Earth Changes 2013 - Daily Updates

December 20, 2012 – CUMBERLAND. Md — The first official day of winter Friday may bring a real taste of seasonal weather with several inches of snow, gusting winds and wind chill readings in the single-digit range. And, to no surprise, the higher elevations are expected to bear the brunt of the storm. AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Walker said Wednesday that a winter storm will be moving into the area Thursday afternoon. “The storm will be starting off with warmer temperatures and rain and then change into snow showers Thursday night and into Friday. There will be a few inches of snow and windy with some pretty cold air moving in,” said Walker, who has been a professional weather forecaster for 35 years. Six to 12 inches of snow could be expected in far Western Maryland and 3 to 6 inches in the lower elevations of the region. The National Weather Service posted a winter storm watch for Garrett County and extreme western Allegany County for the period from Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon. Tim Thomas, local observer of the National Weather Service, said, “This will be a wind-driven event and we will have snow showers but we don’t really expect any snow accumulations in Cumberland.” But for Frostburg and points west, the weather may be much worse. The forecast also calls for wind gusts from 40 to 50 mph, temperatures with high readings in the lower 30s and upper 20s. Wind-chill readings are expected to hover in the 8- to 12-degree range. “The coldest period will be Friday night into Saturday,” said Walker. To the east, precipitation will begin as rain before colder temperatures bring flurries and a possible ground covering of snow into the weekend. The winter storm watch indicates snow could be heavy at times. In Garrett County, public officials warned of possible power outages from the storm. “The National Weather Service has upgraded the weekend weather event to a potential blizzard warning. Extremely high winds and heavy snow accumulations are expected from Thursday night through much of the weekend,” said Brad Frantz, director of the county’s emergency management and 911 operations, Wednesday morning. “Significant power outages are a distinct possibility once again, especially with the many limbs and branches still hanging from Hurricane Sandy,” said Frantz. –Times News

Climate Change Update (21 December 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEsSGFUP644


Love Always
mudra

December 19, 2012 – CLIMATE – From extreme drought to super storms, many wonder what the future holds for the climate of the eastern United States. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, does away with the guessing. Results show the region will be hotter and wetter. Joshua Fu, a civil and environmental engineering professor, and Yang Gao, a graduate research assistant, developed precise scales of cities which act as a climate crystal ball seeing high resolution climate changes almost 50 years into the future. The study found that heat waves will become more severe in most regions of the eastern United States and, that both the Northeast and Southeast will see a drastic increase in precipitation. The findings are published in Environmental Research Letters. Harnessing the supercomputing power of UT’s Kraken and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Jaguar (now Titan, the fastest in the world), the researchers combined high-resolution topography, land use information and climate modeling. Then they used dynamical downscaling to develop their climate model results. Dynamical downscaling allowed the researchers to develop climate scales as small as four square kilometers. “Instead of studying regions, which is not useful when examining extreme weather, dynamical downscaling allows us to study small areas such as cities with a fine resolution,” said Fu, who is also a professor within the UT-ORNL Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education (CIRE). The researchers evaluated extreme events along with daily maximum and minimum temperatures and daily precipitation. For the 23 states east of the Mississippi River, they analyzed the present-day climate from 2001 to 2004 and predicted the future climate from 2057 to 2059. This is the first study to predict heat waves for the top 20 cities in the eastern U.S. For example, Nashville will see a temperature rise of 3.21 degrees Celsius and Memphis will see a rise of 2.18 degrees Celsius. In comparing present climate to future, the researchers found that heat waves will become more severe throughout the eastern part of the nation. The Northeast and eastern Midwest will experience a greater increase in heat waves than the Southeast, which will almost equalize the temperatures between the future North and current South. “Currently, the mean heat wave duration is about four days in the Northeast and eastern Midwest and five days in the Southeast,” said Fu. “By the end of the 2050s, the Northeast and eastern Midwest will be gaining on the Southeast by increasing two days.” In addition, the Northeast and eastern Midwest are likely to suffer from steeper increases in the severity of heat waves. “While the Southeast has the highest intensity in heat waves, the northeast is likely to experience the highest increase,” said Fu. “We are looking at temperature increases of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius, with New York experiencing the highest hike.” Both the Northeast and Southeast will experience an increase of precipitation of 35 percent or more. Most coastal states will see the greatest increase, of about 150 millimeters a year. Taking into consideration heat waves and extreme precipitation, the Northeast shows the largest increases in precipitation. This suggests a greater risk of flooding. -SD


Russia is enduring its harshest winter in over 70 years, with temperatures plunging as low as -50 degrees Celsius. Dozens of people have already died, and almost 150 have been hospitalized.


