2024 started with a bang: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck western Japan, destroying and collapsing buildings, causing fires, and knocking out infrastructure on Japan's main island of Honshu just as families were celebrating New Year's Day. More than 33,400 people were in evacuation centers and at least 200 buildings collapsed. Some 30,000 households were without power and more than 110,000 were without running water. The death toll rose to over 200, with more than 100 still unaccounted for. Strong aftershocks buried more homes and blocked roads vital for aid deliveries.

Record freezing conditions caused widespread disruption around the world in January. In the US, all 50 states were hit by heavy snowfall at the same time this season; 55% of the continental US was covered in snow - an unprecedented event. This caused widespread travel disruption, thousands of canceled flights, power outages, and damaged infrastructure nationwide.

The so-called Arctic blasts are reaching further south and lingering longer... This "global boiling" is getting pretty cold.

The US is not alone, however, with many parts of the world also experiencing record snowfall:

- Southeast Turkey: Record 23 feet of snow - 1,414 isolated villages.
- Anchorage, Alaska: 8.5 feet of snow at the earliest date on record.
- Finland and Sweden: Coldest temperatures for 25 years.
- South Korea: Heaviest one-day snowfall in 25 years.
- Central China: Record snowstorms and freezing rain - worst winter weather since 2008.
- Moscow: Russia: Record snowfall for 11 January.

Texas, Louisiana, and San Diego, California, experienced a mix of extreme weather this month, with a month's worth of rain in just 3 days, strong wind gusts, and unseasonably cold temperatures.

Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, parts of Australia and Brazil received a month's worth of rain in a matter of hours triggering evacuations in some areas.

January also saw a remarkable number of meteor fireballs, with the highlight being a small asteroid that hit the atmosphere over the west of Berlin, Germany:

"The asteroid was only about 1 meter (3 feet) in diameter. It posed no danger to people on the ground. Yet the asteroid might have spread small meteorites over the landscape."

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for January 2024