Titanic subtropical high pressure leads to the hottest weather of calendar summer in East Brazil and much of Australia into early March. Nearby heavy rains are in Argentina while a major tropical cyclone is close to the Australia East Coast.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reveals larger aerial coverage of drought risk across the U.S. during the onset of the final third of February this year versus 2024. Last spring, a wet regime erased Midwest dry soil conditions. This year, the meteorological spring forecast indicates above normal precipitation for the North-central and Northeast U.S.

All forecast models indicate an evolving very hot weather pattern across Australia this weekend and next week. Included is a tropical cyclone risk likely to strike the central and/or southern Queensland coast.

The polar vortex event for the week of February 16-22, 2025, is preliminarily projected to generate 270 HDD for the U.S. which is comparable to the arctic outbreak and Winter Storm “Enzo” during January 19-25, 2025, and the arctic outbreak and Winter Storm “Uri” during February 14-20, 2021.