June 2008 fatal landslide map

The map below shows the distribution of fatal landslides for June 2008. The statistics are:
Number of fatal landslides: 43
Number of fatalities: 215

As has been the pattern all year, June was substantially below the average number of fatalities for may in 2003-2007, which is 334 deaths. Interestingly, during June there have been extensive reports of intense and prolonged rainfall events, but this does not seem to have translated into fatal landslides. The reasons for this are unclear to me.

June 2008 fatal landslide locations (click for a larger version)

The patterns that were starting to emerge in the annual map over the last few months are now clear. In particular the clusters in the Himalayas, western Central America, the Philippines and Indonesia are now very obvious. Whereas last month the cluster in the Himalayas was focused on the western part of the mountain chain, it has now extended to the east as the monsoon rainfall has intensified. The pattern of more landslides in Central America than is normal is continuing. China is continuing to get a fair number of fatal landslides. It is also interesting to see the occurrence of several landslides in SE. Europe.

Recorded fatal landslides in 2008 up to the end of June. Each dot represents a single landslide. Click on the map for a larger version in a new window.