Over the past couple of days, we’ve seen a flurry of seismic activity—Alaska had its shake-up recently, and just yesterday, Japan experienced a sizable quake along with a reported tsunami. Thankfully, it wasn’t a devastating event on the scale of 2011, but it’s still worth noting that it happened.
Now, a lot of news sites have latched onto this development. Some headlines are talking about a “megaquake warning” from Japanese meteorological agencies suggesting the possibility of an 8.0 or above quake. While it’s true there is an official advisory, the key detail is that this scenario has about a 1% probability. That’s a real number—more than zero, sure—but it’s far from a guaranteed event.
In other words, yes, the advisory is out there, and it’s wise for people in the affected areas of Japan to be prepared, but it’s not a cause for global panic. We’ve got a bit of a “shaky” global moment right now—there have been some solar flares and the usual swirl of comet rumors and end-of-year jitters—but the actual science says: be aware, not alarmed.
So, straight from the Japan Meteorological Agency: this advisory is a precaution, not a prediction. We’ll keep an eye on it, and hopefully that 1% will slip right back down to zero. After all, we’ve had enough surprises in 2025!
The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed that an earthquake struck northern New Jersey on Saturday night. Originally reported stronger it was set to a 3.0 — but residents still felt it loud and clear.
Reports poured in from across New York City and surrounding areas, with many describing loud booms, noticeable shaking, and a brief moment of unease as the ground gave a jolt.
This follows a massive earthquake in Russia last week, and it seems the planet is keeping everyone on their toes.
On this Saturday night, the earth gave a subtle but stern reminder to millions: She’s still in charge.
After last night’s Earth-shaking 8.8 magnitude quake — a monster that rattled the Ring of Fire and triggered a tsunami across the Pacific — the planet isn’t done yet.
Now, Klyuchevskoy — the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere — has erupted.
According to the Russian Academy of Sciences’ United Geophysical Service:
> “A descent of burning hot lava is observed on the western slope. Powerful glow above the volcano. Explosions.”
PREVIOUS THE QUAKE WAS BEING REPORTED AS AN 8.0! THEN AN 8.7.. And now it has been upgraded again to an 8.8!!
Original post, with strength of quake corrected:
This is a developing story. An 8.7 8.8 earthquake has been reported near Russia, and there is a tsunami threat being assessed across the Pacific Ocean….
It was originally reported as an 8.0..and then an 8.7..
More..
The powerful 8.7 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 29, 2025, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC).
The quake’s epicenter was located approximately 100 miles offshore, at a depth of about 20 miles, in the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire.
Developing ..
MORE..
This is the largest earthquake on the planet since the 2011 Japanese Tōhoku earthquake. TSUNAMI WARNINGS have been issued for the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
Here is the timeline of tsunami arrivals:
Hawaii: 7.17pm HST (1.17am EST)
Washington State: 11.40pm PT (2.40am EST)
Oregon: 11.40pm PT (2.40am EST)
California, San Francisco: 12.40pm PT (3.40am EST)
California, Malibu and San Diego: 1.05am PT (4.05am EST)
Texas‘s Division of Emergency Management predicted the number of dead as a result of catastrophic flooding in Kerrville on July 4 would top 100, Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.
In an email sent out Saturday, the state disaster office told partners the number of dead would surpass 100, two different sources confirmed to Daily Mail.
The estimate of the dead is vastly different than the message state officials are projecting publicly, insisting that they are still searching for people who are alive, and refusing to say rescue efforts have shifted to recovery of remains.
Heavy rains and flooding remained a threat Sunday as the rescue efforts turned into a bitter recovery campaign of bodies in wreckage that was taken down river as the wall of water destroyed land..
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warns that flash flooding could still pose a danger for some regions over the next few days as “more heavy rainfall” is expected.
Heavy rainfall could lead to flash flooding in the Big Country, Concho Valley, Central Texas and again in the City of Kerrville, where a majority of the destruction has been reported, Abbott said during a news conference today..
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Debate is raging as to whether federal forecasters did not do enough to warn..
