'Life-threatening' cold bites midwestern US, heads east

Brendan O'Brien and Kim Palmer in Reuters: As the Midwestern United States shivered through the region's lowest temperatures in two decades and forecasters warned that life-threatening cold was heading eastward, officials in Chicago and other districts said schools would be closed on Monday. Icy conditions snarled travel across the Midwest and thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, days after the Northeast was hammered by the first winter storm of the season.

"The coldest temperatures in almost two decades will spread into the northern and central U.S. today behind an arctic cold front," the National Weather Service said on Sunday. "Combined with gusty winds, these temperatures will result in life-threatening wind chill values as low as 60 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit/minus 51 degrees Celsius)."

In weather that cold, frostbite can set in on uncovered skin in a matter of minutes, experts warned. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton ordered all public schools in the state closed on Monday to protect children from dangerously cold weather. ...The NWS said the widespread chill was a result of a relatively infrequent alignment of weather conditions, allowing the Arctic polar vortex to be displaced unusually far south....

A Chicago winter skyline in 2005, shot by Tom Harpel, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license 

‘Polar vortex’ plunges midwest, northeast US into record deep freeze

Courtney Subramanian in Time: Record-low chilling temperatures are predicted to blast parts of the Great Plains, extending to the Eastern seaboard, while a second winter storm is expected later Saturday through Monday.

Factoring in wind chill, temperatures as low as 50 to 70 degrees below zero are forecasted in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest by Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service. At least 16 deaths have been linked to weather across Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, USA TODAY reports. Emergency officials warn that such startling temperatures could lead to frostbite or even hypothermia in a matter of minutes. One man died outside his Milwaukee home, where temperatures surged below zero in Wisconsin.

Meteorologists attribute the “polar vortex” to freezing air from the North Pole being pushed down to as far as the Gulf Coast of the U.S., the Associated Press reports. In Atlanta, temperatures will be in the mid-20s by Tuesday while a wintry mix of rain and snow are expected in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, northern Arkansas, southern Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania late into Sunday.  The cold front will likely freeze large bodies of water, like the Great Lakes, meaning freezing temperatures could last through winter...

An icy train trestle in 1936

Snow, extreme cold wallop northeastern US, more to come

Rodrique Ngowi and Michelle R. Smith at ABC News via the Associated Press: A blanket of white provided the Northeast with little relief from teeth-chattering temperatures that forecasters said will rise over the weekend before plunging again. At least 16 deaths were blamed on the storm as it swept across the nation's eastern half, including three people who officials said died at least partly because of the extreme cold.

The snowfall had all but stopped by Friday morning in the hard-hit Philadelphia-to-Boston corridor and though the temperatures reached only the teens or single digits, the cold kept the snow powdery and light....And officials from the Midwest to New England are preparing for another arctic blast in the next few days that could be even worse.

The heaviest snow fell north of Boston in Boxford, which received nearly 2 feet. Nearly 18 inches fell in Boston and in western New York near Rochester. Lakewood, N.J., got 10 inches, and New York's Central Park 6. Philadelphia got more than 6 inches.

Temperatures reached 8 below zero in Burlington, Vt., with a wind chill of 29 below, and 2 degrees in Boston. Wind chills there and in Providence, R.I., made it feel like minus-20 Friday morning, and the forecast called for more of the same into Saturday....

Wilson Bentley's 1902 shot of a snowflake

Arctic blast sweeps Canada, US

Terra Daily via AFP: Arctic air sweeping through Canada and parts of the United States sent temperatures plunging to record lows on Wednesday with a wind chill of minus 40 degrees (Celsius and Fahrenheit).

Canada was the coldest nation in the world at the start of the day with with temperatures as low as minus 43.1 degrees Celsius (-45.6 Fahrenheit) in the Northwest Territories, according to public broadcaster CBC.

In Ottawa, buildings cracked in the cold, making sounds like the crash of a wrecking ball.

No significant damage was reported, and only one death has been linked to the cold, a man found dead in Toronto with signs of hypothermia.

In Rouyn, Quebec, temperatures dropped to -40,3 Celsius (-40.5 Fahrenheit), lower even than in Yakutsk, Siberia, which came in at -38,8 Celsius (-37.84).

