Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Bosporus Strait closed to tankers due to heavy snowfall, Turkey

Winter view to Bosphorus, Istanbul
Winter view to Bosphorus, Istanbul
The Bosporus Strait has closed to tankers Monday afternoon due to heavy snow in the region, local port agents said.

"Authorities have notified [us] that the Bosporus traffic has been closed on January 18 at [4.06 pm local time] due to heavy snowfall," Boutros Maritime and Transport said.

According to local agents, there were seven tankers due to pass through the Bosporus in a northbound direction Monday, and 13 due to pass through going South.

The Bosporus and the Dardanelles together form the only commercially navigable transit route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Snowflake Cold

Heavy snowfall grounds hundreds of flights in Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul's Süleymaniye Mosque
© Sabah / Metin ArabacıThe view of Istanbul's Süleymaniye Mosque from the Galata Bridge that crosses the Golden Horn.
Heavy snowfall has swept northwestern Turkey, grounding hundreds of flights, disrupting ground transport and closing schools in Istanbul.

Turkish Airlines announced the cancellation of 250 international and domestic flights to and from Istanbul's Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen airports on Monday.

The airline also canceled at least 149 flights scheduled for Tuesday.

The snow began Sunday evening and is expected to continue until Tuesday night, according to Turkey's General Directorate of Meteorology, which also warned of heavy rainfall and a risk of flooding in southern Turkey.

Fire

Brutal cold gripping midwest U.S. to sweep east with snow squalls; 10-20ºF below normal

Brutal cold gripping the Midwest this weekend will sweep into the East to start the new week, ushered in by snow and localized squalls in the Northeast.

The new arctic blast will be the harshest the Midwest and East has experienced so far this season. According to AccuWeather Chief Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok, "The arctic deep freeze will last two to three days in most places."

Parts of eastern North Dakota, Minnesota and northeastern Iowa will not see temperatures climb above zero until Tuesday, making for a total of 72 hours of subzero readings since the weekend started.

Temperatures will dangerously drop under 10 below zero F Sunday and Monday nights in and around Minnesota with some communities near the Canadian border registering lows under 20 below zero F.

AccuWeather RealFeel temperatures will be life-threatening if people venture out without being properly dressed from the northern Plains to the Ohio Valley.
Cold outbreak
The cold will not be as brutal when the arctic air grips the eastern U.S. early this week, but will still hold temperatures 10-20 degrees below normal Monday into Tuesday.

Subfreezing highs and biting winds will encompass the Northeast and mid-Atlantic both Monday and Tuesday, a stretch the I-95 corridor in the mid-Atlantic has not dealt with yet this winter.

Snowflake Cold

Winter shows teeth in Greece: Bridge collapses, snow, strong winds and rainfall

Greece bridge collapse
© thetoc.gr
Bad weather collapses bridge. Snow down to the lowlands, cold, strong winds and rainfall for today, Sunday and Monday.

There was intense snowfall with strong winds in Kozani.


The bad weather collapsed a bridge in Diava Kalambaka.


As transmitted by trikalaola.gr, eyewitnesses of the collapse of the bridge were the Deputy Head of Trikala, Mr. Christos Michalakis and Thessaly Regional Councillor, Mr. Boutinas.

Comment: An ice age cometh:


Ice Cube

Snownado! A massive snow shaft photographed off the coast of Aberdeen, UK

Snownado!
© James Cheyne

A massive snow shaft has been photographed off the coast of Aberdeen today.

Reader Ian Cheyne's son James took the picture at around 10am from Hilton Drive.

Initially it was believed the weather phenomenon was a waterspout however it's now thought to be a snow shaft.

Binoculars

Arctic Redpolls invade the southeast of Idaho

Redpoll
Redpoll
With a group of 20 small birds attacking the seeds on the birch trees at Beaver Dick Park, seeds littered the snow turning it into a tan brown carpet.

"Common Redpolls," I thought as I got out of the truck for a closer look. They moved a little higher in the trees, but did not stop their eating in the bitter cold of a minus 12 degrees.

This winter is the first time I had seen flocks of them since the winter of 2012-2013 when they invaded most birch trees in the Upper Snake River Valley. While following big game migrations from the mountains two weeks ago, I found a small flock on the desert, north of the St. Anthony Sand Dunes. They have also been recorded in Ashton and on the Rexburg and Howe Christmas Bird Counts. In the last few days they have been visiting my backyard to feed on Niger seeds.

 Redpolls
Redpolls

Cloud Precipitation

Hailstorms blanket parts of Saudi Arabia white

Snow on the road to Mecca
Snow on the road to Mecca
Al Jazeera confirms snow in Saudi Arabia. January 15, 2016

Video .. snow coats the migration route.

(One part of the Al Jazeera story says snow, a different part says hail. I'm guessing hail, but it still must have been a real shock to the drivers.)


Bizarro Earth

Giant avalanche almost buries Alpine resort

Residents of the town of Cervinia in northwest Italy learned firsthand what a "near miss" means as a gigantic wall of snow was about to devour the popular ski resort.
Avalanche
© Le Dauphiné Libéré/YouTube
On January 12 a huge, 300-meter-wide block of snow came off from the Jumeaux peak, which is almost 4,000 meters high, and plummeted toward the town until it stopped just short of the residential area. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

Snowflake Cold

Extreme cold: Siberia hits -32 degrees Celsius

minus 32
© www.flickr.comChilling out in Irkutsk, Russia
Severe frosts have hit the Russian province of Siberia with temperatures hitting minus 32 degrees Celsius. The city of Irkutsk on Monday was covered with a cold mist as residents wrapped up and hurried to work on the first day after a long New Year holiday break.

The extreme cold had taken many residents by surprise. "We of course were not prepared for such frost. It's cold. How else can one feel when it is that cold? Certainly, fresh. But still cold," said one Irkutsk resident. "You must wear a hat, a scarf and some warm coat like a sheepskin ...," said another resident.

Some residents, however, were more tolerant towards the cold claiming it was all good. "It's Siberia! It's normal. It's not a frost at all. All is good, nothing to be scared about," he said.

Snowflake Cold

Record snowfall in Merikarvia, Finland: Two and a half feet in 24 hours

Snow on car
© Jari Pelkonen / Yle Merikarvia residents drove their cars along snowy streets with the remnants of the record-breaking blizzard still on their roofs.
The western municipality of Merikarvia shoveled its way into history books on Saturday with a new Finnish record for snowfall in a single day. Local residents were in high spirits because of the chance notoriety, despite the wintry chaos.

The inhabitants of the municipality of Merikarvia in Western Finland were stunned overnight when their town became the site of a new Finnish record. At 8 am Saturday, meteorologists measured that more than 70 centimetres of snow had accumulated in a single 24-hour period, or close to two and a half feet.

Thankfully the white stuff was the light and fluffy kind, and not wet and slushy, as heavy snow drifts in such quantities can potentially cause significant damage.

"It was astonishing!" local Sirkka Puolitaival says. "But we had to believe it when nearly a metre of snow piled up on our outdoor trash cans."

For Puolitaival and many others, the snow work resulting from the record-breaking blizzard gave them a real workout.

"I'm sweating through my clothes; there's no need to visit the gym. If only I could dig out our garage and get my skis!"

Comment: Yet another case of record snowfall. Does the Ice Age cometh? For more information regarding the speed in which ice ages may develop and sudden glacial rebound, read: