Weather

After Sydney’s soggiest start to August in nearly three decades, even more rain could be on the way with a wetter than usual spring forecast for eastern New South Wales.

Only 11 days into August, rainfall in the city had reached 194mm – more than double the monthly average – marking the wettest start to the month since 1998, according to Weatherzone.

Flash flooding has inundated parts of the Midwest as heavy rainfall in half a dozen states knocked out power to thousands, forced road closures and killed at least one person over the weekend, officials said.

A person was killed in eastern Nebraska and another person was seriously injured when a tree fell on a vehicle they were in during a storm on Saturday, according to the Waterloo Volunteer Fire Department in Nebraska. The storm system produced wind gusts of up to 90 miles per hour in several Nebraskan counties, the National Weather Service said.

The National Weather Service issued flood watches and warnings for parts of Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin. After rainfall began on Saturday in some areas, forecasters predicted "repeated rounds of heavy rain," along with hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes into Monday.

Among the worst hit was the Milwaukee area, where up to 14 inches of rain had fallen in some areas by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which also noted river flooding in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. Some motorists left their stranded cars on roads. Nearly 18,000 customers of We Energies in southeast Wisconsin were without power late Sunday. In the suburban village of Wauwatosa, an overflowing and fast-moving Menomonee River submerged a popular playground.

After a period of cooler weather, swaths of central and eastern Europe face another heatwave as hot air over south-western Europe pushes north-west.

The municipal weather service announced a red alert -- the highest in a four-tier system -- forecasting heavy rain from noon on Monday until Tuesday morning.

Most parts of the city are expected to see 100 millimetres (four inches) of rain during a six-hour period overnight, but outlying areas could experience between 150mm and 200mm, authorities said.

"There is an extremely high risk of flash floods, mudslides, landslips and other natural disasters in mountain areas," the Beijing government said on an official social media account.

"Citizens are advised not to go outside unless necessary," it said.

Fears for August as Kyoto reaches 40C and Seoul has 22 nights above 25C, while eastern Australia enjoys snow

Peru's national weather service said wind gusts reached up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour in the Ica region, about 400 kilometers south of Lima.

The effects of the unusual weather event were also felt in the regions of Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna -- which borders Chile -- where winds reached up to 32 kilometers an hour.

The weather agency said the "increase in wind speed, ranging from moderate to strong intensity," is expected to continue along the Peruvian coast through Sunday.

Torrential rains pounded Korea for five consecutive days, leaving 17 people dead and 11 missing and damaging nearly 2,000 public facilities nationwide, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the National Fire Agency on Sunday.

In response, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to swiftly assess the flood damage and expedite the designation of special disaster zones, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said later in the day.

A tropical storm that prompted flight and ferry cancellations in Taiwan is forecast to reach typhoon strength before hitting the southern China coast on Sunday.

The storm earlier crossed the Philippines, where a parked truck was crushed by a billboard-like structure that was toppled by high winds in Quezon City, north of Manila.

Wipha had maximum sustained winds of 101 kph (63 mph) and gusts up to 126 kph (78 mph) as it passed south of Taiwan on Saturday, the island's Central News Agency said.

More than 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain was recorded in Hualien and Taitung counties on Taiwan's east coast, the news agency said. Several domestic flights were canceled and service on 14 ferry routes was suspended because of rough seas and strong winds.

Days of record-breaking heat across large swathes of China pushed power demand to an all-time high in excess of 1.5 billion kilowatts on Wednesday (Jul 16), energy officials said, with temperatures forecast to feel like 50 degrees Celsius in some areas on Thursday.

An arc of sweltering heat stretching from the densely populated city of Chongqing in the southwest to Guangzhou on the coast has enveloped an area home to over 200 million people in recent days.

A subtropical high pressure system, which causes warm and dry weather, drove temperatures at eight weather stations in the northwest and southwest of China to record highs in the last two days, state media said on Thursday, citing national weather authorities.

