Extreme Temperatures
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Igloo

Spring time? Snow in nearly half of U.S.

Spring Time in the US
© NOAAThis image shows snow covering nearly half of the U.S. and most of Canada on March 26, 2013.
Springtime: the time for flowers, newborn animals ... and snow. Nearly half of the United States is currently covered in snow, including most of Canada, as can be seen in this image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That's the largest extent of snow cover at this point in the season in at least 10 years, according to NOAA. Much of the snow came from a massive spring blizzard that dropped snow throughout the Midwest and East Coast, breaking records in many cities.

The town of Lincoln, Ill., broke its daily snow total of 4 inches (10 centimeters), which was set in 1947, with 10.8 inches (27 cm) of snow on Sunday (March 24), according to AccuWeather. The weather system also dropped 2.9 inches (7.4 cm) of snow in Columbus, Ohio, breaking the old record of 1.8 inches (4.6 cm) set in 1965.

Ice Cube

The winter that won't end? Massive snow storm blankets much of U.S.

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© Julia Rendleman/Post-GazettePeople scurry to their cars as snow begins to accumulate on tops of cars last night along Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill.
Winter-weary residents of southwestern Pennsylvania braced for yet another round of snow and ice - seriously, Mother Nature, again? - Sunday as a massive storm system swept in from the Midwest, dampening hopes that spring-like weather might finally be near. By Sunday night, the storm covered much of the eastern half of the country, from Iowa to the eastern seaboard and as far north and south as Michigan and Tennessee. Along its path across the upper Rockies and Midwest, the storm left as much as a foot of snow over the weekend, with wind gusts creating drifts of 2 to 3 feet in some states. Just 3 to 5 inches of snow was expected to accumulate across much of southwestern Pennsylvania overnight, with another 1 to 2 falling this morning, according to the National Weather Service in Moon.

Still, local road crews were leaving nothing to chance, said PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi in Pittsburgh. Crews spent Sunday evening pretreating roads with brine and mounting plows back onto trucks. By midnight, when the heaviest accumulation was expected to begin as the main body of the storm moved in from the southwest, the highway department planned to have 70 to 80 trucks out across Allegheny County, Mr. Struzzi said. "It will be our full fleet," he said. "We're ready for battle." Heavy snow was expected to continue through the pre-dawn hours, then lessen as the day progresses. The winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service expires at 11 a.m. today. "The snowfall is going to be lighter, plus with the late March sun coming through the clouds and warming the ground, not much will accumulate after morning even if the snow lingers into the evening," said Brad Rehak, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Moon.

Cloud Precipitation

Trend to colder winters continues in UK

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Link

Figures released by the Met Office show the UK mean temperature for the 2012/13 winter finishing at 3.31C. This is below the long term 1981-2010 average of 3.83C.
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Figure 1

Ambulance

Canada: Traffic nightmare in Edmonton morning after snowstorm kills three, creates 100-car pile-up

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© Stephanie Williams / The Canadian PressVehicles litter Highway 2 near Leduc, Alta. on Thursday March 21, 2013. A blizzard that has been blasting through the Prairies is being blamed for a multi-vehicle crash south of Edmonton that has injured about 100 people.
As snow continued to fall throughout the night, City of Edmonton spokeswoman Laura McNabb warned commuters to expect longer-than-usual travel times.

"If the snowfall stopped, it would be far better," McNabb told the Edmonton Journal. "It's a lot of snow. Our guys are doing their best to get the snow off the road and lay down abrasives ... and they're just going to keep at it."

McNabb said the entire city fleet, consisting of more than 200 pieces of equipment, would clear the streets but commute times might be approximately doubled.

"There will be delays, that's just to be expected in these conditions," McNabb said, "If you don't have to be on the roads tomorrow, it might be a good day to take a day off."

A 23-year-old woman, a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy were killed Thursday morning when the compact car they were in crashed head-on with a truck about 180 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Three others were seriously injured.

Mounties say it was snowing heavily at the time and visibility was poor.

The driver of the truck, a 46 year-old male, is facing several charges, including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

Snowflake

Hungary sends tanks to rescue thousands of people from snow trap

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© Reuters / Laszlo BaloghA member of the Hungarian rescue team walks on top of the snow at the M1 highway, 80 km west of Budapest, March 15, 2013
Thousands of people in Hungary found themselves trapped in heavy snow after a sudden cold snap and high winds swept over Eastern Europe. Budapest has deployed tanks to reach motorists trapped by the conditions.

The heavy dump has trapped people in cars, buses and trains as dozens of major roads across the country were blocked by the snowfall.

Tanks and other military vehicles with caterpillar tracks have been dispatched to rescue motorists as trucks jackknifed causing huge traffic jams on the main motorway that links Budapest and Vienna.

