Extreme Temperatures
Phillip Prince has been sitting in his tractor-trailer, stuck on Interstate 40 near Groom, Texas, for hours.
Nine hours and four minutes, to be precise.
Prince and his co-driver were due in California at 1 p.m. Tuesday, where they were going to drop off 25,000 pounds of frozen pizza.
But then they came upon what the National Weather Service is calling "a crippling, historic blizzard."
"It was pretty nasty when we first got into it," he said. "But then it turned into a whiteout."
Prince, who has been a long-haul driver for nine years, says he's never seen it this bad, as he explained his situation on CNN.com's iReport. The line of trucks is five to six miles long.
It's frustrating, the west-bound driver said, because he can see snowplows in the east-bound lanes. He hopes to get moving soon; he's down to eating his last box of Lucky Charms.
The good news is that it has stopped snowing. The winds are still 55 mph, but the skies are clear though the roads are not.
The storm has been moving east during the day, dumping records amount of snow along the way.
In Woodward, a town in northwest Oklahoma, firefighters were unable to reach a burning house because they ran into 4-foot snow drifts. The snowplow sent to dig them out also became stuck, Matt Lehenbauer, the director of Woodward, said Monday afternoon.
Blizzard warnings issued in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
Emergency personnel help a stranded motorist on the I-40 service road Feb. 25 in Amarillo, Texas.A ferocious blizzard blasted the southern Plains with heavy snow and high winds Monday, burying much of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles under more than a foot of snow, wreaking travel havoc on the roads and in the air.
Overnight Monday and through the day Tuesday, the storm will slowly slog to the north and east, bringing a swath of snow across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, the National Weather Service reported.
"This storm will have a huge impact, with additional heavy snows likely over portions of eastern Kansas and northern Missouri which received very heavy snowfall amounts last week," weather service meteorologist Robert Oravec wrote in an online bulletin.
The storm is being blamed for two deaths on Monday. In northwest Kansas, a 21-year-old man's SUV hit an icy patch on Interstate 70 and overturned. And in the northwest town of Woodward, Okla., heavy snow caused a roof to collapse, killing one inside the home.
Among the big cities that will see accumulating snow Tuesday are Kansas City, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, according to AccuWeather. The heaviest snow is forecast Tuesday around Kansas City, which should easily see a foot of snow. Chicago should receive about 3-6 inches of snow.
The storm will continue to dump snow across the Lower Great Lakes region Tuesday night and into northern New York State and northern New England on Wednesday, Oravec says.
Emergency personnel help a stranded motorist on the I-40 service road Feb. 25 in Amarillo, Texas.
Overnight Monday and through the day Tuesday, the storm will slowly slog to the north and east, bringing a swath of snow across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, the National Weather Service reported.
"This storm will have a huge impact, with additional heavy snows likely over portions of eastern Kansas and northern Missouri which received very heavy snowfall amounts last week," weather service meteorologist Robert Oravec wrote in an online bulletin.
The storm is being blamed for two deaths on Monday. In northwest Kansas, a 21-year-old man's SUV hit an icy patch on Interstate 70 and overturned. And in the northwest town of Woodward, Okla., heavy snow caused a roof to collapse, killing one inside the home.
Among the big cities that will see accumulating snow Tuesday are Kansas City, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, according to AccuWeather. The heaviest snow is forecast Tuesday around Kansas City, which should easily see a foot of snow. Chicago should receive about 3-6 inches of snow.
The storm will continue to dump snow across the Lower Great Lakes region Tuesday night and into northern New York State and northern New England on Wednesday, Oravec says.
Blizzard conditions slammed parts of the central Plains Monday, forcing the closure of highways in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand anew just days after a massive storm blanketed the region with snow.
National Weather Service officials in Kansas and Oklahoma issued blizzard warnings and watches through late Monday as the storm packing snow and high winds tracked eastward across West Texas toward Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Forecasters also warned of possible tornadoes further southeast.
Snow covered Amarillo, Texas, where forecasters said up to 18 inches could fall, accompanied by wind gusts up to 65 mph. Paul Braun, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transport, said whiteout conditions and drifting snow had made all roads in the Texas Panhandle impassable. Interstate 40 was closed from Amarillo to the Oklahoma state line.
"It's just a good day to stay home," Braun said.
"This is one of the worst ones we've had for a while," he said. "And we kind of know snow up here."
Snow covered Amarillo, Texas, where forecasters said up to 18 inches could fall, accompanied by wind gusts up to 65 mph. Paul Braun, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transport, said whiteout conditions and drifting snow had made all roads in the Texas Panhandle impassable. Interstate 40 was closed from Amarillo to the Oklahoma state line.
"It's just a good day to stay home," Braun said.
"This is one of the worst ones we've had for a while," he said. "And we kind of know snow up here."
