News & Blog 2025

News/Blog & Recent Events - George Kourounis

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May 08 2025 - Empowerment Day - Audience of 5000

Today I was one of the speakers at a huge event held at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph Ontario. Empowerment Day is put on by the Upper Grand District School Board, and is largely organized by the students themselves. What a rush it was to be on stage in front of 5000 students. The theme of the event was "Push Beyond" and I shared stories from some of my most extreme expeditions and the lessons I've learned along the way.

Many thanks to the organizers, student volunteers and the thousands who attended.

May 05 2025 - National Geographic Explorer Spotlight - Ottawa

I was invited by National Geographic to attend a special event in Ottawa at the Canadian Centre for Geography and Explration, the headquarters for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. About 30 Canadian National Geographic grant awardees were in town for a multi-day training program and on this evening, each one gave a quick 2 minute presentation about their field work in the Alex Trebek Theatre.

It was great to see this new batch of Nat Geo explorers, and it was also wondeful to see a bunch of old friends and colleagues who were also in attendance.

After the presentations, there was a meet & greet where I got to spend some time with many of the presenters, learning more about the details of their projects.

Tomorrow I drive back to Toronto.

April 28 2025 - New Novel: Satan's Banyan

So check this is fun. I’m a villain in a new novel that just came out.

Synopsis: An underground coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania could lead to an extinction level crisis. Why is a TV daredevil trying to hide this threat? Follow two researchers’ race down an alternate path of evolution to save the planet.

Marc Rothstein applies a lifetime of science experience and imaginative storytelling in this fast-paced tale. Based on actual extremophile research, Satan’s Banyan raises a chilling What if?

Many thanks to George Kourounis, a world renowned television presenter famous for exploring the most dangerous forces of nature. He graciously advised on the backstory and feats performed by the story’s daredevil villain.

April 23 2025 - Classroom Virtual Session

Thank you so much to Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants and the good folks at Nelson Classroom for having me present to well over 2500 students today, talking about volcanoes and geothermal power.
There were LOTS of great questions (as always)

April 12 2025 - Explorers Club Gathering, Toronto

I had a great evening last night at the Toronto meet-up of The Explorers Club Canadian Chapter. It's been a while since the last one and there just wasn't enough time to catch up enough with everyone. Good friend and primatologist Travis Steffens gave an informative (and hilarious) presentation about his work with lemurs and local communities in Madagascar.

April 11 2025 - Los Angeles

I was only back home from Greenland for 2 days, then blasted down to Los Angeles for one night, did some on-camera interviews for a new History Channel show, then straight back to the airport to head home.

Whew! What a crazy travel schedule its been for the past month or so... Edmonton, England, Iceland, Greenland, Los Angeles. It looks like things might quiet down for a little bit. We'll see.

April 05 2025 - Nuuk, Greenland

Time to get off the ship. The past 2 weeks have been amazing, and I'm really going to miss being aboard Le Commandant Charcot. I hope to be back aboard soon. We docked in this morning in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and after breakfast walked down the gangway one last time and boarded a bus that gave us a tour of the town before heading to the brand new airport that's only been open for less than a year.

I'm certain that I will end up back in Greenland again, this place just keeps calling me back. This was my 3rd time here in the past 9 months.

Read the more detailed daily reports.

April 04 2025 - Eternity Fjord

We arrived early at Eternity Fjord and the plan was to do our first (and only) Zodiac cruise. We were out at about 9 AM and the first thing we did was head to the left side of the Evingheds Glacier where it is more active and still reaching the water. There's a small beach there with numerous growlers that are beached. We only had about 10 minutes because the tide was rising and the other groups also needed to visit. It was amazing! Huge beautiful blue pieces of ice on the small beach. Got lots of great pics there. I've been here several times before, and this was the first time I've ever set foot on the beach.

We then got back in the Zodiacs and worked our way along the glacier to the less active side. The weather was great at first, around 0C with sunny patches, but it started to deteriorate rapidly. Soon, it was overcast, windy and choppy. We all got pretty wet when the waves splashed over us. It was a cold, wet ride back to the ship. Once back aboard I took a long hot shower, and got a burger for lunch.

