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Snowflake

Snow Piled 10 Metres High Along Japanese Road


We've dodged much of winter's wrath in Canada with higher than normal temperatures and smaller amounts of snow this year. The same can't be said for other parts of the world.

A cold snap returned to Japan this week bringing blizzards and creating record snow piles in some areas. The city of Niigata in central Japan has already seen 13 feet of snow and the weather agency is predicting up to 25 additional inches over the next few days, reports WFMY News. The village of Okura has received more than 10 feet of the white stuff and the Hokuriku area received three feet in less than 24 hours.

It is no wonder this road in Japan has massive snow walls on both sides. The video below shows footage from a bus travelling up the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. Snow is as high as 10 metres above the road in some spots.

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Igloo

Europe: Snow blocks in tens of thousands as cold death toll rises

A man walks between cars covered with snow in Podgorica.
© AFP/Savo PrelevicA man walks between cars covered with snow in Podgorica.
Snow drifts reaching up to rooftops kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes Saturday as the death toll from Europe's big freeze rose past 550.

More heavy snow fell on the Balkans and in Italy, while the Danube river, already closed to shipping for hundreds of kilometres (miles) because of thick ice, froze over in Bulgaria for the first time in 27 years.

Montenegro's capital of Podgorica was brought to a standstill by snow 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep, a 50-year record, closing the city's airport and halting rail services to Serbia because of an avalanche.

Eight more people were reported to have died in Romania, taking the toll for the country to 65, three in Serbia, one in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.

Polish fire brigade spokesman Pawel Fratcak said Saturday that defective heating had triggered a spate of deadly blazes in houses and apartments, with eight people killed on Friday night and three the night before.

Snowflake

Afghanistan Hit with Heaviest Snows in 15 Years

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More than 20 children have recently died due to the cold weather in Kabul which the Afghan capital has been experiencing its worst cold-snap and heaviest snows in at least 15 years, the National Weather Center said Wednesday. According to an Afghan based TV channel, some of the internally displaced people of the country warn that cold weather may claim more lives. Lack of food and firewood is said to be their main problems in the winter.

This year's severe cold weather has raised concerns among the Afghan population, especially the displaced families. "In this winter, eight children, three old men and women have so far lost their lives," one of the displaced people said. "We cannot pass the winter by burning plastic, paper and pieces of clothes. We really need help.""Living under these tents is very difficult," said another displaced person. "Life is difficult when you don't have anything to eat or burn."The families living under the tents in Kabul are badly in need of help and most of them may perish if not helped."We ask everyone to help these needy families, they can help one family and protect them from cold weather," Head of the Afghan Red Crescent, Fatima Gilani said.

The Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Returnees rejects reports about the death of 20 children due to severe cold in Kabul, a spokesman for the Ministry, Salamuddin Jurat said on Tuesday.The refugees living under the tents have not faced any kinds of losses so far, he added. "The reports are baseless and untrue," the spokesman said.Meanwhile, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health confirms the deaths due to the severe cold in Kabul."Because the cold weather was unprecedented and they were living under the tents, they died before arriving to our health facility during last month," Spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, Ghulam Sakhi Kargar told the channel.

There are currently more than 30,000 poor families living under tents in Kabul. There reports of high level of maternity deaths in these camps with 144 out of 1,000 children under five years of age.This comes as the recent avalanches in Badakhshan province claimed lives of more than 40 people.Several houses have reportedly been destroyed in these avalanches. Several routes in Badakhshan, Ghor and Daikundi provinces have been closed due to heavy snow falls.

Igloo

Snow to return as freezing temperatures split Britain

UK snow scene
© ReutersForecasters warned that travelling conditions would remain "difficult" across much of Britain as many parts still recover from the weekend's snowfalls.
Snow is set to return to much of southern Britain by Thursday as the country battles with freezing weather and transport chaos.

On Thursday much of the south, including Heathrow airport, which was ground to a halt at the weekend, will be hit by a mixture of potentially treacherous snow, sleet and rain.

Temperatures throughout southern areas expected to remain close to freezing. The north will remain significantly warmer with temperatures as high as 8C.

The Met Office said overnight temperatures in some areas could fall to as low as -13C. It remains unclear how much snow will fall, as an Atlantic weather system pushes across the country from the west.

Cloud Lightning

Australia Flooded New South Wales towns face weeks of isolation

NSW Australia floods
Many properties, such as this one near Wee Waa, could remain isolated for weeks.
Thousands of people in northern New South Wales are facing weeks of isolation, as record floodwaters from Queensland cross the border into already swollen waterways.

The State Emergency Services says about 7,000 people are currently isolated around the state, including 2,000 at Wee Waa.