"The power system is holding up so far," said Chim Lee, a senior energy and climate change specialist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

• A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms has been issued across large parts of the UK, including London, the Midlands, and the North East and West of England, from Friday evening until Saturday.
• The Met Office predicts torrential rain, with potential for 20-30mm in less than an hour and up to 90mm in three hours in some areas, which could cause travel disruption and flooding.
• This follows a period of high temperatures, with London forecast to reach 30C on Friday, and the incoming heat is described as more humid.
• Several water companies, including Southern Water, South East Water, and Thames Water, are implementing hosepipe bans across various regions of England.
• These restrictions are in response to exceptionally dry weather, with England experiencing its driest start to the year since 1976, and drought status declared in the East and West Midlands.

At least three people were killed and more than 1,000 evacuated Thursday after South Korea was hit by torrential rains, officials said, with one region pummeled by the most rainfall per hour since full records began.

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July, but three areas in the country's South Chungcheong province this week saw some of the heaviest hourly downpours on record, official weather data showed.

Three people were killed Thursday, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said, all in South Chuncheong province.

One person died and 13 others were injured, including eight children, after being struck by lightning on Wednesday in New Jersey, officials said.

The strike hit the ground near a group at the Black Knight Bowbenders archery range, a well-known community site that regularly hosts events, Jackson Township Mayor Michael Reina told ABC News' New York station, WABC.

This was the twelfth lightning fatality this year.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the area Wednesday evening.

Much of northwest and central New Jersey was also under flood watches through Wednesday night, with storms expected to produce heavy downpours following a deadly deluge earlier this week.

Slow-moving thunderstorms packed with heavy rain and strong winds triggered dangerous flash flooding in parts of the Tri-State area Monday evening, swallowing roadways, parking lots and subway stations.

The storms prompted New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to declare a state of emergency, "given flash flooding and high levels of rainfall in parts of the state."

He's urging residents to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel.

Heavy rain and strong winds have lashed parts of New Zealand as a cold front moved east across the country, and authorities warn conditions could worsen over the next 24 hours, triggering floods and landslides.

The northern regions of both the South Island and North Island of the country could be severely affected by the wild weather, the country's weather bureau said on Friday.

New Zealand's MetService said the wind would pick up from Friday afternoon, with gusts of up to 120km/h forecast for some regions. There could be severe thunderstorms later on Friday, MetService's Heather Keats said.

Image credit: JMA/Himawari-9, RAMMB/CIRA, Acquired at 03:00 UTC on July 11, 2025

Tokyo was hit by a torrential downpour Thursday evening during rush hour, with the Meteorological Agency warning residents to prepare for heavy rain, flooding and lightning.

The agency recorded 120 millimeters of rain in Suginami Ward and about 100 mm in Setagaya Ward at around 7 p.m. — enough to cause disasters. The agency only announces warnings of this kind when there is enough rain in a short period of time to trigger landslides or flooding.

The weather agency is forecasting up to 150 mm of rain in the 24 hours through 6 p.m. Friday in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, and 100 mm for the Koshin region of Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures.

The Tokyo Fire Department received a call that a vehicle driving into a flooded underpass in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward was stalled, NHK reported, adding that first responders are trying to rescue people possibly trapped in the car.

Video : https://xcancel.com/i/status/1943326597840515436

No injuries were reported after an intense night of stormy weather unfolded in central Alberta on Wednesday night, but once the storms passed, one couple was left with a strange video of something bright and shiny a few hundred metres from their home that they could not make sense of.

Global News showed the video to Frank Florian, senior manager of planetarium and space sciences at the TELUS World of Science in Edmonton.

He described it as “an incredible video” of something “very strange associated with severe weather conditions.”

Florian said the events are believed to unfold when there is plasma — a superheated gas — confined to a small area.

“Lightning itself is a plasma,” he said. “You have an electrical path going through the sky from the cloud to the Earth, kind of meet up in the middle and it superheats the air really, really quickly, and it creates a plasma