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.
Mayon volcano entered a new eruptive phase on January 13, 2018 with phreatic eruptions and lava flows from a new lava dome. It was the first eruption of this volcano since August 2014. Alert Level was raised from 1 to 3 and by January 17, more than 34 000 people…
Heavy dust storm engulfed parts of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria on January 19, 2018, turning the sky into dark red. Over the next 72 hours, the dust cloud is expected to sweep Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, but with decreasing…
Activity at Agung volcano in Bali, Indonesia continues to fluctuate at high levels. A notable strombolian eruption took place at the volcano on Friday, January 19, 2018, with ash cloud top reaching an altitude of 5.5 km (18 044 feet) above sea level. The activity at…
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.3 hit the Gulf of California at 16:18 UTC (08:18 PST) on January 19, 2018. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.2 at a depth of 30 km (18.6 miles). Tsunami is not…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 BX will flyby Earth at 0.73 LD / 0.00188 AU (~281 243 km / 174 756 miles) at 23:00 UTC on January 19, 2018. This is the second known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance today, the other one will fly by at 20:22…
Tropical Cyclone "Berguitta" produced huge amounts of rain and sustained winds of over 120 km/h (75 mph) as its center passed over Mauritius and extremely close to La Reunion on January 18, 2018. Some areas received more than 800 mm (31.5 inches) of rain…
Numerous people witnessed a bright fireball streaking through the sky over Alberta, Canada at around 00:22 UTC on Wednesday, January 18, 2018 (17:22 local time, January 17). The event lasted 4 seconds before the object disappeared in a bright flash. As reported by…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 BW flew past Earth at a distance of 0.43 LD / 0.00112 (~167 549 km / 104 110 miles) at 15:13 UTC on January 15, 2018, 2 days before it was first observed. This is the 4th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 BD flew past Earth at a very close distance of 0.10 LD / 0.00026 AU (~38 895 km / 24 168 miles) at 15:43 UTC on January 18, 2018, some 7 hours after it was discovered. This is the fourth closest approach to our planet…
A powerful windstorm swept over northern Europe on January 18, 2018, killing at least 10 people. Officials in the Netherlands reported winds up to 120 km/h (74 mph) and gusts to 140 km/h (87 mph) at the height of the storm while Germany saw winds up to 203 km/h (126…