December17, 2012 – SEATTLE – Up to 12 inches of further snowfall is forecast for parts of northern New England – and a second wintry storm is crossing the U.S. in its wake, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth. The current snowfall in northern New York state and New England will continue through Tuesday night and into Wednesday, with as much as 15 inches possible in some areas. Meanwhile, another cross-country storm – Winter Storm Draco – was expected to bring heavy snow to the Northwest on Monday. The higher elevations of the Cascades will see as much as 2 to 3 feet of snow above 7000 ft, Weather.com reported, with significant accumulations below 3000 ft. The National Weather Service said the probability of “large amounts of snow remains high across the majority of windward facing slopes of the Pacific Northwest and portions of the Northern Rockies.” King5.com reported that the storm is expected to bring high winds to Western Washington and whiteout conditions to the west slopes of the Cascades and passes. The system is expected to move to the Southwest and Rockies Tuesday and Wednesday before bringing snow to the eastern half of the country later Wednesday through Friday. Roth added there would likely be a lake-effect snow threat behind the storm on Thursday and Friday. -NBC

Dec 22, 2012 - A slab of rock overhanging an underwater canyon near the northeast border of Australia threatens to generate a tsunami when it eventually breaks off, researchers warned Friday. Marine geologists from Australia’s James Cook University came across the one cubic kilometer chunk of seafloor perched on the continental shelf within the Great Barrier Reef. Researchers don’t know when the shelf will collapse, but are certain that “it is slowly giving way … is absolutely going to collapse and when it does fall it will fall one kilometre into the adjacent basin.” The result would be a “localized tsunami that will affect the Queensland coastline” of Australia, around 40 miles away.

December 22, 2012 – UNITED KINGDOM - Hundreds of homeowners across the south west of England are likely to have their festive season ruined with forecasters predicting that heavy rain will batter the flood-hit region until Christmas Eve. Heavy rain has already left Christmas travel plans for millions in tatters while homes and businesses in south-west England were hit by flooding. Rail passengers and motorists faced misery and shoppers also battled difficult conditions on one of the busiest weekends of the year for travel and shopping. The town of Braunton in north Devon was effectively cut off, with homes and shops under water, after the River Caen burst its banks. On the railways, the The Environment Agency has issued 138 flood warnings and four severe flood warnings – meaning life is at risk. Great Western train company advised passengers whose travel was not essential to avoid journeys west of Taunton in Somerset because of flooding and landslips. Arriva Trains Wales told passengers to avoid rail travel in south Wales. Both operators were using road vehicles to transport passengers, but efforts were hampered by a lack of vehicles and flooded roads. East Midlands Trains suspended services between Derby and Nottingham because of flooding, and there were no trains between Stirling and Perth. The Highways Agency said there were a handful of flooding incidents affecting roads, including the closure of the A21 in both directions near Battle, East Sussex. A spokesman said: “There have been isolated weather-related incidents on other parts of our network today but traffic at these locations remains generally free flowing.” Some 14 Football League matches were also postponed due to waterlogged pitches, including the Championship game between Blackburn and Brighton. The Environment Agency said there was a heightened flood risk across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Bristol, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West and East Sussex, North Yorkshire, South Wales, Ceredigion and Gwynedd. Despite the rain expected to ease during the day tomorrow, it is expected the region will take another battering of 20mm of rain tomorrow evening and into Christmas Eve. Steven Keates, Met Office forecaster, said: ‘More rain is on its way across the south west and particularly Devon and Cornwall right up into the night and it will only slightly improve in the early hours of the morning. We could well see 25mm of rain. The situation needs to be carefully watched as it will obviously not help the flooding situation at all because the ground is already so saturated it cannot take any more rain.’ Police have evacuated people from their homes in Devon and Cornwall as rising river levels have resulted in ‘numerous properties’ becoming flooded. Conditions are so bad in the south west that train operator First Great Western is advising passengers not to travel. –Daily Mail

December 24, 2012 – CLIMATE - An outbreak of severe weather, including tornadoes, threatens to ruin Christmas Day for families and communities across the Gulf Coast states. The area at greatest risk for damaging thunderstorms and tornadoes on Christmas Day stretches from southeastern Texas to the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Georgia. That zone is home to College Station and Houston, Texas, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La., Jackson and Gulfport, Miss., Montgomery and Mobile, Ala., Pensacola, Fla., and Albany, Ga. AccuWeather.com meteorologists are especially concerned for the potential for loss of life with this outbreak since it will actually commence during the predawn hours of Christmas across southeastern Texas. Tornadoes touching down during the nighttime hours is always a dangerous situation as people may sleep through vital warnings or have difficulty seeing an approaching twister. The severe weather danger will then expand eastward on Christmas Day, encompassing central and southern Louisiana, the southern half of Mississippi and Alabama and southwestern Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. In addition to tornadoes causing destruction, severe thunderstorms capable of unleashing damaging winds and flooding rain are a serious concern. The violent thunderstorms should organize into a solid line by Tuesday night and march across Alabama, northern Florida and Georgia with damaging winds. The severe weather danger should reach the Southeast coast, from eastern North Carolina to northeastern Florida, on Wednesday. Wilmington, N.C., Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla., are among the communities at risk this day. The same storm set to trigger the impending severe weather outbreak will also spread a swath of significant snow from the southern Plains to the eastern Great Lakes and Northeast from Christmas Day to Thursday. Ahead of this storm, another system is triggering showers and thunderstorms across the South today. Thunderstorms causing damage this Christmas Eve would be extremely isolated occurrences, but the danger of lightning striking anyone spending the day outdoors still exists. -Accuweather[

