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Bizarro Earth

How a freak diversion of the jet stream is paralysing the globe with freezing conditions

Niall Firth
Mail Onlilne
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 20:35 UTC
Image
© Met Office
Daily mean temperature anomalies around the world between 1st December and 20th December compared with the 30 year long term average between 1961 and 1990
It's snowing in Australia and California yet 'warm' in Greenland

The freezing conditions that have blasted Britain are being blamed on a series of weather patterns that are bringing Arctic temperatures to much of western Europe, California and even Australia.

One of the main factors is a change in the position of the jet stream - the fast-moving current of air that moves from west to east, high in the atmosphere.

Changes in the jet stream's path can cause massive changes in weather conditions across the globe and may be why Australians are now shivering their way through summer and the current freezing conditions in California.

In a normal British winter - when conditions are mild and soggy - the jet stream lies over northern Europe, at an altitude of between 35,000 to 50,000 feet.
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Cloud Lightning

6,000 passengers in seven-hour queue stretching 1.2 miles as snow and ice cripples Eurostar


Mail Onlilne
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:24 UTC
  • Thousands of passengers who had queued for five hours told to come back at 3am tomorrow
  • Salvation Army serves hot drinks to freezing travellers
Thousands of Eurostar passengers joined giant queues and were forced to wait for up to seven hours today as the Channel Tunnel rail link was thrown into disarray.

Police were forced to turn away some passengers after the freezing weather conditions ruined journeys at London's St Pancras station as speed restrictions and cancellations affected the service.

About 6,000 travellers endured freezing temperatures as queues snaked through the main terminal and out into the street stretching to an estimated length of 1.2 miles.

And this evening people who had queued for up to five hours were told to go home and return at 3am tomorrow.
british library
© Stephanie Schaerer
Desperate: Passengers queue by the British Library, hundreds of yards away from the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station.
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Snowflake

So this is Christmas

Simon Calder
The Independent
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:13 UTC
Image
© Facundo Arrizabalaga
Passengers stranded at Heathrow were forced to sleep on the floor
National embarrassment deepened to abject humiliation last night as more than half a million Christmas travellers remained stranded in the UK. Major arterial roads and the Channel Rail Link ground to a standstill, unable to cope with drifting snow, black ice and "refugees" from Heathrow.

Temperatures were expected to drop to -13C last night and snow is expected across much of the country again today, particularly in southern England, Wales, the Midlands and Scotland. There is little prospect of all the marooned reaching their intended destinations in time for Christmas, even if the airports could be run for 24 hours a day.

Dawn heaped disappointment on a further 100,000 passengers who had been booked to fly to or from Heathrow, and even Eurostar, the usual escape valve for travellers to Continental Europe, came to a standstill, turning away existing customers and airport escapees alike.
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Better Earth

Scientists Cite "Atmospheric River" for Near Continuous Rain

Patrick Healy
NBC Los Angeles
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:03 UTC
It has happened before. Consider the winter of 1861-1862 -- it rained for 45 consecutive days


It's the rain that just won't stop -- day after day. It's almost as continuous as the flow of a river, tropical moisture funneled into California by what scientists have come to call an "atmospheric river."

The term was coined only within the last generation of satellite imaging that can actually show the band of moisture.

But there's nothing new about the phenomenon. What scientists now realize was an atmospheric river in 1861-62 brought California 45 straight days of rain and caused flooding of Biblical proportions, evocative of Noah and his ark.. It bankrupted the state.

"The atmospheric river brings in the moisture. How much rain gets dropped out of it has a distribution, just like earthquakes," said Lucy Jones of the U-S Geological Survey office in Pasadena.
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Cloud Precipitation

Dramatic satellite image shows huge storms heading toward Los Angeles

Shelby Grad
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:56 UTC
A satellite image of the Pacific Ocean offers a dramatic preview of the storms that are expected to batter Southern California on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

weather map
© National Weather Service
The satellite shot (above) shows a band of storm lining up in the Pacific and moving into California.

The image below shows rains in California as of about 10:30 a.m.

