Earth ChangesS


Igloo

China's extreme cold snaps records

Becky Oskin
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:22 UTC
Tien Shan Mountains
© NASA
An unusually cold winter across China has some regions hitting their lowest average temperatures in more than 40 years, according to state media reports. The Chinese national meteorological agency said polar fronts caused by global warming are to blame for the frigid air.

The freeze is the coldest winter in 28 years, the English-language newspaper China Daily reported. The national average temperature across China's vast territory was a chilly 25.2 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3.8 degrees Celsius) since late November. In northeast China, which typically has snowy, cold winters, the average temperature was an icy 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15.3 degrees Celsius), the lowest in 42 years.

Temperatures have dropped down to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in eastern Inner Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and the Arctic reaches of northeast China. (Mohe, in northeast China, holds China's record low temperature of minus 62.1 F, or minus 52.3 C, set on Feb. 13, 1962.)
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Binoculars

Thousands of dead birds washing up on northern Michigan's shorelines

Don Gardner
Daily Tribune
Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:15 UTC
dead loons
© Common Coast Research and ConservationDead loons lie along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

The rapidly changing ecology of the Great Lakes Basin, brought on in large part by non-native, invasive species, is causing devastation among Michigan's waterfowl, especially common loons.

The common loon, a beloved, iconic bird known for its eerily lonely, two-note call and its beautiful markings, suffered devastating losses along Lake Michigan's northern shoreline this fall. Thousands of dead birds, mainly loons, washed ashore - from the Upper Peninsula, down to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A large percentage of the dead loons had just entered their first year of breeding maturity.

The reason for the die-off, which follows similar incidents in 2006 and 2007, isn't fully understood. But it is suspected that it is driven by the food chain linking the loon to invasive species, specifically, the quagga mussel, the zebra mussel and the round goby.
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Cloud Precipitation

Death toll rises as severe winter storm batters Lebanon


The Daily Star
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:37 UTC
Lebanon flood
© The Daily Star/Hasan ShaabanPeople push a car in a flooded street in Hay al-Sellom, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013.
A severe winter storm that has raged in Lebanon since the weekend has claimed the lives of four people and forced the closure of schools across the country and some mountainous roads.

The Beirut suburb of Hay al-Sellom witnessed some of the worst devastation caused by the heavy winds and rain and raised fears that buildings in the area could collapse.

Lebanese Red Cross official George Kettaneh told the Voice of Lebanon radio station late Monday that four people died and 55 others were injured as a result of traffic accidents caused by rains and floods.
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Sun

NOAA: 2012 was warmest year ever for U.S., second most 'extreme'

Elizabeth Chuck
NBC News
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:34 UTC
Image
© Matt Rourke / AP filePeople play in water from an open fire hydrant during the afternoon heat on July 18, 2012, in Philadelphia. July was the hottest month ever on record in the contiguous U.S.
If you found yourself bundling up in scarves, hats, and long underwear less than usual last year, you weren't alone: 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous United States, according to scientists with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degrees Farenheit, 3.2 degrees above normal and a full degree higher than the previous warmest year recorded -- 1998 -- NOAA said in its report Tuesday. All 48 states in the contiguous U.S. had above-average annual temperatures last year, including 19 that broke annual records, from Connecticut through Utah.

It was also a historic year for "extreme" weather, scientists with the federal agency said. With 11 disasters that surpassed $1 billion in losses, including Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Isaac, and tornadoes across the Great Plains, Texas, and the Southeast and Ohio Valley, NOAA said 2012 was second only to 1998 in the agency's "extreme" weather index.

A long-term warming trend for the U.S., combined with drought and a northerly jet stream, led to the record heat, explained one of NOAA's scientists.
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Attention

Mexico's Colima volcano rocked by violent eruption

Peppe Caridi
MeteoWeb
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:19 UTC
Yesterday afternoon, the day of Epiphany, a violent explosion of Mexico's Colima volcano caused a high alert in the Mexican civil protection system with the immediate evacuation of about 3,000 tourists inside the National Park Nevado de Colima. In locations around the volcano there has been an intense rain of ash, and from the summit of the mountain a cloud of lava and eruptive material has risen over 2 km high. At the time there were no damages nor was evacuation required of the land closest to the volcano, from which we have been able to enjoy the unique spectacle of nature, but in the next few days is not impossible that the eruption could intensify, although at the moment it is quiet. As a precaution, the National Park is closed to visitors indefinitely.

