Hypermobility is now the opium of the people, an obsession that wrecks communities and planet. There are no free trips
Nature loves irony. As Copenhagen's Glastonbury of gloom ended last week and the global warming groupies jetted home, they were greeted by, of all things, a freeze. "Road, rail and air chaos as UK grinds to a halt," cried the Guardian.
The Times shrieked, "Worst driving conditions in years." The BBC asked: "Is the government doing enough?" Britain was paralysed by a little ice. It was "the curse of the fluffy French snowflake" - and all the fault of the French.
My solution to winter travel chaos? Don't travel. Stay indoors. Build a fire. Live and shop within walking distance of civilisation. Associate with neighbours. See distant relatives some other time of the year. Above all, do not complain if you insist on laying siege to motorways, stations and airports and the weather or the labour force let you down, as they do every year. It is not their fault, it is yours for being there.
Of all human activities that bring out the selfish in mankind, nothing compares with travel. The externalities of travel economics should be on every school curriculum. We see mobility through our own eyes alone, with no view of the similar demands of others. I am a free and independent spirit innocently enjoying the right to roam; you are a travel-mad lemming who thinks he has a God-given right to tarmac, train or plane just when I am there. Get out of my way.
Earth Changes
© Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo
Ed Miliband has pointed the finger at China over the outcome of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.
Ed Miliband has pointed the finger at China over the outcome of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.
The climate secretary, Ed Miliband, today accuses China, Sudan, Bolivia and other leftwing Latin American countries of trying to hijack the UN climate summit and "hold the world to ransom" to prevent a deal being reached.
In an article in the Guardian, Miliband says the UK will make clear to those countries holding out against a binding legal treaty that "we will not allow them to block global progress".
"We cannot again allow negotiations on real points of substance to be hijacked in this way," he writes in the aftermath of the UN summit in Copenhagen, which climaxed with what was widely seen as a weak accord, with no binding emissions targets, despite an unprecedented meeting of leaders.
© Gary Robbins
You can "compare this (phenomenon) to a prism," says Stefanie Sullivan, a forecaster at the National Weather Service. "Sunlight passes through the clouds at different wave lengths, bending the light at different angles so you can see the whole spectrum of colors instead of just white."
Today's iridescene appeared in cirrus clouds that were moving east at about 35 mph at an altitiude of 20,000 to 25,000 feet. "This happens fairly frequently," Sullivan says. "But you don't always see if because the sun has to be at just the right angle and the cirrus has to have the right ice crystals."
© Debbie Cavers
"The photo(s) (there are two) were taken on Villa Park Road/Katella near Hewes heading east toward Saddleback Mtn. Within seconds, it disappeared. I don't think I'll ever see anything like this again."
Noel Isla, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, says the photo shows "mountain wave turbulence. Strong winds formed stratrocumulus clouds into the shape of a pyramid. You can see the wave of the cloud on the right side. The lower part of the cloud is 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, and was hiding the mountains. This is rare for the Orange County area, but not in the mountains further inland, where there is more turbulence."
Winds were very strong this morning, gusting to almost 40 mph in parts of Orange County and above 40 in the upper San Bernardino Mountains.
© Tracy Sizemore
"I'm not sure what this is," said Miguel Miller, a veteran weather service forecaster. "It might be some kind of evaporation. But this isn't the sort of thing you'd see on a warm day over a cold lake."
Areas of southern Manitoba were to be hit with as much as 25 centimetres of snow on Christmas Day, according Environment Canada.
The federal agency also issued freezing-rain warnings for parts of Quebec and Ontario, including Ottawa.
In the U.S., meanwhile, as much as 61 cm of snow was expected by late Christmas Day in some northern states, with blizzard warnings issued from Texas up to North Dakota on the border with Canada.
Lafayette, Louisiana - Powerful thunderstorms swept across Louisiana, producing possible tornadoes and high winds blamed in the death of one person.
Capt. Kip Judice, patrol commander of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office, says a man in Scott, outside Lafayette in south Louisiana, died and his wife was injured when high winds toppled a tree onto their home Thursday morning.
Maxine Trahan, a spokeswoman for the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office, said that near Crowley, which is about 30 miles west of Lafayette, several homes in a subdivision were damaged -- and some destroyed -- by a possible tornado.
The storms came just over a week after drenching rains caused flooding in parts of southeastern Louisiana and produced one of the wettest months on record for the New Orleans area.
Capt. Kip Judice, patrol commander of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office, says a man in Scott, outside Lafayette in south Louisiana, died and his wife was injured when high winds toppled a tree onto their home Thursday morning.
Maxine Trahan, a spokeswoman for the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office, said that near Crowley, which is about 30 miles west of Lafayette, several homes in a subdivision were damaged -- and some destroyed -- by a possible tornado.
The storms came just over a week after drenching rains caused flooding in parts of southeastern Louisiana and produced one of the wettest months on record for the New Orleans area.
At least 23 deaths have been attributed to the storm system that blanketed the central United States beginning on Wednesday, closing several interstate highways, stranding thousands of motorists in whiteout conditions and coating roads in a glaze of ice during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
The system, the second brutal winter blast to hit much of the United States in the past week, is not expected to clear before Saturday.
"This is a holiday mess" spanning two thirds of the country, bringing severe thunderstorms to the Gulf Coast to ice along the eastern seaboard and a raging blizzard in the Midwest and plains states, Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Friday.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said roads remain slick and hazardous, and they discourage travel Friday.
All interstates in the Oklahoma City Metro were closed due to weather Thursday but were reopened Friday. Numerous accidents and stranded vehicles are blocking all roadways.
Travel in western and southwestern parts of the state is strongly discouraged. Blizzard conditions in far western and southern counties have reduced visibility. Highways remain slick in the western two thirds of the state, and conditions continue to deteriorate.
© Unknown
The National Weather Service said blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through Saturday. The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.
Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 21 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest. Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories were issued for parts of the East Coast on Friday, but the region was largely spared.
Paul Mews, who drove from Faribault, Minn., to a relative's home in Plum City, Wis., on Friday morning, said the first 15 minutes of the 80-mile trip were clear, but a surge of heavy snowfall produced a stretch of near-whiteout conditions.
