A cyclone warning has been issued in northern Australia for coastal communities from the island of Groote Eylandt to the Northern Territory/Queensland border. Tropical Cyclone Megan, which developed in the Gulf of Carpentaria on Saturday, has been declared a category 3 cyclone by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Megan is forecast to make landfall on Monday, but has already brought gale-force winds and heavy rainfall to some areas over the weekend. Groote Eylandt was cut off after more than 400mm of rain in just 24 hours on Sunday.
There is a chance that Megan could strengthen further into a category 4 storm before making landfall, with the potential for damaging wind gusts of up to 125km/h. Megan is the fifth named cyclone in Australian waters so far this season, which is below the average of about 10 by this stage of the year.
Finland has had a relatively mild start to March, but it turned colder over the weekend, with a snowstorm bringing up to 10-15cm of snow and freezing temperatures to parts of the country on Sunday. The low temperatures look set to continue over the next few days, with minimum temperatures as low as -16C expected in Tampere, around 10C below the seasonal average for this time of year. Temperatures are expected to return to around or just above average again by the end of the week.
Meanwhile South Sudan is closing all schools indefinitely from Monday in response to an extreme heatwave, which is likely to persist for at least the next two weeks, with temperatures expected to widely reach 41-45C, with highs closer to 50C in the hottest spots. Overnight temperatures will also remain stubbornly high, not falling much below 27-28C. Temperatures in the capital, Juba, are likely to hit 40-42C every day this week.
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Guardian
