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.
Intense thunderstorms rolled through California, U.S. on June 22, 2022, producing more than 50 000 lightning strikes within 24 hours – the most in a single day since 2017. While the lightning strikes started multiple wildfires, one of them struck a woman and her two dogs killing them on the spot.
New activity/unrest was reported for 2 volcanoes from June 15 to 21, 2022. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported 18 volcanoes.
At least 6 people have been killed in the second wave of floods to hit Abidjan, Ivory Coast within just 7 days.
As the energy crisis in Europe continues deepening, the EU countries that depend on Russian gas have signaled a shift back to coal and started triggering emergency plans that could lead to natural gas rationing ahead of the 2022/23 winter season.
Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) has started making comprehensive preparations for a possible eruption of Mount Fuji (Fujisan) – the country’s highest and most noted volcano, located 100 km (62 miles) SW of Tokyo. Its last known eruption took place in December 1707 (VEI 5), spewing ash for more than 2 weeks, with a few centimeters accumulating in the city of Edo, present-day Tokyo.
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M5.9 hit the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region at 20:54 UTC on June 21, 2022 (01:24 LT, June 22). The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6 miles). EMSC is reporting M5.9 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).
Hundreds of thousands of people were affected and more than 200 000 forced to evacuate their homes after the heaviest rains since 1961 hit parts of southern China.
Large swaths of Europe experienced an early-season heatwave over the weekend, with temperatures more than 40 to 43 °C (104 – 110 °F) and numerous daily, monthly and all-time records broken. As those records were falling, a sharp temperature contrast first observed in the UK and NW Germany, fueled severe thunderstorms which are forecast to impact an area from France to Serbia on June 20 and 21.
Unusually low levels of River Po – Italy’s largest river – are transforming the country’s large fertile region, affecting crop production and threatening the densely populated region with a serious drinking water shortage.
A notable eruption took place at Sheveluch volcano, Russia at 20:52 UTC on June 19, 2022, ejecting ash up to 8.2 km (27 000 feet) above sea level, according to the Tokyo VAAC. The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange (2/4).
