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!
Over the next couple of days, the focus of impactful weather in the United States will shift into the northeastern region where a deepening upper-level trough is forecast to interact with the circulation associated with Tropical Storm “Philippe” currently moving northward across the western Atlantic toward Bermuda.
Typhoon “Koinu” made landfall in Cape Eluanbi, southern Taiwan, on October 4, 2023, breaking wind speed records and injuring 190 people. Despite the high winds and significant rainfall, no deaths have been reported.
Major flooding occurred in Dominica and Guadeloupe on October 2 and 3, 2023, as Tropical Storm Philippe’s tail brought torrential rains to the northern Leeward Islands.
A recently published study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters has revealed that the Gulf Stream transport of water through the Florida Straits has weakened by approximately 4% over the past 40 years. Researchers state with 99% certainty that this is more than what would be expected from random variations, marking the first definitive evidence of significant change in the current.
On September 27, 2023, a powerful weather system named Storm Elias brought a second wave of severe flooding to central Greece, particularly affecting the city of Volos and the island of Evia. The storm came on the heels of the devastating Storm Daniel earlier this month.
On September 25, 2023, flash floods ravaged the small community in the municipality of Autlán de Navarro in Jalisco, Mexico. The sudden surge in the El Jalocote stream led to eight confirmed deaths, three missing persons, and significant property damage.
Heavy rain caused the El Naranjo River to break its banks in the early hours of September 25, 2023, near Guatemala City. The flash floods destroyed six homes in the shantytown of Dios Es Fiel, claiming at least six lives and leaving 12 others missing.
Heavy rainfall and the bursting of river banks led to severe flooding in the Western Cape area of South Africa from September 23 to 26, 2023. The disaster resulted in multiple fatalities, thousands of evacuations, and significant infrastructure damage.
The Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that was launched on September 22, 2023, hit Earth’s magnetic field on September 24 at 20:43 UTC, sparking a moderate G2 – Moderate geomagnetic storm and rare red auroras. Initially detected in Canada where magnetometer readings spiked by 129 nT, the event later became visible across Europe, reaching as far south as France.
Storm Agnes formed on September 25, 2023, as the first named system of the 2023/24 North Atlantic storm season. Agnes is set to bring severe winds and waves to Ireland and the UK on Wednesday, September 27, 2023. Forecasters are particularly concerned due to unusually high sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, which are contributing to the storm’s rapid intensification.
