Earth Changes
On Wednesday, a series of tremors - with the magnitude ranging from 5.0 to 7.7 - was recorded outside the coast of New Caledonia. A tsunami alert was declared.
The earthquake was recorded at 21:23 GMT, with the tremor's epicenter located 427 kilometers (265 miles) east of the town of Vao on the island of Pines at the depth of 10 kilometers.
About 70 schools shut to the children of key workers and vulnerable pupils in County Durham, as many did in Essex, Suffolk and Derbyshire.
Roads as far south as Kent became impassable because of a thick sheet of ice, and the M20 - the main route across the county - was closed in both directions on Wednesday following a crash.
Forecasters warned that further travel disruption was likely, with roads too treacherous to use, and cancelled rail services.
National severe weather warnings for snow and ice have been issued for much of the UK for the rest of this week.
Met Office chief meteorologist Dan Suri said: "Weather for the rest of this week will continue to be very cold, with daytime temperatures only reaching a degree or so above freezing at best for many, and strong easterly winds continuing to make it feel even colder."
The Ministry of Water Resources said on Thursday that more than 500,000 hectares of arable land had been affected by the drought, leaving 330,000 people in rural areas without a sufficient supply of potable water.
Since October, rainfall in regions south of the Yangtze River had been 50 to 80 per cent lower than normal, it said.
About 2.4 million people in the provinces of Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian had already been affected by the drought, and concerns were growing in Guangxi, Hunan and Yunnan, the ministry said.
In Taizhou, Zhejiang, the residents of Sanmen county are dealing with their worst drought in 50 years, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV.
Comment: Meanwhile other parts of China experienced 21 large-scale floods last year setting historical records.
"Early February brings deadliest week in the U.S. for avalanches since 1910," reads a thedenverchannel.com headline dated Feb. 8 (1910 fell during the solar minimum of cycle 14, a weak solar cycle very similar to that just experienced - cycle 24).
The article goes on, pointing out that between between Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 a total of 15 people died in avalanches across the United States. In Colorado alone, since Jan. 29, 2021, more than 500 avalanches have been reported to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC).
RECORD COLD INVADES MOSCOW
As reported by themoscowtimes.com, western Russia has been hit by bitter cold this week, and has joined central and eastern regions which have been battered by brutal Arctic lows of -58.3C (-73F) and beyond for months now.
Moscow is suffering its coldest weather of the past decade, according to the MT article, with Muscovites suffering lows of -20C (-4F):
The pattern of exceptionally frigid air blasting parts of the US and Europe at the moment is due to a disruption of the polar vortex, which has allowed Arctic air to spill south into North America and Europe.
Maxar said European heating degree days (HDD) between Feb. 10-14 would register around 102, which is well above the ten-year average of 82.1. HDD is a measurement designed to quantify the demand for energy needed to heat a building.
However, there is good news following dangerously cold air that has poured into Europe since early January and sent natural gas prices sky-high - that is - temperatures are expected to return to normal by next Friday across the UK, continental Europe, and the Nordic region.

The quake was at a depth of 18.64 miles (30 kilometres), EMSC said, and struck roughly 60 miles south of the city of Bengkulu, which is home to more than 300,000 people
The strong offshore quake hit about 217 kilometres south-southwest of the city of Bengkulu at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres at 7:52 pm local time (1252 GMT).
Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage than deep ones.
It comes weeks after another powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing 84 people and injuring 932.
The quake struck at just after midnight on Thursday local time (1320 GMT Wednesday) about 415 kilometres (258 miles) east of Vao in New Caledonia at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the USGS.
"Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within the next three hours," the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Waves reaching between 0.3 and one metre above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Fiji, New Zealand and Vanuatu, the centre said.
The New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency released a statement telling people in coastal areas to move away from waterfronts.
"We expect New Zealand coastal areas to experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake," the disaster agency said.














Comment: See also: Shallow M7.7 earthquake hits off Vanuatu, New Caledonia coasts - Tsunami warning sounded
Details of the other magnitude 6+ earthquakes here, here, here, here and here.