Muscovites took to social media on Wednesday to share pictures of how their city turned white with snow overnight.
Forecasters say Moscow's snowfall hit a half-century record of 38 centimeters on the last day of January, causing massive flight delays and disruptions of the public transportation system.
Augusta firefighters helped pull a man from a large sinkhole that opened in the parking lot at Augusta Exchange shopping center Wednesday, information officer Michael Meyers said.
"We did assist in a rescue when someone fell in," Meyers said. "He suffered from minor injuries."
The man, as well as his motorcycle, fell in the hole, located near the former H.H. Gregg store. His condition was not available late Wednesday.
Augusta Utilities Director Tom Wiedmeier said the hole was near a storm drain on the private parking lot.
A tropical bird rarely seen in the cool climate of the Pacific Northwest is recovering after it was found injured on Vancouver Island.
A female brown booby about two years old was found with a puncture wound in its chest at Ogden Point on Monday.
The tropical birds are typically found in California, Mexico and Hawaii and it's rare for them to be spotted here, according to BC SPCA's Wild Animal Rehabilitation centre in Metchosin, which is now caring for the injured animal.
Although displacement caused by extremely inclement weather seems the most plausible explanation in most cases, the following extract from a 2015 report of a brown booby turning up near Cape Race in Canada, indicates that at least some of these seabirds had been getting lost due to other factors:
Most historic records of brown boobies north of the Florida Keys are hurricane waifs. However, about three years ago brown boobies started doing odd things. They started appearing in the northeast United States without an obvious explanation. These were not storm driven birds, but individuals flying north of their own free will. One even reached the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. And the first for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador landed on a tour boat just off St. Anthony.
Elle Thomas fox13now.com Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:28 UTC
Hundreds of birds fall from sky in Utah
More than 200 birds fell from the sky onto a Draper street Monday, leading residents to wonder what caused this mass avian accident.
"It's one of the rarest things I've ever heard of," said Sergeant Chad Carpenter with the Draper City Police Department.
"As I was driving, these birds were just falling out of the sky," said Draper resident, Lacey Brown as she was driving down the street on 300 East in Draper.
"They were all on the ground right around here and on the roadway," Brown said, "They were just falling out of the sky like leaves," she added.
But they weren't leaves, they were hundreds of small birds called starlings.
River Molchanka just outside a Northern Russian city of Tyumen has apparently suffered from nearby greeneries. Much to the surprise of the locals, the water has acquired a distinct orangy-red color.
Comment: Over the years, and all over the world, many bodies of water have been recorded as suddenly turning red; is it the result of chemical waste or is something else happening?
Keoni Everington Taiwan News Wed, 31 Jan 2018 18:39 UTC
Frigid temperatures kill 53 in Taiwan, more possible deaths feared as mercury set to plunge further this weekend
As the latest cold wave blasts Taiwan causing temperatures to plummet to 10 to 12 degrees Celsius in all parts north of Tainan, 53 people have lost their lives to the bitter cold weather yesterday (Jan. 30), but more lives are at risk as an intense cold surge is set to arrive on Saturday, reported Apple Daily.
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) predicts that as the current cold air wave is combined with another cold air mass that arrives from the north in the evening, central Taiwan and all areas north could dip down to 10 degrees tonight.
Weather experts say that the cold weather of the past couple days is just an "appetizer" for the much colder weather yet to come. A major cold surge is set to strike Taiwan from Saturday through Tuesday, causing the mercury in all points north of central Taiwan to drop down to 6 to 7 degrees. During this period, Hehuanshan, Taipingshan, Lalashan, Qixingshan, and Datunshan are all likely to see snowfall.
Under the affects of the current cold air mass, Taoyuan's Xinwu District registered a record low of the winter thus far of 10.7 degrees Celsius yesterday morning. Meanwhile, Yushan saw two centimeters of fresh snowfall and Yushan's Paiyun Lodge saw five centimeters of snow.
Broome has recorded its wettest January of all time, with 941mm of rain dumped on the tourist town since the beginning of the year.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the record was officially broken at 9am this morning, when 57mm from the previous 24-hours was added to the month's total.
Yesterday brought the most rain for the Kimberley town, with 412.2mm bucketing down as a low pressure system moved slowly south.
From Saturday to Monday a further 203.6mm fell on the town, with Cyclone Joyce on January 12 bringing with it 88.4mm.
Comment: Broome residents and business owners say wind and rain have exceeded the category two Cyclone Hilda and category one Cyclone Joyce which both hit the Kimberley coast in the past month. As well as record rainfall the tropical low brought winds of 100 kilometres per hour - with gusts of up to 125kph. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the tourist town was hit with more than double its average January rainfall in a 22-hour period.
Erie is closing in on its snowiest winter in city history.
The 2.8 inches of snow recorded Tuesday at Erie International Airport elevated Erie's seasonal snowfall total to 143.8 inches — just 5.3 inches from eclipsing the city's seasonal snowfall record 149.1 inches in 2000-01.
Erie's 143.8 seasonal snowfall currently ranks as the city's third-snowiest winter behind the 2000-01 winter and the 145.8-inch total that fell in 2008-09.
The total snowfall for Erie from Monday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon measured 3.7 inches.
Fifteen years of satellite measurements have unexpectedly shown that parts of Greenland are getting colder. But the scientists who produced these results urge people to believe that this cooling trend is a blip, because climate models say Greenland should be warming.
Comment: The world probably has warmed since the 1850's. We know that the River Thames in London hasn't frozen over for more than a hundred years, whereas before it happened more regularly:
there were 24 winters in which the Thames was recorded to have frozen over in London... - century totals are: 15th two, 16th five, 17th ten, 18th six, 19th one.
So we can see evidence of the little ice age - it has also been documented extensively elsewhere - and following that there has been a period of warming but that trend is, yet again, swinging back to cooling:
It might be summer in Australia, but that doesn't stop snow from falling in Miena in central Tasmania.
As Victorians enjoys cooler temperatures following last week's heatwave, the Great Lake Hotel in Miena filmed this incredible footage of snow hitting the ground earlier this morning.
Comment: The last 12 months has seen a notable number of these extralimital records of tropical seabirds in North America, presumably for the most part storm driven, here's a list of such reports: Bird from the tropics, the brown booby, seen for first time in New Hampshire
Wrong place, wrong time: Tropical seabird turns up at Point Pelee, Ontario
Rare sighting of frigatebird in Wausau, Wisconsin, a likely hurricane refugee
Rare red-billed tropicbird turns up in Gulf Breeze, Florida
Wrong place, wrong time: Nazca Booby from the Galapagos Islands turns up at Dana Point, Califorina
Although displacement caused by extremely inclement weather seems the most plausible explanation in most cases, the following extract from a 2015 report of a brown booby turning up near Cape Race in Canada, indicates that at least some of these seabirds had been getting lost due to other factors: