Wild weather: 3rd-warmest February globally on record

Josh Classen takes a look at some of the big weather stories making headlines this past week.

Here’s a look at some of the big weather stories making headlines this past week:

Tropical cyclone Alfred weakened just before hitting eastern Australia near Brisbane. But the storm still caused significant damage and flooding.

Beaches along the Gold Coast were washed away and turned into steep sandy cliffs.

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More than 300,000 homes and businesses lost power after wind speeds of more than 100 km/h. The wind also toppled trees, damaging homes and vehicles.

One person is dead after being swept away in a flooded river.

NOAA’s National Centers for Environment Information is out with their February climate report and the global surface temperature was 1.26 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century average.

It didn’t feel that warm in western Canada and parts of the United States as temperatures were below average. But, globally, this was the third-warmest February on record.

The Arctic, in particular, was well above average and arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record. It was 430,000 square miles, or over 1-million square kilometres, below average.

Flash flooding in the Canary Islands submerged homes and swept vehicles out to sea. A storm system dumped nearly three times as much rain as that area would normally get in all of March.

Streets turned into rivers and in one spot, and about 80 people were trapped in a supermarket during the floods.