Earth Changes ยท Daily Report ยท November 13, 2026, 6:30 AM CST
The National Weather Service has 63 severe or extreme alerts in effect, led by 2 blizzard warnings across AK.[1]
Meanwhile, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck 148 km NW of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea at 10:04 p.m. UTC on Nov. 12, about 10 km (โ6 miles) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey reports[2]. The USGS PAGER system rates the expected impact GREEN. It was one of 15 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: โSlow eruption of lava likely continues; moving to Weekly Updates onlyโ[3]
Today at a Glance
- 15 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater, the largest M5.8
- 63 severe or extreme U.S. weather alerts
- 3 U.S. volcanoes above normal, including Great Sitkin
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Blizzard Warning | 2 | AK |
| Heavy Freezing Spray Warning | 16 | PK |
| Freeze Warning | 11 | AL, AR, GA, MS, NC, OK and more |
| Freeze Watch | 9 | AL, GA, MS, NC, SC |
| Flood Warning | 7 | AZ, FL, TX |
| Winter Storm Warning | 6 | CA, NV, NY |
| Coastal Flood Warning | 3 | CA, NJ, WA |
| High Wind Warning | 3 | CA, OR |
| Storm Warning | 3 | PZ |
| Storm Watch | 2 | PZ |
Blizzard Warning issued November 12 at 3:33PM AKST until November 15 at 7:00AM AKST by NWS Fairbanks AK (Central Beaufort Sea Coast; Eastern Beaufort Sea Coast): โ* WHAT…Blizzard conditions. Additional snow accumulations up to two inches.โ
Blizzard Warning issued November 12 at 3:33PM AKST until November 15 at 7:00AM AKST by NWS Fairbanks AK (Northern Arctic Coast): โ* WHAT…Blizzard conditions. Additional snow accumulations up to 2 inches.โ
The Storm Prediction Center says no severe thunderstorm areas are forecast today.[5]
2. Earthquakes
The USGS recorded 15 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater in the past 24 hours.[6] The strongest:
| Mag. | Where | When | Depth | PAGER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.8 | 148 km NW of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea | Nov. 12, 10:04 p.m. UTC | 10 km | GREEN |
| 5.1 | 39 km S of Moรญres, Greece | Nov. 13, 12:05 a.m. UTC | 43 km | โ |
| 5.1 | western Indian-Antarctic Ridge | Nov. 12, 9:09 p.m. UTC | 10 km | โ |
| 5.0 | 85 km W of Mwene-Ditu, Democratic Republic of the Congo | Nov. 13, 1:12 a.m. UTC | 10 km | โ |
| 4.9 | southeast of the Loyalty Islands | Nov. 13, 9:55 a.m. UTC | 10 km | โ |
| 4.9 | Pagan region, Northern Mariana Islands | Nov. 13, 2:55 a.m. UTC | 220 km | โ |
| 4.9 | 41 km N of Weining, China | Nov. 12, 8:03 p.m. UTC | 10 km | โ |
| 4.8 | 59 km WSW of Houma, Tonga | Nov. 13, 11:18 a.m. UTC | 163 km | โ |
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 likely continues; moving to Weekly Updates only[3] |
| Ahyi Seamount | Advisory / Yellow | Underwater plume detected in satellite data; no significant geophysical signals.[7] |
| Kilauea | Advisory / Yellow | The Halema'uma'u eruption of Kฤซlauea remains paused following episode 56 fountaining on November 5. The summit is reinflating and the episode 57 forecast window is November 16-21.[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:
- Valencia County News-Bulletin Home reports, โLocal SINKHOLE FOUND UNDER RIVER BRIDGE Major thoroughfare closed for nearly two days Access has been fully restored following an intense, round-the-clock push to resolve the river bridge closure over a single weekend.โ[9]
- Lakewood Alerts reports, โJackson Township officials are responding to a significant sinkhole caused by a water main break on Neal Street, resulting in an emergency road closure and water service disruptions for nearby residents.โ[10]
- UA.NEWS reports, โTarbela-5 project in Pakistan concretes sinkhole after rock collapse โ Dawn At the construction site of the fifth expansion of the Tarbela Hydropower Project in Haripur district, Pakistan, workers are concreting around the clock a sinkhole that formed after the collapse of a weak rock mass.โ[11]
Also in the News
Other natural-hazard video from the past day, from news organizations:
Video: Associated Press, November 13, 2026 โ โKenyans brace for heavy El Niรฑo rains as flood survivors recall their lossesโ. Also in the news. Picked because its title names a natural hazard; it may not be covered in the data above.
Video: ABC News, November 13, 2026 โ โPowerful Storms Batter East Coast. What You Need To Know – November 13โ. 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.
โSevere thunderstorms are not forecast across the U.S. today and tonight.โ
โ NOAA Storm Prediction Center[5]
โThe Australia-Pacific plate boundary is over 4000 km long on the northern margin, from the Sunda (Java) trench in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east. The eastern section is over 2300 km long, extending west from northeast of the Australian continent and the Coral Sea until it intersects the east coast of Papua New Guinea. The boundary is dominated by the general northward subduction of the Australia plate.โ
โ U.S. Geological Survey, โSeismotectonics of the New Guinea Region and Vicinity,โ on the region around the M5.8 quake[12]
โLava 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. Satellite and webcam images were cloudy.โ
โ Alaska Volcano Observatory, on Great Sitkin[3]
โA plume of discolored water was visible in a partially cloudy satellite image over Ahyi Seamount on November 10. No notable activity was detected in distal geophysical monitoring data.โ
โ Northern Mariana Islands, on Ahyi Seamount[7]
โSinkholes 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.โ
โ 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]
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, M5.8 148 km NW of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea 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. ↩
- Northern Mariana Islands, Ahyi Seamount notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Kilauea notice volcanoes.usgs.gov. ↩
- Valencia County News-Bulletin Home, SINKHOLE FOUND UNDER RIVER BRIDGE news-bulletin.com. ↩
- Lakewood Alerts, JACKSON: Major Sinkhole Forces Emergency Road Closure, Disrupts Water Service lakewoodalerts.com. ↩
- UA.NEWS, Tarbela-5 project in Pakistan concretes sinkhole after rock collapse โ Dawn ua.news. ↩
- 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.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
Verified NewsroomPrimary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.