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.
An active filament channel in the vicinity of Region 3386 erupted simultaneously with M1.3 solar flare at 08:12 UTC on August 2, 2023, producing an Earth-directed CME.
A very bright fireball exploded over the eastern United States at around 06:13 UTC (02:16 EDT) on August 2, 2023, producing a sonic boom.
A rare tornado hit the town of Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia at around 20:00 UTC on August 1, 2023, resulting in substantial damage. Luckily, there were no injuries reported. This is the first confirmed tornado to hit Slovenia since August 20, 2014.
New activity/unrest was reported for 9 volcanoes from July 26 to August 1, 2023. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 18 volcanoes.
The remnants of Typhoon “Doksuri” dropped extremely heavy rains over Beijing and neighboring regions from July 29 to August 1, 2023, leaving at least 11 people dead and another 27 missing. Doksuri made landfall in Jinjiang, Fujian province around 02:00 UTC on July 28 as the strongest typhoon to hit Fujian since 2016. Before hitting China, Doksuri left at least 52 people dead in the Philippines.
The remnants of Typhoon “Doksuri” dropped record-breaking rainfall in China’s capital Beijing on July 30 and 31, 2023, leading to severe flooding. The historic rainfall measuring 687 mm (27 inches) over 48 hours resulted in at least two deaths and the evacuation of more than 50 000 people. This extreme rainfall event is still in progress.
New activity/unrest was reported for 11 volcanoes. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 15 volcanoes.
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.4 hit Vanuatu at 12:44 UTC on July 26, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.4 at a depth of 41 km (25.5 miles).
Alaska’s Trident volcano has seen a significant increase in seismic activity and ground uplift over the past five months, leading to concerns about a potential volcanic eruption. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) has confirmed that this unrest is the result of magma intrusion beneath the volcano. The rising magma, which can trigger an eruption, has also caused increased seismic activity in the neighboring volcanoes of the Katmai volcanic cluster, including Katmai, Martin, Mageik, and the Novarupta vent.
Tropical Cyclone “Doksuri” — known as Egay in the Philippines — formed on July 21, 2023, as the 5th named storm of the 2023 Pacific typhoon season. The storm is currently located east of the Philippines, heading WNW toward Taiwan while intensifying. Landfall in Taiwan is expected on July 27 and in China on July 28 (UTC).