I gave my last talk (Arctic Weather) in the afternoon.

April 03 2025 - Baffin Bay At Sea

I got up early and noticed the crescent moon had risen, so I grabbed some photos from my balcony, then got dressed and went up to deck 9. The sunrise was really nice with clear skies, sea ice, and one really great iceberg that perfectly aligned with the rising sun.

I gave my "icebergs" talk in the morning, which was well attended, and afterwards the scientists on board presented their results, then at lunch on deck 9 they served up some lobster! I've been totally spoiled on this ship.

In the afternoon there was a talk on bowhead whales, then the captain decided to show off by demonstrating how the ship can break ice while in reverse. He used the aft bridge and spent quite some time chewing up the ice. Very impressive.

Read the more detailed daily reports.

April 02 2025 - Baffin Bay

We sailed west out into the middle of Baffin Bay about halfway to Canada, looking for wildlife and hoping to get into the sun for an afternoon ice floe landing.

It didn't take long before 2 polar bears were spotted on the ice. There was also a seal in the water. The mama & cub wandered around at a distance for a while, occasionally rolling in the snow to dry off after being in the water. They got curious and started to walk towards the ship. Mama stopped and was sniffing the air. The wind was blowing towards them, so she definitely smelled us. She didn't run, but decided that we were not worth checking out, and they wandered off.

In the afternoon we made a sea ice landing. It was bitter cold, but totally worth it to go out on the ice. It was over a meter thick and there were all kinds of hummocks and pressure ridges everywhere, with amazing blue ice piled up. We went for a walk on the ice and almost immediately came across very fresh polar bear tracks. It is a bit unnerving to be standing on ice, in the middle of Baffin Bay, knowing that there are bears out here too, and that we are not at the top of the food chain.

April 01 2025 - Disko Island, Greenland

Woke up this morning positioned at the southern tip of Disko Island, near Qeqertarsuaq.

It was foggy with very light snow. The expedition team went out and evaluated the sea ice, but it wasn't good enough for us to go out. It was about 10cm thick, but not of great density. They had scouted the location with the ship's helicopter yesterday, but from the chopper it's hard to tell the thickness and quality of the ice.

It got cold, windy and foggy with wind chills around -23. After lunch we repositioned to the west side of Disko Island and into Disko fjord, just south of a small island, west of the little town of Kangerluk. There we stopped in the sea ice, making sure to not go too far into the fjord, as locals use the fast ice for hunting.

It was overcast and snowing & cold (about -8 or so). I left the ship and went skiing across the sea ice with a small group. We skied north to the edge of the island where the tidal movement had caused the sea ice to heave and buckle. We ended up doing about 7km or so. It was fun to be out on the ice on skis. The atmosphere was moody and the snow really deadened the sounds.

Back aboard, I noticed that the sky had the potential for a nice sunset, so I quickly grabbed my camera and headed for the observation lounge. The sunset got nice, and then some Bowhead whales showed up right ahead of us.

March 31 2025 - Eqi Fjord & Ilulissat, Greenland

We had a pretty good sunrise over the mountains at the entrance to Eqi fjord. The pastel colours were reflected in the sea and the windows of the ship.
We tried to get into the fjord, but there was too much fast ice, and the captain wanted to leave it alone for the local hunters. We did manage to park the ship pretty close to shore, at another point at the fjord entrance.

A small group of us (4 plus 2 guides) did a long hike with crampons across the sea ice, then onto land and up the hillside on the old lateral moraine. Even though it was cold out, I got too hot and stripped right down to my shirt. We came across lots of arctic fox & arctic hare tracks. In total we walked about 7km with about 250 meters of elevation gain. The powdery snow glinted with colourful iridescence and the light was constantly changing. At one point the iridescence n the clouds around the sun was spectacular. We had a great view of the ship, and the track it left through the ice. The helicopter did a couple of operations while we were away as well, and I got some nice shots of it near the ship.

After that I spent a bunch of time up in the observation lounge on deck 9 as we approached the icebergs around Ilulissat. It was interesting to see this place in the winter. I had been here several times before.

