Complaining about the weather has reached epidemic proportions in northern Germany this "spring." And with good reason.

With Easter just around the corner, meteorologists are telling us this could end up being the coldest March in Berlin and its surroundings since records began in the 1880s. The poor Easter Bunny deserves our sympathy. Whereas in recent years he has grown used to dodging daffodils, lilies and tulips as he carries his cargo of eggs and chocolate to homes across northern Europe, this year the rabbit will find himself confronted with ice slicks, snow drifts and bundled up humans in foul moods.

Easter, after all, may be upon us. But spring weather most definitely is not. Biologists are warning that the Easter Bunny's wild brethren, European hares, are having trouble keeping their broods warm and healthy in the unseasonable chill. Meteorologists are keeping close tabs on thermometers to determine whether this March will go down as the coldest ever -- since records began in the 1880s. And wiseacres on the streets of Berlin have not yet tired of noting that Easter promises to be colder than last Christmas.

And it's not just the northern regions of Continental Europe where the Easter Bunny will encounter problems. Great Britain and Ireland are likewise suffering through unseasonable weather, with power outages threatening the roast lamb and snow drifts making hopping difficult. Russia and Ukraine are also suffering.

Mean temperature for the month so far is 2.5C (36.5F) - three degrees below long-term average

This March is set to be the coldest in the UK since 1962, weather experts have said. Statistics from the Met Office showed that from 1 March to 26 March the UK mean temperature was 2.5C (36.5F), which is three degrees below the long-term average. This made it the joint fourth coldest in the UK, in records going back to 1910.
The Met Office said this March was likely to be the fourth coldest on record for England, joint third coldest for Wales, joint eighth coldest for Scotland and sixth coldest for Northern Ireland. This March joined 2006, 2001, 1995, 1987, 1979, 1970 and 1962 as years when the month saw significant snowfall.

The coldest March in the UK was in 1962, at 1.9C (35.4F), followed by 1947, 2.2C (35.9F), 1937, 2.4C (36.3F), and 1916 and 1917, 2.5C (36.5F). The cold weather is expected to continue through the Easter weekend and into April, a spokesman said.

Full figures for the month will be available next week.

Heavy snow is expected over the next 36 hours as Britain shivers on the coldest March weekend for 50 years.

Up to 16ins will fall over high ground with several inches likely across much of the UK, the Met Office said last night.

Over 1,000 schools were shut and transport was disrupted as any hopes of spring were dashed by yet another onslaught of snow and flooding today as temperatures fell as low as -12C (10F).

Emergency services saw an early surge in weather-related call-outs as some parts of the country were hit by blizzard conditions. Government agencies issued a string of warnings urging the public to take care on the roads.

The South-west, which will escape the worst of the winter blast, faces flooding with up to 100mm of rain - almost two months' worth - over the next 24 hours as yesterday's heavy rain continues.

In total The Environment Agency issued 12 flood warnings tonight across the country and 81 less serious flood alerts.

In east Cornwall emergency services were searching for a missing woman her partially property collapsed during heavy rainfall overnight.

Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from? Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the Earth where magma is generated. Using electromagnetic technology developed and advanced at Scripps, the researchers mapped a large area beneath the seafloor off Central America at the northern East Pacific Rise, a seafloor volcano located on a section of the global mid-ocean ridges that together form the largest and most active chain of volcanoes in the solar system. By comparison, the researchers say the cross-section area of the melting region they mapped would rival the size of San Diego County.
Details of the image and the methods used to capture it are published in the March 28 issue of the journal Nature. "Our data show that mantle upwelling beneath the mid-ocean ridge creates a deeper and broader melting region than previously thought," said Kerry Key, lead author of the study and an associate research geophysicist at Scripps. "This was the largest project of its kind, enabling us to image the mantle with a level of detail not possible with previous studies." The northern East Pacific Rise is an area where two of the planet's tectonic plates are spreading apart from each another. Mantle rising between the plates melts to generate the magma that forms fresh seafloor when it erupts or freezes in the crust. - Science Daily

