A flood emergency was issued for parts of the US mid-west last Sunday. Severe thunderstorms deluged Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin, and northern Minnesota. The national weather service reported that 4-7in (10-17cm) of rain fell in Houghton county, Michigan, and floods devastated homes and businesses in the area and caused giant sinkholes to open up.
The third named storm in the Pacific, Carlotta, lacked potency to achieve hurricane status but still packed a punch. Carlotta tracked along the south-west coast of Mexico on Sunday and Monday. Coastal areas from Tecpán de Galeana to Lázaro Cárdenas braced for torrential rain and tropical storm-force winds. Nearly 10in of rain fell in places, which led to flash flooding and mudslides.
In south-west Colorado wildfires raged along the edge of the San Juan National Forest after a prolonged dry, hot, spell in the area left the parched land susceptible to catching alight.
Strong winds hampered relief efforts and fanned the blaze which scorched more than 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of land. As a precaution the US Forest Service closed all 1.8m acres of the San Juan forest to visitors last week.