December 24, 2012 – GEOLOGY - It has long been known that volcanic activity can cause short-term variations in climate. Now, researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany), together with colleagues from Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) have found evidence that the reverse process also occurs: Climate affects volcanic activity. Their study is now online in the international journal Geology. In 1991, it was a disaster for the villages nearby the erupting Philippine volcano Pinatubo. But the effects were felt even as far away as Europe. The volcano threw up many tons of ash and other particles into the atmosphere causing less sunlight than usual to reach the Earth’s surface. For the first few years after the eruption, global temperatures dropped by half a degree. In general, volcanic eruptions can have a strong short-term impact on climate. Conversely, the idea that climate may also affect volcanic eruptions on a global scale and over long periods of time is completely new. Researchers at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany) and Harvard University in Massachusetts (USA) have now found strong evidence for this relationship from major volcanic eruptions around the Pacific Ocean over the past 1 million years. They have presented their results in the latest issue of the international journal Geology. The basic evidence for the discovery came from the work of the Collaborative Research Centre “Fluids and Volatiles in Subduction Zones (SFB 574). For more than ten years the project has been extensively exploring volcanoes of Central America. “Among others pieces of evidence, we have observations of ash layers in the seabed and have reconstructed the history of volcanic eruptions for the past 460,000 years,” says GEOMAR volcanologist Dr. Steffen Kutterolf, who has been with SFB 574 since its founding. Particular patterns started to appear. “There were periods when we found significantly more large eruptions than in others” says Kutterolf, the lead author of the Geology article. After comparing these patterns with the climate history, there was an amazing match. The periods of high volcanic activity followed fast, global temperature increases and associated rapid ice melting. To expand the scope of the discoveries, Dr. Kutterolf and his colleagues studied other cores from the entire Pacific region. These cores had been collected as part of the International Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) and its predecessor programs. They record more than a million years of the Earth’s history. “In fact, we found the same pattern from these cores as in Central America” says geophysicist Dr. Marion Jegen from GEOMAR, who also participated in the recent study. Together with colleagues at Harvard University, the geologists and geophysicists searched for a possible explanation. They found it with the help of geological computer models. “In times of global warming, the glaciers are melting on the continents relatively quickly. At the same time the sea level rises. The weight on the continents decreases, while the weight on the oceanic tectonic plates increases. Thus, the stress changes within in the earth to open more routes for ascending magma” says Dr. Jegen. The rate of global cooling at the end of the warm phases is much slower, so there are less dramatic stress changes during these times. “If you follow the natural climate cycles, we are currently at the end of a really warm phase. Therefore, things are volcanically quieter now. The impact from man-made warming is still unclear based on our current understanding” says Dr. Kutterolf. The next step is to investigate shorter-term historical variations to better understand implications for the present day. –Space Daily

A powerful winter storm system pounded the nation's midsection Wednesday and headed toward the Northeast, where people braced for the high winds and heavy snow that disrupted holiday travel, knocked out power to thousands of homes and were blamed in at least six deaths. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts, and blizzard warnings were issued amid snowy gusts of 30 mph that blanketed roads and windshields, at times causing whiteout conditions.

"The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex," said John Kwiatkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

The system, which spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day and a historic amount of snow in Arkansas, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and headed toward the Northeast. Forecasts called for 12 to 18 inches of snow inland from western New York to Maine starting late Wednesday and into Thursday and tapering off into a mix of rain and snow closer to the coast, where little accumulation was expected in such cities as New York and Boston.

The storm left freezing temperatures in its aftermath, and forecasters also said parts of the Southeast from Virginia to Florida would see severe thunderstorms.
Schools on break and workers taking holiday vacations meant that many people could avoid messy commutes, but those who had to travel were implored to avoid it. Snow was blamed for scores of vehicle accidents as far east as Maryland, and about two dozen counties in Indiana and Ohio issued snow emergency travel alerts, urging people to go out on the roads only if necessary.

Some 40 vehicles got bogged down trying to make it up a slick hill in central Indiana, and four state snowplows slid off roads as snow fell at the rate of 3 inches an hour in some places.

Two passengers in a car on a sleet-slickened Arkansas highway were killed Wednesday in a head-on collision, and two people, including a 76-year-old Milwaukee woman, were killed Tuesday on Oklahoma highways. Deaths from wind-toppled trees were reported in Texas and Louisiana.

The day after a holiday wasn't expected to be particularly busy for AAA, but its Cincinnati-area branch had its busiest Wednesday of the year. By mid-afternoon, nearly 400 members had been helped with tows, jump starts and other aid, with calls still coming in, spokesman Mike Mills said.
Jennifer Miller, 58, was taking a bus Wednesday from Cincinnati to visit family in Columbus.

"I wish this had come yesterday and was gone today," she said, struggling with a rolling suitcase and three smaller bags on a slushy sidewalk near the station. "I'm glad I don't have to drive in this."

Traffic crawled at 25 mph on Interstate 81 in Maryland, where authorities reported scores of accidents.
read more at link above...