Read the more detailed daily reports.

March 30 2025 - Qasigiannguit, Greenland


Plenty of uncertainty today. There was a lot of sea ice in Disko Bay, so our options were kind of limited. We were near the small town of Qasigiannguit and we kept trying to nudge the ship into the ice in a way that would allow us to have some kind of off-ship excursion. By the afternoon, a plan had been formed. We got close enough to town for the expedition team to check out the ice, and they determined that we could go ashore.

It was about a 1 km walk across the sea ice to the town. The weather was amazing. Blue skies, and not too cold at all. Really pleasant, and there was a layer of fresh, glinting powder snow. In town, we visited the local museum, then walked through the town.

We walked back to the ship and they had a table set up with some local food, including dried and raw minke whale, reindeer jerky and caiplin fish.

Things got a bit wild when some of the locals were invited onto the ship. It turns out that 350 showed up. There was a choir group that sang for a bit in the theatre and there were kids everywhere.

March 29 2025 - Sisimiut, Greenland Eclipse & Dog Sled Race

It was overcast when I woke up, so I had low hopes of capturing the partial solar eclipse this morning, but it cleared up enough to be able to see it with filters and photograph it. I set up on deck 9 and passed around the couple of pairs of glasses I brought.

After that, it was straight ashore via Zodiac and back to the cultural center on a shuttle bus. We had another food tasting, then we walked all the way outside of town for the big dogsled race that’s been in the news lately. The one that U.S. vice president J.D. Vance was supposed to attend. Anyway they weren’t there. We got a good viewpoint up on some rocks and as they started the race.

It was absolute chaos at the starting line. Most of the teams stayed on target, but:
Some of the dogs got into fights with the other team’s dogs.
One dog’s rope snapped and he ended up wandering through the crowd.
Two of the teams’ dogs decided that they wanted to go in the completely opposite direction, and there was no convincing them otherwise! It was hilarious.

March 28 2025 - Sisimiut, Greenland

We arrived in Sisimiut in the late morning, and because of the sea ice situation, it was unclear if we would be able to actually go ashore. The harbour in town isn't deep enough for us to dock, so Zodiac is the only way to get ashore. It was a very cold morning with reports of wind chills to -25.

Luckily we were able to take Zodiacs ashore at a beach just outside of town.

We met up with a local guy with a team of 10 sled dogs. We did a bit of dog sledding, which got pretty chaotic. I often had to run alongside the sled when going up hills, then jump back on once we were up to speed. After that we got a snowmobile ride around in the mountains. We stopped at a photogenic spot for some pics, then continued on to an area where some tents were set up. There we had some musk ox soup which also had pasta and veggies & some hot chocolate.

We rode back to the cultural centre and from there we walked into town. This is the first time I've seen Sisimiut with snow. It was nice, like a completely different place.

March 26 2025 - Prince Christian Sound & Sea Ice
We continued east down Prince Christian Sound where we encountered an area of fast ice (sea ice that is frozen to the shoreline). The channel was covered in it, but there was evidence that a ship had broken through it recently. It was actually the Charcot from when it came through here about 10 days previous. We slowly pushed through the sheet of ice as an arctic fox trotted by on the ice. We also passed several beautiful blue glaciers along the way.

We spotted fresh polar bear tracks in the snow, and eventually we found it at the floe edge, the bear was resting on the ice. We slowed to a crawl and kept going forward. The bear eventually got up and jumped into the water. It kept a close eye on us as it swam away.

We turned around and back-tracked to the bigger glacier (not sure of the name) and pushed through the ice until we got pretty close. We then got to exit the ship onto the sea ice, and of course I did the cliche “pushing the bow of the ship” shot.

In the evening, the captain announced there were more northern lights. I grabbed my camera and headed out to the heli-deck. There were nice greens and purples in the sky straight ahead as we continued down the sound.

