No school Sunday in capital, Safed, Golan Heights; 20,000 households without power: some major roads still blocked; freezing night and icy roads loom

Israel faced another freezing night Saturday, with fears of icy roads nationwide, but the worst storm in decades was winding down. Late Saturday night, much of Jerusalem and northern Israel were still deep in snow, the authorities were working to open roads in and out of the capital, and much of the rest of the country was still grappling with stormy conditions. Four Israelis were known to have died since the storms began Wednesday night.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Saturday that his municipality was still working "in a state of emergency," grappling with a "storm of extraordinary proportions." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "once-in-a-century" storm, and said efficient coordination had averted the kind of loss of life that other countries had suffered in similar circumstances.

"Our first goal is to help [the] thousands [of people] who are still without power. Until the power comes back, there is a big effort by volunteers, activists and even the IDF to help those affected," Barkat said. The mayor added that municipality officials were working with the Israel National Corporation to clear roads affected by fallen trees and power lines.

A winter storm warning has been issued for Ottawa, Gatineau and areas of eastern Ontario as at least 15 centimetres of snow are expected to fall starting this afternoon.

Environment Canada says there will be significant snowfall and blowing snow overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. Drivers should expect bad road conditions.

This also comes after Ottawa Public Health issued a frostbite warning for Friday and Saturday. Officials expect the temperature to feel like - 35 degrees Celsius or colder due to the wind chill.

Toronto and Peel region are under a snowfall warning as the first winter storm of the season bears down on the city. The storm is expected to dump between 15 and 20 cm of snow on the GTA between now and Sunday morning with the most intense snowfall likely occurring later this evening.

A winter storm watch is also in effect for Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton where cold easterly winds and extra moisture from the relatively mild lake water could result in even more snow, according to Environment Canada.

"The snowfall amounts could range from 15-20 cm here in Toronto and other areas towards Eastern Ontario may receive upwards of 30 cm," CP24 Weather Specialist Jamie Gutfreund said Saturday morning. "Wind speeds are also going to be gusting up to 50 km/h and because of those winds we could see blowing or drifting snow and that could reduce visibility on the roads."

The sun's current space-weather cycle is the most anemic in 100 years, scientists say.

Our star is now at "solar maximum," the peak phase of its 11-year activity cycle. But this solar max is weak, and the overall current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, conjures up comparisons to the famously feeble Solar Cycle 14 in the early 1900s, researchers said.

"None of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle. So we will learn something," Leif Svalgaard of Stanford University told reporters here today (Dec. 11) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. [Solar Max: Amazing Sun Storm Photos of 2013]

The learning has already begun. For example, scientists think they know why the solar storms that have erupted during Solar Cycle 24 have caused relatively few problems here on Earth.

The sun often blasts huge clouds of superheated particles into space, in explosions known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Powerful CMEs that hit Earth squarely can trigger geomagnetic storms, which in turn can disrupt radio communications, GPS signals and power grids.

But such effects have rarely been seen during Solar Cycle 24, even though the total number of CMEs hasn't dropped off much, if at all. The explanation, researchers said, lies in the reduced pressure currently present in the heliosphere, the enormous bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields that the sun puffs out around itself.

This lower pressure has allowed CMEs to expand greatly as they cruise through space, said Nat Gopalswamy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Indeed, Solar Cycle 24 CMEs are, on average, 38 percent bigger than those measured during the last cycle - a difference with real consequences for folks here on Earth.

"When the CMEs expand more, the magnetic field inside the CMEs has lower strength," Gopalswamy said. "So when you have lower-strength magnetic fields, then they cause milder geomagnetic storms."

Snow began falling in New York and may change to sleet and rain tonight, as a quick-moving storm makes its way from the Midwest through the U.S. Northeast and heads for New England.

New York may see as many as 5 inches (17 centimeters) of snow, especially in the northwestern part of the city and Long Island, before it turns to rain, which will hold down any accumulation, according to an advisory from the National Weather Service office in Upton, New York. Areas of northern New Jersey and the lower Hudson Valley may get 8 inches. Putnam and Orange counties in New York may receive 10 inches.

"Before it ends late Saturday night, it should change over to all rain," Joe Pollina, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said by telephone yesterday.

