Extreme Temperatures
S


Igloo

Unseasonable snow falls in South Island, New Zealand

Rebecca Quilliam
The New Zealand Herald
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:54 UTC
Collapse Bridge
© Hokitika Guardian A central section of this bridge near Harihari on the West Coast was carried away by the storm-swollen Wanganui River.
Gale force winds, torrential rain, thunderstorms and now unseasonable snow have pounded the South Island.

Snow fell on the Lindis Pass in Otago overnight, forcing travellers to abandon their vehicles near the summit.

Sergeant Mark Booth of southern police communications said Lindis Pass was closed and eight vehicles were stranded.

"But I imagine at this time of year the snow's not going to last long."

The centre of the island and the West Coast have "copped it" over the last few days, Mr Booth said.

The West Coast road via Lewis Pass through Murchison had closed, forcing travellers to make a seven hour detour around Blenheim and Kaikoura to get to the east coast of the island.

Last night severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for the Westport area as the last of the system moved through.

Nearly 600mm of rain has fallen on the West Coast in the past 48 hours.

A vital one-lane bridge on State Highway 6, just north of Harihari, was washed away yesterday.
Read More...
Ice Cube

'Forget global warming, Alaska is headed for an ice age'

Anthony Watts
WattsUpWithThat.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:01 UTC
Alaska is going rogue on climate change. Defiant as ever, the state that gave rise to Sarah Palin is bucking the mainstream yet again: While global temperatures surge hotter and the ice-cap crumbles, the nation's icebox is getting even icier. That may not be news to Alaskans coping with another round of 50-below during the coldest winter in two decades, or to the mariners locked out of the Bering Sea this spring by record ice growth.

Then again, it might. The 49th state has long been labeled one of the fastest-warming spots on the planet. But that's so 20th Century. In the first decade since 2000, the 49th state cooled 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit. But now comes cooling. Researchers blame the Decadal Oscillation, an ocean phenomenon that brought chillier surface water temperatures toward Alaska. Some contend the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is harming the state's king salmon runs, too.
Image
Full story here
Read More...
Igloo

Delhi: Coldest day in 44 years


CNN-IBN
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:47 UTC
Delhi witnessed its coldest day on Wednesday in the past 44 years, with the maximum temperature falling sharply to 9.7 degree Celsius. Residents woke up to a foggy morning, with the minimum temperature dipping to 4.8 degree Celsius.

Poor visibility affected schedules of nearly 30 flights and led to diversion of an international flight to Mumbai. In Uttar Pradesh, the death toll continued to mount, with 15 more people succumbing to the chill in various parts of the state.

Officials said four people died in Muzaffarnagar which remained the coldest place with 0.6 degree Celsius, followed by three in Mathura, two each in Agra, Bulandshahr, Etah and one each in Barabanki and Mirzapur.


With this, the death toll in the state this winter has reached to 107.

Night temperatures remained below normal in most parts of the state including Moradabad, Agra, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Bareilly and Kanpur divisions.
Read More...
Igloo

Frozen Alaska bucking global warming trend

Marc Lallanilla
LiveScience
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:24 UTC
Alaskan Weather
© Spc. Balinda O'Neal, Alaska National Guard Public AffairsAlaska National Guardsmen clear a building roof in Cordova, near Anchorage, on Jan. 9, 2012.
As the rest of the world contends with unusually warm temperatures and scorching drought, Alaska has been bucking the trend since 2000 by reporting some of the coldest winters on record.

Like most of the planet, the state has been heating up steadily over the past century and is frequently cited as one of the fastest-warming areas on the planet, according to the Alaska Dispatch, an online newspaper. The Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks notes the state was warming at roughly twice the pace as the rest of the planet, particularly from the 1970s into the 1990s, reports the Dispatch.

But since 2000, nearly all the National Weather Service monitoring stations sprinkled across the vast state have reported colder-than-average temperatures. The station at King Salmon on the Alaska Peninsula, for example, experienced an average 4.5 degree Fahrenheit (2.9 degrees Celsius) drop in temperature over the course of the first decade of this century.
Read More...
Snowflake

So much for 'global warming': Snow coming to southwestern Texas

Matt Alto
accuweather.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:17 UTC
Image
The City of El Paso, Texas, where the snow line has reached in recent years, despite the global warmists' predictions that snow would soon be a thing of the past for places far to the north.
An upper-air disturbance slated to move into the southwestern United States has the potential of bringing wintry weather to portions of extreme southern New Mexico and the Big Bend Country of Texas beginning on Thursday.

