Not As Cold As Europe But Getting There
SEARCH BLOG: WEATHER
It's January; it's cold. No surprises. However, we are continuing last year's trend of below normal temperatures... so far, about 3°F below normal for the month. That's cold comfort [sorry] when looking at the forecast ahead from The Weather Channel:
The rest of the week is forecasted to have high temperatures around 13° to 18°F [versus about 31°F]. That means to get to a "normal" January, we will have to have a very warm [relatively speaking] last two weeks. We're really looking forward to that all of you AGW enthusiasts.
Nevertheless, things are not so bad. We could be living in Europe:
Isn't Europe where all of that grumbling about slow response to Global Warming was going on? Isn't Europe where coal-fire power plants were being decommissioned? Isn't Europe where they believed they could rely on imported oil and natural gas?BRRRR! 2008-2009 is shaping up as perhaps the coldest winter in European memory
Much of Europe seized by severe winter weatherMADRID -- A rare, heavy snowfall in central Spain closed Madrid's airport and paralyzed traffic in the city and several German rivers were frozen over as much of Europe remained in the grip of Siberian conditions Friday.
The bitter cold which has embraced the much of the continent since the end of last year comes amid Russian gas cuts to several European countries.
... All four runways at Madrid's Barajas airport, Europe's fourth busiest, were closed because of the snowfall and low visibility...
Up to 10 centimeters (four inches) of snow accumulated in Madrid as temperatures in the region dropped as low as minus 6 C (21 F).
The regional government of Madrid set up a “crisis cabinet” to deal with the effects of the heavy snowfall, which also hit the region of Castilla-la-Mancha southeast of the capital as well as western Spain.
The northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, a destination for thousands of pilgrims, recorded the heaviest snowfall in recent memory on Friday, according to the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo.
Across the border in France, air, rail and road traffic began to return to normal in the region around the southern port of Marseille after two days of disruptions caused by heavy snow, which had paralyzed the city on Thursday.
However, around 1,000 homes remained without electricity.
In Germany, the death toll from the cold snap rose to three and several rivers were frozen over, blocking ship traffic, authorities said. Drift ice covered 80 to 90 percent of the surface of the river Elbe from Doemnitz to the Germany's main port of Hamburg in the north, a spokeswoman for the Water and Shipping Office said.
Some barges had to be freed late Thursday with industrial ice breakers.
Germany is experiencing one of its coldest winters of the past 100 years, with the mercury dropping as low as minus 34.6 C (minus 30.3 F) in the mountains in the south.
One person also died from the cold in Poland during the night, bringing the death toll in the country to 83 since November 1, most of them homeless people.
... In Portugal, four people died in a fire apparently caused by a faulty heater in an apartment building in the city of Porto. Temperatures that reached as low as minus 6 C (21 F) caused authorities in several Portuguese cities to issue tents to homeless. In the north of the country, the snow Friday cut several main roads.
Oh wait, that's the U.S. under the up-coming administration.
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