Local officials have shifted the blame to the NWS, claiming the agency cost people lives.
Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd said the amount of rain that slammed the Hill Country and Concho Valley was drastically underestimated.
Dalton Rice, the city manager for Kerrville, Texas, said that communities were under prepared for the sheer amount of rainfall.
President Trump, who has called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be eliminated, deflected questions about the future of the agency on Sunday, just hours after he signed an emergency declaration directing federal resources to Texas. “FEMA is something we can talk about later, but right now they’re busy working so we’ll leave it at that,” he told reporters in New Jersey before flying back to Washington…
In the last 24 hours, something truly heartbreaking unfolded in Texas. The Guadalupe River rose with terrifying speed and force, sending a 20-foot wall of water surging through communities. Homes, vehicles, memories—all swept away. But worst of all, lives were lost, including those of innocent children, and many remain missing. Across the nation, hearts are heavy. The emotional weight of this tragedy has cast a somber shadow over the American spirit this summer.
The situation is not just devastating it is also deeply unsettling. How did it happen so fast? How did something so deadly catch so many off guard?
Some officials in Texas are pointing fingers at the National Weather Service, claiming that forecasts failed to reflect the severity of the storm.
Texas is blaming the NWS for the weather changing from the original forecast. The 3 satellites that DoD stopped allowing NOAA to access data from on June 30, were specifically designed to monitor rapid intensification like what occurred. If you want to point fingers, start there. pic.twitter.com/4DAohNR5Gy
While flash flooding and heavy rain were predicted, no one expected rainfall amounts reaching up to 12 inches per hour, nor the river rising as dramatically as it did.
Scattered severe thunderstorms capable of damaging wind gusts and hail are forecast across the Northeast U.S. and North Dakota Thursday. Heavy to excessive rainfall is possible over eastern New Mexico into western Texas and over the western Florida peninsula Thursday.… pic.twitter.com/qD7PV7lNjv
We’ve all experienced moments when weather forecasts predict a monstrous storm or blizzard that never materializes. People laugh it off and say the forecasters were “crying wolf.”
Over the last decade, NWS alerts have become increasingly intense—especially during hurricane season—with messaging that reads like a Stephen King horror novel: evacuate now or risk certain death.
But this time in Texas, the opposite happened. There were no apocalyptic warnings. No sirens of doom. Just a sudden, overwhelming catastrophe.
Should forecasters be held more accountable? Is there a future where weather services face civil or even criminal liability when disasters strike without sufficient warning? They are some interesting questions..
To be fair, weather forecasting is not an exact science.
Despite our reliance on computer models and sophisticated algorithms, there’s still human judgment involved by choosing between models, patterns, and trying to predict the correct algorithm that guesses tomorrow’s temps.
Still, when you look at the radar imagery of how this storm formed, it feels almost unnatural. Some say it fuels belief in weather modification and geo-engineering conspiracies—and while that’s a rabbit hole of its own, it’s easy to understand why people are searching for explanations when faced with such chaos.
It was the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry.. it clearly was more juiced up and packed more of a tremendous punch than forecasters foresaw..
🧵 1/5 This is how the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry triggered extreme flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country, 5 days after and 600 miles away from where the cyclone first made landfall in Mexico.
3/5 This radar evolution shows exactly when the disaster began to brew. At 11 pm last night, a cell of absolutely torrential rainfall stalled out over Kerr and Bandera Counties. Through the overnight hours on the 4th, this rainfall drained into the Guadalupe River. pic.twitter.com/AbWsZG7q7U
And even today, it continues with more dire warnings being issued now..
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said Saturday the death toll includes 18 adults and nine children so far. Rescue crews have saved 850 uninjured people and another eight with injuries in addition to finding 27 bodies… THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS ARE GOING TO BE HEARTBREAKING..
New flooding was reported along the San Gabriel River, the Brazos River, and Burnet County, all on the north and west sides of Austin… DEVELOPING..
It’s now 2025, and while Al Gore’s forecasts of imminent planetary collapse didn’t unfold exactly as predicted, there’s no denying something is off about the weather.
