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.
A major winter storm is expected to significantly impact much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Wednesday into Thursday, December 16 into 17, 2020. A widespread swath of heavy wet snow is likely from the central Appalachians and interior Mid-Atlantic into…
A subtropical storm developed near Cyprus at around 13:00 UTC on December 15, 2020, and was named Elaina by the Mediterranean Cyclone Center. Elaina is expected to make landfall in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning (LT), December 17 with winds of 50 km/h (31…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.1 hit Mindanao, Philippines at 23:21 UTC on December 15, 2020 (07:21 LT, December 16). The agency is reporting a depth of 27 km (16 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.3 at a depth of 44 km (27 miles), PHIVOLCS M6.2 at 16 km…
Intense Strombolian activity continues at Etna's Southeast Crater since December 13, 2020. The most recent paroxysmal episodes occurred at the Voragine crater in December 2015 and May 2016. Since then, activity at Etna's summit has never reached the…
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) recorded a shallow M4.4 earthquake beneath Mauna Kea's northwest flank at 19:27 UTC (09:27 HST) on Monday, December 14, 2020. The epicenter was located about 20 km (12 miles) SE of Waimea, and 52 km (32 miles) WNW of…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit the Chile-Bolivia border region at 15:20 UTC on December 14, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 110 km (68 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.0 at a depth of 111 km (69 miles). The epicenter was located 75 km…
Tropical Cyclone "Yasa" formed on December 12, 2020, as the first named storm of the 2020/21 South Pacific Ocean cyclone season. The current forecast track takes Yasa over Viti Levu, Fiji on December 17, with maximum sustained winds between 165 km/h (100…
A major winter storm is expected to impact portions of the Mid-Atlantic and New England Wednesday into Thursday, December 16 into 17, 2020, as a nor'easter develops and lifts up the Mid-Atlantic Coast, NWS WPC warns. Heavy snow is expected near and north of the…
A strong explosive eruption started at Etna volcano on December 13, 2020, ejecting volcanic ash up to 4.8 km (16 000 feet) above sea level by 23:00 UTC. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red. Monitoring networks observed increased strombolian activity at the SE…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 XF4 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.89 LD / 0.00229 AU (342 579 km / 212 868 miles) from the center of our planet on December 16, 2020. This is the 103rd known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the…
