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Here are some photos from Belarus showing the results of the strongest blizzard in at least 150 years (and it's not over yet). And don't forget that it's mid-March right now! Transportation was disrupted, so people had to spend hours in order to get home from work. Also, notice that one of the pictures shows flooded roads. It's Gomel. This city is located in the south of the country, so instead of low temperatures and the blizzard, they got +8C, heavy rains and floods.
BBC Weather's Tomasz Schafernaker has more on the recent snowy weather in central and northern parts of Spain.
© Scott DeSmit/Daily NewsRandy Smith said he has been hearing loud booms near his house for about two years and most recently last week three booms shook his house and startled his dog, Sandy.
"Three times in a row I heard it," Smith said. "It sounds as loud as a sonic boom. Maybe louder. As soon as it goes off, the dog starts growling and gets startled."
Smith and his father, Laverne Smith, live at 748 Lewiston Rd. (Route 77) and have been hearing the booms for nearly two years now.
They cannot pinpoint the source of the noise.
"You can't tell what direction it's coming from," Laverne Smith, 76, said. "The last good weather we had I was out near the shed and heard it."
Last year they heard the booms about 10 times, sometimes during the day and sometimes at night.
"It seems to be just around here," Randy Smith said. "I asked my sister who lives in Alabama Center and she hasn't heard it."
It is a phenomena that has sparked curiosity throughout the country for several years now.
The booms, however, have grown more frequent.
In December, people in Rhode Island, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Oklahoma reported hearing unusual booms and explosions.
Newspaper reports revealed no unusual seismic activity in those regions and all the noises have yet to be explained.
In January, hundreds of people in northern Utah called emergency dispatchers reporting booms and shaking of the earth.
The cause remains a mystery, though the Air Force said it had done training exercises, dropping bombs in the desert.
It describes itself as the warmest corner of the British Isles ... not that you'd know it from this picture. The worst snow storms in 26 years have caused havoc on the Channel Islands this week, leaving drifts up to 8ft deep. The airport on Guernsey had to be shut for two days while more than 15,000 tons of snow were removed from the runway.
The islands caught the same storms that crippled northern France, where shoulder-deep drifts led to Channel Tunnel trains being cancelled and long queues on the M20 as lorries waited for delayed ferries. Although most of the Guernsey and Jersey snow is now melting, weather men predict another cold snap next week.
This picture was taken by Danielle Stonebridge, 21, a Guernsey resident and part- time photographer, of her father Dave, 61.
Additional images
The islands caught the same storms that crippled northern France, where shoulder-deep drifts led to Channel Tunnel trains being cancelled and long queues on the M20 as lorries waited for delayed ferries. Although most of the Guernsey and Jersey snow is now melting, weather men predict another cold snap next week.
This picture was taken by Danielle Stonebridge, 21, a Guernsey resident and part- time photographer, of her father Dave, 61.
Snowy: These pictures were taken by Danielle Stonebridge, 21, of her father Dave, 61
Residents of Moscow are surely used to wintry weather-- but the city is bracing itself for the biggest March snowfall on record in 50 years.
Heavy snowfall started early Wednesday morning, with forecasters predicting that up to 25 centimetres of snow will fall in the next three days.
Local authorities promised to use more than 15,000 snow-ploughs to clean up the roads. The mayor's office urged locals to keep their cars off the roads and use public transport instead.
Temperatures are expected to go below minus 20 degrees Celsius in the next 24 hours. Even for Moscow,known for its harsh climate, the snowfall is unusual this time of the year.
This week, Russians traditionally mark the coming of spring with celebrations.
© Glenn MilneMystery: Pomegranate grower Graham Robertson has lost 70 per cent of his trees this year.
"I've lost 70 per cent of my crops in the past year," Mildura district horticulturalist Graham Robertson said.
"Of the 10,000 trees I put in, I've got about 2500 left."
Pomegranates, a Middle-Eastern native and a traditional homestead fruit tree, have roared back into favour on the back of healthy lifestyle fruit drinks and low-fat snack options.
Australia's rapidly changing ethnic mix in the cities has also been responsible for their newfound popularity.
