Weather

Fiji declared a state of natural disaster on Thursday, ordering its entire population to take shelter ahead of a nightly curfew as a potentially devastating cyclone approached the Pacific Island nation.

Just days after bushfires threatened an Australian World Heritage site, thousands were bracing for floods on the subtropical east coast on Sunday (Dec 13), with beaches closed and the authorities urging people to sandbag their homes.

This year is on track to be the second hottest on record, behind 2016, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday. Five data sets currently place 2020, a year characterised by heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and raging hurricanes, as the second warmest since records began in 1850.

Cyclonic storm Burevi has shown a slight change in its current path heading towards Sri Lanka, the Meteorology Department said.

Parts of Australia, including Sydney, sweltered through the hottest November night on record with temperatures likely to stay high on Sunday, prompting authorities to issue a total fire ban.

A severe cyclone slammed into India’s southern coast early on Thursday, uprooting trees and power lines but there were no immediate reports of loss of life or extensive damage to property.

On 21 July 2016 the temperature in Mitribah, north-west Kuwait, reached 53.9C (129F). This was, at the time, the third-highest reading reliably recorded on Earth, and the hottest ever for the whole of Asia.

The minimum temperature dropped to 7.5 degree Celsius on Friday morning, the lowest in 10 years for the month of November in Delhi.

Manila, November 1 - A super typhoon slammed into the Philippines early on Sunday (Nov 1), affecting some 30 million and killing at least four as it brought hurricane-force winds and dumped heavy rains across the main island of Luzon. Typhoon Goni, locally known as Rolly, made landfall at around 5am in Catanduanes province in Bicol, some 500km south-east of...

Manila, October 31 (Reuters) - Philippine officials on Saturday ordered evacuation of thousands of residents in the southern part of the main Luzon island as a category 5 storm that is the world’s strongest this year approaches the Southeast Asian nation. Typhoon Goni, with 215 kph (133 miles) sustained winds and gusts of up to 265 kph (164 mph), will...