Globally, different parts of the world are experiencing extreme weather conditions. An Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University Shanghai, Yifei Li has said, “Extremity will become the new norm. So much so that even the word “extremity” or “extreme weather” I think is almost becoming a misnomer, because they're not so extreme.”
China on Monday received the first snowfall of winter in Beijing after which a thick blanket of snow covered most parts of Beijing. Cold weather gripped large swathes of China on Thursday, with sharp falls in temperature expected over the next few days, particularly in the south, in unusually frigid weather for December.
Beijing typically sees its first snow of the season between late November and February, or even none at all. More snowfall is expected this week, with temperatures seen further sliding to as low as minus 20°Celsius (minus 4°F).
Keeping the situation in view, Chinese authorities have closed highways in several provinces and suspended train services, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.
From snow gripped China to Cyclone halted Australia. Residents of tourist towns in Australia's northeast on Thursday braced for flash flooding after Tropical Cyclone Jasper tore through the region, uprooting trees, leaving tens of thousands without power, and forcing evacuations and road closures.
Cyclone Jasper made landfall on Wednesday as a Category 2 storm, three rungs below the most dangerous wind speed level.
Although the storm, has now downgraded to a tropical low, it may intensify back to cyclonic strength over the weekend toward the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Australia is under the influence of the El Nino phenomenon this summer, which can provoke extreme weather phenomena from wildfires to tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts.
In USA's Florida, a low-pressure system is moving up the East Coast that could bring torrential rain in several areas.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