"Low pressure in southern Canada brought a cold air mass from the north," causing a deep freeze, Environment Canada meteorologist Andre Cantin told AFP.

The cold snap was being felt as far south as the US states of Virginia and Ohio where severe cold warnings pointed to risks of hypothermia and frostbite, as well as carbon monoxide poisoning from poorly ventilated heating sources....

Cold front moving in, public domain

Thousands stuck in China airport as country freezes

Terra Daily via AFP: Thousands of angry passengers were stranded after heavy fog delayed flights at a Chinese airport early on Saturday, as the country was shivered through its coldest weather in almost three decades.

Ten thousand passengers were stuck in Changshui International Airport in the southern Chinese city of Kunming on Saturday morning after thick fog grounded more than 280 flights, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Angry passengers stranded at the airport for more than a day struggled with airline staff, damaging computer equipment belonging to an airline, while police broke up scuffles, a photographer present at the scene late on Friday told AFP.

"The passengers were really furious, they kept going to the service desk to ask for information, but didn't get any answers," the photographer said. ...

Why Russia's cold snap is so deadly

Mark Lallanilla in Live Science: If any nation on Earth is accustomed to dealing with a harsh winter, it would be Russia. But from the farthest reaches of Siberia to downtown Moscow, the Russian people are being pummeled by a winter so brutal it's shattering cold-weather records across the continent — and it's only December.

As temperatures plunge as low as –minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius) in some areas, the Pravda news site reports that 45 people have died of causes related to the subfreezing weather; 21 people froze to death in just one day. Hundreds more have been hospitalized with frostbite and other conditions.

Subfreezing weather combined with heavy snowfall in some regions have crippled the nation's infrastructure, closing roads, scrambling airline flights and bursting pipes that carry water and heat into homes, schools and businesses, according to RT.com.

This winter is the coldest on record since 1938, reports RT.com. The freakish cold spell, which has already lasted five days, is expected to continue through the weekend....

Russian winter, near Moscow, shot by Aleks G, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Cold spell and flood-tide affect Vietnamese daily life

VietNamNet Bridge: A cold spell has taken hold in Viet Nam's northern region, causing heavy rain and flooding in many areas, the Central Hydrometeorological Forecasting Centre announced today. Residents should watch out for strong winds, flash floods and landslides, said the centre.

In northern Lao Cai Province, which borders China, the temperature was below 25 degrees Celsius. Forecasts suggested that the temperature would continue to fall while the rain would continue for another day. Sa Pa, a beautiful mountainous town famous as a tourist site, would see temperatures below 15 DC.

Director of Lao Cai Hydrometeorological Central Luu Minh Hai said no damage fatalities or traffic jams had been reported, but the whole system of rivers and streams in the province has seen flooding with water heights rising from 50 to 100cm. The flooding will continue for the next few days.

Hai said the province has asked relevant sectors and localities to closely monitor the rising water and alert residents about flash floods and landslides so they can protect livestock and plants from the cold and heavy rain….

215 Russians die in cold snap; well over 600 in Europe

Terra Daily via AFP: Some 215 Russians have died this year in a prolonged period of abnormally cold winter weather, the health ministry said Monday as the overall death toll for Europe rose to well over 600. Heavy snow continued to fall on Monday in Romania and Bulgaria, but the cold snap that froze much of Europe for the past two weeks began to ease in the west of the continent.

In Russia, 215 people died and 5,546 people suffered from hypothermia and frostbite, including 154 children, between January 1 and February 13, the ministry said in a statement. While accustomed to frosty winters, Russia has seen 20 days of unusually cold weather, with the average temperature falling 7 to 14 degrees Celsius below average, the state weather service said.

In Moscow, the temperature was minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit) on Monday afternoon, the state weather service said. While Russian apartment blocks are generally well heated, the homeless are particularly at risk....

A Moscow winter in 2007, shot by Andrey, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Cold snap tests Greece's depleted welfare services

Terra Daily via AFP: A cold snap that has killed dozens of people across Europe is testing Greece's whittled-down welfare services, which have been grappling deep cuts amid the nation's ongoing fiscal crisis. In Athens, authorities have opened emergency shelters, including at the Olympic sports complex, to help warm the city's burgeoning ranks of poor and homeless people.

