Over the past couple of weeks, California has seen the effects of a persistent atmospheric river bringing in constant spells of rain from the Pacific across the state. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) have released rainfall totals for some areas of California over the course of 16 days from 26 December 2022 through to 11 January 2023. Over the 16-day period downtown San Francisco received 345mm and in nearby Oakland totals reached 327.7mm, breaking their 16-day rainfall record. The significance of the flooding is only increased by having had extremely dry soils through the summer and autumn with severe droughts, therefore preventing soils from easily soaking up the intense rainfall that has occurred over recent weeks.
Tropical Cyclone Hale affected the North Island of New Zealand on 9-12 January. Severe thunderstorms brought 156.5mm to Hikuwai in Gisborne in the space of 12 hours, and more than 100mm to other places around Gisborne in the same period. Over the course of 18 hours, 219mm was recorded at Pinnacles in the Coromandel ranges and in Whitianga aerodrome on 10 January, making it the fifth wettest January day on record.
Meanwhile, extreme cold has swept across Russia, with an extraordinarily cold -62.1C recorded in the remote town of Dzhalinda in Siberia on Tuesday 10 January. This is the first time temperatures have fallen to -62C in Siberia since 2002. Temperatures this low have become less and less frequently reached over the decades, but this doesn’t mean they are no longer possible. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Russia was -67.8C in 1933.
The extreme cold is set to linger across eastern Russia through next week. There is a chance for more records to be set with temperatures remaining around 15-20C below the seasonal average. Some parts of central and south-west Asia have also been experiencing unusually cold conditions over the last week. The monthly record low temperature for Nurata in Uzbekistan was broken on Thursday 12 January, reaching -29.2C. The cold will similarly continue to affect south-west Asia for the coming week, but looking likely to become less intense.
