Within the last two weeks,
seven people in America died from severe weather, but maybe not in the way you think.
A heatwave affecting Argentina has left at least seven people dead - most of them elderly - in the past week, officials say.
The heat has been compounded by power cuts, which have prevented many people from using air conditioning.
In Santiago del Estero and other northern provinces temperatures have soared to over 45C (113F).
Did I mention is was
South America? While the northern hemisphere has been suffering from the entirely made up, nope-never-heard-of-it-because-I-only-listen-to-things-that-match-my-preconceptions
polar vortex, the other end of the world has been baking.
Please pause for a moment and turn your thermometer over.
Blistering heat that formed over the Nullarbor at the end of December and continues over parts of inland Australia smashed temperature records and was a "highly significant" event, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
In a special climate statement released late on Monday, the bureau said the latest heatwave, while less extensive and prolonged than the record-breaking hot spell to start 2013, was still a remarkable event.
"A major feature of the [latest] heatwave was the very large margin by which some records were broken, particularly in northern New South Wales," the bureau said.
Advertisement
"At Narrabri [in NSW], the 47.8 (118 degrees Fahrenheit)degrees observed on 3 January surpassed the previous record by 3.6 degrees, the largest such margin at any Australian location with 40 or more years of data."
So, for the second year in a row, Australia is sweltering in record-breaking heat, with 34 cities besting all time highs. But hey, it's cold today. Where you live. So clearly, the glaciers are rolling.
How bad is the heat elsewhere? So hot it's raining bats.
Bats are dropping from trees, kangaroos are collapsing in the Outback and gardens are turning brown. While North America freezes under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after the hottest year ever.
And temperatures reached
122 degrees in several areas as it they closed on the all time record for anywhere in Australia.