Mississippi Valleys northward into the Mid Mississippi Valley.”
— NOAA Storm Prediction Center[5]
“The South American arc extends over 7,000 km, from the Chilean margin triple junction offshore of southern Chile to its intersection with the Panama fracture zone, offshore of the southern coast of Panama in Central America. It marks the plate boundary between the subducting Nazca plate and the South America plate, where the oceanic crust and lithosphere of the Nazca plate begin their descent into the mantle beneath South America. The convergence associated with this subduction process is responsible for the uplift of the Andes Mountains, and for the active volcanic chain present along much of this deformation front.”
— U.S. Geological Survey, “Seismotectonics of South America (Nazca Plate Region),” on the region around the M5.4 quake[12]
“Lava continues to erupt slowly within the summit crater of Great Sitkin Volcano. Satellite radar imagery confirms slow lava growth over the last 2 weeks. A few small earthquakes were detected at the volcano over the last day.”
— Alaska Volcano Observatory, on Great Sitkin[3]
“Small plumes of discolored water were seen in the ocean above Ahyi on October 16 and 21 this past week. Discolored greenish water was visible drifting several hundred meters from the summit of Ahyi. These plumes are likely associated with degassing and hydrothermal activity at the summit of the underwater volcano.”
— Northern Mariana Islands, on Ahyi Seamount[8]
“Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or other rocks that can naturally be dissolved by groundwater circulating through them. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big.”
— U.S. Geological Survey Water Science School, on why sinkholes form[13]
How to Prepare
- Keep a basic kit: water (one gallon per person per day for several days), food, a battery or hand-crank radio, a whistle, a dust mask and phone chargers.[14]
- Get alerts: Wireless Emergency Alerts need no sign-up; the FEMA app, NOAA Weather Radio, the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and the USGS Volcano Notification Service are free.
- Floods: Turn Around, Don’t Drown. Six inches of moving water can knock you down, and one foot can sweep a car away.[15]
- Earthquakes: Drop, Cover and Hold On.[16]
- Download the checklist: Be Ready: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Extreme Weather and Sinkholes (PDF), with today’s active hazards first.
How to Verify This Yourself
- Earthquakes: USGS Latest Earthquakes map
- U.S. volcanoes: USGS Volcano Hazards Program; world: Smithsonian weekly report
- Weather alerts: weather.gov/alerts; tropics: nhc.noaa.gov
- Worldwide disasters: gdacs.org
References
- National Weather Service, active alerts API api.weather.gov. ↩
- USGS, M5.4 24 km NNW of Rioblanco, Colombia event page earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- Alaska Volcano Observatory, Great Sitkin notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- National Hurricane Center, active storms data nhc.noaa.gov. ↩
- NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Day 1 Convective Outlook spc.noaa.gov. ↩
- USGS, M4.5+ earthquakes, past day (real-time feed) earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Kilauea notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Northern Mariana Islands, Ahyi Seamount notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Page Six, Nicolas Cage says he's 'currently homeless' after giant sinkhole opened up next to his L.A. mansion pagesix.com. ↩
- KCRA, VIDEO: Man rescued after falling into sinkhole, truck seen teetering on edge kcra.com. ↩
- AZ Family, Sedona flash flood rips out driveways, opens massive sinkholes near Sedona azfamily.com. ↩
- USGS Geoserve, tectonic summary earthquake.usgs.gov. ↩
- USGS Water Science School, Sinkholes usgs.gov. ↩
- Ready.gov (FEMA), Build a Kit ready.gov. ↩
- Ready.gov (FEMA), Floods ready.gov. ↩
- Ready.gov (FEMA), Earthquakes ready.gov. ↩
Methodology: this report is assembled automatically each morning from the live data feeds of the USGS, the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the Storm Prediction Center and GDACS, plus same-day news reports for sinkholes. No AI writes it: the sentences are fixed templates filled with that data, and every quote is copied exactly from the source it is credited to. Data can change after publication; follow the links for the latest.
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