Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Winter storm warning for much of Western New York


The Daily News
Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:41 UTC
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© Health.ny.govNew York Counties
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for much of Western New York, including Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming counties, beginning at 7 tonight.

The warning, which continues until 7 p.m. Saturday, replaces the previously announced winter weather advisory.

A wind chill advisory will also go into effect from midnight Saturday to noon Sunday, reports the Weather Service.

Both advisories also include Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara and Ontario counties.

Snow and "significant blowing snow" are a concern in the storm warning, according to the Weather Service.

Genesee and Wyoming counties could see 3 to 6 inches of snow, along with Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara.

The Weather Service is forecasting 3 to 5 inches for Orleans County.

Livingston, Ontario and Allegany counties are predicted to receive 2 to 4 inches of snow.

The entire region is expecting southwest winds of 20 to 30 mph, gusting to 45 mph. Visibilities could be under a quarter-mile at times, the Weather Service said.
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Snowflake Cold

Winter weather to hit UK after weeks of floods


Sky News
Sat, 25 Jan 2014 08:01 UTC
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© SkynewsThe Somerset Levels have seen weeks of flooding this winter.

After an exceptionally mild December and early January forecasters warn a cold spell could bring snow in some areas

Britain looks set for a distinctly colder end to January with the possibility of snow, widespread frost and cold winds.

After saturated southern England is hit by further flooding this weekend, low pressure will start to bring change across the UK next week.

The change comes as a "major incident" was declared on the Somerset Levels which have seen weeks of severe flooding and remain underwater.

The Somerset Levels is a rural area running south from the Mendip Hills to the Blackdown Hills.

Sedgemoor District Council chief executive Kerry Rickards said: "With significant rainfall expected over the coming days we feel this situation needs to be escalated as a major incident."

The council said it would continue to provide practical support to residents whose properties are flooded or are predicted to flood.

Next week's drop in temperature will come as a shock following a wet but exceptionally mild December and January, Presenter Isobel Lang, said.

"The low bringing us rain this weekend will slip away southwards allowing significantly colder air to seep west and southwestwards across us on a biting east or northeast wind.
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Igloo

Colder weather heads for U.S. as ice set to coat Texas

Brian K. Sullivan
Bloomberg News
Fri, 24 Jan 2014 10:36 UTC
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© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesThe tugboat Commissioner breaks up ice in Burnham Harbor near the Loop on January 21, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. Temperatures in Chicago fell lower than the South Pole this month as freezing weather boosted energy consumption, grounded thousands of flights across the U.S. and disrupted operations at refineries and natural gas production sites.
Parts of southern Texas may get a rare coating of ice as temperatures plunging across the U.S. portend an even sharper cold snap to come.

Temperatures across the eastern U.S. and parts of Ontario and Quebec will be at least 8 degrees below normal through Jan. 27, said Matt Rogers, president of the Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Next week will be colder, he said.

"The crazy thing is that the current cold snap this week looks to be a bit more modest in the face of next week's outbreak," Rogers said. "The cold coming for the end of January is sufficient to make this the coldest month of the century so far and the coldest the Lower 48 has felt in at least 20 years."

Temperatures in Chicago fell lower than the South Pole this month as freezing weather boosted energy consumption, grounded thousands of flights across the U.S. and disrupted operations at refineries and natural gas production sites.

The natural gas-weight heating degree days value for January is expected to reach 1,062.9, higher than the five-year average of 949.5 and the coldest since 2001, Rogers said.

The value is determined by subtracting the daily average temperature from a base of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the resulting number is a measure of how cold it is and how much energy is needed to keep homes and warm.

Cold Front

"A wave of low pressure along the cold front currently settling into the southern states is expected to spread a rare coating of ice across southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana," the National Weather Service said.
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Snowflake

Kashmir remains cut off due to heaviest January snowfall in a decade


Deccan Herald
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 08:27 UTC
Kashmir snowfall
© Unknown
Kashmir remained cut-off from the rest of the country for the second day today with road and air links to the Valley snapped due to snowfall, the heaviest in a decade in the month of January.

The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for traffic, while no flights operated from the airport here following heavy snowfall yesterday. However, there were no reports of fresh snowfall from any part of the Valley during the night.

"The national highway is closed for traffic today. No vehicle will be allowed to ply on the road," a Traffic Department spokesman said here.

He said the 294-km arterial highway - the only road-link between Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country - was being cleared of snow and could be made motorable later in the day.

No flights to and fro Srinagar Airport operated yesterday due to continuous snowfall. However, there are chances of the airport being made operational in the afternoon.
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Igloo

Death toll mounts as unusually long Thai cold spell continues


The Bangkok Post
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 12:31 UTC
Cold Spell_1
© The Bangkok Post
The unusually long cold spell across the North, Northeast and Central regions has killed 63 people in the past three months and Bangkok has suffered its coldest night in three decades.

Sophon Mekthon, director general of the Disease Control Department, said on Thursday that the 63 fatalities were reported in 27 provinces between Oct 22, 2013 and Jan 19, 2014.

Most of the fatalities were men. The youngest was a one-month-old baby and the oldest was 81 years old. A Cambodian and a British national were among the victims.

