GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

JANUARY 2026

UNITED STATES

For the third time in seven years, hundreds of people had to flee a homeless shelter in downtown San Diego this week after a heavy storm dropped a month’s worth of rain, causing floods. The area received 2 inches of rain on New Year’s Day, which broke local records and forced multiple water rescues, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Officials evacuated the Bridge shelter, a massive gray tent, on New Year’s Day, and about 325 men and women moved to a gym in a local park, the newspaper reported. Southern California has seen heavy storms in recent weeks, causing the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, to declare a state of emergency – and the rainfall was expected to continue through the weekend. The winter storms come less than a year after wildfires devastated much of the area. The Los Angeles fire department issued an evacuation warning in a burn-scarred area because of potential debris flow due to the rainfall, and the National Weather Service issued a flood watch and stated that areas near burn scars are prone to flash flooding.

A wild winter storm brought strong winds, heavy snow, and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and northeast on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone barreled across the Midwest and left tens of thousands of customers without power. The storm hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes on Monday with sharply colder air, strong winds, and a mix of snow, ice, and rain, leading to treacherous travel. Forecasters said it intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops. Nationwide, more than 120,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning, nearly a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us. As the storm moved into Canada, the National Weather Service predicted more inclement weather conditions for the eastern US, including quick bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds known as snow squalls. Blustery winds were expected to add to the arctic chill, with low temperatures dipping below freezing as far south as the Florida panhandle, the agency said.

A powerful winter storm is set to sweep across much of the US this weekend, bringing potentially record-breaking cold, heavy snow, and ice that forecasters warn could cause hazardous conditions, power outages, and travel disruptions. The storm is expected to bring “widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain” from the southern Rockies and the plains into the mid-south on Friday, before spreading east to the mid-Atlantic and New England areas this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The impact in New England will potentially linger into Monday. As of Thursday afternoon, over 160 million Americans are under winter hazards associated with the impending winter storm, the agency said. The agency said: “Snowfall totals exceeding 12 inches are likely across the Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic, and Northeast.” Weather officials have also said that “widespread freezing rain and sleet” are forecast for parts of the southern plains, the lower Mississippi valley, the Tennessee valley, the southeast, and southern Virginia. “Significant and damaging ice accumulations” are likely, and there is the potential for power outages, tree damage, and dangerous travel conditions.

ASIA

January brings torrential rain to south-east Asia – more than 250mm fell in just two days in Singapore last year. This is because of the monsoon, a pattern of wind and rainfall named after the Arabic word for “season”. The monsoon is sometimes described in terms of a sea breeze, in which the wind reverses direction in the morning and evening as the relative temperature of land and sea changes, blowing out to sea at first and then inland as the land cools.  Meteorologists prefer to describe the monsoon in terms of the seasonal movement of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), the area where north and south winds collide. Sailors knew the ITCZ as the doldrums, where no wind blew. Vast quantities of water evaporate from the warm tropical oceans. The seasonal monsoon wind carries warm, moist air over the land, where it rises and condenses into towering cumulonimbus storm clouds that dump the water as rain.

RUSSIA

A record-breaking snowfall event unfolded in far eastern Russia last week when the town of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, located on the Kamchatka peninsula’s east coast, received more than 1.8 metres (6 feet) of lying snow in places. Strong winds accompanying the snowfall caused extreme drifting of more than 3 metres against buildings and cars. Two key ingredients combined to cause such an extreme snowfall event. Strong Pacific low pressures dragged moist air from the tropics northwards, which clashed with cold Arctic air already over the region. Conveyor belts of tropical air are called atmospheric rivers and often bring heavy rainfall to places such as California. Atmospheric river snowfall events tend to be rarer and, for the Kamchatka peninsula, particularly impactful. Heavy snow started falling in the early hours of Monday, 12 January, and with snowfall rates of 2-5cm an hour at times, it continued until Tuesday evening, bringing 60-90cm of snow. As one system passed through, another approached, and the snow began again on Wednesday afternoon, not easing until Friday morning and bringing an additional 60-90cm widely across the region. Cars quickly became buried in snowdrifts, with residents digging tunnels through the snow to find their vehicles. People were seen sledding from roofs as snow piled up against buildings. Two people were killed when a buildup of snow fell from a rooftop. The process of clearing roads and building entrances has continued well into this week.

NEW ZEALAND

Emergency services in New Zealand are searching for several people, including a child, believed to be missing after a landslide hit a campsite during storms that have caused widespread damage across the North Island. Emergency minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ that parts of the east coast looked like “a war zone”, with helicopters deployed to rescue families sheltering on rooftops from flooding, and local states of emergency declared in five regions across Northland and the East Cape due to days of record-breaking torrential rain. The landslide struck on Thursday morning at a campground in the tourist hotspot of Mount Maunganui on the east coast. Mitchell confirmed that a young girl was among those unaccounted for.