Something feels different.
And maybe it has been for a long time.
What makes it more troubling is that we probably can’t do a thing about it even if we tried..
It is painfully clear is that people in Texas are suffering deeply right now.
Let’s offer them more than just thoughts, let’s give them our compassion, our support, and our prayers.
🙏 Pray for the families who lost loved ones. 🙏 Pray for those still searching for missing children. 🙏 Pray for the wounded—physically and emotionally. 🙏 And may God have mercy on them all.
Severe flooding has left at least 24 people dead in Kerr County, Texas, Sherrif Larry Leitha said at a news conference Friday night.
There was also an additional fatality in Kendall County, but it’s not immediately clear if it is related to flooding, he said..
In Comfort, TX, the water level rose from 3’ to 29’ in just 45 minutes…
Reporting from CNN: School buses and trucks filled with rescued people drove into a reunification center in Ingram, Texas, on Friday as families reunited with their children from the nearby girls’ and boys’ camps. Search efforts remain underway for the over 20 people who remain unaccounted for from Camp Mystic, with helicopters, rescue boats and other units searching the surrounding areas.
x x x
As this unfolds, it is almost a sequel of the 1993 film THE FLOOD: WHO WILL SAVE OUR CHILDREN
In rural Comfort, Texas, the protestant Horizon Bible church community holds its annual, supervised summer camp, with mandatory prayer sessions, for teens from all over the States. The day before their departure, storm weather is announced, the buses even ride early to keep ahead, but the river rises too fast: the buses are caught, everybody must survive on foot. As TV reporters see from their helicopter, the rising water is too fast for one bus after choosing the wrong way, children and staff must climb in trees but can’t cling on very long. Some kids break down in understandable panic, others prove true and unselfish courage, including Brad, the natural leader, every girl’s dream and the most boisterous of the pack, occasionally braving the rather totalitarian system. Worried parents fly in to the rescue center in a public school, where survivors and corpses are brought in, including that of Tonya Smith; her overprotective father heartlessly rebukes poor older brother Michael, an obedient kid who never gets a break and still is never good enough for his father’s praise, now even gets blamed for ‘failing’ to watch over his sisters, obviously brother Koons’s job, actually beyond human strength. A brave reporter can’t stand by idly as too many victims are still in desperate need for the military rescue crew to handle, but his own helicopter gets in trouble. The growing victims list and guilt feelings, even just for surviving when others didn’t, cause a flood of tears too…
The movie is based on a real event that occurred on July 17, 1987. On that day, 43 people were taken by a flash flood in the Guadalupe River near the city of Comfort. It was the worst flood of the Guadalupe River since 1932..
And now the 2025 event is occurring in real time..
May God have mercy on all of those suffering.. and may those lost rest in peace..
@RepTimBurchett Tim I know you are a praying man. We got 21 missing kids from Camp mystic on Kerrvile/Comfort Texas. Was. 23 two have been found and are safe. pic.twitter.com/sowW0WUo9M
The bad news? The days are already getting shorter. But let’s put that aside for a second. The real bad news is just how wretched the weather has been. Now, this isn’t a weather blog—but we do talk about things that are frightening. And lately, the weather has been more terrifying than anything hitting the box office or streaming on Netflix.
Just yesterday in North Dakota, a derecho swept through Bismarck. The tornadoes that came with it were compared to a Category 3 hurricane. People died. And some of the weather YouTubers I follow—like Max Velocity—were shaken. He openly wondered during a livestream if they had failed to save people. Not because of anything they did wrong, but because this kind of weather moves so fast, so brutally. Honestly, people like Ryan Hall and Max Velocity have become more important in moments like this than even the National Weather Service. They’re live, in real-time, doing everything they can to keep people informed and safe.
But that’s the point. The fact that they’re this busy on YouTube, day after day, shows how active this year has been for dangerous weather. It used to be that these storms were “once in a lifetime” events. Now? It’s more like “once a week.”
