Tropical Cyclone Harold hit parts of Fiji and Vanuatu last week, briefly becoming Earth’s first category 5 storm of the year. The high winds and tides left behind destroyed crops and unroofed houses. High rainfall totals also caused serious flooding, with Monasavu in Fiji recording 213mm last Wednesday. The storm was unusually strong for this time of the year and is the second most powerful cyclone on record to hit Fiji, after Cyclone Pam in March 2015.
California was also notably wet last week, due to a cold upper low over the region. Around 10in (254mm) fell from 5 April to 11 April at Lytle Creek, Southern California. The same area of heavy rain caused flash flooding in parts of San Diego, while Los Angeles saw six consecutive days of April rainfall for the first time.
Elsewhere, there have been numerous records for April warmth set this week. Perth in Western Australia saw temperatures reach 39.5C on Easter Saturday. This smashed the previous record of 37.6C set on 9 April 1910. Across the Netherlands, it has been an unusually warm start to April with Eindhoven seeing temperatures of 25.5C on 8 April, a record for that date.
