Over the weekend, a rapidly intensifying region of thunderstorms in the western Pacific culminated in the formation of Typhoon Mawar. The movement of this storm is projected to affect the Mariana Islands, including the US territory of Guam, as early as Tuesday. There is a risk of wind speeds above 75mph, with torrential rain. Beyond this, there is forecast model divergence but with sufficient risk that Mawar will continue to strengthen as it enters the Philippine Sea over this weekend and early next week. The potential for disruptive wind and rain will therefore exist for parts of the Philippines and perhaps towards Taiwan. In large tracts of central and northern Europe, May has been a fairly cool month with temperatures running below the seasonal norm. Over the past few days, warmth has started to build, particularly across parts of Germany and into the Alps. Later this week and through the weekend, it looks likely that more significant heat will build through Spain and Portugal, eventually extending northwards through France. While there are still some uncertainties, it may well be that temperatures reach the high 20s or low 30s celsius, with parts of the UK potentially receiving some of this warmth next week. Meanwhile, in Australia forecasters are predicting some extremely windy and cold weather for south-eastern areas through the coming week, culminating in some significant snowfalls later in the week. Damaging winds gusting above 70mph affected Tasmania on Sunday, leading to widespread power disruption, with the strong winds spreading to eastern Victoria and southern parts of New South Wales. However, as a new area of low pressure pushes northwards to the east of Tasmania on Thursday and Friday, cold air digging in from the south is likely to produce a drop in temperature and the prospect of disruptive snowfall, particularly to the high ground of Victoria and New South Wales.