Around 1,700 people in Walgett could be stranded for up to a fortnight, while several hundred people living in Goodooga may be cut off for as long as eight weeks.

The towns of Lightning Ridge, Mundindi, Collarenebri and Bourke are also likely to be affected, along with many farms.

SES spokesman Phil Campbell says communities are stocking up and there will be helicopter support to fly in more supplies to the thousands who are stranded.

Cloud Lightning

Mass evacuation in Australia as flood waters rise

Flood waters rose Monday in parts of Queensland but residents of a threatened town in the Australian state were thrown a lifeline with news that the levee on a swollen river might hold.

Thousands of Australians have been forced to abandon their homes as a record deluge sweeps through areas still reeling from last year's devastating flooding, with St George, in Queensland's south, under most threat Monday.
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Many of its residents fled Sunday evening to evacuation centres in nearby Dalby or the state capital Brisbane, although some 400 stayed to help limit the damage despite a mandatory evacuation order.

Local mayor Donna Stewart said the Balonne River in St George, flooding for the third time in less than two years, had reached 13.48 metres (44 feet) and was expected to keep rising until at least Tuesday night.

Igloo

Deadly cold front continues as dam bursts in Bulgaria

The toll from Europe's killer cold snap kept climbing Monday with nine new victims found in Poland, most of them homeless, and at least three people died after a Bulgarian dam burst.

Torrential rains and snowstorms lashing southern Bulgaria broke through the dam early Monday, submerging the small village of Biser under 2.5 metres (eight feet) of water, emergency services said.
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Biser mayor Zlatka Valkova told state news agency BTA three elderly men had drowned in their homes and a massive rescue effort was under way in the village of about 800 people.

"People are in panic," regional mayor Mihail Liskov said on national radio. "Ninety percent of the village is under water."

Airplane

UK: Snow Forces Heathrow to Cancel Half its Flights

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Heathrow Airport has cut around half of the 1,300 flights scheduled for Sunday after snow and freezing temperatures hit much of England on Saturday.

"Heathrow is open. Our runways, taxiways and stands have been cleared of snow. Our snow plan has worked far better than in previous years, and the airport is getting back to normal. However, there will still be disruption for passengers, as indicated Saturday," Heathrow owner BAA said in a statement.

Around 10 centimetres of snow fell over Britain in 24 hours.

BAA was criticised in December 2010 after heavy snowfall led to the virtual shutdown of Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

Snowflake

Snow Traps Thousands in Bosnian Villages

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© The Associated Press/Amel EmricA Bosnian man walks on snow-covered road in the village of Breteljevici, near Kladanj, 100 kilometers north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012.
Bosnia used helicopters on Sunday to evacuate the sick and deliver food to thousands of people left stranded by its heaviest snowfall ever, while Pope Benedict XVI donned an overcoat to bless the few pilgrims who braved Rome's unusually cold weather to visit St. Peter's Square.

"The snow is beautiful, but let's hope spring comes soon," the pope told the pilgrims, looking out over remnants of Rome's biggest snowstorm since 1986.

Across Eastern Europe, thousands of people continued to dig out from heavy snow that has fallen during a cold snap that struck more than a week ago and has killed hundreds of people.

In Ukraine, the hardest hit area, temperatures have fallen as low as minus 33 Fahrenheit (minus 36 Celsius). The government said Sunday the country's death toll now stands at 131, including many homeless people. About 2,300 other Ukrainians have sought treatment for frostbite or hypothermia.

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Europe's cold snap kills hundreds, affects transport, tourism

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© Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesA photo taken on February 4, 2012 shows an snowman in front of the ancient Colosseum in Rome after a snowfall.
A weeklong cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives across Europe, with forecasters warning that the big freeze - which has even blanketed Rome in snow - would tighten its grip over the weekend.

A weeklong cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives across Europe, with forecasters warning that the big freeze - which has even blanketed Rome in snow - would tighten its grip over the weekend.

A total of 223 people have died from the cold weather in the past seven days, according to Agence France-Presse, in what has become the harshest European winter in decades.

Ukraine suffering the highest toll - with 101 deaths recorded since the cold snap began. Temperatures plummeted as low to -16.6 degrees in the capital Kiev. Poland, Bulgaria and Romania also recorded high death tolls.

According to AFP, the dead included hundreds of homeless people who have frozen to death.

The cold has extended as far south as Serbia, where thousands were trapped under heavy snow and blizzards in the country's mountain villages.

In Italy, up to three inches of snow fell in some districts of the Italian capital, and the Colosseum was closed to prevent visitors slipping on ice or damaging the structure.