The Watchers team and our contributors bring the latest on extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, space weather, and all things science. We're all about making sense of the natural world and keeping you informed on what’s happening. Got a tip or a question? Hit us up using the form at newstips!

  • Atmospheric oxygen decline over the past 800 000 years

    Researchers from the Princeton University have compiled 30 years of data to construct the first ice core-based record of atmospheric oxygen concentrations spanning the past 800 000 years and showed that atmospheric oxygen has declined 0.7 percent relative to current…

  • Active volcanoes in the world: September 28 – October 4, 2016

    New activity/unrest was reported for 7 volcanoes between September 28 and October 4, 2016. In the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 13 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Colima, Mexico | Iya, Flores Island (Indonesia) | Katla, Iceland | Rinjani, Lombok…

  • Hurricane “Matthew” pounding Florida

    Hurricane "Matthew" has left a trail of destruction in Haiti and Cuba, moved over the Bahamas while intensifying into a Category 4 storm and approached the east coast of Florida late on Thursday, October 6, 2016. By 06:00 UTC on October 7, Matthew weakened…

  • Orionid meteor lights up sky over Pennsylvania, US

    A bright meteor was seen streaking across the night sky over the US states of Pennsylvania and New York around 02:36 UTC on October 5, 2016 (22:36 EDT on October 4). The preliminary estimated trajectory plotted from the witness reports submitted to the American…

  • Matthew hits Cuba, passing directly over the Bahamas toward Florida

    After making landfall near Les Anglais in western Haiti at 11:00 UTC on October 4, 2016, with maximum sustained winds of 230 km/h (145 mph) and gusts to 278 km/h (172 mph), Matthew slowed down, made a second landfall on the eastern tip of Cuba around 00:00 UTC…

  • White Island lake disappears, strong fumarole emissions, New Zealand

    GNS volcanologists visited White Island late last week and confirmed that a large part of the gas is now being emitted from one ‘joint’ vent on the lava outcrop at the back of the crater. The joining of the vents has resulted in a stronger and noisier…

  • Hurricane “Matthew” makes direct hit on Haiti causing over 1 000 deaths

    Category 4 Hurricane "Matthew" has made landfall near Les Anglais in western Haiti at 11:00 UTC on October 4, 2016. As of early October 10, the number of people it killed as it crossed the island was over 1 000. At the time of the landfall, Matthew had…

  • Another shallow earthquake shakes Skopje, Macedonia

    After a series of shallow earthquakes shook Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, on September 11 and 12, 2016, another one hit the city at 10:52 UTC on October 4, 2016. EMSC received more than 700 reports minutes after the M3.1 earthquake today, saying this is probably…

  • Ubinas starts erupting after 9 months of calm, Peru

    After almost 9 full months of calm, Peru's Ubinas volcano has started erupting again on October 3, 2016 (October 2, local time). Although volcanic ash is not identifiable by satellites, weak emissions of steam and gases were observed by webcams. Aviation color…

  • Highest dry season rainfall since records began, northern Australia

    The Australian Bureau of Meteorology announced today that rainfall in northern Australia during this year's dry season (May – September) was the highest since records began in 1900. All individual months since May saw significantly above-average rainfall totals,…