I am an Assistant Editor and Severe Weather & Science Journalist at The Watchers, specializing in real-time severe weather coverage, geophysical event reporting, and research-driven scientific analysis. You can reach me at rishav(at)watchers(.)news.
More than 1 000 people were evacuated in Niscemi, Sicily, on January 25, 2026, after a large landslide eroded away parts of a cliff. The event follows the devastating impact of Storm Harry, which caused over $1 billion in damage across Sicily between January 20 and 21.
An ice storm brought dangerous conditions to northern Mississippi over the weekend, prompting authorities in Oxford to issue a shelter-in-place order on January 25, 2026. The storm caused extensive damage and left at least one person dead elsewhere in the state.
Rare thundersleet was reported across parts of Texas on January 24, 2026, as a historic winter storm swept across the country, leaving dangerous road conditions in its wake.
A major winter storm swept across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. over the weekend, claiming at least 24 lives as of Monday, January 26, 2026. Over a million customers, roughly 2.5 million people, were left without power as snowstorms hit the northern and northeastern regions, while freezing rain and ice storms wreaked havoc in the south. States of emergency have been declared across multiple regions as the storm’s impacts linger.
Meteorological forecasts show a major sudden stratospheric warming event forming over the Arctic, likely to cause significant weakening of the polar vortex in early February 2026. The resulting atmospheric disruption may alter jet-stream dynamics and increase the risk of Arctic air intrusions into North America and northern Europe during the second half of February.
Severe geomagnetic storm on January 19, 2026, generated a rare auroral glow inside the South Atlantic Anomaly, a region where Earth’s magnetic field is significantly weaker. Photographers in Brazil captured a diffuse purple band over Cambará do Sul during peak geomagnetic activity, documenting the latest in rare instances of possible auroral or SAR arc activity within the anomaly.
At least nine people have been reported dead, while over 80 remain missing, in Indonesia after a major landslide destroyed homes and forced evacuations in the Pasir Langu village on January 24, 2026.
Heavy winter storms struck northern and central Afghanistan on Thursday, January 22, 2026, causing avalanches, building collapses, and road blockages across several provinces. At least 11 people were confirmed dead, with fatalities reported in Kandahar, Parwan, Bamyan, Maidan Wardak, Jawzjan, and Faryab.
An avalanche claimed nine lives and injured a 9-year-old child of the same family in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, January 23, 2026.
A potentially historic winter storm associated with the Polar Vortex is forecast to bring heavy snow, freezing rain, and dangerous cold across much of the United States from January 23 to 26, 2026. The system is expected to cause widespread travel disruptions, power outages, and hazardous conditions from Texas to the Northeast, with more than 200 million people under various National Weather Service warnings and watches.
