Winters are becoming harsher and lengthier, impacting basic infrastructure and crops around the world. It's clear that we are not properly prepared for the coming ice age.

The most impactful winter snowstorm in the US so far caused a rapid decrease in temperature and dumped snow from the Midwest to the Northeast, affecting hundreds of millions. More than half the US was covered in snow and some cities received up to 19 inches. The US is seeing winter storm after winter storm with no relief.

Iowa got hit by a new record snowfall this month with 19 inches dumped in Des Moines, the snowiest January for the last 130 years. Extreme snowfall also buried Texas and the Mississippi Valley, leaving 150,000 people in the dark.

15 inches of rain, floods, up to 100 inches of snow, mudslides, a massive landslide, and wildfires hit California. Again, extreme weather is disrupting the lives of millions of Californians contributing to a 'mass exodus' from the state.

Europe and Asia also experienced one of their most intense winters in recent years, with temperatures in some areas dropping as low as -46.2 degrees Celsius.

Storm Filomena hit Spain this month, producing the coldest night for at least 20 years when the temperature plunged to -25C in Molina de Aragón, and Teruel, and a record snowfall since 1971 killed half a million trees in Madrid. All this was accompanied by a supercell storm with winds of 150 km/h in Lleida, flash floods in the south, and a M4.4 earthquake in Granada. Two meteor fireballs were also recorded over Galicia and Granada.

Siberia again broke the global cold temperature record this month, with -58°C at one locality, meanwhile, Mongolia faced one of the most extreme winters on record with temperatures as low as -50 C.

South Korea got hit by the season's harshest weather as a cold wave with heavy snow and strong winds brought traffic to a stop and grounded planes. The temperature in Seoul dropped to -16.1 C, with a wind chill of -25.3 C.

Many meteor fireballs were witnessed or recorded during the day this month, while a small meteorite fell on a house in Indonesia. A sign of increased cometary activity?

Heavy rains and floods continued to hit east and southeast Asia, with millions affected. The worst flood in half a century hit Malaysia prompting the evacuation of 50,000 people, while Chennai, India recorded the highest rainfall for a January day since 1915.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for January 2021:

No fans. Now no race.

The opening event of the Alpine skiing world championships scheduled for Monday was postponed due to heavy snowfall.

Organizers called the women's combined off with no immediate new date for the race announced, although the International Ski Federation said information about rescheduling would come later.

A meter (3 feet) of snow has fallen since Sunday and more was still coming down Monday afternoon, making it nearly impossible to create a hard and reliable racing surface.

It has been a big couple of weeks in the Northern Hemisphere with five-day snow totals of 1.5 to two metres in California, deep snow and avalanches in locked-down Europe and a run of excellent powder days in Japan. Read on for the details.

Japan

It has been a big fortnight in Japan although a couple of mild days earlier in the week brought some rain to Niseko, but that changed mid-week when a colder front hit on Tuesday night and there's been 80cms in the past three days. Conditions were tough with blizzard conditions at times and some wind-hold, and according to our snow Niseko snow reporter Henry Johnston, the storm is still in "full swing" today and it's awesome out there - just check the above photo from today.

It has been a similar story in Furano with over a metre of snow since Jan 30 and from Lucy Morrell's report, it sounded like yesterday was the day: "Basically half a metre of fresh up top at Furano today and hardly a soul to share it with. Crazy days."

Ramage Contractors headed out in tractors to clear the roads following blizzards in Aberdeenshire.

Farmers have taken to the streets to plough over six foot of snow as the 'Beast from the East 2' continues to wreak havoc across Scotland.

Ramage Contractors headed out in tractors to clear the roads following blizzards in Aberdeenshire.

Dramatic footage shows workers from the family run firm driving through the white stuff at Cabrach in Moray yesterday.

Heavy rains and flood in Brazil, Belo Horizonte today - 07/02/2021.

Earth was besieged by a record 50 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2020, the most such disasters ever recorded after adjusting for inflation, said insurance broker Aon (formerly called Aon Benfield) in its annual report issued January 25. The previous record was 46 billion-dollar weather disasters, set in 2010 and 2011. The annual average of billion-dollar weather disasters since records began in 1990 is 29.

The combined economic losses (insured and uninsured) from all 416 weather and earthquake disasters cataloged by Aon in 2020 was $268 billion (2020 USD). Most of the 2020 total, by far, came from weather-related disasters ($258 billion), 29% above the 2001-2020 inflation-adjusted average. Those numbers make 2020 the fifth costliest year on record for weather-related disasters.

The year was the most expensive ever for severe weather (including severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hail), with $63 billion in damage (previous record: $53 billion in 2011). More than 80% of the severe weather damage occurred in the U.S. in 2020, including the costliest severe weather outbreak in world history, according to Aon: an August 2020 event that featured a violent derecho in the U.S. midwest that caused $11 billion of the $12.6 billion in damage of the outbreak, the balance caused by tornadoes, hail, and other severe thunderstorms.

Insured damage from wildfires in 2020 was $12 billion - the third highest on record, behind only 2017 and 2018. The year 2020 marked the third time in the past four years that global insured losses from wildfires exceeded $10 billion - a threshold never crossed prior to 2017. Remarkably, wildfire has caused more than $70 billion in insured losses since 2000, 75% of that in the past five years alone.

The lightning has struck three siblings killing one on spot, leaving two in a critical condition in the Musasa sector, Rutsiro district in the western part of the country.

The three siblings were reportedly sleeping at 2 AM during a heavy downpour on 7 February 2021.

The deceased whose name was not mentioned was a senior four female student at Syiki high school in this village.

Ruzindana Ladislas,the Executive Secretary of the Musasa sector said that apart from striking the siblings, several other properties were destroyed.

Mount Etna shows no signs of quietening down as two new vents opened over the southeast crater of the volcano, and all of its four summits are spitting lava right now. Please calm down, giant!

An avalanche killed four skiers and injured four others Saturday in a popular recreation area, making it one of the deadliest avalanches in Utah history, authorities said.

The Unified Police Department told local media that it was alerted to the avalanche about 11:40 a.m. after receiving a faint distress call from an avalanche beacon in Millcreek Canyon near Salt Lake City.

The skier-triggered avalanche swept up eight people in their early twenties to late thirties who were in two groups touring the backcountry, Unified Police Sgt. Melody Cutler told the Salt Lake Tribune. The avalanche took place at an elevation of 9,800 feet, the Utah Avalanche Center said.

A snowstorm and strong winds pounded northern and western Germany on Sunday, forcing trains to cancel trips and leading to hundreds of road accidents. Police said 28 people were injured on icy roads.

The German Weather Service DWD urged people to stay at home and authorities brought homeless people into warm shelters amid the sub-zero temperatures.

National train operator Deutsche Bahn said main train routes between Hamburg and Hannover, Berlin and the west were canceled as snowdrifts piled up on the tracks and power lines. Some train connections in the east were also canceled, though most of the snow came down in the northwest.


12 inches of snow

Police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said early Sunday they had counted 222 accidents due to the bad weather conditions since Saturday afternoon. They said two people among the 28 were severely injured.