A Tropical Storm North of the Equator

In January, the lion's share of Earth's tropical cyclones are south of the equator, in the summer hemisphere, with the exception of the western North Pacific basin, where typhoons can occur year-round.
You don't see many January tracks north of the equator east of the international date line in the Pacific Ocean.

Tracks of all known January global tropical cyclones in the historical record. (NOAA/CSC)

Until January 2016, that is.
Pali became the earliest Central Pacific tropical storm of record on January 7, well southwest of Hawaii.
This was thanks to a burst of abnormal westerly low-level winds near or just south of the equator, coupled with the typical northeasterly trade winds of the subtropics north of the equator, providing a broad area of spin in which, once thunderstorms consolidated, a tropical storm formed.
Pali is only the third January tropical storm of record in central Pacific records dating to 1949.
https://weather.com/news/news/5-weird-things-happening-now-january-2016

Mississippi Valley Flooding

A home is completely submerged on December 30, 2015 in Fenton, Missouri. The St. Louis area and surrounding region experiencing record flood crests of the Mississippi, Missouri and Meremac Rivers after days of record rainfall. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images



What's so unusual about this? Don't the "Mighty Mississippi" and its tributaries swell at least once every year?
Well... yes, but rarely in winter.
Of 133 prior Mississippi River crests above flood stage in St. Louis, only three had occurred from December through February.
A succession of events late in the year, culminating in a torrential post-Christmas rain event, triggered this weird winter flood, setting record crests in several locations.
This prompted officials to announce the opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway on January 10, designed to drain excess Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain and protect the city of New Orleans.
Never before since the spillway had been completed in 1931 had it been opened this early in the year.





https://weather.com/news/news/5-weird-things-happening-now-january-2016