March 26 2025 - Uunartoq, Greenland
Woke up early and caught a nice sunrise in the mountains, including some alpenglow as the warm sunlight hit the distant high peaks. It was windy and very cold this morning. The weather improved dramatically and we had sunshine for our visit to the town of Aappilattoq. It was tiny, but tucked away in a natural harbour. The streets were very icy, so we wore slip on crampons which worked great. The town was completely surrounded by massive, sharp mountains, really gorgeous. We walked around and took photos for a while, then made our way to the little red local church where 8 residents sang some hymns and songs for us.

The ship’s helicopter took off to go scout ahead in our planned direction of travel this afternoon. and another helicopter took off from town to do a polar bear patrol.

Getting into the Zodiac to go back to the ship, we noticed a bunch of seal carcasses in the water. The locals hunt them, then temporarily store them in the cold water to keep them fresh.

March 25 2025 - Prince Christian Sound
In the afternoon we turned north into Prince Christian Sound, a long fjord. The mountains on either side were spectacular, reminding me of the Lemaire Channel in Antarctica. The wind had really picked up, that’s why we were seeking shelter in there. Eventually the weather cleared and the seas got calm. We went all the way up to the tiny town of Aappilattoq, which has a population of 83.

We stayed here for the night and at about 1:30 AM it was announced that there were really good northern lights. They were quite spectacular with undulating greens and reds.

March 25 2025 - Uunartoq, Greenland
We went ashore to a spot that has thermal hot springs that have been in use since at least the Viking days. The day was overcast with gentle snow, and once we were ashore it was a short hike to the hot spring. The water felt great, nice and warm with a few bubbling hot spots. The scenic landscapes around us were spectacular with dramatic mountains and icebergs.
Back on board we were treated to some really great sea ice & more icebergs as we exited the fjord back out into open water. In the thick ice we encountered numerous harp seals, many of them newborn pups. At least one still had its umbilical cord attached, meaning that it was no more than a day or two old. We probably saw at least 50 of them, lying on the pack ice that had been pushed in from the recent storm. Southern Greenland is not a place that is really known as a spot for harp seals to give birth, making this encounter extra special.

Read the more detailed daily reports.

March 24 2024 - Eqaluit, Greenland

We had afternoon plans to visit the tiny village of Igaliku, but the weather conditions did not cooperate. It was too windy and the seas too choppy to land the Zodiacs, so instead we continued on to the more sheltered area of Eqaluit in a more protected fjord.

We went ashore to an area that sees a lot of sheep farming. Here in the south of the country is the only place in Greenland where the locals can do this kind of farming.
It was the most picturesque sheep farm I've ever seen!

March 24 2025 - Qaqortoq, Greenland

The town of Qaqortoq, is the most populous in southern Greenland. It is home to about 3000 people is the capital of the Kujalleq municipality. The area around Qaqortoq is quite historic, having been inhabited since prehistoric times.
Conditions going ashore were a bit tricky with 25 knot winds, but once we were there, we got to visit the local museum, tasted some local food including crab, shrimp, cod, lamb & muktuk narwhal skin & blubber), and walked along the waterfront.

March 23 2025 - Denmark Strait

I boarded Le Commandant Charcot on the 21st, and we set sail from Reykjavik. the scenery was really nice as we pulled away. In the evening, the captain made the announcement that the northern lights were out. I brought my tripod, but trying to take steady shots of the aurora borealis on a moving ship in the north Atlantic with the wind howling and waves crashing was near impossible.

The next day we continued sailing southwest towards the southern tip of Greenland. There was some bad weather coming, and the wind and swell would be bad if we tried to go to east Greenland, so our plans to go there changed, and we made a dash for Greenland's south coast.

As we got closer, it got very windy (gusts up to 70 knots) and some wild waves. We started to get into the sea ice, which was awesome. The ship is really stable. Even with the stabilizers off (which we did for a while) it wasn't too bad. I had some concerns about this crossing, as I often get seasick. We spotted our first icebergs too, and at one point, the sea ice was pretty intense. In the afternoon, I gave my first talk of the trip (Exploring Earth’s Extremes).

Read the more detailed daily reports.

March 20 2025 - Reykjavik, Iceland

I spent the day wandering around the streets of Reykjavik.

My overnight flight got me in pretty early, so I had the day to explore the city. It’s been many years since the last time I was here, but I've always been drawn to Iceland.

