Earth Changes · Daily Report · November 6, 2026, 12:29 PM CST
The National Weather Service has 63 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 2 tornado warnings across NC.[1]
Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck 144 km SE of Hasaki, Japan at 10:39 a.m. UTC on Nov. 6, about 29 km (≈18 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[2]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact GREEN. It was one of 9 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
- 9 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M6.1
- 63 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 63 alerts rated severe or extreme in effect.[1]
| Alert | Number | States |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado Warning | 2 | NC |
| Flood Warning | 19 | AZ, CO, FL, IA, MO, NE |
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 17 | PK |
| High Wind Watch | 5 | MT, OR, WA |
| Storm Watch | 5 | PZ |
| Freeze Warning | 4 | IL, MO |
| Flash Flood Warning | 2 | PR, VA |
| Flood Watch | 2 | MA, NC, RI, VA |
| Freeze Watch | 2 | IL, IN, KY, MO |
| High Wind Warning | 2 | MT |
Tornado Warning issued November 6 at 1:20PM EST until November 6 at 2:00PM EST by NWS Raleigh NC (Sampson, NC): “TORRAH The National Weather Service in Raleigh has issued a * Tornado Warning for… Southeastern Sampson County in central North Carolina… * Until 200 PM EST. * At 119 PM EST, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located near Lagoon, or 14 miles east of Elizabethtown, moving northeast at 30 mph.”
Tornado Warning issued November 6 at 1:08PM EST until November 6 at 1:30PM EST by NWS Wilmington NC (Bladen, NC): “At 108 PM EST, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located over Lagoon, or 9 miles southeast of Elizabethtown, moving east at 30 mph. HAZARD…Tornado.”
The Storm Prediction Center says its highest risk level for severe thunderstorms today is slight, on a scale that runs marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate, high.[5]
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 9 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[6] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 144 km SE of Hasaki, Japan | Nov. 6, 10:39 a.m. UTC | 29 km | GREEN |
| 4.9 | 41 km SW of Balangonan, Philippines | Nov. 6, 6:28 a.m. UTC | 35 km | — |
| 4.7 | 139 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska | Nov. 6, 2:35 a.m. UTC | 28 km | GREEN |
| 4.6 | 58 km WNW of Isangel, Vanuatu | Nov. 6, 1:37 a.m. UTC | 83 km | — |
| 4.6 | 96 km NNW of Lae, Papua New Guinea | Nov. 6, 12:02 a.m. UTC | 98 km | — |
| 4.6 | 147 km SSE of False Pass, Alaska | Nov. 5, 11:04 p.m. UTC | 16 km | GREEN |
| 4.6 | south of the Fiji Islands | Nov. 5, 10:34 p.m. UTC | 523 km | — |
| 4.5 | 101 km SSE of Palekastro, Greece | Nov. 6, 3:26 p.m. UTC | 41 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 | Episode 56 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption ended abruptly at 6:01 P.M. HST on November 5, 2026.[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.
4. Sinkholes
No government agency publishes a live national sinkhole feed, so these come from today’s local news:
- Beaumont: KFDM reports, “That sinking feeling after another large sinkhole opens in Beaumont BEAUMONT — Another large sinkhole has opened in Beaumont only months after a giant hole in the ground made international headlines.”[9]
- Riviera Beach, Florida: WPEC reports, “Sinkhole shuts Blue Heron Blvd in Riviera Beach; crews replace rain-damaged pipes RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — It appears a traffic situation in Riviera Beach that turned into a nightmare for numerous drivers is getting a little better.”[10]
- NBC News reports, “UP NEXT Rescue crews save man that fell into sinkhole in backyard 00:11 UP”[11]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: CBS News, November 6, 2026 — “Record floods in Georgia turn catastrophic”. 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 6, 2026 — “Heavy rains flood towns, dozens rescued on Georgia-Tennessee border”. 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.
“Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms may occur today across parts of the central/eastern Carolinas and coastal southern Mid-Atlantic.”
— NOAA Storm Prediction Center[5]
“The North America plate, Pacific plate, Philippine Sea plate, and Eurasia plate all influence the tectonic setting of Japan, Taiwan, and the surrounding area. Some authors divide the edges of these plates into several microplates that together take up the overall relative motions between the larger tectonic blocks, including the Okhotsk microplate in northern Japan, the Okinawa microplate in southern Japan, the Yangzee microplate in the area of the East China Sea, and the Amur microplate in the area of the Sea of Japan. The seafloor expression of the boundary between the Pacific and North America plates lies 300 km off the east coasts of Hokkaido and Honshu at the Kuril-Kamchatka and Japan trenches.”
— U.S. Geological Survey, “Seismotectonics of Japan and Vicinity,” on the region around the M6.1 quake[12]
“Lava likely continues to erupt slowly within the summit crater of Great Sitkin Volcano. A few small earthquakes were detected at the volcano over the last day. Clouds obscured other satellite and webcam views of the volcano.”
— Alaska Volcano Observatory, on Great Sitkin[3]
“Clear satellite images over the last week did not show any sign of underwater plumes from Ahyi Seamount. No notable activity was detected in distal geophysical monitoring data.”
— 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, M6.1 144 km SE of Hasaki, Japan 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. ↩
- KFDM, BREAKING: That sinking feeling after another large sinkhole opens in Beaumont kfdm.com. ↩
- WPEC, Sinkhole shuts Blue Heron Blvd in Riviera Beach; crews replace rain-damaged pipes cbs12.com. ↩
- NBC News, Rescue crews save man that fell into sinkhole in backyard nbcnews.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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