Global Weather Highlights

MARCH 2023

UNITED STATES

About two dozen people in southern Californai were forced to flee from their oceanside apartment buildings, as the hill beneath them started to crumble in torrential rains (17^th).

With more rainstorms coming, authorities in San Clemente said on Thursday there was no timetable for the residents to be allowed back into their homes.

“The ground is continuing to move,” San Clemente’s mayor, Chris Duncan, said during a news conference. “So these structures are still in peril.”

Across California, residents have been reeling from the effect of extreme weather, with a large portion of the state now covered by a presidential emergency declaration. California has been hit with 11 atmospheric rivers in a virtually nonstop series that has sparked floods and landslides, toppled trees, stranded mountain dwellers in historically deep snow and downed power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.

Sounds of tall trees splintering and crashing under the weight of the freshly fallen snow cut through the stillness, as the latest round of winter weather bore down on the town, tucked into the foothills in northern California. He had cleared a path through the wooded debris for now but with more storms in the forecast it might not last.

Heauser had spent days trying to remove fallen trees from the roads that snaked through the hillsides in his community in Grass Valley, even as those roads disappeared under the heavy snow. He and others worked around the clock to ensure vulnerable neighbors could either evacuate or were able to safely remain in their buried homes, while grappling with the effects of prolonged and widespread power outages that left some without heat or pumped well water.

“This is the craziest storm I know of,” Heauser said. “It was relentless – it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing.”

Residents in remote areas of Nevada county have been left buried under snow and without access to resources. Photograph: Gabrielle Canon/The Guardian

Tucked amid a sea of conifers that slope into the Sierra Nevada range, the beautiful and rugged terrain has always posed elements of danger for those who live there. But conditions are intensifying, adding new fears over what the future holds for California’s picturesque and historic mountain towns.

Even as locals grapple with the effects of this very wet winter, the threats from wildfires linger just months away. The extremes have tested key infrastructure across the seasons, adding hazards for even the most resilient and prepared residents. They are also inextricably linked.

Drought-weakened trees, unable to withstand the heavy snow loading their branches and the howling winds that tore through these slopes and canyons, thrashed against homes and fences. Branches ripped through power lines and littered thoroughfares before being buried in snow, hindering both emergency access and escape.

Severe storms have caused calamity across the state, coating even balmy parts of California – from the San Francisco Bay area to the Hollywood hills – in a dusting of white. Higher elevations, meanwhile, were buried.

EUROPE

About 1,300 homes that lost power during Storm Otto had still not been reconnected to the grid as of Saturday afternoon, according to energy firms.

The Met Office said the storm had “well and truly cleared” but more than 1,000 homes in Aberdeenshire remain without power.

The forecasting body said the storm, which left more than 60,000 homes without power, has moved on to the continent and is now affecting Scandinavia.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said it had restored power to more than 42,000 homes since the storm struck and was “confident” most of the homes still without power would have it restored by the end of Saturday.

It added that a small number of homes in isolated and rural areas were likely to remain off-grid until Sunday evening “at the latest”.

SSEN said it had sent food vans to the main areas still cut off from supply, which will serve food and drink until 9pm on Saturday.

Gusts of 75-80mph were recorded across parts of northern Scottland on Friday while trains and flights were cancelled and roads blocked by overturned lorries in northern England.

AUSTRAILIA

About 70 people are holding out in the stranded Queensland town of Burketown, as the swollen Albert River to the town’s east continues to rise, and authorities warn that flood waters are likely infested with crocodiles (13^th).

Ahead of the expected peak of flood waters, the ranger in charge of the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Zachariah Sowden, said there had already been reported sightings of crocodiles swimming in flood waters.

“As the flood waters start to enter town from the surrounding river systems the local population of saltwater crocodiles will also move with these flood waters. A few crocodiles have already been sighted in different areas of the community.

“Please … stay out of the water where possible to limit a chance encounter with a crocodile.”

Burke shire mayor Ernie Camp, who was evacuated on Saturday, said crocodiles, and potentially even bull sharks, which usually inhabit estuaries, would pose a risk to residents who chose to stay behind.

About 30km from the Gulf of Carpentaria, Burketown’s water and sewage has been cut off, and most of the town of just over 150 people has been evacuated by helicopter to nearby Doomadgee or to Mt Isa, 300km away.

At least 37 properties have been inundated by flood waters, with water still rising in the town. Authorities say it will not be safe to return for days, and the community still there could be isolated for up to two weeks.

An out-of-control bushfire in New South Wales’s central west has blazed through properties and scorched bushland, with the NSW Rural Fire Service warning it could be “burning for weeks”(9^th).

Dozens of fires have been burning across NSW since Sunday as gusty winds and vegetation growth from last year’s high rainfall make it easier for flames to catch, according to Dean Narramore, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology.

The RFS has been working with Fire and Rescue NSW, police, national parks, council and local land services to combat a fire burning north of Hill End on Thursday.

SOUTH AMERICA

Search and rescue teams raced to find dozens of people that remained missing after heavy rains devastated coastal areas of Brazil’s south-eastern São Paulo state, as the official death toll rose to 48.

“We are currently working with a tally of at least 38 missing people,” the São Paulo governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, told reporters on Wednesday, as weather forecasters cautioned more rain was on its way.

Massive downpours have caused landslides and flooding in coastal towns of Brazil’s richest state, which has so far been hit by more than 600mm (23.6 inches) of rain, the highest cumulative figure ever in the country.

The number of casualties rose from 46 a day earlier, the São Paulo state government said in a statement. Rescue operations were continuing and firefighters, police and volunteers still hoped to find people alive in the rubble of houses slammed by the landslides. 1,730 people have been displaced and 1,810 left homeless, according to the São Paulo state government.

TROPICAL

Cyclone Freddy, which developed over the Indian Ocean more than a month ago, has dissipated this week, after making landfall a second time in southern Africa (17^th). The death toll had exceeded 300 across Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi by Thursday, with more than 700 people injured, 40 missing and 80,000 displaced.

The devastation was caused by severe flooding and landslides, which swept away roads and buried homes in mud. Power outages in Mozambique have affected small villages since last weekend, hindering rescue efforts as people await food and medical assistance.

Before Freddy, Malawi was experiencing its deadliest cholera outbreak, and it is feared flood waters could exacerbate the situation and reduce access to safe water and sanitation.

The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand climbed to 11 as many people not yet contacted a week later.

The cyclone hit the North Island’s uppermost region on 12 February and tracked down the east coast, inflicting widespread devastation. The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, has called Gabrielle New Zealand’s biggest natural disaster this century.

Police said on Sunday that two more people had died in the hard-hit Hawke’s Bay area in circumstances related to the cyclone, raising the death toll to 11.

More than 5,600 people remained uncontactable across the country, while 1,196 had registered they were safe, police said.