December 22, 2012 – MOSCOW – A vicious cold snap across Russia and Eastern Europe has claimed nearly 200 lives, officials figures showed Friday, as forecasters warned it would last until Christmas Eve. In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56. The freeze had also left 371 people in hospital. Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow — and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia — for a week. Russian weather forecasters said temperature in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia had dropped to minus 43 Celsius, while Krasnoyarsk in Siberia reported minus 47. This “abnormal” frost would last till Monday because of a persistent anticyclone, they added. In Russia’s European region, meanwhile, the mercury is expected to fall to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve before rising rapidly afterwards. Other European countries hit hard by the extreme temperatures were counting the toll as temperatures gradually started to return to normal. Authorities in Ukraine, which has been battling heavy snowfall for weeks, said 83 people had died of cold, with 57 of the victims found on the street. The homeless are traditionally the hardest-hit by the region’s bitter winters. Another 526 cold victims were reportedly receiving hospital treatment in Ukraine. Overnight temperatures in Ukraine reached an average minus 15 degrees Celsius, which is common at this time of year. Ukrainian authorities said 93 villages — mainly on the Crimean peninsula in the south of the country — were still hit by a power outage. In Eastern Europe, police in Poland said Friday that 49 people had died of exposure this month, with most of the victims homeless, as temperatures plunged to minus 10 degrees Celsius. At least six people have died of exposure in Lithuania in the past weeks, police and emergency services said there. In Latvia, temperatures reached minus 14 Celsius on Friday morning. In the capital Riga, authorities decided to drop public transport fares to encourage drivers

December 30, 2012 – CHINA – A freezing blizzard pummeled the Xilin Gol area of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday morning, severely affecting road traffic. On the No. 308 provincial highway, vehicles found themselves stuck in deep snow as severe blizzards lowered visibility from 200 meters to less than ten meters in just ten minutes. The blizzard started on Friday night and brought almost one meter of snow to the highway by the morning. Local traffic authorities have launched an emergency weather response plan and have been warning local residents to avoid unnecessary outdoor activities. According to meteorologists, local temperatures are expected to drop 10 to 13 degrees Celsius over the next two days in the central and eastern parts of Inner Mongolia. –Telegraph

Published on Dec 31, 2012 - Authorities in Colombia were searching for at least 20 people trapped after a landslide cut off a highway near the city of Neiva on Saturday. (Dec. 31)

January 1, 2013 – CLIMATE – The weather outside was truly frightful across much of the US and UK this holiday season. In the US, a powerful winter storm whipped up heavy snow, icy winds and a record number of tornadoes in late December, causing at least 15 deaths. Such storms are not unusual at this time of year, but an especially strong jet stream made the storm more intense, says meteorologist Greg Carbin of the US National Weather Service. “One of the more remarkable places was Little Rock, Arkansas,” says Carbin. “It shattered the prior record for snowfall on Christmas Day.” Little Rock, which hadn’t seen a white Christmas since 1926, was hit with more than 25 centimeters of snow. At the same time, warmer air mixing with the southern border of the system created thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast that spawned 34 tornadoes across four states. The storm then churned north-east, dumping 30 cm of snow or slushy mix on parts of the Midwest and New England. Thankfully the storm was fairly fast moving. “It was pretty much a one-day event in any region of the country,” says Carbin. In the UK, heavy rain saw many rivers burst their banks and roads and railway lines washed away. It is the inevitable end to what looks like being the soggiest year since records began. -New Scientist

Rescuers on Thursday evacuated the last of 1,200 skiers trapped by strong winds a day earlier on the slopes of a resort in the Spanish Pyrenees. Winds gusting up to 110 kph (68 mph) forced the Panticosa ski resort to stop the ski-lifts on Wednesday afternoon, stranding holidaymakers on the mountain.

Carol wrote:

Rescuers evacuate 1,200 skiers from Spain resort
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Rescuers_evacuate_1200_skiers_from_Spain_resort_999.html

Rescuers on Thursday evacuated the last of 1,200 skiers trapped by strong winds a day earlier on the slopes of a resort in the Spanish Pyrenees. Winds gusting up to 110 kph (68 mph) forced the Panticosa ski resort to stop the ski-lifts on Wednesday afternoon, stranding holidaymakers on the mountain.

That would of been highly local, coz its right behind me and e had no wind this side. It could be the old Geomagnetic line getting into gear, but that would only be the case in a magnetic field reversal. Could be the wind they call the Foong. Hot wind that gathers heat rolling off or up the mountains.

This is a real dishonor on my behalf. It takes someone from in the middle of the Pacific to tell me whats going on in my back yard. DOH!


t

Sorry about that Tom. And I'm only a good 7-8,000 miles away from your location. Just goes to show what a little net surfing uncovers.

