I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
The first ten days of May in the European part of Russia may be recognized as the coldest on record, according to Roman Vilfand of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center. Cold air masses from the Arctic Ocean caused temperatures to drop significantly, affecting not only Russia but also Turkey with severe weather.
A powerful solar flare measuring X8.7 erupted from Active Region 3664 — currently located at the west limb of the Sun — at 16:51 UTC on May 14, 2024. The event started at 16:46 and ended at 17:02 UTC.
A Kona low forming north of Hawaii is expected to bring heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, and flash flooding to the islands beginning Tuesday evening, May 14, 2024. The event comes after a weekend of heavy rains flooded major roads in Windward Oahu and triggered landslides on May 13.
Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to move east on May 14, 2024, affecting northern Florida and southern Georgia with damaging winds and heavy rainfall. Additionally, heavy to excessive rainfall is expected over northern Florida, potentially leading to flash flooding. Another wave of heavy rainfall is forecast to impact parts of eastern Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley later this week, and rain falling on saturated soils will likely cause additional flash flooding.
Multiple wildfires burning in British Columbia and Manitoba have forced thousands of people to evacuate and spread hazardous smoke into the northern United States, prompting air quality alerts.
Active Region 3664 — the source of numerous Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) over the past 7 days — began its transit of the western limb on May 13, 2024. The region remains very active, producing a long-duration M6.6 flare on May 13, associated with a likely Earth-directed CME, and an X1.7 at 02:09 UTC on May 14. Meanwhile, a solar radiation storm is in progress due to activity associated with the same region.
A catastrophic dust storm swept through Mumbai, India, on Monday, May 13, 2024, beginning at 15:00 local time and persisting for more than two hours. The storm claimed the lives of at least eight individuals and injured over 60 others, wreaking havoc across the city.
Thanks to Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project, we have an exceptional video showcasing auroral activity from May 10 and 11, 2024, during a G5 – Extreme geomagnetic storm.
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2024 JN16 will fly past Earth at a very close distance of 0.06 LD / 0.00017 AU (24 912 km / 15 480 miles) from the center of our planet at 09:50 UTC on May 14, 2024. This takes it just about 18 500 km (11 500 miles) from the surface, well within orbits of geostationary satellites — ~36 000 km (22 000 miles).
Eruptive activity at Indonesia’s Ibu volcano in North Maluku province intensified over the past couple of days, leading to a strong eruption at around 00:12 UTC on May 13, 2024, with a thick column of ash rising up to 6.4 km (21 000 feet) above sea level.
