Nepal floods 2026 live updates, the latest toll and which treks are affected

Last updated: 19 September 2026, with NDRRMA figures to 17 September (Nepal time). Figures below are provisional, still rising, and vary between sources — we present them as an attributed, dated record, not as a single settled toll.

This is our live tracker for the floods that hit Nepal on 26–27 August 2026. Two things are happening at once and it matters to keep them apart: a sudden glacial flood down the Bhote Koshi River in Rasuwa district on the Tibet frontier (26 August), and a broader nationwide monsoon emergency — heavy rain, flooding and landslides across many southern and central districts. The nationwide death toll spans both; Rasuwa itself accounts for a small share of it. Every figure here is attributed to the authority or outlet that released it.

2 September: Tourism Minister Khadak Raj Paudel posted a video appeal asking international travellers not to cancel their trips, saying airports, hotels and the main destinations are open.

Latest updates (most recent first)

1–17 September 2026 — the toll passes 1,400: NDRRMA put the dead at 1,050 with 3,916 missing on the evening of 1 September, 1,358 with 5,326 missing at 18:00 on 8 September, 1,385 on 11 September and 1,410 with 6,145 missing at 19:00 on 17 September. Rasuwa, where the glacial flood began, has recorded 199 of those deaths; the rest are in the districts downstream along the Trishuli and Narayani. Figures provisional. (NDRRMA, as reported by Nepalnews.)

28 August 2026 (evening NPT) — toll rises; barrier lake drains: Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Office put the confirmed dead at 469 with 977 missing (644 of them foreign nationals); Al Jazeera reported the Nepal–Tibet total passing 470. Tibet: 3 dead, 558 missing (Chinese authorities). On the barrier lake, the news is better: after breaching, water has been flowing out since Friday morning and the lake level has fallen by about 10 metres, so Chinese authorities say the secondary-flood risk is gradually decreasing — no major downstream surge has been reported. Access is still severed: highways across Rasuwa and Nuwakot remain blocked, with roughly 42 km of road wiped out and helicopter-only reach in places. (Nepal PM’s Office; China MWR; The Kathmandu Post; Al Jazeera; CNN.) Figures provisional.

28 August 2026 — NEW secondary-flood warning (barrier lake): China’s Ministry of Water Resources reports that a barrier lake of about 2 million m³ has formed near the Chhochen Khola–Purepu Tsangpo confluence just north of the Nepal–Tibet border and is already overflowing, with roughly 3 million m³ more water expected to drain in over three days — a high risk of breach — and on 28 August the lake was reported to have breached (Nepali Army, via the Rasuwa CDO); no downstream surge size or casualties have been established yet. See our full report. China is running flood simulations; downstream communities along the Bhote Koshi–Trishuli (Rasuwa, Nuwakot) are on alert. (China MWR, via The Kathmandu Post / Outlook India.) The nationwide toll stood at 359 in NDRRMA’s 27 August 6:20pm bulletin, with 910 people out of contact.

27 August 2026, ~18:00 NPT — Nepal Police / The Kathmandu Post: the nationwide toll rose to 353 dead, with 826 people out of contact — 644 tourists (517 foreign, 127 Nepali) plus 44 Nepal Army, 28 Nepal Police and 13 Armed Police Force personnel. District breakdown: Chitwan 108, Nawalparasi East 62, Dhading 27, Gorkha 20, Rasuwa 17, Nawalparasi West 15, Nuwakot 12, Tanahun 9. Al Jazeera reports more than 1,300 missing across Nepal and China combined. All figures provisional and rising.

Each entry is timestamped in Nepal time (NPT) and attributed to its source. Where sources disagree we list both rather than average them.

27 August 2026

• 14:30 NPT — 289 dead across eight districts (Nepal Police). A Nepal Police bulletin put the nationwide toll at 289, broken down as Chitwan 108, Nawalparasi East 74, Dhading 27, Gorkha 20, Rasuwa 17, Tanahun 16, Nawalparasi West 15 and Nuwakot 12. The concentration in Chitwan and Nawalparasi reflects the wider monsoon flooding, distinct from the Rasuwa glacial flood.
• ~13:30 NPT — toll ~270. Police figures earlier in the afternoon stood at roughly 270 as recovery teams reached more communities.
• Morning — 157 to 165 reported. The Statesman reported 157 dead; ANI and The Tribune reported 165 — an early-day range as the count was being consolidated across districts.
• Missing revised upward. The Nepal Tourism Board’s preliminary missing count rose to 579 (466 foreign, 113 Nepali) from an earlier 384; officials cautioned that many listed as missing were being progressively confirmed safe. Security personnel out of contact were reported at about 44 Nepal Army, 28 Nepal Police and 13 Armed Police Force.
• Cause disputed. The USGS said the seismic signal was consistent with a landslide, not an earthquake, casting doubt on an earlier earthquake-trigger theory; ICIMOD’s satellite analysis continued to examine a glacier collapse and a possible supraglacial-lake drainage north of the Langtang Himal.

