Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Berlin Sees Most Snow in December Since 1900s

German capital Berlin has experienced more snow this month than any other December of past 110 years, as more bitter cold is expected in the country's east, the German Weather Service (DWD) said Tuesday.

Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg have never seen such a thick snow in December for more than a century, as some places received 40 centimeters of snow since Dec. 1, the weather agency said.

Cloud Lightning

More Rain, Possible Mudslides for Los Angeles, San Diego Areas

LA rain chart
© accuweather
Rain spreading over Los Angeles and San Diego today could trigger new mudslides and flooding problems as many residents are still cleaning up from last week's barrage of storms.

The rain will continue to spread from northwest to southeast across Southern California this morning, falling heavily at times.

People

Passenger Outrage Rises as Winter Storm Snarls U.S. Travel

Image
© Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Anger mounted among passengers stranded on airport tarmacs and in terminals as flight delays threatened to stretch into the weekend following the worst December snowstorm to hit New York City in six decades.

As many as 1.2 million airline customers may have been affected by almost 8,200 flight cancellations as the storm that hit three days ago closed major airports. Passengers were forced to try to make new plans, sometimes without being able to reach airlines by phone or online for help.

"There's a haphazard strategy to how airlines address these issues," said Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights. "That's why passengers get so angry. It's not about the weather. It's about how airlines communicate after weather occurs."

The disruptions affected the nation's largest and most- congested air travel market during one of the busiest times of the year. With planes already flying at their fullest since World War II, carriers were struggling to find empty seats to rebook travelers.

Igloo

Best of the Web: Ice Age Now! Damaged Gulf Stream affects Jet Stream - Lord Stirling

Lord Stirling gives the definitive low-down on how the Gulf Oil tragedy has affected the weather worldwide, the Jet stream 5 to 7 miles above the Sea is driven by the waters (the Gulf Stream) below, this has caused (or exacerbated) freak weather in Russia, and South and North America.

The outlook is not good, with the possibility of cold soil lasting until May or June instead of Jan or Feb, crop failures can be expected. In short, we are at the front edge of an oncoming Ice-age.

Thank the hubris and unfettered greed of the corporate and government psychopaths. The death knell for a large part of life on earth has sounded.


Umbrella

Australians evacuate flood-hit Queensland towns

Image
© Reuters
Flooding in north-eastern Australia has forced residents to evacuate towns and closed down more than 300 roads.

In one town, Theodore, 300 residents are being flown out by a fleet of helicopters after floodwaters swamped buildings.

The floods have caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage to sunflower and cotton crops.

The state government of Queensland has declared several areas disaster zones.

The state capital, Brisbane, has recorded its wettest December in more than 150 years. Cyclone Tasha, which hit Queensland on Saturday, also brought torrential rain to the state.

Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu - Earthquake Magnitude 6.6

Vanuatu Quake_291210
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 06:54:21 UTC

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 05:54:21 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
19.682°S, 168.175°E

Depth:
31 km (19.3 miles)

Region:
VANUATU

Distances:
115 km (70 miles) W of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu

210 km (130 miles) N of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia

215 km (135 miles) S of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu

1770 km (1100 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Sun

2010 - Where Does it Fit in the Warmest Year List?

burning earth
© stock photo/spekulator
1934 has long been considered the warmest year of the past century. A decade ago, the closest challenger appeared to be 1998, a super-el nino year, but it trailed 1934 by 0.54°C (0.97°F). Since then, NASA GISS has "adjusted" the U.S. data for 1934 downward and 1998 upward (see December 25, 2010 post by Ira Glickstein) in an attempt to make 1998 warmer than 1934 and seemingly erased the original rather large lead of 1934 over 1998. The last phases of the strong 2009-2010 el nino in early 2010 made this year another possible contender for the warmest year of the century. However, December 2010 has been one of the coldest Decembers in a century in many parts of the world, so 2010 probably won't be warmer than 1998. But does it really matter? Regardless of which year wins the temperature adjustment battle, how significant will that be? To answer that question, we need to look at a much longer time frame‒centuries and millennia.

One of the best ways to look at long-term temperatures is with isotope data from the GISP2 Greenland ice core, from which temperatures for thousands of years can be determined. The ice core isotope data were obtained by Minze Stuiver and Peter Grootes from nuclear accelerator measurements of thousands of oxygen isotope ratios (16O/18O), which are a measure of paleo-temperatures at the time snow fell that was later converted to glacial ice. The age of such temperatures can be accurately measured from annual layers of accumulation of rock debris marking each summer's melting of ice and concentration of rock debris on the glacier.

Igloo

Europe's difficult Christmas continues

Image
© euronews
Awful weather conditions have returned to Poland, with frozen roads and railway lines. More than 20,000 people in Pomerania are without electricity after power lines snapped under the weight of ice.

Several roofs have collapsed under the snow.

Moscow has been hit with freezing rain which has made roads and pavements dangerously slippery.

It has also caused traffic chaos, with 2000 kilometres of traffic jams reported around the capital as people try to go shopping for next weekend's Orthodox Christmas.

Igloo

Snow-bound Danish island of Bornholm calls for help

bornholm,snow
© ScanpixFront-end loader clears snow on Bornholm
Copenhagen - Authorities on the Baltic Danish island of Bornholm called for help to clear the roads on Tuesday as some of the island's 43,000 snowed-in inhabitants are running short of fuel and medicine.

"You can't even imagine how bad this is. The roads are closed, and they are digging and digging, and they just can't get through," said Helle Skov Olesen, who lives on the island nestled between Sweden and the northern coasts of Germany and Poland.

"They don't even know where to put the snow," she told daily Politiken.

Denmark's meteorological institute (DMI) measured 140 centimetres (55 inches) of snow on Bornholm, "the equivalent of the amount of snow at various ski resorts," Steen Rasmussen of the institute said.

Bad Guys

US: Sanitation Workers Say Cuts Take Toll on Snow Clean-Up

Image
© ReutersA driver of a snow plow stopped to help a stuck ambulance in Brooklyn during Sunday’s snow storm.
New York City's response to the monster snow storm has been hampered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to reduce the Sanitation Department's workforce as part of citywide budget cuts, the head of the sanitation workers' union said Monday.

Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association, said the department is currently down roughly 400 workers.

"We are undermanned - we need another 400," Nespoli said in a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I mean this is a perfect example of why you need the man power in New York City. We're shorthanded here."

Nespoli praised the workforce, saying the workers are doing a yeoman's job given the weather conditions and the depleted troops. But he said the staff reductions have nevertheless taken a toll.

"Whenever you cut your workforce down, it's going to hurt services," Nespoli said. "Guys are retiring, and they have to replace these people. You can't allow a city like New York not to have the services that the public's used to," he said. "This is a major blizzard."