SOUTH AFRICA

Large areas of north-eastern South Africa and neighboring Mozambique have been inundated for several days with exceptionally heavy rainfall. Some locations in South Africa recorded hundreds of millimeters of rain over the weekend, such as Graskop in Mpumalanga, where 113mm fell in 24 hours, and Phalaborwa, which recorded about 85mm of rainfall. Rain has continued to fall across the region since the weekend. The deluge has been driven by a slow-moving cut-off low-pressure system that has remained anchored over the region, repeatedly drawing in moisture and triggering intense downpours. Further heavy rainfall is expected on Friday and over the weekend. Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, could expect daily rainfall totals to exceed 200mm by the end of Friday, while western parts of South Africa and north-western Eswatini may record more than 100mm. The rain has fallen on already saturated ground after an unusually wet December, overwhelming river systems and causing widespread flooding. The South African weather service has raised its flood warning to the highest level as roads have been washed away, infrastructure damaged, and large areas rendered inaccessible. Kruger National Park has been closed, with flood waters forcing evacuations of staff and visitors.

AUSTRALIA

Ashleigh Brieffies is standing on the front steps of her home in central Queensland on Monday afternoon as knee-deep water sweeps over the grounds of her property. “If it comes up another 2ft, we’ll probably be underwater,” says Brieffies, who lives in Clermont. “I think we’ll be looking for a boat or a chopper.” The show horse owner and cattle breeder and her veterinarian husband, Brendan, are not the only ones isolated and preparing for the worst as ex-Tropical Cyclone Koji unleashes torrential rain across swathes of north and central Queensland. Nor are they the only ones calling for a helicopter. More than a year’s rain fell in one week in some places, with stranded communities facing months of isolation. Emergency services issued a flash-flood warning for Clermont, about 300km inland from Rockhampton, on Monday afternoon.

EUROPE

Downpours and high winds are likely to continue after Storm Ingrid wreaked havoc in the south-west and washed away part of a historic pier in Devon, the Met Office said on Saturday. It has been a wet weekend for many, with yellow weather warnings for heavy rain in place across parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and south-west England and Wales. A yellow warning was in place for an area covering Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and much of south Wales until 10 pm on Saturday, while separate warnings in Northern Ireland and Scotland will run until 9 am on Sunday.  Approximately 20-40mm of rainfall is expected across most of the south-west, while some exposed locations could see up to 50mm, the forecaster said, with a risk of flooding to areas battered by rain in recent days. Storm Ingrid, as named by the Portuguese national weather service IPMA, caused chaos with powerful waves in parts of the south-west on Saturday. In the Devon coastal town of Teignmouth, part of its Victorian pier collapsed due to the force of the waves. The town’s mayor, Cate Williams, said that Teignmouth had seen unusually high winds and strong waves, which damaged benches, flower beds, and paving stones near the seafront, as well as the historic pier.  “It’s really sad … it’s such a focal point of our town,” she added. The Environment Agency has issued 13 flood warnings, which remained in place across south-west England at 5 pm on Saturday, meaning flooding is expected, while 135 flood alerts indicated flooding is possible in many parts of the country. Major disruption to railway services in south-west England was expected to last all day on Saturday, National Rail said, as passengers faced cancellations and delays.

TROPICAL

A man has died in floodwaters in Australia’s far north as residents on the other side of the country prepare for a major cyclone as it makes landfall. Police were called to the man’s submerged vehicle in the northern Queensland town of Normanton about 3 pm on Tuesday. The man, aged in his 70s, was found dead inside his car.

In Australia’s north-west, Tropical Cyclone Hayley made landfall on Tuesday night, with residents in Beagle Bay, Cockatoo Island, and Derby warned it was too late to leave.

The Bureau of Meteorology said at 11.40 pm local time on Tuesday night that Hayley had been downgraded from a category three to a category two storm and had weakened as it moved inland 55km north of Derby. It had sustained winds near the centre of 100 km/h with wind gusts to 140 km/h. “Gales with damaging wind gusts to 100 km/h are occurring over areas from north of Derby through to Cockatoo Island, and may extend further north towards Kuri Bay early on Wednesday morning,” the BoM said. “Gales should then ease during Wednesday morning as Hayley moves further inland and weakens.”

The storm follows Tropical Cyclone Fina, another category three system that hit Darwin in late November. Residents living in caravans or older homes have been urged to move to their nearest evacuation centre or another safer location. Damaging winds of up to 170 km/h are possible in the northern Dampier Peninsula.