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 strong explosion took place at Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano at 12:31 UTC (06:31 LT) on January 9, 2020. At least two volcanic ash clouds were produced today, with initial rising up to 11.3 km (37 000 feet) above sea level, and second to 9.1 km (30 000 feet)…
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.3 hit sparsely populated Chukotskiy Avtonomnyy Okrug, Russia at 08:38 UTC (20:38 LT) on January 9, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and…
A major multi-hazard storm is forecast to impact the Southern Plains and Midwest this Friday, January 10, 2020, shifting to the East Coast by Sunday, January 12, NWS warns. Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and tornadoes are forecast in parts of…
Tropical Cyclone "Blake" made landfall near Wallal Downs, Western Australia on January 7, 2020 with winds up to 85 km/h (53 mph) and heavy rain. Blake is the first named storm of the 2019/20 Australian region cyclone season. Meanwhile, another tropical…
Ash cloud produced by the strong eruption at Shishaldin volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska at 14:10 UTC on January 7, 2020, reached 10 km (33 000 feet) above sea level before midnight UTC. Volcanic ash tops were raised from previously reported 7.6 km (25 000 feet)…
Ash eruption at Shishaldin continues and has intensified as shown in satellite and lightning data, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) reported at 21:33 UTC on January 7, 2020. Satellite data suggest the ash cloud is as high as 8.2 km (27 000 feet) above sea level…
A strong earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit New Britain Region, Papua New Guinea at 19:11 UTC on January 7, 2020 (05:11 LT, January 8). The agency is reporting a depth of 116.8 km (72 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.0 at a depth of 150 km (93 miles). This is…
A very strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.4 (downgraded from M6.5) hit southern Puerto Rico at 08:24 UTC (04:24 local time) on January 7, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 6.7 km (4.1 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.5 at a depth of 10 km…
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.2 hit near Sinabang, Aceh, Indonesia at 06:50 UTC (13:05 LT) on January 7, 2020. The agency is reporting a depth of 20.3 km (12.6 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.1 at a depth of 30 km (18.6 miles). The…
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2020 AP1 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.85 LD / 0.00218 AU (326 123 km / 202 643 miles) on January 2, 2020. This is the first known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance this year. In 2019, we had 76 such…
