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!
In a recent study, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found that the persistent high-pressure ridge off the west coast of North America that blocked storms from coming onshore during the winters of 2013-14 and 2014-15 was associated…
Photographer Jeff Miles from Australia has captured several amazing images of very elusive gigantic jets, otherwise known as ionospheric lightning. Miles witnessed 6 jets on the night of March 28 near a small town in the Pilbara part of Western Australia and you can…
A massive fire collapsed an Interstate 85 northbound overpass in Atlanta Thursday evening, March 30, 2017, one of the Southeast's major north-south arteries. At this time, authorities still don't know what exactly caused the fire that produced a serious…
A new study led by a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has found that the same kind of large-scale planetary waves that meander through Earth's atmosphere driving our weather may also exist on our star and drive space weather. The…
A swarm of small earthquakes west of Turangi-Waihi-Pukawa-Omori area in New Zealand (Taupo Volcanic Zone) is shaking the region since Monday, February 13, 2017, and the number of earthquakes has increased on Wednesday, March 29, 2017. To date, GeoNet has recorded…
This amazing time-lapse was produced by Adrien Maudit from Denmark. In less than 3 minutes, Adrien shows us spring night sky phenomena as seen this month through his lens. From northern lights to Milky Way core, meteorites, iridium flares, zodiacal lights and…
An EF-2 tornado touched down near Cato, Arkansas at 23:20 CDT on Friday, March 24, 2017 (04:20 UTC, March 25), destroying 4 homes and damaging other. At least 6 people were injured, one of them was trapped under a house. The National Weather Service said the tornado…
ESA’s Swarm mission has discovered that this seasonal variation of Birkeland currents, strong electric currents in the upper atmosphere, is not the same in the north and south polar regions. Named after Kristian Birkeland, the scientist a century ago who first…
Celebrating the World Meteorological Day on March 23, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released its new, long-awaited, digitized International Cloud Atlas. The atlas is global reference for observing and identifying clouds, which are an essential part…
Scientists analyzing data obtained by Swarm trio of satellites have discovered supersonic plasma jets high up in our atmosphere that can push temperatures up to almost 10 000 °C (18 000 °F). The discovery was presented at this week’s Swarm Science…
