I heard about this. Must be 8 or 9c above average even for Spain. Shows we could get to 25c even now under the right conditions.  🙂 

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Catastrophic flooding in Dominican Republic after ‘largest rainfall event ever’

The Oficina Nacional de Meteorologia (ONAMET) reported 431 mm (16.9 inches) of rain in some parts of the National District – a figure that dwarfs the 266 mm (10.4 inches) recorded on November 4, 2022.

https://watchers.news/2023/11/20/catastrophic-flooding-in-dominican-republic-after-largest-rainfall-event-ever/ 
 

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Snow in Switzerland.

Unusual? well, after a decade in which more and more resorts have installed artificial snow machines, this year they have an ideal early start to the skiing season with loads of powder snow, at least at reasonable altitudes. 
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/11/20/when-will-europes-ski-resorts-open-heavy-snow-could-mean-an-early-start-to-the-season 

Meanwhile Oregon is having to wait, despite the photo in the link.
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/24/oregon-mountains-skiing-season-delay/ 

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How rare or unusual are major snowstorms in the USA?

see - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-67573077 
 

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They're about as rare as a council tax bill - you can rely on one every year, it seems!

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Arctic region is running with an anomaly of +7c currently (1979-2000), that is quite alarming.

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Russia is enduring quite a severe spell of cold currently. Novosibirsk is currently -40c

See link from Washington post yesterday

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/12/06/siberia-russia-extreme-cold-asia/ 

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Sydney airport has recorded its hottest December day on record on Saturday with a high of 43.5C/110.3F

 😮

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A tornado causing an explosion at a sub station in Tennessee, as thunderstorms sweeps across the state:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-67674135 .

The weather must have been quite warm there prior to the onset of much colder airmass.

Mainland Spain has provisionally recorded its highest temperature on record for December, with Málaga hitting 29.9c today.

Its just been non stop for Spain this year think they have broken records every month.
 

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Just seen this one. On that basis 21C is definitely possible here in December and January given the right conditions. Until I saw this I had my doubts.   🙂 

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Serious flooding in Queensland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67740978 


600 mm rain recorded in 24 hours with the possibility of another 500 mm still to come

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Some places have had over 2000 mm in 5 days. Some truly phenomenonal totals. One place had 800mm in under 24 hours.  

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I've got some very impressive stats for the Queensland rainfall records here which I'll put on this afternoon.    🙂 

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Montreal has had its warmest December 18th on record after hitting 9.2c on Monday.

[quote=lanky;1555463]Serious flooding in Queensland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67740978 


600 mm rain recorded in 24 hours with the possibility of another 500 mm still to come[

/quote]

Some really and truly impressive totals as I hinted at. I'll put some on here now as I promised.

Provisional data collected by Bureau of Meteorology rain gauges shows that two locations in Qld may have just received the 3rd and 4th highest daily rainfall on record in Australia. There were also four locations that beat the previous national daily record for December.
During the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, December 18, Bairds registered 870 mm and nearby Diwan recorded 829 mm. If these observations are valid, they are the 3rd and 4th heaviest daily rainfall totals on record in Australia. The only wetter days were 878.3 mm at Finch Hatton on February 18, 1958 and 907 mm at Crohamhurst on February 3, 1893.

This is over 30 inches in 24 hours. Incredible. It takes me 18 months to experience that in South Cambridgeshire. This lot have had this in 24 hours or less.

Now for some more even more impressive ones.

As of 9am Monday, a few places had seen more than two metres of rain over the last five days (9am on December 13 to 9am December 18). This included 2166 mm at Black Mountain, 2118 mm at Bairds and 2025mm at Myola. To put this rain into perspective, it exceeds the annual averages of Cairns (2000 mm) and Darwin (1721 mm).

Within these colossal multi-day totals were some shorter periods of very intense rainfall that caused rapid river level rises, flooding and landslips. At least two locations appear to have broken Qld’s 12-hour rainfall record, with Black Mountain receiving 672 mm!!! and Myola registering 665 mm!!! from Saturday evening into Sunday. These were both above the state’s previous 12-hour record of 617 mm from Paluma in January 1972. They are also higher than the annual averages of Melbourne (648 mm) and Adelaide (527 mm).
That is 25 inches or more in 12 hours or less. !!!

This vast amount of rainfall has been caused by the remnants of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper lingering over western parts of the Cape York Peninsula. Over the weekend, monsoonal winds from the Northern Hemisphere wrapped around the northern and eastern sides of Jasper, delivering a concentrated surge of tropical moisture and convection to Far North Queensland.

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Normally when this happen UK are under big freeze but this time we joint having mild winter.   Back in 1996/97 Xmas in Toronto was mild often while Uk was big freeze but lack of snow around this time in my area of Epsom.

At 21.51 hours on 21 Dec 2023, the heavy blustery showers that run off the North Sea earlier on has turned quite thundery as it passed over Netherlands, Germany, and even reaching Czech Republic and currently Austria (there was only sporadic thunder over the N Sea):-
https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=0.00;ts=0; .
See also :-
https://www.lightningmaps.org/blitzortung/europe/index.php?bo_page=archive&bo_map=0&lang=en&bo_year=2023&bo_month=12&bo_day=21&bo_hour_from=0&bo_hour_range=24#bo_arch_strikes_maps_form .