Thousands of residents in eastern Australia were ordered to evacuate, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred's heavy rains and powerful winds blast two states ahead of it's expected landfall near Brisbane, the country's third-largest city.
The big picture: It's already caused widespread power outages and triggered storm surge along the southern Queensland and northern New South Wales coasts. Those who haven't evacuated were urged to stay inside ahead of its expected hit as a Category 2 storm, per the Bureau of Meteorology.
Threat level: NOAA's aircraft have specialized equipment that the Air Force's Hurricane Hunters lack. Their flights during hurricane season are aimed at feeding data into computer models to improve forecast accuracy.
History is set to be made on the Moon again this week, with Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission Nova-C class lunar lander Athena scheduled to land there at 12:32pm ET on Thursday.
The big picture: Intuitive Machines has partnered with Lunar Outpost to roll out the first commercial rover on the Moon and with Finnish multinational tech firm Nokia to deliver the first cellular network on Earth's only natural satellite.
Los Angeles County is suing Southern California Edison over the Eaton Fire, which killed 17 people in January.
The big picture: The cause of the blaze that was one of California's most destructive wildfires on record remains under investigation, but LA County alleges in a lawsuit there's "clear evidence" from images and witness statements that SCE's equipment was responsible for it.
The planet had its third-warmest February on record, following a surprise record-hot January, new data shows.
Why it matters: This is the first month not to be the first or second-hottest on record since June 2023. It may indicate some slight cooling relative to the not fully explained, record-shattering heat of the past two years.
