Extreme Temperatures
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Igloo

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

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.

Igloo

China's extreme cold snaps records

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.)

Snowflake

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

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.

Snowflake Cold

Greatest snow on record for December in Northern Hemisphere

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/

Igloo

Mongolian governors voice concerns about harsh winter

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.

Igloo

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

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.

Igloo

More than 100 dead as cold snap hits India

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.

Igloo

Beijing gripped in cold snap

Cold Snap in Beijing
© Xinhua/Shen JizhongA citizen walks in snow on a street in Yantai, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 2, 2013. Yantai witnessed the first snow in this year on Wednesday.
Beijing gripped in a cold snap is experiencing one of the coldest New Year periods in the local meteorological history, according to the municipal observatory on Wednesday.

The observatory issued the yellow low-temperature weather alert on Tuesday afternoon. The warning is second only to red alert.

It forecast that the cold snap in accompany with powerful wind would drive down the lower temperature to minus 14 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, approaching the extreme record of minus 16 degrees Celsius.

The temperature in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north of Beijing has dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius with snow on ground piling up 50 centimeters in some areas of the Greater Hinggan Mountains.

The rare winter cold caused frost on expressways in eastern Shandong Province, which has also issued yellow icy road alert. The provincial observatory said the cold snap is likely to linger till Friday.

Igloo

Record cold snap grips Korean Peninsula

Cold Snap in Korea
© Yonhap News Agency
Seoul -- A prolonged cold spell sent the mercury plummeting nationwide on Thursday, with temperatures dropping to their lowest levels in decades, the country's weather agency said.

The South Korean capital city of Seoul recorded a temperature of minus 16.5 C in the morning, the lowest in 27 years since a minus 16.9 C was recorded in 1986, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said.

A cold wave watch for Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi Province, and a cold wave alert for the central part of the country have been issued, the agency said.

The morning low dropped to minus 24.3 C, the lowest temperature in the country, in Cheorwon, a mountainous town near the inter-Korean border, according to the KMA. Temperatures were recorded at minus 24.1 C in Paju, a border town in Gyeonggi Province, and minus 22.6 C in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

Handcuffs

ICE agents arrest 245 alleged pedophiles; 44 children rescued

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© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton (R) speaks as National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CEO John Ryan (L) listens during a news conference on Jan. 3, 2013 at the ICE headquarters in Washington, DC.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents announced today they have rescued 44 children from sexual abuse as part of a child pornography investigation that netted 245 arrests over five weeks late last year.

Agents have identified an additional 79 individuals who have been abused as children including 24 victims who now may be adults and are seeking the public's help to identify individuals who are alleged to be sexually abusing young children, with the images posted on the Internet.

"Many times, our investigations into people who possess and trade child pornography reveal new material that points to the ongoing sexual abuse of children. In these cases, our primary objective is to rescue the victim from their horrific situation. And our next step is to arrest and seek prosecution for their abusers," said ICE Director John Morton in a statement.

Among those arrested: Bradley Vaine from Fresno, Calif., who was allegedly abusing a 7-year-old girl who suffered from mental disabilities. Also arrested was Samuel Gueydan from Clovis, Calif., who allegedly had over 1.2 million images and 7,000 videos of child pornography on his computer, ICE said.

The investigation was dubbed Operation Sunflower to commemorate the anniversary of a case where agents discovered evidence that a child was in imminent danger of being raped by a relative. According to ICE, the tip initially came from Dutch investigators who found Internet postings suggesting the girl was in imminent danger.