Tropical Cyclone Donna, packing 120-mph winds, is bearing down on the French territory of New Caledonia in the south Pacific. On Sunday, as its winds soared to 130 mph, Donna became the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere in the month of May, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.

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As of midday Monday U.S. time, the storm was the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and was moving to the southeast at 9 mph. Tropical cyclones are the same types of storms as hurricanes or typhoons.

By Tuesday into Wednesday, local time, the center of Donna should pass near New Caledonia, bringing flooding rain, possible …