About 500 flights were canceled into and out of the three New York-area airports, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based airline tracking service.

Winter storm warnings, meaning severe conditions are imminent, were in place in parts of nine states from Indiana to Maine, according to the weather service. Winter weather advisories, which included warnings of icy roads and freezing rain, stretched from eastern Illinois to eastern West Virginia, the Maryland Panhandle and parts of northwestern Virginia.

Utah wildlife officials are scrambling to determine what led to the deaths of four bald eagles in northern Utah in the last week.

The eagles all appeared healthy, with the exception of head tremors. The raptors also displayed evidence of paralysis and digestive issues.

The birds were delivered to or picked up by officials from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden and the Great Basin Wildlife Rescue in Mapleton.

The deaths are particularly troubling and mysterious because the birds were found in different locations - Corinne, Grantsville, Lehi and Weber County.

"It just rips your guts out. They are obviously suffering and you are helpless. It is so hard to watch," said DaLyn Erickson with the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. "Never in my career have I heard of four bald eagles in such a widespread area dying at the same time like this."

The first bald eagle arrived at the Ogden facility Dec. 1 from Weber County. Another eagle landed at the Mapleton rehabilitation center on Dec. 8. The last two arrived in Ogden this week.

All four displayed head tremors - uncontrolled shaking of the head; something that made Erickson suspicious of possible lead poisoning. But preliminary results from testing at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Logan, a cooperative lab with Utah State University and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, came back with unexpected results.

Two pregnant women, children and seniors were among the 270 passengers who sat freezing for eight hours on a train after it lost power in Labrador Friday morning, as temperatures plummeted below - 30 C.

​Tshiuetin Rail Transportation rail conductor Joe Shecanapish was unable to bring back power to the train, which was heading to Sept-Iles, Que. from Schefferville, Que.

"We did everything we can. We couldn't do it. Water froze, toilets froze, everything," he said.

Shecanapish said they tried to squeeze people into a small cabin to warm up. He said some blankets were provided to passengers.

During the ordeal, temperatures ranged from - 26 C to - 33 C.

The train stopped about 65 kilometres from Labrador City, with about eight hours to go before its final destination. It was hours before the town was notified about the train.

A sinkhole nearly 200-foot wide in China's Sichuan Province has swallowed at least 12 buildings and is expected to keep growing.

The sinkhole opened up around 12:40 a.m. Friday in the city of Guangyuan, Shanghaiist reported. As of 6:30 p.m., the sinkhole had swallowed 12 buildings, but no one was seriously injured.

Many who have encounter sinkholes have not been so lucky. In March, a sinkhole opened up underneath the bedroom of a sleeping Florida man, swallowing him entirely.

In August 2012, a man in Taiwan was killed after falling into a huge sinkhole in the wake of a typhoon; and that same month, an Idaho woman died after crashing into a sinkhole on the highway caused by gophers.

This report was originally published in 1974:

Climate Change and its Effect on World Food

by Walter Orr Roberts Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

In February of 1972 earth-orbiting artificial satellites revealed the existence of a greatly increased area of the snow and ice cover of the north polar cap as compared to all previous years of space age observations. Some scientists believe that this may have presaged the onset of the dramatic climate anomalies of 1972 that brought far-reaching adversities to the world's peoples. Moreover, there is mounting evidence that the bad climate of 1972 may be the forerunner of a long series of less favorable agricultural crop years that lie ahead for most world societies. Thus widespread food shortages threaten just at the same time that world populations are growing to new highs. Indeed, less favorable climate may be the new global norm. The Earth may have entered a new "little ice age"

There are strong signs that these recent climate disasters were not random deviations from the usual weather, but instead signals of the emergence of a new normal for world climates.

Read the entire PDF here.

Police tell Jerusalemites to stay home; electric corp. declares national state of emergency; IDF and police rescuing hundreds of travelers stranded near capital

The Israel Electric Corporation declared a nationwide state of emergency Friday as tens of thousands of homes in Jerusalem and the surrounding region remained without power amid the severe winter storm currently besieging the area.

The electric company said it was manning a situation room to receive reports of outages and was calling in emergency workers to help restore power to those affected in certain parts of Jerusalem, Mevasseret Zion, Har Adar, Abu Gosh and Tzur Hadassah where many power lines were hit by fallen trees.