26 August 2026

• Through the day — toll climbed 8 → 95. Bagmati Pradesh Police, via spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle, reported a toll that rose through the day — first around 8, then 31, then 72, reaching At least 392 people are confirmed dead (389 in Nepal, 3 in China) and more than 1,468 remain missing, including 668 tourists from 34 countries. Figures are provisional and have risen every day since 26 August.
• ~08:40 NPT — the glacial flood struck. A glacier or ice-rock collapse roughly 20 km northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border point sent a debris flood down the Lhende Khola into the Bhote Koshi from the Tibet side, hitting the border zone, then the Rasuwa settlements of Timure and Syabrubesi, and running downstream via the Trishuli into Nuwakot and Dhading.
• Border and power hit. Gyirong (Kerung) Port on the Tibetan side was reported “completely destroyed,” with 300-plus vehicles washed away at the customs site; the Nepal Electricity Authority reported about 430 MW of generating capacity damaged across six hydropower plants.

The nationwide toll vs the Rasuwa glacial flood

It is easy to blur these into one number, so to be precise: the 289 figure is a nationwide toll driven mostly by monsoon flooding and landslides in the south and centre — Chitwan (108) and Nawalparasi East (74) alone account for the majority. The Bhote Koshi glacial flood in Rasuwa, the event on the Tibet frontier that damaged the border crossing and hydropower plants, accounts for 17 of those deaths in the police breakdown. Both are still being revised as access is restored and bodies are recovered.

What caused it — still disputed

The cause has not been conclusively established, and credible experts are advancing different explanations:

• Glacier / ice-rock collapse (leading assessment). ICIMOD’s early reading points to a glacier north of Kathmandu failing and sending ice, rock and water down toward the Lhende Khola.
• Supraglacial-lake drainage. ICIMOD satellite analysis (Sudan Maharjan) is examining the sudden drainage of a lake on the glacier surface north of the Langtang Himal — preliminary.
• USGS: landslide, not earthquake. The USGS said the seismic signal was consistent with a large landslide rather than an earthquake, which undercuts an earlier suggestion by Nepal’s foreign minister Shishir Khanal that an earthquake triggered an avalanche.

What worries scientists is the frequency: the same river flooded in July 2025 from a supraglacial-lake drainage — twice in about 14 months. ICIMOD’s Saswata Sanyal has described such events happening at an “unprecedented” pace. We go deeper into the science in what caused the Bhote Koshi glacial flood, and the climate link.

What it means for trekkers

The disruption is concentrated on the northern Rasuwa / Langtang corridor and the Rasuwagadhi–Kerung trade route. Access roads, bridges and the border crossing there are cut, and infrastructure damage nationwide was reported at around NPR 15 billion, including 19 bridges and roughly 42 km of road. Trekking in the Everest and Annapurna regions is running normally. For a live read on which specific treks are open, on hold, or need a rerouted itinerary, see our status hub: which Nepal treks are affected or on hold, and for the Langtang picture specifically, Rasuwa flood and Langtang trek safety.

Full coverage

• Bhote Koshi flash flood, 26 August 2026: what happened in Rasuwa
• What caused the glacial flood — the science and the climate link
• Nepal trekking conditions right now (live status)
• Which Nepal treks are affected or on hold
• Rasuwa flood and Langtang trek safety
• Langtang autumn 2026: flood recovery and access
• Rasuwagadhi–Kerung border and Nepal–Tibet trade
• Hydropower damage and Nepal’s power supply
• Inside the Nepal Army flood rescue in Rasuwa
• Nepal’s glacial-flood early-warning systems

Sources

Figures on this page are attributed inline to the bodies that released them: Nepal Police and NDRRMA (official), the Kathmandu Post, CNN, Al Jazeera, Wikipedia’s “2026 China–Nepal floods” (tertiary aggregator), ICIMOD and the USGS. Where numbers conflict, we keep each source’s figure separate rather than reconciling them. We will correct any figure as authorities revise it.

This is a developing story. We update this page as verified figures change; timestamps above reflect when each figure was reported.

Cover photo: Rmfenner via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Section photos: CP Khanal via Pexels (Pexels licence); Bijen Amatya via Pexels (Pexels licence); Aaditya Hirachan via Pexels (Pexels licence); Quang Nguyen Vinh via Pexels (Pexels licence).