The Russian capital of Moscow is facing an extraordinary ‘black blizzard’, a weather pattern typically seen in the Far North. This phenomenon, which started overnight, has resulted in heavy snowfall and reduced visibility to approximately 100 m (328 feet), with the situation expected to persist until Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
In a groundbreaking study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) have documented an extraordinary aurora-like radio emission occurring approximately 40 000 km (25 000 miles) above a sunspot. This novel radio emission, which shows characteristics akin to the auroral emissions observed around planets like Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, presents an unprecedented understanding of solar radio bursts and their potential link to similar phenomena in stars with large starspots.
The Guaíba River in Porto Alegre, Brazil, reached a historic water level of 3.01 meters on the morning of November 20, 2023. This marked the third-highest flood level since 1941, following heavy rainfall across its contributing basins. The rising waters led to the river overflowing its banks at the Central Wharf, a rare occurrence in the city’s recent history.
The Dominican Republic has been severely impacted by a tropical disturbance that brought record-breaking rainfall and catastrophic flooding across various regions.
Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, has shown a significant increase in volcanic activity, leading the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Etna Observatory to raise the Aviation Color Code to Red on November 12, 2023.
On November 1, 2023, military personnel located on Iwoto Island witnessed the birth of a new island following intense volcanic activity. The eruption, which occurred 1 km (0.62 miles) off the island’s southern coast, was preceded by frequent volcanic tremors since October 21.
Elevated seismic activity has been observed at Mount St. Helens in the United States since 2008 when the last eruption ended. No significant changes have been observed in other monitoring parameters and there are no signs of an imminent eruption.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has revised its forecast for Solar Cycle 25, predicting a quicker and more intense peak in solar activity between January and October 2024. The updated prediction challenges the previous expert panel’s forecast from 2019.
On January 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcanic eruption led to a sudden and significant loss of stratospheric ozone. This event occurred over the tropical southwestern Pacific and Indian Ocean region. Researchers found that the eruption injected an unprecedented amount of water vapor into the stratosphere, causing chemical reactions that resulted in rapid ozone depletion.
Corrosive ash fallout from the massive eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano last year has triggered a series of power outages on Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, beginning September 2022. Tonga Power, the island’s electricity provider, has termed the situation a “crisis” due to the unprecedented damage to the High Voltage Aerial Bundled Cabling across the island.