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© AFP Photo / Szilard GergelyA police car arrives at the site of an accident involving a truck and cars at the E71 motorway, nearby the Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian borders on March 15, 2013 a day after a heavy snow storm hit the area
"The situation is most critical on the M1 motorway where hundreds of cars are stranded in the snow, most of them for 18-20 hours now," Reuters cites Marton Hajdu, spokesman for the National Directorate for Disaster Management.

Snowflake Cold

APC's deployed on Kiev streets, emergency as record snowfall turns Ukraine into chaos

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© RIA Novosti / Alexei FurmanThe military is also involved in rescuing the city from its snowbound condition.
A state of emergency has been declared in Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Saturday as the city is paralyzed by heavy snowfall and blizzard totally abnormal for March.

"Due to the deterioration of weather conditions [heavy snowfall, blizzards, snow-banks] a state of emergency is declared in the capital," the statement by the Kiev State Administration said.

The situation in the city is so dire that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has signed a special decree urging all government agencies to provide maximum assistance to victims of the snowstorm.

The military is also involved in rescuing the city from its snowbound condition as 550 servicemen are deployed to the capital to aid the community services.

Besides 253 snow-cleaning vehicles, 13 armored fighting vehicles are being used to tow stranded cars, with 270 trucks, 540 cars, 83 buses and 15 trolleybuses already removed from snow banks.

Snowflake Cold

UK: Snow causes travel and power disruption

Aerial video showed vehicles completely buried under snow drifts in Cumbria


Snow and sleet have disrupted transport and power supplies as severe wintry weather continues in much of the UK.

A number of roads and airports have closed, with many of the weekend's sporting fixtures affected too.

A Met Office warning for snow covers Northern Ireland, much of England, northern Wales and south-west Scotland.

Motorists were trapped in their cars overnight in Dumfries and Galloway and 35,000 homes in Northern Ireland are without electricity.

It follows snowfalls across parts of the UK on Friday which also led to the closure of hundreds of schools.

The continuing wintry weather sees snow falling across central and northern parts of the country and spreading to the South and South East of England on Saturday.

Snowflake Cold

Snowbound drivers rescued after winter storm chaos recedes

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© Luke Macgregor/ReutersAn abandoned caravan on the South Downs near Brighton.
The last of hundreds of tired and cold drivers were rescued from stranded cars on Tuesday after winter's late revival brought chaos to both sides of the Channel.

Major roads were blocked in southern England, northern France and Belgium, and Eurostar trains were halted by bad weather on the European mainland.

A man was taken in a critically ill condition to St George's hospital in Tooting, south London, after being hit by a telegraph pole that fell in high winds. The 27-year-old suffered head injuries and a cardiac arrest.

Two other people were freed with minor injuries from the debris of fallen trees, and a 19-year-old woman was treated for head injuries after a three-car pile-up on the M23 in Sussex. There were 771 road accidents, but no fatal injuries, in the county, which took the brunt of blizzards with neighbouring Kent on Monday night.

Igloo

The new Mini Ice Age is upon us!

"The CO2 story is over. It has been pointing the world in the wrong direction for too long."

"MIA (Mini Ice Age ) fingerprint now overwhelming," says astrophysicist Piers Corbyn of WeatherAction.com.

"March 10th 1947 was the day of the thaw ending the late snowy cold winter of 1947 in Britain & Europe and there was a giant sunspot group at the centre of the solar disc," says Corbyn.

"This year, three magnetic (22yr) solar cycles later, solar activity has been generally very low and this day marked deep cold " - heralding more snow, on 12th, when snow blizzards hit S/E England (Pic Folkstone) as WeatherAction forecasted in detail 25 days ahead.

"This is further evidence of the inevitable plunge from now into the new Mini-Ice Age we warned of some years ago", said Corbyn just last week (March 10th).

"The CO2 story is over. It has been pointing the world in the wrong direction for too long. The serious implications of the developing MIA to agriculture and the world economy through the next 25 to 35 years must be addressed. "

"Warmists have been fiddling ("selecting") data for years. But whatever they do, even with "new" data, the world is cooling while CO2 continues to rise.

Source: Astrophysicist Piers Corbyn of WeatherAction.com (PDF)

Snowman

Snow in Georgia, USA in March!

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Rain will return Tuesday, but only briefly before moving out Wednesday.

Our weekend brush with snow wasn't much to write home about, but it did break a record for March 3 - but that record previously stood at zero snowfall.

Around here, we got a dusting, but some parts of northern Georgia got an inch of snow, maybe more in the mountains. It all melted pretty quickly.

Tuesday will be warmer, with the high expected to reach about 63, according to the National Weather Service forecast. Rain is expected to return, with showers and thunderstorms before 4 p.m., then showers likely. But the rain should move out by Wednesday, when the day's high will approach the low 50s, with the nighttime low dipping to about 31.

The daytime temps are set to make a return to the 60s headed into the weekend.