GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

FEBRUARY 2020

EUROPE

Storm Herve marked the end of unseasonable warmth across parts of France and Germany last week as the system brought a cooler air mass, strong winds, and fresh, heavy snowfall to the Alps (2nd-4th). Prior to this, south-west Europe as a whole was
experiencing exceptional heat, and temperatures rocketed to 29.6C in Valencia in Spain on Tuesday (4th), setting a new all-time February record. The official station in the city of Alicante has hit 28.6C which is the fifth highest winter temperature ever
recorded at this location since 1859. Back in 1910, Alicante reported a hot day with 30.0C recorded.

A powerful storm is battering parts of north-west Europe with heavy rainfall and strong winds of up to 150 km/h )10th). Storm Ciara - known as Sabine in Germany and Switzerland and Elsa in Norway - has caused hundreds of flights to be grounded and rail
services cancelled in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. Access to exposed areas such as parks and coastlines has been restricted and motorists have been warned to take care as the weather continues to cause severe travel disruption.
On Monday, large parts of northern France were placed on an orange weather alert - the second highest warning - with thousands of homes in Brittany left without power.

At least seven people have died across Europe as Storm Ciara moves east, shutting down transport and leaving hundreds of thousands without power (10th-11th). High winds in Poland ripped the roof off a ski rental shop, killing a woman and her two
daughters. Their father was injured. One man died after his boat capsized in southern Sweden. One other person on board remains missing. Two people were killed in their cars - one in Germany and one in Slovenia. A 58-year-old British man was killed on
Sunday after a tree fell on his car. France's Mediterranean island of Corsica recorded winds of more than 220 km/h on Monday night, as heavy rains, powerful winds and flooding spread across the continent. Authorities there said the winds fueled a fire in
the north of the island. Corsican ports and flights remained disrupted on Tuesday. Wind speeds of up to 200 km/h were also recorded in northern Italy. A woman of 71 was killed when she was hit by debris from a roof in Traona in the Lombardy region. After
first sweeping across Ireland and the UK on Sunday, the storm thrashed the north coast of mainland Europe. Transport shut down and schools were forced to close across Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Dutch authorities reported traffic
jams of more than 720 km across the country on Monday, and there was still some flight disruption on Tuesday after airlines cancelled hundreds of journeys. Austria has also seen high winds, which caused waves to crash over a pier on Lake Constance. In
Germany, a crane smashed into Frankfurt Cathedral, damaging parts of the roof. Hamburg's fish market remained flooded on Tuesday after a storm surge reportedly forced the tide 2.7 meters above the norm. The Oresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden was
closed for several hours on Monday while winds in the Czech Republic reached 180 km/h. Police in the country said the storm was probably to blame for a car accident which killed a man. However, the powerful gusts did bring one unexpected benefit in
Germany. Wind turbines there produced a record amount of electricity, reportedly equivalent to 44 nuclear power plants.

A French ski resort has used helicopters to deliver snow after mild weather dried out its slopes, threatening it with closure (16th). The Luchon-Superbagneres resort in the Pyrenees arranged for around 50 tones of snow to be dropped on its slopes. Taken
from higher mountains, the snow was dumped on slopes for beginners and children on Friday and Saturday. Temperatures have risen above 10C across the Pyrenees this week, leaving ski slopes devoid of snow.

Residents have had to evacuate their homes as flood waters rose above defensive barriers in Worcestershire, England (26th). It comes as two severe flood warnings remain in place in Shropshire with the River Severn at risk of breaching defences in
Ironbridge. Ironbridge, Shrewsbury and Worcester are among the areas at risk of flooding along the River Severn. Rescue operations are under way to get people from their homes in Bewdley Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service is going house-to-
house in the area with a dingy and helping people from their homes. The flood barriers in Bewdley are temporary barriers, they were overtopped last night at about 19:00 GMT. It started as a trickle then turned into a torrent. Train lines remain closed
out of Shrewsbury railway station due to high water levels under the Severn Railway Bridge and trains are only running out of the station towards Crewe and Chester. Roads around the Ironbridge Gorge have also been closed to stop people driving in
floodwater, Telford and Wrekin Council said. River levels are also continuing to rise in Worcester, however the city's main bridge remains open.

