Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Wintry Weather Brings Snow to Australia in Midsummer

Image
© unk
Australia normally experiences temperatures of 86F (30C) at this time of year, but the chances of a rare white Christmas have increased after plunging temperatures and snow swept across the east of the country.

Freezing winds from Antarctica, blown up to Australia by a low-pressure system in the Southern Ocean, gave the country a taste of the conditions that are causing havoc across Europe.

Some 11 inches of snow fell at the ski fields in New South Wales, raising the prospect that parts of the country could experience a white Christmas.

"It's white, everything is white," Michelle Lovius, the general manager of the Kosciuszko Chalet Hotel at Charlotte Pass, said.

Igloo

The Man Who Repeatedly Beats the Met Office at Its Own Game

Image
© ReutersBoris bikes for hire are covered in snow in south London yesterday
Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best.

Almost the entire Tube system was running yesterday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a suicide on the Northern Line, and the temporary stoppage that these tragedies entail. Of London's 700 bus services, only 50 were on diversion, mainly in the hillier areas. On Saturday, we managed to keep the West End plentifully supplied with customers, and retailers reported excellent takings on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

We have kept the Transport for London road network open throughout all this. We have about 90,000 tons of grit in stock, and the gritters were out all night to deal with this morning's rush. And yet we have to face the reality of the position across the country.

It is no use my saying that London Underground and bus networks are performing relatively well - touch wood - when Heathrow, our major international airport, is still effectively closed two days after the last heavy snowfall; when substantial parts of our national rail network are still struggling; when there are abandoned cars to be seen on hard shoulders all over the country; and when yet more snow is expected today, especially in the north.

In a few brief hours, we are told, the snowy superfortresses will be above us again, bomb bays bulging with blizzard. It may be that in the next hours and days we have to step up our de-icing, our gritting and our shovelling. So let me seize this brief gap in the aerial bombardment to pose a question that is bugging me. Why did the Met Office forecast a "mild winter"?

Cloud Lightning

Associated Press Gone Wild: 2010 Disaster Article is Unadulterated Trash

tornado lightning
© OPT
2010′s world gone wild: Quakes, floods, blizzards:

The Associated Press has published one of the most biased pieces of environmental science journalism in a long time, and that's quite a feat in itself. Indeed, there are some serious journalistic integrity issues with this clearly biased piece: the authors intersperse anecdotes with specific scientists' quotations while playing fast and loose with the facts in order to push an agenda. Undoubtedly, there is a considerable amount of scientific ignorance on the part of the authors, but using the human suffering associated with 2010′s natural disasters as talking points in this narrative is a new low for the Associated Press.

This article by Seth Borenstein and Julie Reed Bell deserves a thorough fact-checking and deconstruction. Keep your vomit bags and pitchforks at the ready, and hold onto your seats on this Pulitzer-prize winning fictional roller coaster...

This is an absolute masterpiece: quotations are in the boxes, comments are mine.

Cloud Lightning

2010's World Gone Wild: Quakes, Floods, Blizzards

tornado
© unknown
This was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 - the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

"The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year."

And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.


Comment: This article supports the idea of human-caused global warming, and, as the above sentence says, blames us humans for most of the disasters that befell the world this past year. Find an analysis and rebuttal to this story here.


Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.

Bizarro Earth

Heavy Snow Hits Air Travel, Roads in Europe

Image
© AP Photo/Alastair GrantA pedestrian walks a dog during a snow-fall in central London, Saturday, Dec., 18, 2010.
Heavy snow on Sunday shut down European airport runways, forced fast trains to slow down and left cars skidding through icy, slushy streets on a weekend where many people were trying to head home for the holidays.

London's Heathrow Airport stopped accepting arrivals. Frankfurt airport canceled around 40 percent of flights.

Paris' Charles de Gaulle cut air traffic by a quarter as heavy snow blanketed the French capital - a rarity that has occurred several times in recent days during an unusually cold winter. Many passengers slept overnight in makeshift dormitories there, at Amsterdam's airport and at Heathrow, Europe's busiest hub for air passengers.

"The bars were open and some people were drinking and got quite nasty," passenger Sue Kerslake, who was stuck at Heathrow, told the BBC.

Heathrow said no planes would land on its runways on Sunday and that only a small number of flights would likely depart.

There was chaos in the tunnels leading from the underground station to Heathrow terminals, with hundreds of travelers told by airport staff to go back and call their airlines for updates.

Igloo

Coldest December Since Records Began Bringing Travel Chaos Across Britain

snow @ London shoppers
© Jeremy SelwynChilly: Christmas shoppers in Central London were caught in snow flurries today
  • Millions begin the big Christmas and New Year getaway early as the AA urged motorists to beware of the 'worst driving conditions imaginable'
  • Quarter of train services disrupted, travel warning in Kent
  • Experts warn of a backlog of up to 4 million of parcels which could remain undelivered this Christmas
  • The NHS issues an urgent appeal for blood donors as concerns grow over shortages
  • Councils reveal plans to share grit amid fears the cold snap could last until January 14
  • Odds shortened even further on a 'White Christmas' in some parts of the country next Saturday
Swathes of Britain skidded to a halt today as the big freeze returned - grounding flights, closing rail links and leaving traffic at a standstill.

