The thought process was: I know earthquakes aren’t really weather, so I’ll tack on “thingies” to make it clear that I’m making up some new more generalized term.

The point was to group all the… I dunno, whatever, surprising attacks by the planet into one thing. I can’t think of a real term for this, I think there might not be one, I guess I could call it something like “weather or geological surprises” but that’s just dull.

Natural phenomena, extending beyond what's strictly weather, often get lumped into "meteorology", including earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. One fairly well-known case is the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), whose remit includes not just weather by hydrology, seismology, and volcanology.

Generally: concerns of an extra-human, non-biological origin. E.g., JMA doesn't address pandemics.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency>

It just illustrates how people in the NE think about natural disasters. Basically any big natural event is weather-related.

When the 2011 Virginia quake happened, I was somewhere in the Boston area sitting in my parked car, and at first I thought it was a strong wind rocking my car side-to-side. It took a few seconds for me to realize the shaking wasn't a "weather thing"

Natural disaster thingies