The fruit was seen by many as a saviour for irrigators who have pulled their grape vines because of the glut in wine.
"The only thing we have got left around here is asparagus farms and horse paddocks," said Mr Robertson, from Cardross.
Pomegranate orchards from Western Australia, Queensland, NSW and now in northern Victoria have fallen victim to a baffling dieback.
© Marjorie Miller, Associated PressA scientist collects a monarch butterfly near Zitacuaro, Mexico
Scientists who take the annual measure of Mexican forestland famously occupied by migrating monarch butterflies said Wednesday that the butterfly population is the smallest they have seen in two decades.
The likely cause is unseasonably warm weather recently in the United States, as well as a dramatic loss of habitat in the U.S. Corn Belt, the scientists said.
In a survey carried out in December and January, researchers found nine monarch colonies wintering in central Mexico, occupying a total of 1.19 hectares, or 2.94 acres, a 59% decrease compared with the previous year's study.
It was troubling news for the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico, where the yearly arrival of the butterflies is a major tourist attraction. Of even greater concern, experts say, is the potential impact that a diminished butterfly population could have on interconnected habitats and species across North America.
The results were released by the World Wildlife Fund, the Mexican government and giant Mexican cellphone company Telcel, which has supported butterfly habitat conservation.
A number of climate skeptic bloggers (myself included) have received this message yesterday. While I had planned to defer announcing this until a reasonable scan could be completed, some other bloggers have let the cat out of the bag. I provide this introductory email sent by "FOIA" without editing or comment. I do have one email, which I found quite humorous, which I will add at the end so that our friends know that this is valid. Update - the first email I posted apparently was part of an earlier release (though I had not seen it, there are a number of duplicates in the all.zip file) so I have added a second one.- Anthony
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Subject: FOIA 2013: the password
It's time to tie up loose ends and dispel some of the speculation surrounding the Climategate affair.
Indeed, it's singular "I" this time. After certain career developments I can no longer use the papal plural ;-)
If this email seems slightly disjointed it's probably my linguistic background and the problem of trying to address both the wider audience (I expect this will be partially reproduced sooner or later) and the email recipients (whom I haven't decided yet on).
The "all.7z" password is [redacted]
DO NOT PUBLISH THE PASSWORD. Quote other parts if you like.
Releasing the encrypted archive was a mere practicality. I didn't want to keep the emails lying around.
I prepared CG1 & 2 alone. Even skimming through all 220.000 emails would have taken several more months of work in an increasingly unfavorable environment.
Dumping them all into the public domain would be the last resort. Majority of the emails are irrelevant, some of them probably sensitive and socially damaging.
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Subject: FOIA 2013: the password
It's time to tie up loose ends and dispel some of the speculation surrounding the Climategate affair.
Indeed, it's singular "I" this time. After certain career developments I can no longer use the papal plural ;-)
If this email seems slightly disjointed it's probably my linguistic background and the problem of trying to address both the wider audience (I expect this will be partially reproduced sooner or later) and the email recipients (whom I haven't decided yet on).
The "all.7z" password is [redacted]
DO NOT PUBLISH THE PASSWORD. Quote other parts if you like.
Releasing the encrypted archive was a mere practicality. I didn't want to keep the emails lying around.
I prepared CG1 & 2 alone. Even skimming through all 220.000 emails would have taken several more months of work in an increasingly unfavorable environment.
Dumping them all into the public domain would be the last resort. Majority of the emails are irrelevant, some of them probably sensitive and socially damaging.
© France24Cars drive through the snow on March 11, 2013 in Honguemare-Guenouville, northwestern France. More than 68,000 homes were without electricity in France and hundreds of people were trapped in their cars after a winter storm hit with heavy snow.
An accident near the northern city of Lille involving three cars that skidded in icy conditions on a motorway left 14 people injured, including six firefighters.
Twenty-six regions in northwest and northern France were put on orange alert because of heavy snowfalls, which Meteo France said were "remarkable for the season because of the expected quantity and length of time".
Conditions were forecast to improve early Wednesday.
© thelangarhall.com