NEW ZEALAND

Severe flooding and heavy rainfall in New Zealand have forced evacuations to be carried out, after nearly 200 tourists were left stranded (3rd). A landslide hit the Howden Hut, near Fiorland's Lake Howden at around 1.30 am the 3rd, leaving two people
with minor injuries and more than 30 people awaiting evacuation from the site. A state of emergency was declared on Monday 3 February after 382 people were left trapped in the Fiordland region, with torrential rain causing slips and flooding damage,
restricting access to roads. A further 195 tourists in Milford Sound are also still stranded and will remain there until Wednesday when they can be safely evacuated. Elsewhere in Gore, fire and emergency staff have been working to help a number of houses
that have been hit by surface flooding.

TURKEY

Rescue efforts have been put on hold after two avalanches killed at least 39 people in eastern Turkey (4t-5h). Most of the dead were hit by an avalanche on the 5th while trying to recover the victims of another downslide which happened a day earlier.
Further rescue work continued but was paused because of concerns about a possible third avalanche. The operation, involving more than 700 personnel, is expected to continue on Thursday after inspections.

UNITED STATES

Early Wednesday morning, temperatures in Denver, Colorado, plunged down to -5F after a jarring cold front gripped the region (2nd-5th). This reading came fewer than three days after the city saw temperatures soar into the mid-70s on Sunday. The cold
front also brought snow accumulations of around 3 to 5 inches in and around Denver, and a range of totals in the Boulder area of anywhere between 3 and 21 inches, depending on elevation, according to the National Weather Service. Farther to the south,
places around Colorado Springs saw a general 3 to 5 inches of snow, with a few pockets picking up a little bit more. Sunday (2nd) was an unseasonably warm day across parts of the western United States. In Denver, temperatures rose to 30 F above average,
tying an 86-year-old record for the warmest 2 February on record. With temperatures hitting 74F, the Mile High City was also warmer than Miami on Sunday, which topped out at 68F.


More than 300,000 homes and businesses in the south-eastern US were without power early in the day after a powerful storm raked the region (7th)n. At least five people were killed. North Carolina had the most customers without electricity, followed by
Pennsylvania, according to the data website poweroutages.us. The outages matched states that were under high wind and winter weather advisories issued by the National Weather Service. As much as 10 cm of snow fell overnight in Ohio, part of a band of
snowy weather stretching from Tennessee to Maine. Blowing snow contributed to several accidents in the Akron area, and the Ohio department of transportation urged people to make room for nearly 1,300 state crews working to improve the icy conditions. The
weather destroyed mobile homes in Mississippi and Alabama, caused mudslides in Tennessee and Kentucky and flooded communities that shoulder waterways across the Appalachian region. Rain kept falling over a path of splintered trees and sagging power lines
that stretched from Louisiana into Virginia.

ANTARCTICA

A record high temperature of 18.3C has been logged on the continent of Antarctica (6th). The reading, taken on Thursday by Argentine research base Esperanza, is 0.8 C hotter than the previous peak temperature of 17.5C, in March 2015. The temperature was
recorded in the Antarctic Peninsula, on the continent's north-west tip - one of the fastest-warming regions on earth. It is being verified by the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). While 18.3C is a record for the Antarctic continent, the record
in the wider Antarctic region - which includes the continent, islands and ocean that are in the Antarctic climatic zone - is 19.8C, logged in January 1982.

Antarctica has exceeded 20C for the first time, after researchers logged a temperature of 20.75C on an island off the coast of the continent (9th). This latest reading was taken at a monitoring station on Seymour Island, part of a chain of islands off
the same peninsula, at the northernmost point of the continent. The previous record for the entire Antarctic region - which includes the continent, islands and ocean that are in the Antarctic climatic zone - was 19.8C, logged in January 1982.

