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Rare deep freeze prompts chaos across southern China


The Weather Network
Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:30 UTC
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Some highways in southern China have been completely shut down
A cold weather snap has brought ice, snow and chaos to much of eastern and southern China, paralyzing highways, cutting power and damaging crops across an area not used to sub-zero temperatures, state media reported on Friday (December 17).

Thick ice caused a ten kilometer pile-up on a major stretch of highway in south-eastern Guangdong (pron: gwang-dong) province on Thursday (December 16), forcing authorities to deploy excavators to clear the roads, China's state television CCTV reported.

CCTV has forecast that temperatures would creep back up again in some areas on Friday (December 16) but said the cold snap in subtropical Guangdong may continue until Sunday (December 19).

The cold weather, which started on December 11, has led to extreme weather warnings in 11 provinces across the south and east, CCTV said.

Snow and ice has damaged electricity supplies, cutting almost 500 lines in eastern Zhejiang (pron: jer-jeeang) province alone, CCTV said.

Farmers in Xiaoshan (pron: seeaow-shan) in Zhejiang rushed to collect crops before they were ruined by the heavy snow.
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Cloud Precipitation

Strongest Storm Yet to Hit Southern California

Rong-Gong Lin II & Robert J. Lopez
Los Angeles Times
Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:50 UTC
The latest in a week of storms could bring thunder, hail, flooding, tidal surges and even waterspouts and small tornadoes. Some foothill evacuations are ordered.

Authorities and residents were bracing for flooding, thunderstorms, hail, tidal surges and even small tornadoes Wednesday as the worst of a seven-day series of storms was expected to sweep into Southern California.

Wednesday's storm was projected to be the most intense of the week, the result of a powerful, cold storm from the Gulf of Alaska colliding with a river of subtropical moisture from the western Pacific Ocean.

"When you get the very cold air mixing in with the very warm air, it can be quite volatile," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. Forecasters said the system could produce lightning and possibly waterspouts offshore and small tornadoes on land.

Patzert said Wednesday is "definitely going to be the main event."

Rainfall rates were expected to be as high as 0.75 to 1.5 inches an hour, which could cause flooding not only in foothills and mountains but also in low-lying areas, said Stuart Seto, a specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

"The ground is already permeated. There's already a lot of moisture," he said. "With the thunderstorms, the rain rates come faster.... We're going to see a lot more runoff."
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Cloud Precipitation

California Under Water: Already-Flooded Golden State Braces as 'Monster' Storm Gets Set to Dump Two Inches of Rain an HOUR


Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:20 UTC
  • Motorists stranded in cars after rivers burst their banks
  • Mudslides feared in mountainous areas
  • State prepares for seventh straight day of torrential rain
  • Cause is freak 'atmospheric river' that occurs once over few hundred years
  • One-third of state's annual average rainfall pours down in a week
California is bracing for another monster storm tonight after days of relentless rainfall forced officials to evacuate hundreds of homes in America's so-called Golden State.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a state of emergency for the worst hit areas today and rescue crews frantically tried to clear flooded roads before more thunderstorms, hail and even small tornadoes hit the region.

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© Reuters
Swept away: A member of the Los Angeles Fire Department drives a watercraft in the LA River after two victims were reported to be swept away in the water today. The search eventually had to be called off due to the weather
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© Getty Images
Desperate measures: Jennifer Bowerman and her son Sabastian, seven, are led across flood waters on a raft after being stranded in a hotel in San Diego today during the rainstorm
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© Associated Press
No go: Locals secure a van to prevent it from being swept into a river in Silverado Canyon in California today
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Bad Guys

The Oil Slick BP Tried To Hide Has Been Discovered


Washington's Blog
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:59 UTC
oil spill current
© AP/Dave Martin
In Thick Layers On the Sea Floor Over An Area of Several Thousand Square Miles

BP and the government famously declared that most of the oil had disappeared.

But as I've noted, as much as 98% of the oil is still in the ocean.

I have repeatedly pointed out that BP and the government applied massive amounts of dispersant to the Gulf Oil Spill in an effort to sink and hide the oil. Many others said the same thing.

BP and the government denied this, of course.

But the oil is not remaining hidden.

Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal noted on December 9th:
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Red Flag

Corals 'Severely Slimed' After Oil Spill, Expedition Finds

Monica Heger
LiveScience.com
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:35 UTC
oiled coral
© Lophelia II 2010, NOAA OER and BOEMRE
The sea fan Paramuricea sp. with the symbiotic brittle star Asteroschema sp. from a site in the Garden Banks region of the Gulf of Mexico. This apparently healthy coral was observed during the first leg of the cruise at approximately 360 meters depth and over 450 km away from the site of the Deepwater Horizon.
"It reminds me of going to a family funeral," said Charles Fisher, a biology professor at Penn State University, and chief scientist on a recent mission to study the impact of the Gulf oil spill on coral in the area.

