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| ©Gerald Traufetter |
| Dr. Hubertus Fischer cutting an ice core at Kohnen Station, Antarctica. |
Extreme Temperatures
Ice cores are essential for climate research, because they represent the only archive which allows direct measurements of atmospheric composition and greenhouse gas concentrations in the past. Using novel isotopic studies, scientists from the European Project for Ice Coring In Antarctica (EPICA) were now able to identify the most important processes responsible for changes in natural methane concentrations over the transition from the last ice age into our warm period.
© Scott Olson/Getty Images
Frozen Chicago
Frozen Chicago
River Bully told CBS 2′s Ed Curran that a neighbor's leaking pipe is to blame.
Since 1950, Bully has lived in her Fuller Park home. For weeks now, she has been a prisoner, her back door surrounded by ice from a neighbor's leaking pipe.
She called 311, and a worker with the Chicago Water Department responded, but it didn't bring results.
© Joe Songer
In this file photo from 2005, Dr. Zenko Hrynkiw performs back surgery at Baptist Montclair, now Trinity Medical Center.
In this file photo from 2005, Dr. Zenko Hrynkiw performs back surgery at Baptist Montclair, now Trinity Medical Center.
The problem was the sudden snowstorm had locked down traffic, and the neurosurgeon didn't get farther than a few blocks.
"The cell service was bad so we were fading in and out," said Steve Davis, charge nurse in the neuro intensive care unit at Trinity. "At one point, I heard him say, 'I'm walking.'"
Davis had alerted authorities, and they were looking for him. There were supposed sightings, but no one could find him.
© Big Tigger/https://twitter.com/BigTiggerShow
Tuesday's storm deposited mere inches of snow, barely enough to qualify as a storm up North. And yet it was more than enough to paralyze Deep South cities such as Atlanta and Birmingham, and strand thousands of workers who tried to rush home early only to never make it home at all.
A man stands on the frozen roadway as he waits for traffic to clear along Interstate 75 in Macon, Georgia, on Wednesday, January 29. A wave of arctic air that started over the Midwest and Plains spread to the Southeast, bringing snow, freezing ice and sleet to a region not familiar with such weather.
Officials in Hoover, Alabama, were sending buses early Wednesday morning to pick up stranded motorists.
In the first run, two school buses were sent to transport as many as 100 people to local shelters, said Rusty Lowe of the Hoover fire department.
The buses will make several runs.
Comment: Update: 30/01/2014
13 people have been killed so far as a result of this winter storm, while 6 states have declared a state of emergency.
© Ben Gray/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated Press
Traffic inched along the connector of Interstate's 75 and 85 in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Traffic inched along the connector of Interstate's 75 and 85 in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Residents ran out of medicine, a baby was born to a stranded mother and pleas for help flooded Twitter and Facebook as a region that rarely deals with ice and snow came to a screeching halt during a rare meteorological event that was still icing points this morning as far south as Brownsville, Tex.
"This came very suddenly," Craig Witherspoon, superintendent of Birmingham City Schools in Alabama, said Wednesday morning. An estimated 600 students in his district spent the night in schools, tended by about 100 staff members.
"All reports for the Birmingham area were that we'd get a light dusting to the south of where we were," Mr. Witherspoon said. "And the flakes started coming, and then it just poured out."
© Reuters
A lake had formed below the avalanche.
A lake had formed below the avalanche.
A glacier-sized avalanche has blocked the river. An ice lake has formed, currently at an estimated depth of 60 feet and growing.
The Richardson Highway is flooded and the town of Valdez cut off from road access. There is some concern as to when and how the lake will release and downstream residents are on evacuation alert.
Thanks to Josh Cooley in Valdez for this video
"Incredible to be living here in Valdez during this event," says Josh. "Luckily my pantry is well stocked, and we are having food shipped in by barge."
© Canadian Press
Canadians from Saskatchewan to Quebec are bundling up against the cold this week.
Canadians from Saskatchewan to Quebec are bundling up against the cold this week.
Today is already the third day in a row of bitter cold and biting wind chills for the prairie provinces, as temperatures across Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been hovering around -30°C since Sunday. The light winds blowing through the area have been making it feel more like -40 or even lower. The cold-spot for this morning was in northern Manitoba, but even Winnipeg and Brandon reached -45 wind chills over the past day - cold enough to freeze exposed skin in as little as five minutes!
Schools, courts and government offices throughout the western Florida Panhandle plan to close because of anticipated snow and ice as a polar vortex grips much of the country.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for the region. Forecasters say a mix of freezing rain and snow is expected Tuesday through Wednesday.
Comment: Update 30/01/2014
With all these 'winter wildfires' breaking out in the US, Norway and Tibet, we wonder if increased methane levels play a role.
More on methane:
Melting permafrost methane emissions: The other threat to climate change
Study says methane a new climate threat
Scientists Find Frozen Methane Gas Deposit