Normally found skimming the North Pacific, seabirds known as common murres are appearing inland in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and elsewhere in Southcentral Alaska, starving and unable to fly.

Reports of grounded murres have emerged from Moose Pass to north of Talkeetna, with many found this week in the Susitna Valley. The foot-tall black and white birds that resemble small penguins are showing up in odd places -- on the shoulder of busy Knik-Goose Bay Road outside Wasilla, just off a sled dog trail in Willow, tucked up next to a house in Houston.

The influx of murres is inundating local wildlife rehabilitation centers.

On Wednesday alone, 20 murres arrived at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage from Alaska WildBird Rehabilitation Center in Houston, where Susitna Valley residents are bringing grounded birds.

Hundreds of people shared social media posts about the bizarre murre sightings. One Valley resident posted a pathetic photo of a murre on its side in the snow on a Facebook group for Mat-Su lost and found pets with a comment: "This little fella is sitting in our driveway. I'm not sure what's wrong with him but he can't seem to fly away -- he can waddle and that's about it."

Hundreds of people have evacuated from their homes in Tonga as severe tropical cyclone Ula slammed into the tiny Pacific kingdom.

There are no reported casualties as Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva declared a state of emergency before the storm hit "in order to prevent or minimise the loss of human life, illness or injury".

The northern island of Vava'u took the brunt of the category three cyclone which was packing winds up to 150 kilometres per hour.

"We are very happy that there are no casualties, police checked with hospitals and town officers to confirm that," the chairman of the National Emergency Management Office, Siaosi Sovaleni, told a press conference.

"We had 11 evacuation centres, over 390 people were relocated to these evacuation centres."

Ula formed early on Thursday in the South Pacific between Tuvalu and Samoa and was initially expected to remain a category one storm as it tracked west-south-westerly.

However, it intensified to category two late on Thursday then to category three as it approached Tonga.

Category Five: the phase evokes an almost reverential awe in novice and seasoned hurricane watchers alike, as one considers the incredible power and majesty of these most perfect but terrifyingly destructive storms on the planet. As we look back on the year in weather, a striking feature of 2015 is the bumper crop of these fearsome storms that appeared--thanks to El Niño bringing record-warm ocean temperatures to large swaths of the Pacific Ocean.

Nine Category 5 storms whipped into life over the world's oceans in 2015: five in the Northwest Pacific, one in the Northeast Pacific, one in the Southeast Pacific, and two in the South Indian Ocean. Since accurate global satellite records began in 1990, only one year has seen more. That record is held by the El Niño year of 1997, which had twelve Category 5 storms--ten of them in the Northwest Pacific. Two other season have seen nine Cat 5s--2004 and 2014. Earth averaged just 4.6 Category 5 storms per year between 1990 - 2014, according to ratings made by NOAA's National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The majority of these storms occur during the July - November peak of the Northern Hemisphere's tropical cyclone season, with 59% of all Cat 5s occurring in the Northwest Pacific.

Here, then, is a "rogue's gallery" of all the Category 5 storms on Earth in 2015:


Cat Five #9, Northeast Pacific

Hurricane Patricia as seen by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft at 1:30 pm EDT October 23, 2015. At the time, Patricia was the most intense hurricane ever observed in the Western Hemisphere, with 200 mph sustained surface winds and a central pressure of 879 mb. Patricia made landfall in an relatively unpopulated area near Cuixmala in Southwest Mexico on October 23 as a Category 5 storm with 165 mph winds, killing fourteen and doing $300 million in damage.

Dairy producers in West Texas and eastern New Mexico are continuing to assess how many animals died in the winter storm last weekend, but the number will probably climb to more than 30,000, an official with a dairy group said Thursday.

Texas Association of Dairymen executive director Darren Turley said an estimated 15,000 mature dairy cows died in the storm's primary impact area — from Lubbock west to Muleshoe and north to Friona which is home to half of the state's top-10 milk producing counties and produces 40 per cent of the state's milk.

Dramatic footage has captured the moment when an ancient bridge collapsed into a swollen river.

People were evacuated from the area around the bridge over the River Wharfe in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, after the collapse of the 18th century structure caused a gas leak.

The Press Association video shows the moment the stone side of the structure gave way, with parts dropping into the powerful river below and leaving the roadway and broken pipes clearly visible.

Tadcaster is 10 miles from York and has been affected by flooding caused by storms in recent days.

The bridge had already been closed due to fears over its structural safety before a crowd gathered at the riverside on Tuesday evening, as stone could be heard falling into the water and creaking noises could be heard.

Just before 5pm a huge chunk of the bridge fell into the water just a few feet below.

Parts of Turkey have been paralyzed by heavy snowfall ahead of the country's New Year's Eve celebrations. Istanbul's Ataturk Airport has been forced to cancel over a hundred flights, while there are major disruptions at other transport links.

Snow started to fall across many provinces in Turkey on Wednesday that has continued into New Year's Eve, proving to be a nightmare for travelers wishing to take in the holiday celebrations.

Luis Felipe Gaspar, a photo and video journalist in Mexicali, Mexico captured this amazing firenado during a blaze in a city's dump transfer unit on 28th December 2015.


Original video here.

The injured workers were flown to shore for medical assistance after the powerful wave crashed onto the platform during Storm Frank.

One worker has died and two more have been injured after huge waves hit an oil rig in the North Sea .

The incident occurred this evening at 5pm on the North Sea Platform during Storm Frank .

The injured workers were flown to land for medical assistance by a Sea King helicopter from the Norwegian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre and one was taken by SAR helicopters.

Norwegian operator Statoil are evacuating the rig with workers being flown to the shore after the workers' accommodation module was reportedly damaged.

A spokesman for the company said: "It is with sorrow that Statoil and COSL has received confirmation from the police that one person has deceased after a huge wave hit the COSL Innovator rig today."

An Irish water sport enthusiast took advantage of recent bad weather and turned a flooded road into her very own wakeboarding playground.

Oisin Harding posted this video online of Lindsay Whelan wakeboarding down a street in Tipperary on December 28 with the title "Been real Irish about things." The video has since gone viral, with over 1 million views.

Whelan is a member of the Irish wakeboarding team and showed off her impressive skills while being dragged by a car. The road has been deluged for several days due to flooding in the area, and many praised Whelan for finally putting it to good use.

About a dozen people watch as Storm Frank hits the south Wales coastal town of Porthcawl on Wednesday morning, causing forceful waves to crash into the sea wall.

In Scotland, the storm closed the motorway near Abington, South Lanarkshire.

Footage shows smaller vehicles stranded in deep water almost up to their roofs