Just like seeing extended family, "it's always fun to go into the deep sea, and we saw a lot of life," he said. "But, on the other hand the reason you're there is not a happy reason. Some corals have been severely slimed. Some are dead or dying."

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., led a nine-day mission this month to study the effects of the oil spill on life at the bottom of the sea. A team of scientists set out on a research vessel, spending just over a week in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

Equipped with both an autonomous submarine called Sentry, as well as a submersible called Alvin, the scientists photographed, mapped and collected samples from the Gulf nearly 24 hours a day. They completed six dives on Alvin, and set up a camera near the site of a dying coral reef, which will snap photos every hour for the next two months monitoring the coral's heath.
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Bizarro Earth

Japan: Bonin Islands Region: Earthquake Magnitude 6.3


USGS
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:18 UTC
Japan Quake_221210
© USGS
Earthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 21:49:39 UTC

Thursday, December 23, 2010 at 07:49:39 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
26.780°N, 143.635°E

Depth:
11 km (6.8 miles)

Region:
BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION

Distances:
145 km (90 miles) ESE of Chichi-shima, Bonin Islands, Japan

320 km (200 miles) NE of Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, Japan

1050 km (650 miles) SSE of TOKYO, Japan
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Igloo

Syracuse smashes snow records for December

Elizabeth A. Harris
New York Times
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:50 UTC
snow bank
© Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times
Walking past towering snowbanks in Syracuse is part of winter living.

Syracuse, New York - In some places, as the first days of winter pass, the prospect of a white Christmas is just that: a possibility, sometimes realized, sometimes not.

But in this city, hard by the Snow Belt beneath Lake Ontario, there is no need for any caveat. By this time, every year, it has snowed so heavily and so often that any more would be incomprehensible.

Syracuse has met the incomprehensible. As of Tuesday, even before winter had officially begun - at 6:38 p.m. Eastern time - 71.9 inches of snow had fallen this month, making it the city's snowiest December ever.

There has been at least a trace of snow on all but four days so far this month. In one four-day stretch last week, 43.2 inches came down. Never mind the inch or so that fell earlier in the fall.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

December Storms: Road Closures, Mudslides, More Rain

Jonathan Lloyd and Scott Weber
NBC Los Angeles
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:23 UTC
Mudslides and rock debris force the closure of several highways

Orange County was hammered by another round of rain Wednesday as the region prepares for more storms.

Witnesses reported that so much water poured out of Laguna Canyon into downtown Laguna Beach just before dawn that swiftwater rescue units were being deployed there. One man was rescued as mud flowed through his house, according to Laguna Beach fire officials.

A man who raises Koi on a fish farm in Laguna Canyon lost about 300 fish when his ponds overflowed. Some of the fish, which look like big goldfish, were swept down the canyon. Others were struggling to live in big puddles.

Laguna Koi Ponds at 20452 Laguna Canyon Road has been in business for 21 years, raising fish that can sell for up to $200 each.
      Read More...
Igloo

Snowed In: A Photo Journey Across A Paralyzed Europe

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:04 UTC
Traveling to Europe? Not so fast. Most airports in western and central Europe are at best open on an intermittent basis, and at worst completely shut down, with the UK taking the brunt of the storm. Disruptions in traffic continue for a fourth day as travellers across the continent are paralyzed and scrambling to find way to get home, with just 4 days until Christmas. For all those reading Zero Hedge from some airport terminal, our condolences. As always, nothing conveys the story as well as a few simple pictures: we have compiled a representative sample of snapshots from across Europe to show just why all those hoping for a strong holiday retail season in Europe will be very disappointed.
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Cloud Lightning

Storm causes hillside collapse, flooding in Southern California

Gillian Flaccus
YahooNews
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:30 UTC
Image
© AP
People attempt to pull a truck out of the rain-swollen Santiago Creek near Modjeska Canyon, Calif. on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.
A powerful storm dumped more rain on already waterlogged Southern California on Wednesday, washing hillsides onto highways, endangering houses in canyons and forcing rescuers to pluck dozens of motorists from flooded streets.

The storm was expected to ease as it moved eastward. Floodwaters washed away homes in Arizona, and inundated parts of Nevada and Utah.

The low-pressure system could be in New Mexico by Thursday and could reach the Gulf Coast by Saturday with some rain, but not the deluge that hit Southern California, forecasters said.

In Southern California, the burst of heavy rain in the morning left streets flooded and caused minor mudslides. The threat, however, of larger mudslides could last for weeks in the suburban Los Angeles canyon hillsides laid bare by wildfires.

"The ground is so saturated it could move at any time," said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
      Read More...
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