Green flood alert in South Africa was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Thursday, 17 September 2026 at 01:00 UTC. The event is classified as a flood incident with a severity rating of Moderate, and was detected through the United Nations' Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS).
On 17/09/2026, a flood started in South Africa, lasting until 19/09/2026 (last update). The flood caused 0 deaths and 0 displaced . Official GDACS alert level: GREEN.
Where this happened
The incident is located in South Africa (Africa), whose capital is Pretoria. Historically, South Africa is most affected by droughts, floods, wildfires and mining accidents. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the South Africa incident tracker.
Approximate coordinates of the reported event are -29.844°, 30.808°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.
Understanding flood events
River, flash, urban and coastal flooding events. Flood damage depends less on total rainfall than on how fast water arrives and where it has to go. Flash floods in urban areas can rise within minutes because sealed surfaces stop absorption, while river floods build over days and allow more warning time.
How severity is rated
Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Moderate. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.
Safety guidance for flood situations
- Never walk or drive through floodwater — 15 cm of moving water can knock you down and 60 cm can float a car.
- Move to higher floors or higher ground early; do not wait for water to reach you.
- Switch off electricity at the mains if water is entering the building and it is safe to reach.
- Treat all floodwater as contaminated: wash hands, boil drinking water and clean wounds.
- Follow only official instructions from local authorities and emergency services — this page is a monitoring record, not an emergency alert.
Data and verification
This record was generated automatically from the United Nations' Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.
Keep watching the situation on our live world incident map, browse every floods we track on the Flood tracker, or see today's global picture on the incidents today page.
Timeline and sources
Officially recorded
An official record exists from GDACS (UN / European Commission). That confirms the event was recorded; figures quoted from news reports are not confirmed by it.
How statuses are decided · the number of reports is never treated as confirmation.
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· received · event time 17 Sep 2026, 01:00 UTCFirst report Official agency record
First recorded from GDACS (UN / European Commission).
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· receivedSource revised Official agency record
GDACS (UN / European Commission) revised its report: "Flood in South Africa" became "Green flood alert in South Africa".
Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.
Conditions at the time
43.8 mm of rain fell that day, and the temperature peaked at 16°C. Conditions are shown for context only — they do not establish a cause.
Weather reanalysis for this location and date via Open-Meteo.