January 4, 2013 – CLIMATE - Snow coverage in the United States on New Year’s Day was the most in 10 years with 67 percent of the 48 contiguous states covered by snow, meteorologists say. That surpassed the previous record set in 2010, when the new year saw 61 percent of the United States beneath snow, AccuWeather.com reported Thursday. That was the year of the mid-Atlantic blizzard dubbed “Snowmaggedon” that set a long list of records in cities such as Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore. “As far as New Year’s Days go, I think that our [2013] snow cover is very healthy,” AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Jack Boston said. Unusually low snow coverage percentages since record keeping began in 2004, with the exception of 2010, have been an anomaly, Boston said. “The temperature of the North Atlantic ocean has been in a warm cycle and that has resulted in eastern North America, on average, having milder temperatures during the last decade.” However, he said, most of the contiguous United States was above normal in snow coverage for the month of December 2012 as well. –Terra Earth


January 4, 2013 – CLIMATE - New Delhi has suffered its coldest day in 44 years amid a cold snap across northern India, the local weather office said on Thursday. The maximum day temperature on Wednesday reached just 9.8 degrees Celsius (49.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the lowest since the winter of 1969 when records first began, an official in the local meteorological department told AFP, with a minimum of 4.8 Celsius. There is expected to be little respite in the coming few days with the weather office forecasting that chilly conditions will prevail. The unusual cold has been attributed to dense fog which has obscured the sun and disrupted airports and trains, as well as icy winds from the snowy Himalayas to the north. Winter in the Indian capital, home to 16.3 million people, usually lasts through January before giving way to spring and summer, when temperatures regularly rise to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

More than 100 dead: At least 114 people have died from the cold in the state of Uttar Pradesh, a police spokesman, Surendra Srivastava, said yesterday. At least 23 of those died in the past 24 hours. Mr. Srivastava said many of the dead were poor people whose bodies were found on sidewalks or in parks. The weather department said temperatures in the state were between 4 and 10°C below normal. New Delhi suffered its coldest day in 44 years amid the cold snap across northern India, meteorologists said. The maximum temperature on Wednesday reached just 9.8°C, the lowest since the winter of 1969 – when records first began – with a low of 4.8°C. There is expected to be little respite in the coming few days with the weather office forecasting that chilly conditions will prevail. The unusual cold has been attributed to dense fog that has obscured the sun and disrupted air and rail services, as well as icy winds from the snowy Himalayas to the north. Winter in the Indian capital usually lasts through January before giving way to spring and summer, when temperatures regularly rise to 45°C. –The National

As globe warms, Alaska is cooling down: Fairbanks, Alaska (UPI) Despite a global trend of warming climate, Alaska has been experiencing a widespread cooling pattern for at least a decade, scientists say. In the first decade since 2000, the state has cooled an average of 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the online newspaper Alaska Dispatch reported. That’s a “large value for a decade,” the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in a report published in the Atmospheric Science Journal. Cooling temperatures have been recorded at 19 of the 20 National Weather Service stations spread throughout Alaska, the report said. Parts of Western Alaska saw temperatures drop a significant 4.5 degrees for the decade, it said. Researchers said the cooling was likely caused by an ocean phenomenon known as the Decadal Oscillation that moved colder surface water temperatures closer to Alaska. Researchers said it is unknown how long the cooling trend might last, although they noted the state experienced thirty years of relative cold climate starting in the mid-1940s. –Space Daily

January 5, 2013 – AUSTRALIA - Australia’s southern island of Tasmania has experienced its hottest day since records began, with the capital Hobart sweltering at 41.8 Celsius (107.2 Fahrenheit) on Friday. The Bureau of Meteorology said the temperature in Tasmania, where records have been kept since the early 1880s, beat the previous high of 40.8 Celsius set in January 1976. “There are only three or four (days) on record over 40 degrees so it’s quite rare,” said Melbourne-based Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Murray Keable. Southern Australia has been experiencing a heat-wave that has seen bushfires destroy several buildings in Tasmania, and the temperature rise to 45 Celsius in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Further inland Wudinna, on the Eyre Peninsula, hit 48.2 Celsius and a string of other South Australian towns topped 47 Celsius. In Australia’s biggest city Sydney, thousands headed to beaches to escape the heat but the temperature was much milder, hitting a maximum of just 29 Celsius in the city centre. –Space Daily

Up in flames: In Tasmania, east of Hobart, fires destroyed as many as 65 buildings at Dunalley and 15 at Boomer Bay. There were also unconfirmed reports that one life had been lost. Fires burned out of control in Victoria and South Australia where temperatures were well above 40C and strong southwesterly winds worsened conditions. Tasmanian fire authorities were making comparisons to the conditions that led to the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria that left 173 people dead, state fire chief Mike Brown declaring “we reached catastrophic fire danger ratings at times this afternoon.” Deputy Police ommissioner Scott Tilyard said a team of experts had been sent to Forcett, near Dunalley, last night to verify a report that a person had died. “We’ve got people flying into the area at the moment to do an assessment of the Dunalley township in particular,” Mr Tilyard said. “That particular township … has been the hardest hit this afternoon by the fire that started at orcett“We have a report of about 50 people on the waterfront at Boomer Bay who are quite safe – there’s a fair bit of smoke in the area so there’s obviously concerns in relation to potential smoke inhalation, and we’ve got plans in place to, if necessary, evacuate those people by boat.” The buildings destroyed in Dunalley, by a blaze started in nearby Forcett, include a primary school, petrol station and the RSL. Resident Peter Crocker told the ABC: “To my knowledge, I know of at least two houses between myself and Dunalley that have been lost and I know of a couple of houses at Copping that have been destroyed by fire. “We’re going to try and go back into the area and see what’s there and see if we can salvage anything out of it or put any fires out, if the house is not already gone.” Tasmanian fire authorities upgraded a warning for another fire near Bicheno on the island’s east coast where campers were being evacuated and residents encouraged to act on their bushfire plans or leave. Fires are also burning on the mid-north coast of NSW near Forster and in western parts of Queensland. Inland Australia can expect temperatures above 40C for the next week, a prolonged heat-wave that will leave southern Australia on high bushfire alert. Meteorologists are describing the blast of hot air as unusual, given the size of the area it is affecting. Birdsville, in Queensland’s far west, had a high of 47.3C while Hobart reached a record 41.8C – one degree hotter than the record set in 1976. But it was South Australia that bore the brunt, with the wheat-town of Wudinna on the Eyre Peninsula recording a high of 48.2C and 20 people admitted to hospital with heat-related illness. Port Augusta, Whyalla, Moomba and Tarcoola all experienced temperatures above 47C. –The Australian