And tonight the nation was braced for another 10in of snow and yet more sub-zero temperatures - with no let-up in the bitterly cold weather for at least a month, forecasters have warned.

The Arctic conditions are set to last through the Christmas and New Year bank holidays and beyond and as temperatures plummeted to -10c (14f) the Met Office said this December was 'almost certain' to become the coldest since records began in 1910.

Igloo

Best of the Web: Der Spiegel 1974 - New Ice Age Approaching. Odds Of A Warm Future "At Best 1 in 10,000″

Image
© WikipediaDer Spiegel warned of a coming ice age in 1974. 10,000 to 1 odds against warming.
An increased frequency in extreme weather events, a cooling North Atlantic, and growing Arctic sea ice were viewed as signs of climate change. The odds of a warmer climate in the future, according to one scientist, were "at best 1 in 10,000″ (see below). That's what Der Spiegel wrote about in a 3700-word article back in 1974, warning the world of a coming ice age.

In that issue Der Spiegel described a series of "weather extremes" occurring all over the world, claiming they were unmistakable signs of a climate change to cooling: deluges of rain in West Germany, severe thunderstorms that uprooted trees and blew off roofs in Berlin, the worst storm in 100 years devastating much of Lower Saxony, hurricane Agnes inflicting 3 billion dollars in damage, floods in Japan and Peru, temperatures in Argentina, India and South Africa dropping to their lowest levels in 300 years.

Comment: Judging from current weather conditions in the UK and US as well as the disruption to the Gulf of Mexico loop current, Der Spiegel may still be proven correct.

More here:


Magnify

Canada: 2-Million-Year-Old 'Mummy Trees' Reveal Harsh Climate

Image
© Joel Barker/Ohio State University.The remains of a mummified forest that lived on Ellesmere Island in Canada some 2 to 8 million years ago, when the Arctic was cooling. The remains could offer clues to how today's Arctic will respond to global warming.
When rangers came across mummified wood uncovered by a melting glacier in the northernmost Arctic reaches of Canada, they had no idea they were staring at an ancient forest dating back millions of years. Researchers eventually found a twisted tangle of preserved trees that reflects a harsh struggle to survive during an ancient global cooling period.

The spindly trees would have barely hung on during a time when the Arctic climate changed from greenhouse to icehouse, on top of enduring darkness for half of each year. Signs of stress are evident in narrow tree rings and undersized leaves that were preserved at the time of death - when a landslide may have buried the trees alive.

"We know the climate was really hitting the fan for these guys," said Joel Barker, a biogeochemist at the Byrd Polar Research Center of Ohio State University.

Barker discussed the find here at the 2010 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. His group's discovery in Ellesmere Island National Park represents the northernmost mummified forest site in Canada.

Bizarro Earth

5.1-magnitude quake occurs in southern Greece, no damage reported

Athens, Greece - Seismologists in Greece say a 5.1 magnitude earthquake has rattled the south of the country, but there have been no reports from authorities of damage or injury.

Athens Geodynamic Institute, a state earthquake monitoring agency, said the undersea quake occurred at 11:37 a.m. (0937GMT), 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Athens, near the island of Milos. It struck at a depth of 103 kilometres (64 miles).

Igloo

Extreme Weather Wreaks Havoc in Europe

Westminster Bridge
© Ben Stansall, AFP/Getty ImagesDecember 17: Snow falls on Westminster Bridge in London, on December 17, 2010. Bitterly cold weather was returning to Britain with a vengeance with widespread ice and snow due over the next few days, forecasters said. Up to a foot (30 centimetres) of snow could fall in some areas by Saturday, with Scotland bracing for some of the most severe weather for the second time this month.
Berlin - Heavy overnight snowfall grounded about 450 flights and caused major delays at German airports Friday, forced schools to close and left highways clogged with traffic after scores of accidents that killed at least two people and injured dozens.

Snow also hindered flights in the neighbouring Netherlands, where Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport saw 30 cancellations and major delays ahead of the busy Christmas holiday season, spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang said.

The European control agency Eurocontrol said passengers at Schiphol, one of continental Europe's busiest airports, had to expect delays of up to 4 1/2 hours.

Snow also closed Geneva airport early Thursday morning, though it was open again by midmorning, and flights were also disrupted in Zurich.

In Frankfurt, 300 flights had been cancelled by late morning, and the number is expected to rise throughout the day, airport spokesman Timo Ross said. About 8 inches (20 centimetres) of snow blanketed the state overnight, also causing the closure of schools around Frankfurt and elsewhere in Hesse.

The airport, continental Europe's second-biggest hub, had to be closed for about an hour late Thursday, and an estimated 1,000 passengers were stranded overnight, Ross said.

Munich airport, Germany's second-largest, reported 113 cancellations and major delays; Duesseldorf and Stuttgart saw more than 20 cancellations each.

Roads were clogged by snow, and in North-Rhine Westphalia state alone authorities reported traffic jams of more than 185 kilometres (115 miles) on highways, and 251 weather-related accidents that left 19 people injured.