"We have a limited number of staff but we work round the clock, in addition to providing 1,250 free meals daily," said Dimitra Noussi, director of the city's homeless shelters and its solidarity support. Temperatures in the capital Wednesday dropped below five degrees Celsius -- the lowest this year -- and elsewhere in Greece, the mercury plunged far below freezing.

Unlike many public services, Noussi said her 55-member team had thankfully been spared government-imposed staffing cuts as Greece struggles to slash its payroll and rein in deficits that have exploded the country's debt.

But Dimitra Tsakiri, shelter supervisor in the port town of Piraeus, was not so fortunate. Her contract and those of seven colleagues were terminated last March and the shelter shut down in a government reform accompanied by spending cutbacks, Tsakiri said....

The city of Larissa in the snow, 2009, shot by larissacity, Wikimedia Commons

Alaskans shiver in record cold

Disaster News Network via UPI: While Alaskans shivered in record low temperatures Friday in Fairbanks, those on the Kenai Peninsula struggled this week with widespread power failures.

In Fairbanks, the National Weather Service reported the temperature at 3 a.m. Friday was 36 degrees below zero F, a record for Nov. 18 and the third daily low, the Fairbanks News-Miner reported. On Thursday, the low was an even chillier 41 degrees below, another daily record.

On the Kenai Peninsula southwest of Anchorage, about 13,000 homes and businesses served by the Homer Electric Association lost power at some point after a windstorm, the Anchorage Daily News reported. About 800 still had no electricity late Thursday, and the association said getting everyone back on line might take until Saturday.

Joe Gallagher, a spokesman for the utility, said crews were still working on damage from an earlier storm when the second one hit Tuesday. He said employees discovered Thursday the second storm downed more trees and cut more lines than thought. "It's a mess," he said....

Winter solstice in Fairbanks, shot by Joe n bloe, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Heat will kill more than cold in Europe eventually

AP: A new study says one of the few benefits of global warming — fewer deaths from the combination of extreme heat and cold — may eventually melt away in Europe. For years, scientists figured that with global warming there are fewer overall temperature-related deaths when those from heat waves and cold snaps are combined. The increase in heat wave deaths during hotter spells is more than offset by reduced cold deaths in milder winters.

But a new study in Europe finds that around 2040, the increase in heat deaths will likely outweigh the reduction in cold deaths. The study suggests that by 2070, global warming may cause 15,000 more temperature-related deaths a year in Europe, which has less air conditioning than the United States.

The study released Tuesday by Nature Communications looks only at deaths from heat and cold, not increases from flooding, droughts and storms. It used computer models to analyze the climate under global warming and compares those to death rates in 200 separate regions of Europe….

The Grim Reaper on a cottage in Netton Street. Shot by Trish Steel, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Conditions for tornadoes ramping up across the southern US

Doyle Rice in USA Today: An outbreak of severe storms and tornadoes is likely across the South today, and torrential rain is forecast for other areas as the nasty weather heads east. The most dangerous storms will strike late afternoon into the evening as they move across Arkansas and spread into northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, according to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Okla.

"Tornadoes, a few possibly strong, and particularly damaging winds will be possible," the SPC says. The big cities most at risk are Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville, the Weather Channel reports.

The forecast calls for as much as 5 inches of rain to drench the lower Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley regions. Flood watches are posted from Arkansas to Pennsylvania. This year, 11 tornadoes have struck across the USA, the SPC reports. Severe weather, which can include tornadoes or storms producing large hail or damaging winds, is running 60% below average this year, Weather Channel severe weather expert Greg Forbes says.

"The cold weather has suppressed the severe weather activity," he says. "We're now getting into the time of the year for the severe weather threat to ramp up." More severe storms that are potentially more powerful could form early next week, Weather Channel meteorologist Tom Moore says…

A powerful 2007 tornado in Manitoba, shot by Justin1569, Wikimedia Commons (where it has garnered plenty of recognition, since it's a great image), under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Cold winters mean more pollution

University of Gothenburg (Sweden): Differences in air pressure over the North Atlantic have meant that the last two winters in Gothenburg have been extremely cold. This has led to the air in Gothenburg being more polluted with nitrogen oxides than ever before. A new study from the University of Gothenburg shows that there is a strong link between climate and air pollution.

