Extreme Temperatures
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Igloo

Athens snow closes roads and schools; city opens homeless shelters


ekathimerini.com
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:44 UTC
Heavy Snow
© Ekathimerini.com
Heavy snowfall in northern parts of the Greek capital on Tuesday prompted authorities to close roads and schools, while municipal authorities made three public buildings to the homeless shelters as temperatures dropped to the 0-Celsius mark.

The Penteli ring road was closed early on Tuesday due to ice and fog and was reopened to traffic later in the morning, while Dionysos Avenue remains off limits from Anatoli to Dionysos and drivers were advised to use snow chains on the road between Katsimidiou and Aghiou Merkouriou in Tatoi.

The old national highway linking Thiva to Athens was shut off to lorries and other heavy vehicles, with regular cars allowed access only with snow chains, as the road leading from the funicular to Mont Parnes Casino on Mount Parnitha remained closed from Sunday.

Several schools were also given the day off in Dionysos, Penteli, Nea Penteli, Kapandriti, Kalamos, Malakasa, Petroupoli and Liosia, among other parts of northern Attica.

Meanwhile, the city of Athens opened three emergency centers for the homeless on Monday at buildings on the corners of Lenorman and Alexandreias, Mamouri and Dymis, and Aghiou Meletiou and Xenagora. The 1960 hotline will also be operating 24 hours a day where citizens can report the location of homeless people in distress.

Municipal day centers for the elderly (KAPI) will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, providing heated shelter.

The meteorological service expects the cold snap to continue through Wednesday, with temperatures starting to climb back up on Thursday and Friday.
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Snowflake Cold

Russian Trans-Caucasian highway closed due to heavy snowfall


The Voice of Russia
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:28 UTC
Trans-Caucasian highway snow
© RIA Novosti
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Cloud Precipitation

Storm hits displaced Syrians, turning Jordanian camp into freezing swamp


The Times of Israel
Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:20 UTC
Syrian refugee
© AP/Mohammad HannonA Wounded Syrian refugee makes his way over water and mud at the Zaatari Syrian refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, on Tuesday
A winter storm is magnifying the misery for tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the country's civil war, turning a refugee camp into a muddy swamp where howling winds tore down tents and exposed the displaced residents to freezing temperatures.

Some frustrated refugees at a camp in Zaatari, where about 50,000 are sheltered, attacked aid workers with sticks and stones after the tents collapsed in 35 mph (60 kph) winds, said Ghazi Sarhan, spokesman for the Jordanian charity that helps run the camp. Police said seven Jordanian workers were injured.

After three days of rain, muddy water engulfed tents housing refugees including pregnant women and infants. Those who didn't move out used buckets to bail out the water; others built walls of mud to try to stay dry.
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Igloo

Price of vegetables in China jumps 55% in historic cold snap

Joe Weisenthal
Business Insider
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:27 UTC
Vegetable
© Flickr user thebittenword.comBabi bok choi.
A cold snap in China hasn't gotten much attention here, but it might start to get more, as it's causing massive food inflation.

The Daily Dim Sum translates a Xinhua article:
Monitoring results of the Ministry of Agriculture show that prices of 27 vegetables in the first week of 2013 increased 4.5 percent week-on-week for an average price of CNY 4.17/kg. In the past ten weeks, average price of vegetables has jumped 55 percent.
Weather.com reports on the exact weather numbers:
China is experiencing unusual chills this winter with its national average temperature hitting the lowest in 28 years, and snow and ice have closed highways, canceled flights, stranded tourists and knocked out power in several provinces.

China Meteorological Administration on Friday said the national average was 25 degrees Fahrenheit since late November, the coldest in nearly three decades.

The average temperature in northeast China dipped to -4.5 degrees F, the coldest in 43 years, and dropped to a 42-year low of -18.7 degrees F in northern China.
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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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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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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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Igloo

Mongolian governors voice concerns about harsh winter

M.Zoljargal
UBPost
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:27 UTC
Mongolian Meeting
© UB Post
Administrators of Khovd, Uvs, Zavkhan, Khuvsgul and Dundgovi Provinces voiced their concerns about the harsh winter conditions to the Prime Minister, N. Altankhuyag, and other government staff at a video conference on Thursday.

The provincial governors participating in the video-conference remarked that as the depth of the snow has increased, most of the provinces have begun to use the hay and fodder from the state reserve and this is costly. They claim that herders will be in a very problematic situation unless the government finds a way to reduce the price of the state reserve of hay and fodder.

The Governor of Govi-Altai Province noted that Govi-Altai is planning to start using the state reserve from February 10, as it has saved enough reserve itself.

The directors of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Agency for Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment Monitoring participated in the video-conference and described the recent weather trends and the conditions in the provinces. Some provinces are experiencing alarming conditions.
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Igloo

China chills hit 28-year low, trapping ships in ice

Adam Jourdan
Reuters
Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:00 UTC
Cold Freeze
© XinhuaResidents walk in snow in Dexing city, Jiangxi province on Jan 4. Snow and icy rain pelted Chinese provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Zhejiang and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Friday and is expected to continue over the next three days.
Shanghai - Temperatures in China have plunged to their lowest in almost three decades, cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, official media said at the weekend.

Since late November the country has shivered at an average of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees colder than the previous average, and the chilliest in 28 years, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday, citing the China Meteorological Administration.

Bitter cold has even frozen the sea in Laizhou Bay on the coast of Shandong province in the east, stranding nearly 1,000 ships, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Zheng Dong, chief meteorologist at the Yantai Marine Environment Monitoring Center under the State Oceanic Administration, told the paper that the area under ice in Laizhou Bay was 291 square km this week.
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Igloo

More than 100 dead as cold snap hits India


Australian Associated Press
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:34 UTC
India Cold Snap
© AAP Police say more than 100 people, many homeless or poor, have died as a cold snap hits India.
Police say more than 100 people have died of exposure as northern India deals with historically cold temperatures.

Police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said on Thursday at least 114 people have died from the cold in the state of Uttar Pradesh, at least 23 of them in the previous 24 hours.

Srivastava said many of the dead were poor people whose bodies were found on footpaths or in parks.

The weather department said temperatures in the state were 4 to 10 degrees below normal.

Temperatures in New Delhi, which borders Uttar Pradesh, hit a high on Wednesday of 9.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest maximum temperature in the capital since 1969.
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