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.
Late Tuesday, October 3, 2023, parts of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and Uruguay were struck by severe weather conditions that included giant hail and intense lightning. The hail ranged from “very large” to “giant”. Damage to homes, buildings, and infrastructure has been reported, although official estimates are not yet available. Further adverse weather conditions are forecasted for Wednesday.
A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) triggered a rapid surge in water levels along the Teesta River basin in Sikkim, India at approximately 01:30 LT on Wednesday, October 4, 2023. The water levels soared to heights of 5 – 6 m (15 – 20 feet), resulting in significant infrastructure damage, at least 8 fatalities, and more than 60 individuals reported missing.
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by India’s National Center for Seismology as M6.2 hit Nepal at 09:21 UTC (15:06 local time) on October 3, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 5 km (3.1 miles). USGS and EMSC are reporting M5.7 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The quake was preceded by M4.6 and followed by M3.6, M3.1, M3.5, M4.3, M3.9 and M3.0 by 14:00 UTC.
An ash cloud from Shishaldin Volcano reaching 12 km (40 000 feet) above sea level was observed in satellite data at 13:50 UTC on October 3, 2023.
A strong earthquake registered by the JMA as M6.3 hit Izu Islands, Japan at 11:38 UTC on October 3, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 40 km (25 miles). The USGS is reporting M6.1 at a depth of 11.9 km (7.4 miles); EMSC M6.1 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).
Japan experienced its warmest September on record in 2023, with a national monthly temperature that was 2.66 °C (4.79 °F) higher than the standard. The record-breaking temperatures were particularly pronounced in the eastern and western regions of the country.
PHIVOLCS maintains Alert Level 3 over the Mayon volcano, which means that it is currently in a relatively high level of unrest, and hazardous eruption within weeks or even days could still be possible.
A storm system exiting the West will trigger widespread severe thunderstorms across the Plains on Tuesday. These storms are expected to produce large hail, damaging winds, heavy rain, possible flooding and a couple of tornadoes across the region. Ahead of this sprawling system, a number of record high temperatures are possible from the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes into the Northeast.
Typhoon “Koinu” — known as Jenny in the Philippines — formed over the Pacific Ocean on September 27, 2023, as the 14th named storm of the 2023 Pacific typhoon season. The system is forecast to continue strengthening and make landfall over southern Taiwan on October 4.
The center of Tropical Storm “Philippe” is expected to pass near or just northeast of the northern Leeward Islands later today and tonight (LT), threatening the region with heavy rains and flooding.