I arrived in Reykjavik in early morning and dropped bags at the hotel and had a bit of breakfast, then went for a walk around the city. First up, I visited the iconic Hallgri´mskirkja Church, the tallest building in Iceland. After that I walked along the shoreline and saw the famous Sun Voyager sculpture. In the afternoon I visited the Penis museum (Which was actually pretty amazing), and had an Icelandic hot dog for lunch from a street vendor. In total I spent about 4 or 5 hours walking around the city.
Tomorrow I head down to the port to meet up with the Ponant team and get aboard Le Commandant Charcot. From here we head west to Greenland.

March 18 2025 - Headed Back To Greenland

My next adventure is quickly approaching. Tomorrow I’ll be flying to Reykjavik to get on board Le Commandant Charcot, Ponant’s flagship icebreaker. I’ll be giving talks on board as part of Ponant’s partnership with The Explorers Club as we head west from Iceland to east Greenland, then around the south coast and north up into Baffin Bay.
This is going to be amazing! I’ll be posting plenty of photos while on this epic voyage.

March 13 2025 - Bristol, U.K.

Yesterday was a long, 12 hour day in front of the cameras at a virtual production studio in Bristol, U.K.
Lots of different (and cool) TV projects this year! I'll share more information when I can. My voice is totally toast right now, and I can barely speak, but it went very well, and after an insane travel schedule, I'm on my way home to rest up... But not for long. In less than a week, I'm travelling again...

March 11 2025 - Bristol, U.K.

I just arrived in Bristol, U.K.
I'm here for a few days, filming season 2 of "Prime Suspect Earth" for The Weather Channel. This is actually my second session filming for season two, there was a large break between the the first session and this one, but it's good to see that the show is moving forward. It is great fun to work on.
When I arrived in the U.K. it was too early to check in to my hotel, but i was quite a lovely day for a walk along the river.

March 07 2025 - Twister Truck

Today was fun. I met up with Mark Robinson from The Weather Network and we filmed a segment at the Motorama car show in Toronto, featuring one of the original screen-used Jeep Honchos from the movie Twister. It sat uncared for for years, then was lovingly refurbished. In the bed of the truck was also one of the original, screen-used Dorothy tornado probe units.

If you know the movie, this was the truck that was owned by Helen Hunt's character, Jo. Her and Bill Paxton used it to chase the first tornado that the chase team intercepts. In the movie, it ends up getting lifted by the tornado and dropped in the middle of the road.

March 03 2025 - Edmonton, Alberta

I flew out to Edmonton, Alberta yesterday to appear on CBC's The Nature Of Things 101.

We filmed today, and had a great time. This show is filmed kind of like a video podcast with the hosts and I sitting around a table, chatting. This episode was all about clouds, and learning how to read the sky to understand what's going on. The sky can actually tell us quite a bit if you know what took for.

We also got into how tornadoes form, and what signs to look for in the sky that precede tornado formation.

The show is hosted by Sarika Cullis-Suzuki, a marine biologist and daughter of long-time Nature Of Things host David Suzuki, and Anthony Morgan, who I've known for years. He used to work at the Ontario Science Centre, and over the years I've done numerous talks and events with them. It was great to see him again and to meet Sarika.

I also had the opportunity to meet up with Timm Dobbert and Leanna Carriere, who I know through The Explorers Club and the RCGS. We had a great dinner, and went for a walk along the North Saskatchewan River.

Feb 22 2025 - Outdoor Adventure Show

It was great to be at the Outdoor Adventure show in Toronto this weekend. I ran into so many friends and colleagues.

I attended with my good friend and frequent expedition partner, Robin Brooks.

We met up with the folks at the Polar Adventure Company.

I ran into Rick Stanley from Ocean Quest in Newfoundland. He helped me out tremendously on the 2 occasions I did iceberg climbing out there in the Atlantic.

