Weather tracker: ‘atmospheric rivers’ of heavy rain set to hit western US and Canada

Frozen Great Falls in New Jersey, US, on 21 January. After the eastern US was hit by winter storms last week, western states will experience heavy rain as a deepening low moves in from the Atlantic. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Over the past week, an intense tropical cyclone has been strengthening, with winds reaching 120mph. This cyclone originated on the west coast of the Cocos Islands and has been tracking south-west over the Indian Ocean in recent days.

This tropical cyclone was named Anggrek by the Jakarta Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre, but is not forecast to make landfall as it circulates around the central Indian Ocean before weakening later this week.