That's -71.2°C, and it shatters the previous record of -68°C (-90.4°F) set in 1933! Hat-tip DirkH.
UPDATE: Russian media confirms the new record! (In Russian)
There's been a lot of confusion over the last couple of days concerning a record low temperature allegedly just recorded in Siberia. News reports in the mainstream media made it sound like the reading was recorded decades ago, or they just muddled it. For example The Mail had a feature here. No mention that it's a record set just days ago.
But now it appears that the record was actually set on February 19, in Oymyakon, Siberia.
The confusion is understandable, as the news just doesn't square with the global warming narrative.
UPDATE: Russian media confirms the new record! (In Russian)
There's been a lot of confusion over the last couple of days concerning a record low temperature allegedly just recorded in Siberia. News reports in the mainstream media made it sound like the reading was recorded decades ago, or they just muddled it. For example The Mail had a feature here. No mention that it's a record set just days ago.
But now it appears that the record was actually set on February 19, in Oymyakon, Siberia.
The confusion is understandable, as the news just doesn't square with the global warming narrative.
Daytime temperatures this winter in Stockholm have regularly dropped to -5C (23F) but it's still common to see children left outside by their parents for a sleep in the pram.
Wander through the snowy city and you'll see buggies lined up outside coffee shops while parents sip on lattes inside.
And if you are visiting friends and your child needs a nap, you may be offered the garden or balcony instead of a bedroom.
The snow started falling around Arizona during the early morning hours Wednesday and by mid-morning was even falling near the Valley of the Sun.
Viewers were quick to grab videos of the snow falling outside their homes and send them in to ABC15.
Viewers were quick to grab videos of the snow falling outside their homes and send them in to ABC15.
It may be more associated with sweltering temperatures, arid land and cacti than snow. But a rare blanket of the white stuff stopped some of the world's most famous golfers teeing off at a major tournament in Tucson, Arizona, yesterday.
Instead of the likes of Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods gracing the greens, snowmen occupied the course at the Ritz Carlton Club in Dove Mountain.
And normally used to lugging around the pros clubs, the players' caddies enjoyed an hour long snowball fight in the course car park.
Even American golfer Rickie Fowler joined in the fun firing snowballs.
Additional images
© Reuters
Camouflage: The white flag on the 18th green can barely be seen through the snow
Camouflage: The white flag on the 18th green can barely be seen through the snow
And normally used to lugging around the pros clubs, the players' caddies enjoyed an hour long snowball fight in the course car park.
Even American golfer Rickie Fowler joined in the fun firing snowballs.
Additional images
Halifax - Thousands of people on the East Coast lost power and school was cancelled in Nova Scotia and parts of New Brunswick after blasts of winter wind and wet snow swept through the region.
Nova Scotia Power reported about 12,000 outages by 8 a.m. local time.
In New Brunswick, NB Power issued a news release saying that at least 6,000 customers had lost power in the Fredericton, Rothesay and St. Stephen areas, with more people expected to report the loss of electricity as the morning went on.
"The storm has certainly created significant damage including broken poles and large trees on lines," wrote Meghan Gerrish, a spokeswoman for NB Power.
© Postmedia News files
A winter storm warning is in effect for the Boston area, where the National Weather Service said 4 to 8 inches of snow could fall by Sunday night. Snow up to 8 inches also is forecast for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Strong winds are expected to accompany the snow, gusting up to 55 mph. The weather service said that by evening, temperatures with the wind chill could feel like minus 1.
Early Sunday, New York officials issued a high-wind warning for the Tappan Zee Bridge, reducing the speed limit to 35 mph and prohibiting empty trailers and motorcycles on the bridge. All trucks, trailers, and buses were advised to consider an alternate route.
Cauterets in Hautes-Pyrenees, where ski lifts are almost buried under snow.
Noël Lacaze, director at Peyragudes, says that avalanche control work has been non-stop. "We've already used 900 kg of explosives, we've never done that before, that's between 15,000 to 20,000 euros alone". Add to that overtime plus the work clearing roofs and roads as well as additional heating costs and Lacuze thinks snowmaking might be cheaper than dealing with the effects of too much snow. Last season at Barèges there were less than 10 PIDAs organized (general avalanche control days), this season they are already approaching 20. Bernard Malus, director of le Grand Tormalet (Barèges-la Mongie-pic du Midi) says that in recent season they've invested heavily in snow making not avalanche control infrastructure. "This winter has taught us we've got to put money into remote avalanche control systems, a more performant Gazex network, it will cost around 3 million euros". Lacaze says that the investment in advanced ski lifts over recent years in the Pyrenees has had an effect "chair lifts are not more fragile but the depart and arrival areas are more complex to clear and secure, with drag lifts things were easier".
