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.
New activity/unrest was reported for 3 volcanoes between July 12 and 18, 2017. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 14 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Bogoslof, Fox Islands (USA) | Fuego, Guatemala | Sangeang Api, Indonesia. Ongoing activity:…
A massive, fast-burning wildfire is raging west of Yosemite National Park in California, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The fire exploded in size on Wednesday, July 19 to 19 424 hectares (48 000 acres). It has so far scorched 19 424 hectares…
Heavy rain has been affecting Afghanistan's eastern province of Badakhshan over the past couple of days, causing floods that killed at least 16 people. In neighboring Pakistan, heavy rains since June 27 caused floods and landslides that claimed lives of at least…
Massive wildfires burning in Canada's British Columbia have so far scorched 300 000 hectares (741 316 acres) of land and forced more than 45 000 people to evacuate, close to a record set in 2003 when 50 000 people were forced to evacuate. The state of emergency…
Turkey's most populated city, Istanbul suffered extreme flash flooding on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, after rainstorm dumped 4 months worth of rain in just 12 hours. It was the most severe rainfall the city has seen in the past 32 years, but only the first of…
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.4 hit near the coast of Arequipa, Peru at 02:05 UTC on July 18, 2017. The agency is reporting a depth of 44.1 km (27.4 miles). This quake occurred 151 minutes after a major M7.7 earthquake near Kamchatka…
A major earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.7 hit near Komandorskiye Ostrova, Russia at 23:34 UTC on July 17, 2017. The agency is reporting a shallow depth of 11 km (6.8 miles.) This is the 4th earthquake in this area since M6.2 at 11:05 UTC today. It was…
Tropical Storm "Don" formed east of the Windward Islands at 21:00 UTC on July 17, 2017, as the fourth named storm of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. Watches and warnings are in effect for portions of the Windward Islands. At 21:00 UTC on July 17, the…
A new eruption that started at Reunion's Piton de la Fournaise volcano on July 14, 2017 continues for the third day in a row. By 15:00 UTC on July 15, the tremor has decreased by a factor of 7 compared to the beginning of the eruption and has remained constant…
At least nine people have been killed and one is still missing after a wall of water swept away family and friends at the popular Cold Springs Swimming Hole near Payson in central Arizona on Saturday, July 15, 2017. The flash flood was caused by a severe monsoon…
