A major tornado outbreak hit a wide area of the U.S. Midwest and South on Friday, March 31, 2023, producing several large and destructive tornadoes. At this time, it appears the worst affected were Little Rock and Wynne in Arkansas.
17 atmospheric rivers and several non-atmospheric-river storms since December 2022 pushed California’s snowpack to its largest level in recorded history, surpassing the previous record set in 1982-1983. In addition, the state’s drought conditions have improved significantly since the start of the water year, with severe to exceptional drought conditions now covering only 6.99% of the area, down from 93% just one year ago.
Tropical Cyclone “Freddy” has left at least 582 people dead and hundreds missing in Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Mauritius. The worst affected was Malawi where at least 476 people lost their lives and 349 are still missing, as of March 20, 2023.
History is being made in the world of tropical cyclones, as Cyclone Freddy continues to make its mark. Born northwest of Australia on February 3, 2023, Freddy is now being called one-of-a-kind and the longest-lived cyclone ever documented.
A historic winter storm is currently affecting parts of California, particularly the San Francisco Bay area, where a 132-year-old daily temperature record was broken on Friday, February 24, 2023. In addition, a rare blizzard warning is in effect for the mountains of Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Bernardino. This is only the second such warning on record for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and the first for San Bernardino County’s peaks.
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.
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2023 CX1 impacted Earth over the English Channel between England and France, Europe at 02:59 UTC on February 13, 2023. This small asteroid was discovered just several hours before impact, making it the 7th asteroid to be discovered before impacting Earth.
Thousands of buildings in New Zealand’s Auckland area are currently unsafe for living after the region was hit by extreme rainfall and severe flooding at the end of January. The amount of rain that fell in a matter of days made January 2023 Auckland’s wettest month in at least the last 170 years. The flooding has put the public’s focus on nature-based alternatives to traditional stormwater systems.
A powerful earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.8 hit the highly populated Turkey – Syria border region at 01:17 UTC (04:17 local time) on Monday, February 6, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 17.9 km (11.1 miles). EMSC reports M7.8 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Numerous moderate to very strong aftershocks were registered, including M6.7 at 01:28 and M7.5 at 10:24 UTC.
2022 saw a record-breaking number of hailstorms in Europe with 8 224 large hail reports. That is 2 791 large hail reports more than in 2021, which was already a record-breaking year. France had the most reports with 2 461 and was also the country with the largest economic impact of 4.8 billion €.