Apartment residents claim slow pace of repairs led to second incident. About residents of Pangsapuri Beringin in Puchong, here had to vacate their apartment units yesterday when a nearby hill slope collapsed for the second time this year. The first incident occurred on Feb 19 and residents claimed that repairs were completed late, which resulted in the second landslide about 4.30pm yesterday. They said an official from the Subang Jaya Municipal Council had directed residents of Block B of the apartments to evacuate to a hall nearby. Resident Siti Zaleha Dalli, 38, described this landslide as even worse than the first one. "I was told about the incident at about 4.30pm by my son before I noticed that a large part of the hill slope next to the building had collapsed. I was made to understand that a sewage pipe and a water pipe had burst, which aggravated the situation. The landslide was very near my unit," said Siti Zaleha, who expressed disappointment at the slow pace of repairs following the first landslide. "When such things happen, we cannot sleep peacefully for fear that our lives may be in danger. If it rains, we will be more worried because the soil will sink."
Another resident, L. Vijayan, 31, also expressed disappointment claiming repairs on the temporary retaining wall were a short-term solution. "About 2am, I came to learn that there was a burst pipe. It was raining heavily then, but I did not expect the situation to turn this bad because I thought the temporary retaining wall could sustain the pressure." A check revealed that a section of the landslide had affected the back of a row of terrace-houses located near Block B. Assistant Director of Operations of the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department Mohd Sani Harul said there were no casualties. The cause of the incident was still being investigated. Bernama. - NST

They are one of the most iconic symbols of British independence and the inspiration for one of the most famous wartime songs. But walkers have been warned to take care when walking along a stretch of the famous White Cliffs of Dover after tonnes of chalk crashed into the English Channel when part of the cliff-face sheared off.

A giant mound of clay was left on the shore near St Margaret's Bay after the collapse between between Dover and Deal in Kent.

Additional Images

One house has been destroyed and 33 others are isolated or threatened after a 500-foot-wide landslide wiped out the ground along the coast of an island off Washington state.


Residents in Coupeville on Whidbey Island reported hearing a noise that sounded like rumbling thunder just after 4 a.m. on Wednesday as the land began to give way.

As hundreds of feet of earth slid from the edge of the island's bluff, one house was knocked off its foundation and a road was destroyed, which left 16 homes isolated.

Another 17 homes on an uphill road are also threatened by the mudslide, which authorities have warned is still moving. It was within 10 feet of a home late on Wednesday morning.

Additional images

Take a look at this incredible video coming out of China - where a massive sinkhole swallowed a 25-year-old man in seconds.

The video, which was captured by 2 closed-circuit TV cameras, shows the man identified as Yang Jiabin walking in Shenzhen near a construction site when suddenly a 26-foot wide, 52 foot deep sinkhole suddenly opens up and swallows him alive.

Despite a quick response from rescue workers, the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shocking incident caused officials to evacuate nearby residents.

Springtime: the time for flowers, newborn animals ... and snow. Nearly half of the United States is currently covered in snow, including most of Canada, as can be seen in this image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That's the largest extent of snow cover at this point in the season in at least 10 years, according to NOAA. Much of the snow came from a massive spring blizzard that dropped snow throughout the Midwest and East Coast, breaking records in many cities.

The town of Lincoln, Ill., broke its daily snow total of 4 inches (10 centimeters), which was set in 1947, with 10.8 inches (27 cm) of snow on Sunday (March 24), according to AccuWeather. The weather system also dropped 2.9 inches (7.4 cm) of snow in Columbus, Ohio, breaking the old record of 1.8 inches (4.6 cm) set in 1965.

Event Time
2013-03-27 02:03:20 UTC
2013-03-27 10:03:20 UTC+08:00 at epicenter

Location
23.840°N 121.135°E depth=20.7km (12.9mi)

Nearby Cities
21km (13mi) SE of Buli, Taiwan
40km (25mi) ENE of Lugu, Taiwan
47km (29mi) ESE of Zhongxing New Village, Taiwan
48km (30mi) E of Nantou, Taiwan
735km (457mi) ENE of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Technical Details