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.
The Volcanic Alert Level for Mount Ruapehu has been raised to 2 and the Aviation Color Code to Yellow on December 21, 2020, following an increase in Crater Lake temperature and the largest measured gas output in the past two decades. The Volcanic Alert Level…
A rare great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will take place at 18:11 UTC on December 21, with the two planets passing just 6.1 arcminutes (about one-fifth the apparent width of the moon) of each other, as seen from Earth. Coincidentally, the December solstice is…
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the JMA as M6.3 hit near the east coast of Honshu, Japan at 17:23 UTC on December 20, 2020 (02:23 JST, December 21). The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). USGS is reporting M6.2 at a depth of 10 km; EMSC…
An unusually large waterspout formed in the Gulf of Paria, off Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago at around 14:50 LT on Friday, December 19, 2020. The waterspout remained out to the sea, as the thunderstorm it was attached to moved westward toward Venezuela. No…
The snow was falling at an unprecedented rate over parts of Japan this week, stranding more than 2 000 vehicles and forcing authorities to deploy the military to help trapped people. In addition, more than 10 000 homes were left without electricity. JMA said that…
More than 30 000 earthquakes have been registered in the Bransfield Strait, an ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, since the end of August 2020, according to the University of Chile. The strait is now expanding 15 cm (6…
A bright fireball streaked through the night sky over the state of São Paulo, Brazil at 00:35 UTC on December 16, 2020. The event was recorded by several BRAMON (Bramon Brazilian Meteor Observation Network) cameras as well as residents. The event lasted up to…
Tropical Cyclone "Yasa" made landfall over Vanua Levu, Fiji's second-largest island just after 06:00 UTC (18:00 LT) on December 17, 2020, with wind speeds up to 240 km/h (150 mph) and momentary gusts up to 345 km/h (215 mph), according to the RSMC…
New activity/unrest was reported for 5 volcanoes from December 9 to 15, 2020. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 14 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Barren Island, Andaman Islands (India) | Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia) | Lewotolo,…
Yasa has rapidly intensified into a Category 5 cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale by 15:00 UTC on December 15, 2020, and is expected to move over Fiji on December 17, bringing destructive winds, storm surge with waves as high as 16 m (52…
