More than 100 000 customers of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in the Bay Area of San Francisco remained without power on Tuesday night, February 21, 2023, due to the strong winds that whipped the region.
A major winter storm is set to bring heavy snowfall from the West Coast to the Northeast over the next few days. The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center has warned of multiple hazards across the country, including widespread heavy snow, blizzard conditions, a zone of sleet and freezing rain, high winds, severe thunderstorms and record low and high temperatures.
Brazil’s southeastern coastal areas were hit with exceptionally heavy rainfall on February 18 and 19, 2023, causing floods and landslides that killed 40 people, injured 23 others, and displaced thousands more. The region experienced some of the country’s highest recorded rainfall totals for a 24-hour period, with Bertioga registering 694 mm (27.32 inches) and São Sebastião recording 649 mm (25.55 inches) during the same timeframe.
A massive winter storm is expected to impact much of the U.S. this week with a variety of hazards. The storm will spread a large swath of heavy snow from the West Coast to the Northeast from Monday, February 20 to Thursday, February 23, 2023.
New Zealand’s North Island has been severely impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle over the past couple of days, with floods, landslides, and ocean swells leaving many people stranded on rooftops. The storm, which caused extensive damage to homes and infrastructure, also closed numerous roads, canceled hundreds of flights, and left about 225 000 people without power. At least 4 people have been killed.
Despite being downgraded from a tropical cyclone, Gabrielle is intensifying and spreading strong winds and heavy rain across a wider area affecting the whole of the North Island in some way.
Heavy rain has wreaked havoc across southern Brazil, particularly in the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro States, over the past two days. Residents have been dealing with flooding, devastating weather-related incidents caused by lightning, and landslides that have resulted in casualties and destruction.
Severe thunderstorms hit New South Wales, Australia on February 9, 2023, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging winds. The storm caused officials to issue flash flooding warnings and prompted the NSW State Emergency Service to respond to over 600 calls for help.
A glancing blow of Arctic air mixed with a surge in moisture set the stage for an extensive and very dangerous ice event in parts of the United States. The most likely corridor of icing with a mixture of sleet will occur from west-central Texas to the Tennessee and Lower Ohio Valleys. The ice accretion from Texas into Mid-South may approach 13 mm (0.5 inches) or more through Wednesday, February 1, 2023, and cause power outages and travel issues.
Another atmospheric river event is forecast to bring more heavy rain across parts of New Zealand’s North Island in the coming days following an unprecedented rainfall event that brought severe flooding to the Auckland area and left 4 people dead on January 27, 2023.