The northern border province of Chiang Rai had the most deaths, with six, followed by Sa Kaeo and Nakhon Ratchasima in the Northeast with five each.

Forty-five provinces have been declared cold-spell disaster zones and more than 25 million people have been affected by the cold weather.
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Ice Cube

Fox becomes latest to freeze solid in Scandinavia's lakes, following fish and moose

Sara Malm
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:09 UTC
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The fox was found frozen solid in the ice on a lake in southern Sweden
A fox has become the latest victims to the freezing temperatures on Scandinavia's waters as it was found frozen solid in a lake in southern Sweden.

The animal was discovered by a skater on Lake Bunn, near Jönköping, who originally thought it was a piece of foam rubber, but found the poor fox dead in the ice with its head just above the surface.

It follows recent 'animal ice deaths' in Scandinavia, where an entire shoal of fish were photographed off the coast of Norway just days after a moose had suffered the same fate.
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Extinguisher

While East Coast freezes, West Coast burns: crews battle wildfire in Rural Placer County, California

Ian McDonald
Fox40.com
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 07:41 UTC
california fires
California Fire crews are gaining ground on a wildfire burning in rural Placer County.
As of 4L30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the fire had burned 120 acres, according to Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.

The fire is burning in Pleasant Grove, near South Brewer Road and Phillips Road. No structures were threatened.

The lack of rain in California has led to summer-like conditions, causing agencies like Cal Fire to beef up their staff earlier than usual.
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Ice Cube

Deep freeze in U.S. Midwest, Northeast to be prolonged

Alex Sosnowski
AccuWeather.com
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 07:32 UTC
freeze weather
Bitterly cold air is again settling southward from the Arctic into a large part of the Eastern states. Unlike the outbreak from early January, this time the cold will have more staying power.

Into the first part of next week, the polar vortex will hover just north of the United States border causing waves of frigid air to blast into the Midwest and much of the East.

The polar vortex is a commonly used term among the meteorological community to describe an intense storm with frigid air and strong winds that spends much of its time above the Arctic Circle. Occasionally, during the autumn, winter and spring, this storm can dip farther south, approaching the mid-latitudes.
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Igloo

Bastardi: Arctic outbreak with multiple storms to last 10-15 days, has power grid concerns


Breitbar
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 04:33 UTC
US winter forecast
© Accuweather

On Sean Hannity's radio show on Tuesday, Weatherbell Analytics meteorologist Joe Bastardi predicted today's severe winter weather is just the beginning of a 10 to 15 day outbreak to hit the Midwest, the Great Lakes region and the Northeast.
"I think this is blizzard conditions on [Long Island] tonight, coastal New Jersey, southeastern New England," Bastardi said. "Severe and extreme cold developing at the tail end of this storm. And this is the beginning of a siege that I'm very concerned is going to have an immense impact on the country economically. I'm very concerned, and I hope I'm wrong, about the power grid. That Arctic outbreak that came for three to four days earlier in the month, led to blackouts. We've got 10 to 15 days of this coming now, where one shot after another comes in and more storms are coming. And you know, this is not trying to be doom and gloom. You don't need to hype the weather. It will hype itself naturally."
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Ice Cube

Why did Antarctic expedition ship get stranded in ice?

Andrew Luck-Baker
BBC News
Tue, 21 Jan 2014 14:26 UTC
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The Akademik Shokalskiy was trapped in thick ice for 10 days
BBC producer Andrew Luck-Baker was on board a Russian research vessel when it became trapped in pack ice over Christmas. Here, Andrew, who was covering an expedition for the BBC World Service's Discovery programme, examines the events that led up to the ship being stranded.

As the members of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) reach the end of their travels together, investigations will soon begin to establish why their Russian expedition ship, the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, became trapped in thick and extensive pack ice for 10 days.

The ship's entrapment at Christmas time led to an Australian icebreaker being diverted from its own operations hundreds of kilometres along the coast and a Chinese icebreaker also coming to the rescue.

That vessel ended up stuck in the ice itself for many days. A smaller French icebreaker ship was also summoned to the scene. It retreated when it became clear that the ice was much too thick for it to help.

The 52 members of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition were trapped until 2 January when a helicopter team from the Chinese vessel airlifted the scientists, tourists and operational staff to the Aurora Australis.

The expedition leaders could have some tough questions to face about logistical shortcomings that may have put the vessel at increased risk of becoming trapped. These were operational errors and mishaps during a visit by scientists and tourists to a location close to the Antarctic shore on 23 December.

Ship insurance companies along with the Australian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre will be keen to establish what happened and whether human error contributed to the Akademik Shokalskiy becoming encased.

Comment: This silly tourist expedition put many people in danger and disrupted serious scientific research programs:
French Le Monde blasts Chris Turney's Antarctic joy ride for disrupting real Antarctic science!
Rescue efforts for trapped Antarctic voyage disrupt serious science
Ship of fools: Icebound expeditioners apologise for Antarctic rescue mission
'Stuck in our own experiment': Leader of trapped team insists polar ice is melting against evidence of his own experience

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