January 5, 2013 – ARGENTINA – A blistering heat wave, power outages and a fuel shortage added up Tuesday to a second day of hellish conditions in Greater Buenos Aires, home to about a quarter of Argentina’s 40 million people. Amid a plethora of recommendations by the authorities on how to deal with the soaring temperatures, which on Tuesday were expected to reach 36 C (97 F), people took refuge in any shade they could find to get out of the blazing heat of the Argentine summer. The National Meteorological Service renewed this Tuesday a high alert for the Argentine capital and its surrounding areas due to the high temperatures, which created scenes the total opposite of those seen these days in snowbound Europe and the United States. “The city of Buenos Aires (with its 2.8 million inhabitants) has a summer average of 90 deaths per day but, for example, during the heat wave at the beginning of 2001 it went up to 250 deaths in a single day,” the weather service warned on its Web site. “Given that high temperatures will continue throughout the week, we ask the population to avoid as much as possible exposing themselves to sun rays and to drink a lot of water,” Argentine Health Minister Juan Manzur said, urging people to seek medical attention if they develop such symptoms as high fever, drowsiness, fainting or a racing pulse. Added to the suffocating heat, the climatic phenomenon La Niña has spread drought across vast areas of the Buenos Aires and La Pampa provinces, the richest agricultural region of a country that is one of the world’s top grain exporters. Sources in the farming sector believe that the lack of rain could continue until March, with the consequent loss of soybean and corn crops. The heat wave also set a “historic record” in consumption of electricity, according to the public utilities involved, to the point that in numerous Buenos Aires neighborhoods and urban districts there were power outages in the last few days that sparked bitter protests. The Association for the Defense of User and Consumer Rights warned that 40 percent of the customers of Edenor, Edesur and Edelap, the distributors of electric energy in Greater Buenos Aires, suffered blackouts or diminished power. But the utilities said there were only a few isolated cases of power outages in an area of some 600 square kilometers (230 square miles). Dozens of traffic lights in the capital were not working, so the city government asked drivers and pedestrians to use “extreme caution” in proceeding through the streets, which in many cases were blocked by the now-customary marches protesting any number of offenses and inconveniences. The sun blazed like molten metal on downtown Buenos Aires, where the starting point was being prepared for the Dakar rally scheduled for Saturday, while pickets of the poor and unemployed blocked one of the expressways into the city. Automobile traffic also appeared threatened by the fuel shortage, reflected in long lines of cars at the gasoline pumps. “There’s no gas anywhere. If I don’t fill up now I can’t work today,” a taxi driver lamented on a local radio station, saying that he was out “hunting” for gasoline. The fuel shortage is due to the increased demand of consumers traveling to other parts of the country to spend the year-end holidays and summer vacations, as well as the ordinary delays in distribution due to the Christmas festivities. –LAHT

Polar bear dies from heatstroke: The last remaining polar bear at Buenos Aires Zoo has died after overheating in soaring summer temperatures. ‘Winner,’ who was one of best loved attractions at the zoo, is believed to have been unable to control its body temperature in the extreme heat of the Argentinean summer and died of heatstroke. The animal, which was covered in heavy fur to cope with freezing conditions in its native Arctic habitat, was also believed to have been frightened by the noise from fireworks let off to celebrate Christmas Eve. The animals used to live in a pool but their cage was improved in 1993 when a 145,000-litre pool was built along with a site for birthing and three security rings. The zoo said in a statement that it had been visited by experts and met all international regulations to house polar bears. –Daily Mail

As scores of fires continued to burn the length of eastern Australia today, a remarkable survival story emerged from Tasmania, where five young children escaped a blaze that destroyed about 90 properties in their village by sheltering under a boat jetty with their grandparents. Tim and Tammy Holmes were looking after the children in the fishing village of Dunalley last Friday when they noticed smoke rising from a nearby ridge. Not long afterwards, “we saw tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us,” said Mr Holmes, 62. “The next thing we knew, everything was on fire all around us.” Sending his wife and grandchildren, aged between two and 11, running down to the jetty, “because there was no other escape”, he paused only to send a message to his daughter – the children’s mother, who was at a funeral in Hobart that day – before sprinting past the flames to join them.

http://iceagenow.info
Bitter cold grips Nevada – Shatters previous record
by ROBERT on JANUARY 15, 2013
The temperature plunged to a record minus 24 in Ely early Monday, blowing away the old mark of minus 17 set in 2007.

