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WEATHER

Réunion island mops up after deadly cyclone

Cyclone Bejisa hammered parts of the French island of Réunion on Thursday night, claiming at least one life, leaving 15 injured, and cutting off water and electricity for hundreds of thousands.

Réunion island mops up after deadly cyclone
Residents of the French island of Réunion struggle to make it through the streets amid Cyclone Bejisa's 150-kmh winds on Thursday. Photo: Richard Bouhet/AFP

One person died and 15 were injured after a cyclone packing winds of 150 kilometres (95 miles) an hour passed over the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion, officials said on Friday.

A red alert asking residents to remain indoors was lifted on Friday.

But the cyclone caused widespread damage uprooting trees, damaging and flooding dozens of homes and severing power and water supplies (see video below).

The sole death from Thursday's cyclone Bejisa was an elderly person found outdoors, La Réunion's top government official Jean-Luc Marx said. The mayor of the town of Saint Leu, however, told French TV TF1 that there had in fact been "at least two deaths."

Two of the 15 injured were in serious condition after falling from a roof and a ladder while trying to secure their homes, local officials said.

State-run power firm EDF said downed lines cut electricity to about 172,000 households.

Around 200,000 people – roughly a quarter of the island's population – had water cut to their homes.

The eye of Cyclone Bejisa passed within 15 kilometres (10 miles) of the western side of Réunion.

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WEATHER

Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Summer is finally here! Or least it is if you live in southern Norway, where a warm front coming up from Europe will bring t-shirt temperatures of 20C by Thursday, according to forecasts.

Norway to get a taste of summer with 20C days this week

Warm air from southern Europe will combine with a high pressure zone which will bring clear skies and sunshine, with summery weather coming towards the end of the week, Norway’s national weather forecaster Yr has reported. 

“Thursday and Friday especially will be nice,” Ingrid Villa, a meteorologist at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, told the public broadcaster NRK. “Then we will probably get temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius in some places.” 

Patches of 20C warmth are expected both in western Norway around Bergen and in Western Norway around Oslo, with the area around Tromsø expected to have slightly cooler weather, although Villa said that “it will absolutely be something like summer there too”. 

The warm sunny weather is, however, expected to pass northern Norway by, with grey overcast skies expected for much of this week. 

But if you think summer has come to Norway to stay, you risk disappointment as much cooler temperatures are expected next week.  

“There’s nothing unusual in getting an early taste of summer in April and the start of May, and then we can quickly go back to cooler more spring-like weather,” Villa said. 

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