Heavy rain has plagued the south of Queensland, Australia, since the beginning of 2004. Quilpie, a small settlement in the Artesian basin, has seen further heavy rain in the last 24 hours. In total 48 mm of rain has been recorded during this time, which is more than the average March rainfall of 40 mm.

Northern Morocco has once again been wet, and also rather cold. Nador Aroui had a top temperature of just 12 Celsius on Monday, well below the average of 18 Celsius. Also, since 0600 GMT yesterday, 99mm of rain has fallen, This is more than three times the average of 36mm for the whole month.

Leaving rain behind, things have been getting very warm indeed in southern Asia. The Indian sub-continent does usually heat up rapidly at this time year, but some extreme temperatures have been recorded in northern India and Pakistan. At Rohri, in Pakistan, temperatures of 45 Celsius were recorded yesterday, which is 10 Celsius above average. At Barmer in northern India, the temperature reached 34 Celsius, which may well be the highest ever recorded March temperature in this city.

But there is always a balance! Des Moines in Iowa, USA, was on the receiving end of a winter storm last night. Snow was falling at the rate of an inch per hour, and with a strong breeze, drifing snow made driving conditions particularly difficult. Carroll County, to the northwest of Des Moines, had 40 cm (16 inches) of snow in total, and it then started heading eastwards towards Illinois and Indiana.

Staying in the winter theme, in Canada, the city of Eureka has remained very cold. The overnight minimum temperature fell to a staggering -46 Celsius. However, the average minimum temperature here is still an extremely cold -41 Celsius. Brrrrr!

Weather News from the last five days:
15/03/2004
14/03/2004
13/03/2004
12/03/2004
11/03/2004

Click here for the Review of the Day