The craziest was when I stopped at the booth for a helicopter company. The pilot working the booth recognized me from when we filmed together almost 20 years ago, back in 2006. I was in Thunder Bay, Ontario, filming with the forest fire fighters there, and we took an insane chopper flight as they did a prescribed burn. I was hanging out the side of the helicopter with the door off, filming a second chopper that was using a drip torch with napalm to burn out a huge section of forest. It was one of the most epic flights I'd ever taken. The fact that he recognized me from that brief time together was mind boggling.

Feb 17 2025 - New York City Filming

Travel chaos! I was supposed to be filming a new TV series in Los Angeles on Friday, however the big snowstorm here in Toronto caused 4-hours lines at security at Pearson Airport. The shoot was rescheduled for New York today (Monday).

It almost didn't happen a second time. There was an even bigger snowstorm here on the weekend, and on Monday, just a few hours after my plane took off, there was a plane crash at Toronto airport where a Delta Airlines flight flipped upside down when it tried to land. I got lucky and managed to thread the needle between the 2 events that each caused chaos at the airport.

The shoot went well, and I'll provide more details when I can later.

Feb 02 2025 - New History Channel Show

Watch for me in the new History Channel series History’s Most Shocking, where I am one of the on-camera contributors, providing insight and context to the video clips presented.

"Split-second choices between disaster and survival shape history. Watch shocking footage of accidents, disasters, and close calls, with survivor stories and expert insights revealing what went wrong and how to prevent it."

Jan 31 2025 - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Our last stop on this voyage. We were greeted by rugged mountains & islands.

Since Cindy and I were getting off here in Cabo, but the ship is continuing onwards to San Francisco, we had to deal with Mexican customs & immigration on board the ship. Once we were cleared, we went ashore, dropped our bags off at our cute local hotel, then spent the rest of the day walking around town. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the marina and we walked most of the entire beach and back, even running into our friend Lawrence (one of the other speakers on the ship). We had some lunch then kept walking. There were plenty of sea lions waiting for the fishing boats to come back from their day at sea. We spotted several of them by the marina where they watch the boats coming back, identify the fishing boats, the dive under the water and pop up behind the boats and jump up onto the back deck, hoping for a fish snack from the fishermen. They did this over and over, competing with each other and the hordes of pelicans. Tomorrow we fly back to Toronto and the reality of Canadian winter.

Jan 28 2025 - Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

I've been really looking forward to today for a while. The ship stopped in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala where we were greeted by towering volcanoes. I had plans to join the excursion to go to Pacaya volcano today. Pacaya is a place I've been before, in fact I was the first person to ever set foot at the bottom of its summit crater back in 2016 when I filmed a TV commercial inside, so it was nice to go "visit an old friend" today. We took a coach to the national park and started the hike. Most of it was through the jungle, and it was much cooler than I was fearing, along the coast it was a real scorcher. From time to time we would get glimpses of the other volcanoes in the area, including Fuego, the most active in the country. There was a consistent plume of steam and gas coming from the summit, and from time to time round lenticular clouds would form over the nearby peaks.

Once we got to our Pacaya viewpoint, I was reminded of how massive the volcano is. I couldn't believe that I had not only been to the summit, but down inside the crater! I could see a little bit of sulfur dioxide gas coming from some vents, but other than that, Pacaya was quiet. I was also hoping that Fuego would have an explosion while I was there, but Mother Nature did not provide today. The hike back down was great fun. The ash and scree on the steep slopes were fun to "surf" down. I've done this on many volcanoes. That stuff is hard to hike up, but so much fun to slide down. The only problem is the tremendous amount of ash and rocks in my shoes!

Back at the dock, I took some time to look around, and there were lots of iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks along the ocean. I spent some time photographing then until it was getting close to final call for getting back on board the ship.

This evening, I was treated to a Green Flash at sunset. This was the second one of this voyage. The colour of the sky was a brilliant orange as the sun briefly turned green as it dipped below the horizon. We also had a good view of the Earth shadow shortly after sunset. A good day.

Jan 25 2025 - Panama Canal

The big day. Since the Queen Anne is a brand new ship that has only been sailing since about last May, it has yet to pass through the Panama Canal. Well today was her maiden voyage through it, and it was an honour to be on board for it. The captain opened up the bow access on deck 5 so that we could have a great view as we passed through the locks from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The process took all day, basically from sunrise to sunset, which felt slow, but compared to the weeks it would take to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, this was the express route!