A few other lows early Monday:

-21 Winnemucca -19 Truckee, Calif. -12 Elko -12 Lovelock -11 South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

See entire article:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jan/14/nv-cold-nevada/


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Record-breaking cold in Los Angeles
by ROBERT on JANUARY 15, 2013
San Joaquim Valley growers head for 5th cold night of freezing temps. Mandarin and lettuce crops threatened.

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Bitter cold grips western U.S. – Price of lettuce skyrockets
by ROBERT on JANUARY 15, 2013
Freezing temperatures have damaged southwestern Arizona lettuce crops enough

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Prolonged Frigid Blast Surges Across New Mexico
by ROBERT on JANUARY 14, 2013
Temperatures will average 15 to 20 degrees below normal through at least Wednesday.

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BBC – Snowfalls forecast across large parts of UK
by ROBERT on JANUARY 13, 2013
The UK Met Office has issued an amber “be prepared” warning

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Hard Freeze Warning in Southern Arizona
by ROBERT on JANUARY 13, 2013
Tucson has a Hard Freeze Warning until Tuesday morning that could break historic cold records tonight

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Major snowstorm for U.S. West and northern Plains
by ROBERT on JANUARY 13, 2013
Blizzard for the Dakotas and Minnesota

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California freeze threatens $2 billion citrus harvest
by ROBERT on JANUARY 12, 2013
Of course the original headline called it a “cold snap.”

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Californians bracing for several nights of freezing temperatures
by ROBERT on JANUARY 12, 2013
Stocking up on firewood as temperatures dive to as low as 12 degrees F.

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Snow closes major California highway for hours
by ROBERT on JANUARY 12, 2013
Police began escorting southbound cars through the Grapevine section of Interstate 5 – a major north-south highway – after a 16-hour shutdown.

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California temperatures to hit 6-year low
by ROBERT on JANUARY 11, 2013
Strawberry growers covered their crops while San Diego zookeepers turned on heaters for the chimpanzees

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Pakistan – Severe cold breaks all previous records – Video
by ROBERT on JANUARY 11, 2013
Islamabad temperatures drop below zero. Natural gas shortage.

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Snow chaos to cripple Britain – Minus 15C weather forecast
by ROBERT on JANUARY 11, 2013 ·
Weeks of heavy snow set to trigger worst whiteout in years.

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Historic snow conditions in North Central Washington
by ROBERT on JANUARY 10, 2013 ·
“Next time you’re bombing down the Bomber Run at Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort, consider that you’re cruising through history,”

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January 16, 2013 – TEXAS - An unexpected winter storm that struck North Texas before daybreak Tuesday put morning commuters on ice, canceled flights and forced some schools to open later than normal. Forecasters had predicted a slight chance of light sleet but had said that most of the precipitation should stay southeast of Dallas-Fort Worth. “It’s always a challenge to predict winter precipitation in North Texas,” said Nick Hampshire, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth. “It’s always a fine line. If it had been two or three degrees warmer, we would have been talking about a rain event.” Many parts of Tarrant County received as much as a half-inch of sleet and snow, the most significant icy precipitation since the Christmas Day storm, said Dan Shoemaker, another weather service meteorologist. But don’t expect a repeat this morning. Promise, the weather service said. The day will dawn chilly, with temperatures in the mid to upper 20s, but the forecast high is about 50 degrees, and there is no chance of precipitation. An upper-level low-pressure system that caused the wintry event still lingered over North Texas Tuesday evening, but it was missing a key ingredient for precipitation, Shoemaker said. “Now we have dry, cool air pushing in, rather than cool, moist air,” he explained. Temperatures should warm into the upper 50s by the weekend before another cold front arrives in time for Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. But early Tuesday morning, the surprising sounds of thunder and sleet caught residents unaware. The lift from the upper-level low-pressure system took the moist cool air that was available then and pushed into a layer of instability aloft, “and that’s when we had thunder,” Shoemaker said. Streets and overpasses began icing up after 5 a.m. Five hours later, Fort Worth police had reported more than 40 accidents. Dozens of other wrecks were reported throughout the county. A few overpasses, ramps and bridges, including the Hulen Street bridge in west Fort Worth, were also closed for a time because of ice. Some businesses and school districts delayed their openings. –Star Telegram

Published on Jan 17, 2013
The sleet and snow that fell on January 15 2013 in White County Arkansas was not normal. Background levels in this area are 35cpm. The sleet and snow was showing an alert level above 100cpm. The high levels only lasted about 24 hours indicating a short half life of the hot particles. This kind of exposure can reduce the immune system and may be the cause for recent spikes in flu and illness in this area and others. We can only assume because the event was short lived is why they are not warning parents to keep there children out of this unsafe wintery mix. Not creating panic or concern seems to be more important than public safety. Why warn parents exposure to the snow and sleet is equal to flying at 30000 feet or exposure levels for nuclear plant workers right?

