‘Bomb Cyclone’: Snow and Bitter Cold Blast the Northeast

Boston’s Long Wharf area became a slushy mess when a three-foot tidal surge pushed floodwaters into buildings and down the steps of the Aquarium mass transit station. Firefighters rescued one person who was trapped in a car that had water nearly to its door handles. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen the water come this high in the downtown area,” Joseph Finn, the city’s fire commissioner, said as the wind whipped heavy snow through the air. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/us/winter-snow-bomb-cyclone.html

The extreme heat in Australia is causing bats' brains to fry

On Sunday, temperatures topping 113 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded around Sydney — making it the metropolis' hottest day since 1939. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/09/extreme-heat-australia-causing-bats-brains-fry/1018495001/

Deadly rains in Southern California send rivers of mud into homes, trigger fire, flooding

"Rainfall rates were unprecedented,” the National Weather Service said in a statement read at a news conference in Santa Barbara County Tuesday afternoon. A rain gauge at the Carpinteria Fire Department recorded ½ inch of rain in just 5 minutes, according to the weather service. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/rains-southern-california-send-rivers-mud-homes-trigger-fire-n836016