Xtreme weather watch: Chicago hit 65 degrees, Grand Rapids 63 and Madison 50 last week, as record-breaking temperatures across the Midwest brought a string of rare January tornadoes to Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin and Arkansas. The Sheriff of Kenosha County called it “absolutely mind-boggling.” Indiana suffered torrential rains and flooding. “We’ve never seen anything like this in January,” a state policeman said. (New York Times)
It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in 100 years Friday. The light snow, which also fell in west and central Iraq, melted almost as soon as it fell but still caused a spectacle. Winter is generally mild but last week was unusually cold, with temperatures at night 10 degree below normal. The director of the meteorological department said climate change was possibly to blame. (PlanetArk, AP, BBC, AFP)
Several African countries were engulfed by floods last week. Rains started in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where more than a million are expected to be displaced. The floods destroyed crops and drowned livestock, then moved on to Mozambique, where hundreds of families had to flee their homes. About 34,000 were evacuated from the Zambezi Valley. In Mozambique, 6 were reported dead – 4 by drowning and 2 by crocodiles. Floods are common in the rainy season, April-November, but these rains caught officials off-guard. (PlanetArk)
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