The winter weather in Gothenburg and large parts of North-West Europe is partly down to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), in other words the differences in air pressure over the North Atlantic. The NAO swings between positive and negative phases depending on the differences in air pressure between Iceland and the Azores. When the NAO is in a negative phase – as has been the case during the last two winters – the city has cold winters because the low pressure sits over southern Europe, while cold air from the polar region or Siberia sits over northern Europe.

In a study carried out in Gothenburg, a group of researchers from the University of Gothenburg investigated how the concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2) in the air can be linked to the weather. Published in the scientific journal Atmospheric Environment, the study shows that the air quality standard has been exceeded more and more frequently during periods of a negative NAO even though emissions have fallen in the city centre since 2000 according to official measurements from the Environmental Administration.

“These extremely cold winters in Gothenburg, with high cold air, bring a clear deterioration in air quality,” says Maria Grundström from the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, one of the researchers behind the study. “With typical Gothenburg weather – low air pressure with precipitation and strong winds – the air pollution is dispersed more quickly on account of better air mixing.”…

Gothenburg in warmer weather, shot by Wigulf, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Cold weather kills off Florida wildlife

Suzanne Goldenberg in the Guardian (UK): Comatose iguanas have been dropping from the trees and pythons have frozen to death in their tracks in Florida's unusually harsh winter, wildlife officials said today. Parts of the Sunshine State saw their second snowfall of the season this weekend, with the extended cold spells killing off a host of tropical intruders, including iguanas, Burmese and African pythons and invasive fish.

State wildlife officials said more than half of the green iguanas, which are native to South America, could have been killed off. "The iguanas up in the trees just got so cold, they kind of went very, very sluggish, and just fell down," said Jenny Tinnell, a biologist with Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Residents of south Florida, who have discovered the animals on their patios, have tried to warm them back to life. Local newspapers, meanwhile, have been warning homeowners not to let their dogs gnaw on iguana corpses, which may be poisonous….

Iguana iguana seen in Fern Forest, Florida. This lizard was seen in the wild altough it is not a native species in the area. Shot by Korali, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Florida's cold snap disaster for tropical wildlife

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Iguanas dropping from trees, manatees huddling around waters warmed by power plants and marine turtles being whisked away to shelters -- Florida's unusual cold snap is a deadly one for tropical wildlife.

The cold front sweeping in from the Arctic, with temperatures below freezing in parts of the southeastern state, is killing many animals accustomed to a temperate climate that sends droves of tourists swarming to enjoy yearlong warmth in the "Sunshine State."

The cold-blooded iguanas' comfort level begins at 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 Celsius) and they positively thrive at 95 F (35 C). When temperatures drop below about 60 F (15 C), they become less able to move around. Below about 40 F (5 C), they become completely immobile due to a lack of blood flow. Unable to hold on, the mohawked lizards, which shelter in tree branches and crevices, drop to the ground.

Iguanas and other tropical wildlife are bearing the brunt of the severe Arctic weather in Florida, where Miami's subtropical beaches have been left all but deserted this week with temperatures plummeting to around 32 F (zero degrees Celsius). "Cold weather impacts iguanas severely and many are killed," said Gabriella Ferraro, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)….

An iguana in the Florida Keys, shot by Dominika Durtan, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

UK engineers race against time to restore utilities for Christmas

Luke Walsh in Edie.net: Cold weather has caused chaos to the nations utilities cracking pipes have left thousands of people without gas or power. National Grid engineers are gradually restoring gas supplies to East Barnet in London and Caddington in Luton.

The pipes burst on Saturday (December 19) and engineers are working to restore supplies, while EDF has managed to fix problems that left thousands of people without power in the east of England. National Grid said it had drafted in extra engineers as 1000 homes in East Barnet are without gas after a water pipe burst and flooded the mains. Terry Penny, National Grid's incident controller, said: "A huge amount of water got into the gas network and it is taking time to pump out, at present it is too early to say when all gas supplies will be restored."

Around 1300 homes in Caddington have been without a gas supply after water from another burst pipe poured into the village's gas mains. Engineers have started to reconnect homes, however there is still water in the gas mains in the south west of the village and engineers are not yet able to reconnect all supplies…

Shot of a gas main (probably not a British one) by Cyron Ray Macey, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License