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The prefecture of Niigata, Japan, has asked for a dispatch of troops to help in the wake of record-setting snowfalls, according to reports on Wednesday. 3 people have died in the northern part of Japan from avalanches in Akita. The Ground Self-Defense Force of Japan was expected to send troops to the town of Uonuma, where a snow depth of 4.09 meters, or 13.4 feet, has reportedly built up. Fearing roof collapse under the weight of the deep snow, complicated by warming and the potential for rain, the local officials called for the troops to help clear roofs. Niigata is in western Honshu, which winter climate is notorious for its waves of heavy snow off the Sea of Japan during cold outbreaks.
© EPAHeavy snowfall in Bucharest, Romania, 26 January 2012.
Power lines have been buried under snow and traffic has been disrupted in some areas.
A number of flights had to be cancelled at Bucharest Airport in Rumania.
Traffic jams stretch for many kilometers in Bulgaria.
The ice-covered roads have triggered numerous accidents.
© Bureau of MeteorologyTropical Cyclone Iggy off the Western Australia coast
Authorities are concerned holidaymakers from Perth and elsewhere may find themselves stranded.
The Fire and Emergency Services Authority had urged tourists to leave the Gascoyne region because flooding, linked to the approaching Cyclone Iggy, could cut off the highway to Perth.
But now bushfires have forced the closure of the highway, south of Carnarvon.
© G. Carbin / SPCThe severe weather of January 22-23, 2012.
So far this month, weather watchers have filed 70 tornado reports to the nation's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. When it comes to counting tornadoes, there are a number of caveats, but should the number of confirmed tornadoes approach the number of tornado reports, this month will trail only 2008 (with 88 tornadoes) and 1999 (with 218), as the most tornado-filled Januarys.
January tornadoes are not as common as spring tornadoes, but severe weather can strike any time of year. This year's unusually warm winter has helped fuel January's severe weather in Dixie Alley, said one meteorologist. Tornadoes can form when warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cool, dry Arctic air over the region.
"Right now, an unusually warm air mass has allowed us to have enough moisture far enough south," said meteorologist Aaron Gleason of the National Weather Service in Birmingham.
© Vadim Ghirda/APA flurry of snow passes a man as he speaks on the phone from a snow stranded vehicle on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania, on Thursday. The man, who declined to be identified, spent the night in the car fearing it would be damaged by road clearing vehicles if he abandoned it.
Some 340 people were evacuated overnight from stranded vehicles on roads across Romania, Prime Minister Emil Boc said, and another 100 people were transported during the day to Bucharest after getting stuck on two major roads.
Health officials said a man died and a woman was hospitalized in serious condition after they were found unconscious in a car about 11 miles south of Bucharest. A hospital spokesman said the woman was suffering from hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning.
About 1,300 people have been given temporary shelter since Wednesday morning, said the Interior Ministry, and forecasters are predicting that temperatures will fall as low as -16 degrees C (3F).
© AP Photo/Darko VojinovicA Serbian Army officer walks through the snow covered park in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Meteorologists expect cold weather in the upcoming days over Serbia.
For two days blizzards have covered the area with as much as three meters (10 feet) of snow at a time.
Snow in Romania left hundreds of people stranded in cars, forced the cancellation of flights and appeared to derail a train. Some 340 people were evacuated overnight from stranded vehicles on scores of roads across the country, Prime Minister Emil Boc said.
A train with 123 passengers derailed on icy tracks in southern Romania, but nobody was injured. Ten flights to and from Bucharest were canceled Wednesday night, and planes arriving from Dubai, Tel Aviv and Munich were diverted to other airports.
Dozens of people are feared to have been buried in a massive landslide in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. According to VOA, at least 40 bodies have been pulled from the debris and as many as 20 others are feared missing.
The landslide struck at 7am AEDT yesterday near the Nogoli base for a ExxonMobil-led liquefied natural gas plant site, northwest of Port Moresby. One local said three villages had been covered while another report said only a handful of homes were lost. Radio Australia reported dozens of people were feared buried, quoting a Tari resident as saying about 40 people were missing.
The landslide struck at 7am AEDT yesterday near the Nogoli base for a ExxonMobil-led liquefied natural gas plant site, northwest of Port Moresby. One local said three villages had been covered while another report said only a handful of homes were lost. Radio Australia reported dozens of people were feared buried, quoting a Tari resident as saying about 40 people were missing.
About 4,200 people have been evacuated from their homes on the New South Wales far north coast, after the same weather system that drenched Queensland moved south.
Ten flood warnings are in place for rivers in the state's north-east, where up to 550 millimetres of rain has fallen in some areas over three days.
People have been evacuated from parts of Chinderah, Fingal Head, South Murwillumbah, Condong and Tumbulgum.
Ten flood warnings are in place for rivers in the state's north-east, where up to 550 millimetres of rain has fallen in some areas over three days.
People have been evacuated from parts of Chinderah, Fingal Head, South Murwillumbah, Condong and Tumbulgum.
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At least one of the areas affected by the storms, which were part of a system that stretched from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico, was also hit by a line of killer storms that slammed the Southeast last April.
Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Randy Christian said a 16-year-old girl was killed in Clay and an 82-year-old man died in the community of Oak Grove.
The storm produced a possible tornado that moved across northern Jefferson County around 3:30 a.m., causing damage in Oak Grove, Graysville, Fultondale, Center Point, Clay and Trussville, Christian said. He said several homes were destroyed and numerous injuries were reported.
"Some roads are impassable, there are a number of county roads where you have either debris down, trees down, damage from homes," said Yasamie Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. Jefferson County experienced "significant damage," she said.
Severe storms were expected to spread across several southeastern U.S. states on Sunday into Monday with tornadoes, highwinds and large hail possible, weather forecasters said.
A second stormfront expected to hit California late Sunday night will bring significant snowfall to the mountain regions, according to the National Weather Service, before rolling into the southern United States later in the week.
The potential for severe storms stretched from the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi to southern Indiana and Ohio, according to AccuWeather.com meteorologist Bill Deger.
A second stormfront expected to hit California late Sunday night will bring significant snowfall to the mountain regions, according to the National Weather Service, before rolling into the southern United States later in the week.
The potential for severe storms stretched from the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi to southern Indiana and Ohio, according to AccuWeather.com meteorologist Bill Deger.
