As Storm Pierrick affected France this week, a tornado was reported to have damaged about 15 homes in Lestrem, a village of about 5,000 people in the Pas-de-Calais in northern France. The tornado formed as part of a series of severe thunderstorms that hit the region on Monday night. Winds reached about 75mph (120km/h), making this an EF0 event, the lowest strength for tornado classification.
A second line of thunderstorms developed across France that night, spanning from the Belgian border in the north to the Spanish border in the south. In total, storms produced more than 27,000 lightning strikes across France, about 7,000 of which were cloud-to-ground.
New Zealand was also affected by a severe weather system this week due to a deep area of low pressure over the Tasman Sea, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms from Wednesday night until Saturday morning. Severe thunderstorm and strong wind watches were put out across much of the country, alongside some orange heavy rain warnings for the North Island and South Island.
The South Island recorded its heaviest rainfall during Wednesday night and Thursday morning, while in the North Island rainfall was heaviest over Thursday night and Friday morning. Rainfall totals reached almost 250mm for the whole event. With temperatures set to drop, rain may turn to snow across the southernmost region of Southland, and snow warnings have been issued for higher roads in the area.
There was significant flooding in parts of Russia and Kazakhstan this week, displacing more than 100,000 people. Floods are common in the region at this time of year due to snowmelt feeding into the Ural River. However, several intensifying factors are thought to have contributed to the severity of these floods: waterlogged soils froze before winter, reducing the amount of snowmelt the ground could absorb before it fed into the river; and the thaw was fast, with temperatures rising from 0C to about 20C in a matter of days.
