Blizzard warnings issued in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
A ferocious blizzard blasted the southern Plains with heavy snow and high winds Monday, burying much of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles under more than a foot of snow, wreaking travel havoc on the roads and in the air.

Overnight Monday and through the day Tuesday, the storm will slowly slog to the north and east, bringing a swath of snow across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, the National Weather Service reported.

"This storm will have a huge impact, with additional heavy snows likely over portions of eastern Kansas and northern Missouri which received very heavy snowfall amounts last week," weather service meteorologist Robert Oravec wrote in an online bulletin.

The storm is being blamed for two deaths on Monday. In northwest Kansas, a 21-year-old man's SUV hit an icy patch on Interstate 70 and overturned. And in the northwest town of Woodward, Okla., heavy snow caused a roof to collapse, killing one inside the home.

Among the big cities that will see accumulating snow Tuesday are Kansas City, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, according to AccuWeather. The heaviest snow is forecast Tuesday around Kansas City, which should easily see a foot of snow. Chicago should receive about 3-6 inches of snow.

The storm will continue to dump snow across the Lower Great Lakes region Tuesday night and into northern New York State and northern New England on Wednesday, Oravec says.

Residents in southern Ontario and southern Quebec are in for more messy, mixed winter weather over the next few days as a storm system making its way north from Texas is expected to swing through the area from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday.

According to an Environment Canada Special Weather Statement from this morning, precipitation from this storm should start to fall as rain tomorrow afternoon, along a line from Sarnia to St. Catherines. The rain is expected to switch over to snow in the evening and then spread to the north and east during the night, reaching eastern Ontario by Wednesday morning and pushing into southern Quebec in the afternoon and evening.

Up to 15 cm of snow is expected across southern and south-central Ontario from the system by Wednesday morning, and for eastern Ontario by Wednesday afternoon or evening, with higher amounts possible before the storm completely passes. However, as there is still some uncertainty with the exact track of the storm, these amounts could be lower if the storm tracks slightly further north, bringing more warm temperatures with it and keeping the precipitation a mix of rain and snow, or they could be higher if the storm tracks a bit further south, keeping southern Ontario temperatures below freezing and keeping the precipitation as all snow.

No weather statements are in effect for southern Quebec as of today, as the system isn't expected to arrive there for at least another 48 hours. However, since there is far less uncertainty about the precipitation type for eastern Ontario and southern Quebec, residents should prepare themselves for the possibility of significant snowfall amounts on Wednesday and Thursday.

Environment Canada will issued updated weather statements and warnings as the storm approaches, which can be accessed from their website.

Blizzard conditions slammed parts of the central Plains Monday, forcing the closure of highways in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand anew just days after a massive storm blanketed the region with snow.
National Weather Service officials in Kansas and Oklahoma issued blizzard warnings and watches through late Monday as the storm packing snow and high winds tracked eastward across West Texas toward Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Forecasters also warned of possible tornadoes further southeast.

Snow covered Amarillo, Texas, where forecasters said up to 18 inches could fall, accompanied by wind gusts up to 65 mph. Paul Braun, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transport, said whiteout conditions and drifting snow had made all roads in the Texas Panhandle impassable. Interstate 40 was closed from Amarillo to the Oklahoma state line.

"It's just a good day to stay home," Braun said.

"This is one of the worst ones we've had for a while," he said. "And we kind of know snow up here."

The Great Freeze of 1963 was the coldest winter in the UK for over 200 years. However, the winter of 1947, while not as cold, was one of the snowiest.

The UK Met Office describe what the conditions were like.

Thousands of people were cut off for days by snowdrifts up to seven metres deep during the winter of 1947, which saw exceptional snowfall. Supplies had to be flown in by helicopter to many villages, and the armed forces were called in to help clear roads and railways.

Between January and March that year, snow fell every day somewhere in the country for 55 days straight. Much of this settled because temperatures stayed very low, just above freezing most days.

No-one expected this winter to be severe, as January started with very mild temperatures at up to 14 °C recorded. This was soon to change, however. An area of high pressure moved over southern Scandinavia, setting up a weather pattern which dominated the UK for the rest of the month. The first snow came on 23 January, falling heavily over southern England. Blizzard conditions occurred across the south-west of England, leaving many villages in Devon isolated.

The giant fissure in the ground swallowed two cars in Page, Arizona, and caused 120 feet of highway to sink over 8 feet. But geologists are now also worried that the road may be irreparable for a long time because it appears that the whole side of the mountain is sinking!

Experts are trying to work out why nearly 100 dead animals and birds have washed up on a Peruvian coastline.

The bodies of 18 sea turtles, 22 sea lions, eight dolphins, 16 angular roughsharks and 22 marine birds were found during an inspection by government officials.

That's -71.2°C, and it shatters the previous record of -68°C (-90.4°F) set in 1933! Hat-tip DirkH.

UPDATE: Russian media confirms the new record! (In Russian)

There's been a lot of confusion over the last couple of days concerning a record low temperature allegedly just recorded in Siberia. News reports in the mainstream media made it sound like the reading was recorded decades ago, or they just muddled it. For example The Mail had a feature here. No mention that it's a record set just days ago.

But now it appears that the record was actually set on February 19, in Oymyakon, Siberia.

The confusion is understandable, as the news just doesn't square with the global warming narrative.

About 4,000 are isolated on the New South Wales' north coast as the region is hit with damaging winds, strong rains and flooding.

A severe weather warning is in place for northern NSW, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of very heavy rains leading to flash flooding over the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Northern Tablelands and Hunter forecast districts.

Late on Friday night, the NSW State Emergency Service said the extreme weather had isolated about 3500 people on the north coast.

An SES spokesman said the SES had received 1000 calls for assistance so far, and had completed nine flood rescues, including one in which three people were dragged from a car at Taree.

He expected the threat of flooding to increase on Saturday.

A vast swarm of bugs that covered much of the northern half of the North Island last night and this morning has been caught on the Metservice weather radar. (See animated weather radar image here.)

MetService didn't know what it was and entomologists were puzzled.

But there was a strong suspicion that it was an unwanted Australian heading home.

One was convinced it was the Tasmanian grass grub and another suspected huge swarm of aphids.

"I have no idea," said Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste.

"I would suggest go up in the air in aeroplane stick out a butterfly net and see what you catch."

He also speculated it could be a dust storm.

Fellow entomologist Stephen Pawson of Scion, a Crown research institute, had a more pragmatic answer; whatever if was, it was large, and it is going to be coming in on the surf at Piha and Muriwai for the next week or so.

Metservice's Peter Kreft said the unknown insects began swarming over the Waikato region about 9pm yesterday.

"They were pushed by the south easterly wind north toward Auckland," he said.