Weather tracker: Tropical Cyclone Mitchell hits Western Australia

Tropical Cyclone Mitchell hit the coast of Western Australia last week. It initially developed as a weak tropical low over the Northern Territory in early February, then tracked eastwards over Western Australia’s Kimberly region and eventually reached the Indian Ocean.

Fuelled by warm waters, Mitchell intensified into a tropical cyclone and moved south-west, hugging the coast of Western Australia and eventually deepened to a category three storm.

Affected coastal regions experienced destructive winds, abnormally high tides and heavy rainfall throughout last weekend. Mitchell eventually made landfall in westernmost Western Australia, weakening back to a tropical low. Lingering moisture from Mitchell fuelled further stormy weather across southern Western Australia on Monday, bringing heavy rain and wind damage to farms and businesses.

Cyclone Genzani made landfall on Madagascar’s east coast on Tuesday, causing major flooding and damaging hundreds of buildings, with winds of 155mph recorded near the city centre of Toamasina. Genzani weakened after making landfall but continued to sweep across the island, killing at least nine people and displacing more than 1,300. Genzani is the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year, after Tropical Cyclone Fytia just 10 days ago, which killed 14 and displaced 31,000.

Meanwhile, the blocked weather pattern across Europe, which brought the very wet start to the year for the west and south-west of the continent, has had the opposite effect farther north-east. Under the influence of persistent high pressure over northern Europe, dry and cold conditions prevailed in large parts of Scandinavia, the Baltics and eastern Europe, resulting in the continent’s coldest January since 2010.

Two notable cold snaps produced the most extreme conditions. The first struck in early January in the far north, where temperatures plummeted into the -40sC. Tulppio in Finland recorded -42.8C on 9 January, followed by -41.5C in Karasjok in Norway on the 11th. Flights were cancelled as deicing failed, leaving tourists stranded, while high demand for heating drove record electricity use.

The second extreme cold spell developed in late January, again initially affecting northern Scandinavia, with temperatures falling to -35.6C in Utsjoki in Finland. Then, as low pressure pushed in from the east in early February, this Arctic air sank south into eastern Europe. In Lithuania temperatures fell to -34.3C on 1 February, while north-eastern Poland recorded a minimum of -27.7C, about 20C below the climate average. The prolonged cold spell allowed parts of the Baltic Sea to freeze over, with thick ice sheets forming in the Bay of Gdansk. This winter 38 people in Poland have died from hypothermia, double last year’s tally.