Cyclone Hola continued its path south-eastwards across the South Pacific this week, brushing along the northern-most fringes of New Zealand’s North Island. The cyclone, which intensified to category 4, brought with it heavy rain and strong winds in excess of 70mph to communities along the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne as well as to the country’s capital, Auckland. It was the third big storm to strike the country this year.

Across the Atlantic, in the northern and eastern parts of the US, a second “nor’easter” as coined by American meteorologists, brought further strong winds and heavy snowfall along the east coast, affecting the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Maine last Thursday.

A third winter storm is expected to strike during the coming days bringing strong winds and a mix of heavy rain and snowfall.

The anomalous warmth in the Arctic, which in part was responsible for the swath of exceptional cold that swept through Europe over the past few weeks, has done little to maintain the extent of the sea ice in the region, which should now be approaching its typical maximum limit.

As it stands, and within the satellite record, the sea ice extent recording seems to have put this winter within the top three for having the lowest ice extent. And there has been a reduction in the ice cover over the last three consecutive winters.