The WPC has issued urgent 2 messages regarding an intense Arctic blast and an impending winter storm set to impact the U.S. this weekend. A powerful Arctic air mass will move southeast from the Rockies on January 17 by bringing extreme cold while a winter storm on January 19 to 20 is expected to produce heavy snowfall from West Virginia to southern New England.
Three skiers lost their lives in an avalanche in Punta Valgrande in Italy’s Piedmont region near the border with Switzerland on January 12, 2025.
Severe thunderstorms with large hailstorms, approximately 4 cm (1.6 inches), wreaked havoc across parts of eastern Australia on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, leaving one person dead and causing outages for over 200 000 homes.
Hurricane-force winds with speeds reaching 208 km/h (129 mph) battered southcentral Alaska, on Tuesday, January 12, 2025, causing extensive damage to infrastructure, power outages affecting thousands of homes, and disruptions across the region.
Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi brushed the coast of Mozambique on January 13, 2025, after leaving at least 3 people dead and hundreds of damaged and destroyed homes in Madagascar.
Extreme rainfall hit parts of Minas Gerais, Brazil late Saturday into Sunday, January 11 into 12, 2025, causing destructive landslides in which at least 10 people lost their lives. Most casualties were reported in Ipatinga where nearly 80 mm (3.1 inches) of rain fell in just one hour, causing widespread destruction.
Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi made landfall in Madagascar’s Antsiranana province on Saturday, January 11, 2024 bringing destructive winds of up to 155 km/h (96 mph), torrential rainfall, and dangerous sea conditions, with significant impacts expected to spread across the region in the coming days.
Intense rains and floods affecting parts of Bolivia over the past couple of days have left at least 17 people dead and nearly 500 homes damaged or destroyed. The worst affected departments are La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and Oruro.
A major winter storm swept through the Southern United States from Thursday, January 9, 2025, to Saturday, January 11, bringing heavy snows of up to 28 cm (11 inches) to some regions, causing over 1 000 flight cancellations and multiple crashes across the South.
Heavy sea-effect snow has been affecting parts of Japan since Thursday, January 9, 2025, with more than 1 m (3 feet) of snow already registered in some regions and snowfall expected to persist through Saturday. Certain areas have already received twice the usual snowfall.
