California weather, over the several/many decadal timescales, seems to be always going from one extreme to another - and from what I've read about the last thousand years in California, present weather is not much different.
The story continues....

see - https://apnews.com/article/floods-weather-winter-los-angeles-california-5c8022bd651621c6f4c41a981401f15d 



 

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Cyclone Freddy has now become the longest-lived tropical cyclone ever recorded , moving from Australia (35 days from 6th Feb) to Mozambique, making two landfalls there, in the process, but now looks like dying out over Malawi tomorrow.

The 'longest-lived' is a moot point, as it spent 5 days ashore as a mere tropical depression, reaching Zimbabwe, before returning to the Indian Ocean and regaining hurricane strength.

https://zoom.earth/storms/freddy-2023/#map=daily 
 

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Cyclone Freddy has now become the longest-lived tropical cyclone ever recorded , moving from Australia (35 days from 6th Feb) to Mozambique, making two landfalls there, in the process, but now looks like dying out over Malawi tomorrow. The 'longest-lived' is a moot point, as it spent 5 days ashore as a mere tropical depression, reaching Zimbabwe, before returning to the Indian Ocean and regaining hurricane strength.
https://zoom.earth/storms/freddy-2023/#map=daily 
 

Update on damage in Malawi. I would expect a higher mortality rate.

More than 60 bodies have been recovered in Malawi's main commercial hub of Blantyre after Tropical Storm Freddy hit southern Africa for the second time in a month.  Strong winds and rains continue to cause severe destruction. "We have rivers overflowing, we have people being carried away by running waters, we have buildings collapsing," police spokesman Peter Kalaya told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

Storm Freddy: Malawi recovers more than 60 bodies
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64938811 

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Update on damage in Malawi. I would expect a higher mortality rate.

More than 60 bodies have been recovered in Malawi's main commercial hub of Blantyre after Tropical Storm Freddy hit southern Africa for the second time in a month.  Strong winds and rains continue to cause severe destruction. "We have rivers overflowing, we have people being carried away by running waters, we have buildings collapsing," police spokesman Peter Kalaya told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

Storm Freddy: Malawi recovers more than 60 bodies
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64938811 

Sadly but unsurprisingly the death toll continues to mount, along with the extent and scale of the damage.

I was astonished to learn that this storm originated over NW Australia six weeks ago and has travelled over 5,000 miles, picking up moisture and energy as it traversed the warm ocean.  (edit: as noted by DEW above).

 

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Absolutely epic.  Both happy and sad that I'm avoiding this area when I go over there in May, although I suspect the thaw in the spring may bring its own issues too.

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Severe drought in Kenya and the Horn of Africa
https://www.rescue.org/press-release/irc-severe-drought-projected-leave-about-54-million-people-kenya-without-adequate 

Droughts in this area are not new - the last was in 2009
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932009_Kenya_drought 

but this one appears to be particularly severe with the rainy season forecast to fail for the sixth consecutive year.

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Tornados are quite common at this time of year in the US but this appears to have been an exceptional one.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65078588 
In [the town of] Rolling Fork, crushed cars, bricks and glass litter the streets - the town has been almost entirely wiped out.
 

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Some crazy heat already in Spain, Canary Islands upto 38c today 35c on the mainland in Murcia. 
 

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How unusual is yesterdays temperature difference between Spain and Sweden of 62? degrees?
 

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Impressive clips...
Tornado caught on camera moving across Little Rock, Arkansas 10 hours ago:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65145264 
1 hour ago:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65147038 

 

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Impressive clips...
Tornado caught on camera moving across Little Rock, Arkansas 10 hours ago:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65145264 
1 hour ago:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65147038 

 

Just to add to this, more footage from yesterday in Iowa, just one of the many on YT but one of the better ones that's worth sharing here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BowpUasB-Nw 

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Doing the data for Nicosia, Cyprus.  Very weird March as they had the warmest day on the 1st at 26.9C then the coldest night was on 31st March at 0.9.C.  Never reach 0C in April so almost hit that so very interesting but strange month.  Meanwhile Death Valley had a very cool March with average at 23.9C and only hit 31 once, average for March normally from lowest 26C to 31C so this year also very strange.  So both location that I continue to put data was very interesting.  While reading about Heathrow have very low sunshine than Jan or Feb then that very boring.  Anything to do with cloud and wet weather is very boring.  Temperatures variety and weather variety is what I look for but not available in the UK.

  The North Atlantic pressure distribution since last November, has, for me, been much like that of the winter times of the 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's and is unlike or unusual, compared  with the general synoptics of the last 40 years.
Anyone know how pressure distribution comparisons are/can be made between different winters or periods?

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Regarding my post a few moments ago, I refer to the North Atlantic, but globally, such as California, there has been some severe weather, the like of, not seen for a long time and inconsistent with recent decades. Any observations?

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Pretty insane even by Florida standards!

20 inches of rain falling within in 24 hours at Fort Lauderdale. I've seen videos online of the rain and it was insane.

https://weather.com/news/weather/video/how-ft-lauderdale-area-got-20-inches-of-rain?cm_ven=dnt_social_instagram 
 

Black cloud turns day into night in Istanbul:

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/istanbul-engulfed-in-pitch-darkness-for-5-minutes-watch-as-day-turns-to-night/ar-AA1a6cmR 

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I can remember a thunderstorm back in the early 90's that turned a summers day into night. I don't remember much but it did leave a good dumping of  hail. 

I missed this video last month. Crazy how America, Japan, Russia, even Africa and the Middle East seem to get all these cold plunges and winter storms while the UK only gets milder and more snow free.

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Waterspout crashes on to beach full of people (video from Miami)
 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-65358298 
 

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