Here in the Northeast, it’s rained nearly every day since March. Sure, that technically ended the drought. But now we’re being set up for what could be a devastating heat wave. Some will say, “It’s summer, this is normal.” And yeah, sure—heat is normal. A lot of people even wish for it. But heat indexes of 115 to 120 degrees? That’s not just summer fun. That’s dangerous. Roads, buildings, and people are all going to bake.
Weather has always been weird. It’s always been the go-to topic in elevators and small talk. But something about this stretch has felt different. More intense. And we’re not done yet—hurricane season is next. Let’s hope it’s quiet. Let’s hope nothing forms. Let’s hope, for once, that land gets spared.
Because if the first part of summer has shown us anything, it’s that the atmosphere is on edge. And places that didn’t used to see tornadoes? They’re seeing them now. Regularly.
Prayers and thoughts to those who lost everything last night. And here’s hoping the rest of summer gives us a break.
The images of the uncontrollable fires ravaging Los Angeles are both shocking and haunting. While the winds—particularly the Santa Ana winds—fuel their rapid spread, the mysterious nature of how these fires begin calls for an investigation. Watching these fires elininate landscapes, destroy countless buildings, and upend lives is both incredible and devastating.
Like a Hollywood movie come to life.
It’s unsettling to see some people almost gleefully celebrating the loss of Hollywood mansions. Sure, not everyone in Hollywood is universally loved or even should be, but to take joy in someone’s life being reduced to ash—whether they’re rich or poor—is profoundly immoral.. These fires are a great equalizer, showing that devastation does not discriminate based on caste.
The emotional toll of this catastrophe extends far beyond the immediate visuals of destruction.
Beneath the surface lies the unseen trauma that will forever affect those impacted. Among the most poignant moments were senior citizens being evacuated from assisted living centers, wheelchairs and oxygen tanks in tow, with the fires raging in the background. It’s heartbreaking to imagine what they or their families must feel, watching homes and lives upended.
Equally striking is the loss of schools. For many children, schools are a refuge—a place of comfort, stability, and connection. The lunch table with friends is gone.. Losing that sanctuary compounds the trauma in ways that may not yet be fully understood.
The scale of this devastation is incomprehensible. It’s hard to process emotions when the enormity of the loss—landscapes, homes, livelihoods, memories—is unfolding in real time.
The fires have wiped out communities that took generations to build in mere minutes..
There may or may not be a lesson here yet—it’s all happening too fast to comtemplate yet..
But the emotional scars left by this disaster will linger long after the flames are extinguished. As we watch this unfold, it’s a sobering reminder of how quickly life can be upended, and how resilient those affected will need to be to rebuild.
The Palisades Fire in California is a stark reminder of how quickly devastation can unfold. The flames moved so rapidly that cars were abandoned on highways in desperate attempts to escape. Each vehicle in the haunting photographs we see tells a story—families fleeing with pets or children in tears, individuals leaving behind all their earthly possessions to save their lives. Every car left behind symbolizes trauma, heartache, and unimaginable loss.
One particularly harrowing image that lingers in my mind is of elderly individuals being rushed across a parking lot in wheelchairs and hospital beds, the fire raging ominously in the background. There’s something profoundly poignant about that scene—a chilling reminder of vulnerability in the face of disaster.
This fire reminds us of how small we are in the presence of nature’s fury. While its origins may be a combination of natural forces and human influence, the fire, now fueled by high winds and dry conditions, rages on with relentless aggression. It serves as a sobering call to action, urging us to confront the reality of a world increasingly shaped by such calamities.
x x x
The meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, Ariel Cohen, has described the three fires burning across Los Angeles county as “one of the worst situations that we’ve ever seen.”
Speaking to CNN, with emotion palpable in his voice, Cohen said that a variety of “volatile” weather conditions had come together “with some of the most extreme, destructive, life-threatening wind storms that we’re getting across the area, with bone-dry conditions,” he said.
“Everyone needs to be thoughtful, thinking ahead, make sure you’re planning, … I’m pleading with you, if you get the evacuation order from emergency management, take it seriously and evacuate. Your life will depend on it.”