Full permission to use and reproduce this video is granted by producer for news reporting to anyone that would like to use the footage.

January 16, 2013 – JAPAN - Heavy snow that blanketed eastern Japan over the holiday weekend left one man dead and 900 others injured, as Tokyo commuters Tuesday took to the slippery streets. A low-pressure system, dubbed a “bomb cyclone” by local press, dumped eight centimetres (three inches) of snow in nine hours, the heaviest snowfall in the region since January 2006, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It left 13 centimeters of snow in neighboring Yokohama, while mountainous areas around Tokyo saw up to 30 centimeters. A 71-year-old man in Shiojiri city, Nagano prefecture, died after falling into an open drain as he cleared snow around his house, a fire service spokesman said. National broadcaster NHK said at least 891 injuries had been recorded in Tokyo and the area around it, many of them elderly people who had slipped on snow-covered streets or motorists involved in accidents. The operator of the Tokyo Skytree, a 634-metre (2,080-foot) tower in the capital that opened last year, said security guards were patrolling the base to keep people away from possible ice falls. “We haven’t received any reports of damage or injury from falling blocks of snow,” said spokeswoman Ayumi Kimura, adding around 60 guards were in the area Tuesday. “We have confirmed snow has fallen in tiny chunks. But there has been a limited amount of snow that has fallen on the tower.” Major train services resumed operations in Tokyo, although many sections of road remained closed while crews cleared frozen snow. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines cancelled a combined total of 37 domestic flights while dozens of other flights experienced delays. International operations were not severely affected by the snow, the airlines said. On Monday, Japanese airlines cancelled more than 460 domestic flights, mainly to or from Tokyo’s Haneda airport, where runways were temporarily closed as workers removed snow. Around 3,400 people spent the night at Tokyo’s Narita airport on Monday, a spokesman said after train services running to the outlying facility were suspended. They returned to normal on Tuesday, he added. –Terra Daily



AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region. "It's been freezing cold and constant rain for the past four days," lamented Ahmad Tobara, 44, who evacuated his tent when its shafts submerged in flood water in Zaatari. A camp spokesman said that by Wednesday, some 1,500 refugees had been displaced within the camp and were now living in mobile homes normally used for schools. Weather officials said wind speeds exceeded 45 miles (70 kilometers) per hour and the rain left two feet (70 centimeters) of water on the streets. Samawi called it the "fiercest storm to hit the Mideast in the month of January in at least 30 years."


BEIJING (AP) -- China is experiencing unusual chills this winter with its national average temperature hitting the lowest in 28 years, and snow and ice have closed highways, canceled flights, stranded tourists and knocked out power in several provinces.

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/01/snowpocalypse-now-whole-of-russia-covered-in-snow-photos-rt-2540006.html




Norilsk. (Photo from bigpicture.ru)

Russia has been hit by heavy snowfall over the past week, causing traffic accidents, flight delays, and cutting off some remote settlements entirely. Latest worldwide snow coverage maps show that the entire country is covered in snow.


Russia snowed under. (World Wide Daily Snow and Ice Cover Map, Source: NOAA)


While in the large population centers in western Russia the snowstorms have caused inconvenience, further east they have been life threatening.

The polar circle city of Norilsk has seen snowfall build to a height of more than 10 feet, and entire apartment blocks have been barricaded by snow overnight, requiring city workers to dig passageways through the snow banks.

Meanwhile, icicles up to three feet in length have formed off every building ledge, breaking at random and causing a lethal hazard for pedestrians below.

Nearly two hundred people have died throughout Russia as a direct result of weather-related accidents and hypothermia this season, according to official statistics, although the extreme conditions have likely contributed to many more fatalities.

However, meteorologists have promised some good news: the stormy conditions are expected to recede over the weekend.

Complete photos at link: http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/01/snowpocalypse-now-whole-of-russia-covered-in-snow-photos-rt-2540006.html

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Truth is stranger then fiction.......

SYDNEY endured its hottest ever day on Friday, with records smashed across the city and thousands of people suffering from the heat.
The mercury topped 45.8 at Sydney's Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, breaking the previous record set in 1939 by half a degree. The city's highest temperature was a scorching 46.5 degrees, recorded in Penrith at 2.15pm, while Camden, Richmond and Sydney Airport all reached 46.4 degrees. More than 220 people had been treated for heat exposure or fainting by late afternoon, the Ambulance Service of NSW said. The heatwave also stranded thousands of commuters, with dozens of trains delayed as steel wires buckled and a hose used to run a key signalling system melted. On the central coast, the heat caused an overhead wire to buckle onto a train at about 1.30pm, trapping about 250 passengers for half an hour.The monorail ground to a halt, spitting sparks that started a soon-extinguished grass fire next to Darling Harbour. More serious fires raged across NSW and Victoria, including about a dozen blazes that burned out of control in coastal regions of NSW from the Hunter Valley to the south coast.