I don’t want to set a precedent by reporting “wild, weird stuff” from the World of Weather each week or even each month, but it seems the few weeks has had a lot going on. Of course, the record-breaking snows and power outages across the eastern U.S. are well known . . . but there’s more:

Snow records: Not only did Washington, D.C. set records for the most amount of snow ever, but so did Cincinnati, OH and many, many other eastern U.S. locations.

As if it wasn’t terrible enough already: Flooding in Haiti. Following the earthquake, last week several torrential downpours lasted an hour or more as the United Nations acknowledges the scarcity of even temporary shelter and that only 25% of the homeless have tarps. The flooding caused little (additional) damage. To add insult to injury, the Haiti rainy season begins in early April.

Warmth record: The warmest January on record for some areas near Seattle and more rain than snow for the Winter Olympics just up the road in Vancouver. Unsafe skiing conditions have postponed several Olympic events, although high pressure of late has allowed clear skies and ideal temperatures for athletes and spectators alike.

Cold record: Reports of the coldest January since 1987 have retail sales down in the United Kingdom — it was too cold to go out and shop, apparently.

Rare occurrences: This past Saturday, there was snow on the ground in all 48 contiguous states, plus Alaska — a rare occurrence, indeed. If we could have only had some snow on Hawaii’s tallest volcanoes . . . which is not unusual at this time of year.

Odd occurrences: Violent waves (but not “rogue”) drenched a California surf competition.

Good news, bad news: El Niño-driven storms brought landslides and flooding to southern California, but eased drought concerns.

For the birds: More frequent outbreaks of cold weather (thank you, El Niño) in Texas and Mexico are driving some species out of the higher elevations in search of warmer weather.

Flooding: Texas. Rains across central Texas have caused rivers to overflow their banks in places like Brenham (northwest of Houston).

More flooding: A massive landslide Monday in southern Italy brought about by heavy, long-lasting rains.

More flooding: Uruguay — 5,000 forced to evacuate.

More flooding: Bulgaria. As in the United States, one storm after the next has been moving across the Mediterranean and southern Europe driven by powerful jet stream winds.

More flooding: Flooding in Makkah, Saudi Arabia has forced officials to provide training as to how to prepare for floods, how to evacuate buildings and other emergency procedures more common in flood-prone areas.

More flooding: Continuing rains over New Zealand’s South Island over the past week with some areas expected to receive up to 5 inches.

1-2 Punch: Following excessive heat, flooding comes to New South Wales, Australia.

Tropical: Tropical Cyclone Rene turned away from American Samoa this past Tuesday and has now dissipated, but it’s been an active 2010 Pacific tropical season with 10 storms south of the Equator since the first of the year: Edzani, Neville, Magda, Olga, Nisha, #11, Fami, Oli, Pat and Rene.

Flooding in New South Wales brings out the SUVs and the surfboards. Photo: ABC South East NSW, Bill Brown.

The Chinese New Year started February 14; the year of the tiger. For all of us, wherever we may be, it seems to be evolving into the year of the weather . . .