Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Authorities of the Australian state of Victoria have ordered more than 30 000 residents and tourists in East Gippsland to leave the region immediately as bushfires have reached an extreme danger level. Dangerous fire conditions are expected across the state today…
Seismic activity at Pavlof volcano, Alaska has increased over the past several days, forcing the Alaska Volcano Observatory to raise the Alert Level to Advisory and the Aviation Color Code to Yellow at 20:43 UTC on December 28, 2019. Pavlof is a snow- and…
The eruption of Shishaldin Volcano that began in late July continues with low-level explosive activity near the summit and effusion of short lava flows, tha Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) reports. Elevated seismicity and surface temperatures were recorded…
A Long March 5 rocket carrying a test satellite payload, launched by China at 12:45 UTC on December 27, 2019, produced an amazing night sky show as parts of it disintegrated over Guam and Saipan around 13:25 UTC (23:25 LT) on the same day. Residents of Saipan and…
Tropical Cyclone "Sarai" strengthened into Category 2 on the Fiji Intensity Scale (Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) on December 28, 2019, and was positioned about 90 km (56 miles) SSE of Kadavu and 190 km (118 miles) S of Suva at 14:00 UTC today…
New activity/unrest was reported for 3 volcanoes from December 18 to 24, 2019. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 10 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Bezymianny, Central Kamchatka (Russia) | Semisopochnoi, United States | White Island, North…
A potent winter storm will swing from the Four Corners Friday, December 27, 2019, across the Central Plains to the Upper Midwest this weekend. Areas of heavy snow, blowing snow and freezing rain are forecast on the cold side of the storm. On the warm side, isolated…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2019 YU2 flew past Earth at 19:28 UTC on December 23, 2019 at a distance of 0.26 LD / 0.00066 AU (98 734 km / 61 350 miles). This is the 75th known asteroid to flyby Earth since the start of the year. 2019 YU2 belongs to the…
Tropical Cyclone "Sarai" formed near Fiji on December 26, 2019, as the second named storm of the 2019/20 South Pacific cyclone season. The cyclone is expected to continue intensifying, reaching Category 2 strength late December 27, SSW of Nadi, Fiji. Sarai…
Two newly discovered asteroids designated 2019 YS and 2019 YB flew past Earth within 1 lunar distance on December 18, 2019. Since the start of the year, our sky surveys have discovered a total of 75 <1LD asteroids. 2019 YS flew past us at a distance of 0.17 LD /…
