Planet Labs imagery reveals a cluster of shallow landslides and channelised debris flows triggered by extreme rainfall. Official figures indicate that 20 people were killed.
Early in the morning of 24 May 2026, extremely heavy rainfall triggered a significant landslide disaster in Yongchuan District in Chongqing, China. As is so often the case in mainland China, reporting of this event has been quite limited. Xinhua reported that nine people were killed and 11 were missing. A report a day or so later provided some images of the aftermath.
There are also some reports in Mandarin, of which this is the best. It describes a peak hourly rainfall total of 103.6 mm, but details remain sketchy.
Planet Labs has captured an image of the aftermath of the disaster that is very revealing. The image is suboptimal due to cloud cover, but it is useful. It was captured on 3 June 2026. The location of the marker in the centre of the image is [29.44249, 105.93982]:-
To give an idea of the scale of the landslides, this image compare contrasts the situation with an image captured on 20 May 2026:-
The main area of landslides lies in the vicinity of the marker, on slopes that drain into the west-facing catchments. Note multiple shallow landslides that have combined to form channelised debris flows. Note also the vast amount of sediment, released by the landslides, in the valleys towards the lower reaches of the slopes. It is perhaps surprising that the number of fatalities is as low as 20, if that is indeed the final toll. The news reports indicate that the highest losses might have occurred at Daqiao Village, which s due north of the marker at [29.45175, 105.94228].
There is another major cluster of landslides in the eastwards facing side of the hills too, with a similar form, but lower intensity.
This is not the only very significant landslide event in China in May 2026. I am trying to gain more information about another two significant events. Does anyone have any information about this one, for example, which reportedly happened on 19 May 2026?
Acknowledgement
Satellite images courtesy of the wonderful people at Planet Labs.
Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
