The Canary Islands were plagued by adverse weather this week as Storm Regina, named by the Portuguese weather service, barrelled through the archipelago. The storm swept eastwards towards Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday after bringing strong gusts of up to 64mph to the island of Lanzarote.
Wave heights of 5-6 metres were widely reported, while some peaked above 6 metres along northern coasts in the Canary island chain. As a result, the area was placed under a yellow warning for rough seas. To add to the chaos, snowfall struck elevations above 1,500 metres in Tenerife, closing multiple mountain roads.
The winter of 2025-26 will be remembered as somewhat of a rollercoaster across much of the US, with stark spatial and temporal contrasts. Multiple intrusions of Arctic air engulfed large parts of the country, bringing record snowfall and weeks of sub-zero temperatures to many states, most notably in Rhode Island, which recorded nearly 38in (96cm) in 48 hours in last month’s blizzard.
However, this week, the thermometer was flipped on its head. Warm air surged northwards from Mexico, pooling over Texas, Arizona and California. A temperature of 41C (106F) was recorded earlier this week in Falcon, Texas, preliminarily breaking the record for the warmest temperature recorded in the US during the meteorological winter months of December, January and February.
Despite multiple arctic outbreaks in the eastern half of the country throughout the winter, record warmth in the west led to the season being the second warmest winter on record when averaged across the nation. States in the south such as Florida also had a very dry winter, with many areas entering spring under severe or extreme drought conditions, according to the National Drought Mitigation Centre.
However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as the latest forecast models are showing the development of an El Niño event later this year. El Niño occurs when the waters in the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean become warmer than normal and is one part of the El Niño southern oscillation, which also features the cooler La Niña phenomenon. When an El Niño is present in the Pacific, Florida’s rainy season is often amplified from increased tropical moisture and storm activity in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