While the best chance for snow will be across the Trans-Pecos, a general coating to perhaps an inch of snow will likely fall before it is all said and done.

The upper-air disturbance will begin to enter the Southwest on Wednesday night and slowly ride along the United States and Mexico boarder. This disturbance will likely stick around through Friday before lifting northeastward into the southern Plains.

As the system tracks into the Southwest, it will draw Pacific moisture from the south and Gulf of Mexico moisture from the east.
Read More...
Snowflake

As the U.S. digs out, even more snow on the way

John Schriffen
ABC News - Good Morning America
Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC

While communities from the Midwest to the Northeast and even the southern U.S. are digging out after a massive storm blanketed much of the country, the Northeast is now bracing for more snow over the weekend.

Two storm systems will combine into one and bring light snow to the major cities in the Northeast. Most areas in the northeast will see 1-3 inches of snow with isolated amounts of 4 inches in the higher elevations Saturday morning from Philadelphia to New York and into New England.

This week's winter blast is accounting for at least 15 deaths -- most of them on the nation's roads.

"This is really bad out here. I see accidents everywhere. There are police everywhere. It's no joke," an Ohio woman told Good Morning America.
Read More...
Ice Cube

Icy conditions lead to tour bush crash in Oregon, 5 killed


CBS News
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Oregon State Police via KOIN-TVThe scene of a tour bus crash in eastern Oregon on Dec. 30, 2012.
La Grande - Authorities say five people died and about 20 more were injured in a tour bus crash on an icy stretch of interstate in Oregon.

Police say the bus lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down an embankment a few hundred feet.

Rescue workers are using ropes to help retrieve people from the crash scene. State police say the charter bus was carrying about 40 people, but they did not say where the vehicle was traveling to or from.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning due to icy conditions. A 69-year-old man died in a single-vehicle rollover accident. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland reports both the 26-year-old driver, who is expected to survive, and the deceased passenger were wearing safety restraints.

Source: The Associated Press
Read More...
Ice Cube

Think the UK weather is bad? Try Inner Mongolia


The Telegraph
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:43 UTC
Image
A freezing blizzard hits the Xilin Gol region of Inner Mongolia, leaving drivers stranded in sub-zero temperatures with visibility as low as ten metres.

A freezing blizzard pummeled the Xilin Gol area of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday morning, severely affecting road traffic.

On the No. 308 provincial highway, vehicles found themselves stuck in deep snow as severe blizzards lowered visibility from 200 metres to less than ten metres in just ten minutes.

The blizzard started on Friday night and brought almost one metre of snow to the highway by the morning.

Read More...
Snowflake Cold

Record-breaking snowfall hits Rochester, New York


YNN
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 06:24 UTC
Image
Many of us who had to get out today had to do some digging first. Some say it was only a matter of time before Rochester was heavily hit with snow this winter.

"We saw it last night but I wasn't expecting it to be quite this bad this morning when I got out here," said Sara Granger of Rochester.

All this snow created a lot of work for Granger and Cruz, who spent nearly an hour just digging out.

"It took me almost a half hour just to dig from my door to here and now we just started on the car," said Cruz.

Neighbors on Comfort Street off South Avenue came together to help Jackie Fannin, who found herself stuck on the way to work.
Read More...
Snowflake

Record-breaking snowfall in Montreal: 47 centimetres of snow in one day


CBC News
Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:37 UTC
Image
© CTV NewsMontreal's massive snow clearing operation will start on Friday morning. Claudine Nicol took this photo of parked cars entombed in snow in Villeray on Thursday.
The City of Montreal said snow removal is going to take longer than expected following Thursday's record snowfall.

Michel Frenette, a spokesman for the city, said snow removal will take about nine days to accomplish.

The nine days also includes a break period for workers.

"We will stop operations on the evening of the 31st and come back 36 hours later on the morning of Jan. 2," said Frenette.

He said it is taking longer because snow blowers have to go over the same area multiple times to remove all of the snow.

Three thousand people are working to clear the snow.
Read More...