The mild temperatures and the lack of snow since December have greatly disrupted sporting events in the mountains. Indeed, only the high altitude resorts like in Savoie, but also in the Southern Alps, have managed to keep part of their ski areas open. The weather conditions have led to the cancellation of some competitions such as the 4th stage of the E-Trophée Andros in Tignes in Savoie, the 39th edition of the Retordica sled dog race in the Ain, the second slalom of the Women's Alpine Skiing World Cup scheduled in Zagreb which was cancelled due to high temperatures or the French stage of the Nordic Combined World Cup scheduled for January 21 and 22, 2023 in Chaux-Neuve (Doubs).
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"Rivers in the sky" are pouring into California.
After a severe winter storm, California was hit with a massive storm, causing destruction, landslides and flooding. This phenomenon is known as an "atmospheric river" as moisture is carried thousands of miles until it turns into heavy rain and wind gusts. In this case, the atmospheric river originated in the tropics, around Hawaii, hence its other name: the Pineapple Express.
The center and the north of the state were victims of a storm generating gusts of 160km/h in places as well as the deprivation of electricity of more than 190 000 homes according to the PowerOutage site. This storm is 90% of Californians under water.
In addition, the NWS warned against the risk of "rapidly rising waters, landslides and potential major river overflows", in this state, devastated by a chronic drought for two decades and victim of fires leading to the devastation of vegetation, increasing the risk of landslides. 6 million people are under mandatory evacuation order and 17 have already lost their lives.
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Ex-tropical cyclone Ellie brought heavy rain to parts of northern Australia in late December 2022, causing flooding in parts of northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Earlier this month, Australia was hit by deadly torrential rains, prompting the Australian authorities to issue a weather warning for heavy rain and high winds for a 400 km strip along the east coast.
Nearly 200,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes due to the rains, killing 13 people on the East Coast. Many rivers overflowed their banks and water flooded entire homes.
For your information, Australia is affected in recent years by climate change and has been a victim of frequent flooding due to the recurring weather phenomenon of the Nina. Concerning this episode, it has been qualified as "floods of the century" in this territory.
On Tuesday, January 10, 2023, the European institute Copernicus, whose mission is to measure the consequences of global warming, published its global climate report for the year 2022. In general, the concentrations of greenhouse gases have never been as high in the atmosphere as in 2022. This year is considered the 5th warmest year globally. A temperature anomaly of +1.18°C compared to the average of the pre-industrial period (1850-1900) is recorded.
In addition, Copernicus has noted the upward trend in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, an increase similar to previous years for CO2 (+2.1 ppm). However, an increase above average for methane to more than 12 ppb. These figures represent a 50% increase compared to the pre-industrial era for CO2 and more than 162% for methane.
Nearly half of France was placed under yellow alert by Météo France on Sunday, January 8, for wind, rain-flooding, thunderstorms and flooding.
During the week, the weather conditions became more and more unstable especially in the Hauts De France, where the wind was gusting between 40 and 50km/h on average, going up to 80 to 90km/h in the Audomarois and along the Opal Coast.
In addition, Météo France continues to call for caution in the Pas-de-Calais, a department maintained in orange vigilance due to significant flooding on the rivers Liane and Hem.