The engineering is remarkable. We passed through the newer set of locks that were built in 2016 that can accommodate wider ships. Once you get through the ascending locks, we cruised along on Gatun Lake, then descended down through the Pacific set of locks back down to sea level by Panama City.

Jan 24 2025 - Cartagena, Colombia

This was my first time visiting the country of Colombia (country # 82 for me), and although we didn't have a lot of time here, it was a great day ashore. Right at the ship terminal, they have a pretty amazing aviary that you have to pass through. It was filled with so many birds... Flamingos, peacocks, parrots, toucans and many more. They also had several types of monkeys, reptiles, and even a couple of giant anteaters. From there we shared a mini-van cab with a random group of people we met and headed over to the old walled city. We spent the rest of our time wandering around the narrow streets, looking in the many shops, and walking along the old ramparts that once defended the city from invaders.

Jan 21 2025 - Miami, Florida

We've really been lucky. As a historic winter storm sweeps across North America bringing frigid temperatures and heavy snow to places as far south as Houston, New Orleans, and northern Florida, we've been in nice warm weather due to our location just south of the extent of the massive polar vortex.

We arrived in the port of Miami early this morning, and were greeted by dull, gray skies and rain. It didn't look very promising, but it didn't take long for conditions to improve. We ended up with partly cloudy skies, sunshine, and a high of about 27 degrees C. In the afternoon we took the shuttle to the Bayside Market area and walked around there for a few hours. It was nice to get off the ship for a bit and do a little browsing around in the shops, and soak up a bit of sunshine for the first time in days.

Jan 18 2025 - New York City

Got up early to catch my flight to New York City. There were a few flight delays, but we made to JFK with time to catch an Uber and head over to Brooklyn Pier 12 to board the Queen Anne. This is the newest ship in the Cunard fleet, less than a year old. It had just arrived after crossing the Atlantic from Southampton in the U.K. It was a gray and dreary day with the New York skyline partially obscured by low clouds and rain. Joining me on this trip is my long-time friend and frequent travel partner Cindy Burgess. Once we boarded, we took some time to get ourselves acquainted with the layout of the ship.

Jan 15 2025 - New Adventure

This weekend I depart on my latest adventure. I will be teaming up with Cunard cruise lines to give a series of talks aboard their newest, most modern cruise liner, the Queen Anne.

This voyage will take me from New York, to Miami, Cartagena Colombia, then through the Panama Canal to Guatemala, then I'll be getting off the ship in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

I will post updates when I can. Day to day updates will be found here.

Jan 14 2025 - I Heart Radio

Yesterday I was interviewed by Shane Hewitt for the program The Night Shift on 1010 NewsTalk Toronto and elsewhere on the I Heart Radio Network.

We chatted about recent volcano eruptions and how big eruptions can affect a wide geographical area.

Shane Hewitt And The Night Shift

Jan 03 2025 - BBC World Service

Many thanks to BBC World Service for having me on as a guest on the What In The World podcast. We discussed the Darvaza flaming gas crater in Turkmenistan and my expedition that was the first to reach the bottom.

Watch the video on YouTube.

Dec 31 2024 - Arctic Research Foundation Article

Check out the latest article on the Arctic Research Foundation website. I was interviewed by Melody Wren while we were travelling through the Northwest Passage this summer with Adventure Canada.

Dec 30 2024 - Wrapping Up 2024

I hope you all had a great 2024 full of adventures. It was definitely a t=year to remember for me with travel to Alaska, Greenland (twice!), the Canadian Arctic, New Zealand & Australia and more. There were storms, northern lights, a comet, and eclipse, icebergs, glaciers, and many other amazing natural phenomena that I was fortunate enough to witness and share.

Quite a few talks, television appearances, and I even relieved the King Charles III Coronation medal!.

See you all in 2025.

An Archive of Previous Year's News Items Can Be Found Here

2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011
2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004

Any Questions/Comments?

george@stormchaser.ca