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Snowflake

Sub-zero: UK Temperatures set to drop as low as -15C next week with cold weather front lasting until February


The Independent
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:21 UTC
sub zero
© Mail OnlineTemperatures set to drop as low as -15C next week
Parts of Britain could see temperatures drop as low as -15C next week, as a cold front which will last until February sweeps the country.

Weeks of mild weather, which has led to spring flowers blooming early in many parts of the country, will be replaced with freezing temperatures and icy winds that could even bring snow.

Clear skies and sunshine will precede a widespread frost later this week, with temperatures plunging further over the weekend as warm southerly winds give way to icy blasts from the north east.

A Met Office forecaster told the Daily Mail: "It does look like it's going to get colder. There's the scenario where we will get winds coming in from the North East that will cause colder weather. Usually that means we'll see snow flurries as well."

Forecasters say the temperature could plunge to -15C in parts of the north by next week.
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Solar Flares

Wildfires rage across Australia amid searing heat

Rod Mcguirk
philly.com
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:55 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/New South Wales Rural Fire ServiceIn this photo provided by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, plumes of smoke rise from a fire near Cooma, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013. Temperatures across much of New South Wales state are expected to reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) causing extreme conditions.
Firefighters battled scores of wildfires Tuesday in southeastern Australia as authorities evacuated national parks and warned that hot, dry and windy conditions were combining to raise the threat to its highest alert level.

Temperatures soared to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.

No deaths have been reported, although officials in Tasmania were still trying to find about 100 people who have been missing since last week when a fire tore through the small town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, destroying around 90 homes. On Tuesday, police found no bodies during preliminary checks of the ruined houses.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said. "We are at the catastrophic level and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Catastrophic threat level is the most severe rating.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. The combination of soaring temperatures and dry, windy conditions since Friday have sparked fires that burned 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania.
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Cloud Grey

Global warming - or something much worse? Australia adds new colour to temperature maps

Damian Carrington
Guardian.co.uk
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:45 UTC
Global warming is turning the volume of extreme weather up, Spinal-Tap-style, to 11. The temperature forecast for next Monday by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology is so unprecedented - over 52C - that it has had to add a new colour to the top of its scale, a suitably incandescent purple. Australia's highest recorded temperature is 50.7C, set in January 1960 in South Australia. The record for the hottest average day across the nation was set on Monday, at 40.3C, exceeding a 40-year-old record. "What makes this event quite exceptional is how widespread and intense it's been," said Aaron Coutts-Smith, the weather bureau's climate services manager. "We have been breaking records across all states and territories in Australia over the course of the event so far." Wildfires are raging across New South Wales and Tasmania.
Image
© BOMAustralian Bureau of Meteorology temperature map - with a new colour for 52-54C.

Comment: 'Global warming' or something much worse?
Earth in crisis: Is the planet on the verge of a 'meltdown'?
AGW Bombshell? A new paper shows statistical tests for global warming fails to find statistically significantly anthropogenic forcing


Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard said: "Whilst you would not put any one event down to climate change, weather doesn't work like that, we do know over time that as a result of climate change we are going to see more extreme weather events and conditions."
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Snowflake

Chicago expected to tie record for lack of snow


Chicago Tribune
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:32 UTC
Image
© Tribune illustration / March 10, 2012
Chicago's mild winter reaches another milestone on Tuesday: 319 days without an inch of snow falling.

That ties the record set in 1940. Wednesday will break the record and, with temperatures forecast to surge into the 50s Friday and Saturday, the record streak will continue.

While Chicago has seen 1.3 inches of snow through Jan. 6 this winter, it has yet to see a calendar day with at least an inch of snow falling.
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Snowflake Cold

Greatest snow on record for December in Northern Hemisphere


reagancoalition.com
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:28 UTC
This image from the Rutgers Snow Lab shows that there was so much snow in the Northern Hemisphere that it broke a December record.
Image
So how is that global warming rhetoric working out for you? Steven Goddard exposed past global warming articles that predicted less snow.
2001 15.2.4.1.2.4. Ice Storms

Milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms

http://observatory.ph/resources/...

IPCC Draft 1995

shrinking snow cover in winter

http://www.nytimes.com/
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