AUSTRALIA

Torrential rain across the east coast of Australia has extinguished a third of the fires in the region - and could put more out, officials say (7th). A wide band of rain sweeping New South Wales (NSW) has put out 20 of about 60 fires in the state in the
past day. Authorities have welcomed the downpour, but warned of flash flooding in Sydney and other cities along the coast. Some of the affected areas had received the most rain recorded in over a year, said the Bureau of Meteorology. Australia's largest
city, Sydney, recorded its wettest day in over 15 months on Friday. Authorities have issued a severe wet weather warning for a 1,000 km stretch of the state - with damaging winds, heavy rainfall, and "abnormally high" tides forecast. Over 280 mm of rain
was recorded at the holiday town of Byron Bay in northern NSW. Locals there described the downburst on Thursday night as heavier than that experienced in a 2017 cyclone. Nationally, blazes have killed at least 33 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
More than 11 million hectares of land - an area comparable to the size of England - has been scorched.

Sydney has been hit by its heaviest rain in 30 years, bringing widespread flooding but also putting out two massive bushfires in New South Wales (10th). Australia's weather agency said 391.6 mm of rain had fallen in the past four days in Sydney, more
than three times the average rainfall for February. About 100,000 homes are without power, and officials have warned flash floods could be life-threatening. But the rainfall means only 17 fires are still burning across the state. The NSW Rural Fire
Service said on Monday afternoon that the rains had extinguished more than 30 fires over the weekend, calling it "the most positive news we've had in some time". The latest to be declared out is the Gospers Mountain blaze, north-west of Sydney. Since
October it has burned 512,000 hectares, and was considered a mega-blaze that was "too big to put out". On Sunday, the Currowan fire, around the town of Shoalhaven, was also put out. It had burned for 74 days, destroying nearly 500,000 hectares and 312
homes. However, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned that fire-hit areas can be particularly prone to flooding, and that fast-moving waters can carry large amounts of debris.

One man died, dead, thousands of people were without power and transport services were disrupted on Wednesday morning (19th) after thunderstorms wreaked havoc across Sydney (Australia) and coastal regions, just weeks after record downpours caused major
flooding. Damaging winds of about 110 km/h hit North Head, with other areas also blasted by gusts over 100 km/h on Tuesday night. A 37-year-old man died after being hit by an airborne gas bottle that struck him around midnight when he was walking in
Harrington Street in The Rocks. Transport for NSW said commuters on the North Shore line should plan their trips, with delays expected on several routes affected by a fallen tree at Pymble.
Strong winds carrying sand from the Sahara have affected airports in the Canary Islands. Poor visibility led to AENA, Spain's airport operator, cancelling, suspending or diverting flights. The country's national weather service has warned that winds of
up to 120 km/h could hit the Canaries until Monday (24th). The winds have also affected ferry services, and hampered efforts to fight a wildfire in Tasarte, Gran Canaria.

INDONESIA

Over a thousand families are displaced in Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta as heavy rain filled the streets with floodwaters into Tuesday (25th). Areas of rain and thunderstorms developed across the islands of Indonesia Monday night into Tuesday.
Northerly winds along the northern coast of the island of Java ushered in tropical moisture, fueling tropical downpours across the island. Widespread rainfall totals of 50-100 mm were reported across western Java. The heaviest downpours produced 100-275
mm of rain across Jakarta. Of the 275 mm of rain reported at the Jakarta Observatory, about 156 mm came within about 3 hours.

CANARY ISLANDS

Strong winds carrying sand from the Sahara have affected airports in the Canary Islands (23rd). Poor visibility led to AENA, Spain's airport operator, cancelling, suspending or diverting flights. The country's national weather service has warned that
winds of up to 120 km/h could hit the Canaries until Monday (24th). The winds have also affected ferry services, and hampered efforts to fight a wildfire in Tasarte, Gran Canaria.

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