A northern cold front is expected to move into the Los Angeles basin Monday afternoon, mashing up with subtropical moisture that has been sitting off the Pacific coast for several days. Periods of intense rainfall through Wednesday will bring another 5 inches to coastal plains and valleys and up to 10 inches in the mountains.
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Igloo

Colorado weather forecast: White Christmas for high country, little to no snow for Denver

Ashton Altieri
9News.com
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:48 UTC
Image
© 9news.com

Denver - While the ski resorts across the state will be measuring snow in feet over the next few days, conditions along the Front Range will be mild and relatively snow-free through Christmas Day. The Colorado weather forecast calls for several feet of snow for some parts of the Colorado high country through the middle of the week.

9NEWS Meteorologist Marty Coniglio says a few flurries may fly in Denver are possible on Thursday, but measurable snowfall is not expected in the city before Christmas. You will need to head west for a white Christmas.

Tuesday, the winter solstice occurs at 4:38 p.m. and the Solstice coincides with the only complete eclipse of the full moon in 2010. Cloud cover held off just long enough to make for beautiful views of the eclipse overnight along the Front Range.

The last winter solstice full moons were in 1999 and 1980.
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Bizarro Earth

Southern California Braces for More Rain, Possible Mudslides

Leezel Tanglao
ABC
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:41 UTC
Worst Weather in Years Pounds West Coast, Utah and Nevada

From the mountains to the foothills, California residents are bracing for another round of heavy rains and threats of mudslides. For the past week, residents faced relentless rainfall along with snow and high winds.


In the northern part of the state, the storm knocked out power to thousands of customers, according to local utility companies.

Southern California has been hit hard by heavy rains since the weekend - creating scores of accidents and residents preparing to evacuate.

"I was just driving and the wind was actually what pushed me and caused me to hit the pole," said motorist Raquel Funches.
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Bizarro Earth

Japan: Bonin Islands Region: Earthquake Magnitude 7.4


US Geological Survey
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:46 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 17:19:41 UTC

Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 03:19:41 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
26.866°N, 143.739°E

Depth:
14.9 km (9.3 miles)

Region:
BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION

Distances:
155 km (95 miles) E of Chichi-shima, Bonin Islands, Japan

335 km (210 miles) NE of Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, Japan

1050 km (650 miles) SSE of TOKYO, Japan
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Bizarro Earth

Iran: Earthquake Magnitude 6.5 Kills 7, Buries Many


CNN
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 03:11 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
The quake struck late Monday and was felt hardest in mostly rural, relatively sparsely populated areas of Kerman province.
The death toll from a magnitude-6.5 earthquake in southeastern Iran rose to 7, with officials fearing that it will continue to climb, state-run Press TV said Tuesday.

Felt as far away as the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the quake was particularly strong between the cities of Zahedan and Bam. It struck late at night and hardest in mostly rural, relatively sparsely populated areas of Kerman province, officials said. "Considering the dimensions of the damage, the death toll is expected to rise," the governor general of Kerman was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.

Citing eyewitnesses, another state-run news agency IRNA reported that scores of people are trapped in debris of buildings that have been destroyed. Many such sites are in hard-to-reach locations, making any rescue operations even more difficult. Additionally, at least seven aftershocks struck in the four hours since the 6.5-magnitude quake hit at 10:12 p.m. Monday night, according to the Iranian Seismological Center, based at the University of Tehran, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Javad Kamali, a deputy governor for Kerman province, told the IRNA that the tremor knocked down phone lines throughout the region. Military and law enforcement workers could communicate only using wireless technology, he added. Relief and recovery teams, some from outside the area, have converged around the village of Hosseinabad, between the towns of Fahraj and Rigan, Kamali said.
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Bizarro Earth

UK big freeze: Travel Plans of a Million People in Chaos

G. Rayner, D. Millward & S. Swinford
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:15 UTC
Christmas travel plans for more than a million people were thrown into chaos as snow and freezing temperatures wreaked havoc at Britain's airports.


Arctic conditions forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights from terminals up and down the country on what is traditionally the busiest weekend of the year for the travelling public.

Runway closures at Heathrow and Gatwick led to delays of several hours for those who did manage to fly, but with more heavy snow forecast for today, travellers have been warned that many more flights could be axed.

A total of 630,000 people were due to fly in and out of Heathrow this weekend, with another 240,000 due to pass through Gatwick and tens of thousands more at regional airports.

Sub-zero temperatures could last until the New Year, forecasters warned, casting doubt on the plans of four million Britons who had been planning to leave the country for holidays abroad.

The big freeze also brought roads and railway lines to a standstill in many parts of the country ahead of a weekend when 18 million motorists normally take to the roads.
      Read More...
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