Global Cooling, The Evidence Mounts
30 Jan 2008
http://viewhigh.blogspot.com/2008/01/global-warming-news-jan-2008.html
EUROPE:
During the first week of 2008, A bitterly cold winter storm pummeled
parts of Europe, according to an article from AP. The storm killed at
least three sailors when a ****p sank in rough seas, and piled up snow
that stranded thousands at air****ts, on mountain roads and in remote
villages.
Authorities in northeastern Bulgaria declared a state of emergency,
with the army called in to help civil defense officials clear roads
and reach stranded motorists. Some 311 Bulgarian villages were left
without electricity and dozens were cut off without food supplies or
fresh water, authorities said. The northern Danube municipality of
Ruse declared a state of emergency after heavy snow blocked many
roads, said Andrei Ivanov, chief of the Balkan country's civil defense
service. Temperatures fell to 5 below zero, while snow drifts reached
more than 6 feet in parts of the country and hundreds of motorists
were trapped on mountain roads.
At least three crewmen were killed when a Bulgarian ****p carrying
scrap metal sank during a storm on the Azov Sea between Ukraine and
Russia, officials said. The Vanessa was carrying a crew of 10 and a
Ukrainian pilot who was guiding the ****p as it approached the Kerch
Strait, which connects the Azov Sea to the Black Sea, said Sergei
Petrov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry for southern
Russia. Rescuers pulled one survivor and three bodies from the sea,
where waves were as high as 10 feet.
The cold spell also caused problems in neighboring Romania, where
Bucharest's two main air****ts were closed. Thousands of passengers
were stranded when the air****ts were closed due to heavy snowfall. The
snow also blocked many roads in the south, forcing the closure of at
least one border crossing with Bulgaria and prompting train delays.
Parts of Turkey and Greece, as well as Western Europe, were also
affected. In Turkey's capital of Ankara, snow caused traffic jams and
accidents, but no injuries were re****ted. Temperatures in Greece fell
to 1 below zero in the north of the country, where snow blanketed
roads.
In Western Europe, ice and snow disrupted traffic. The Mont-Blanc
tunnel linking France and Italy was closed to trucks because sharp
temperature differences between the two sides threatened to disrupt
the tunnel's ventilation. A Boeing 737 arriving from Morocco, slid off
an icy runway at an air****t in Deauville, northern France. The 169
passengers were evacuated unharmed.
INDIA:
Unusually cold weather in northern India has been blamed for at least
46 deaths in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and others in Kashmir and
Punjab. Mosques in the valley said special prayers. Schools in Delhi
were closed until January 13th because of the weather. More than 1
million children stayed home. The temperatures re****ted in (the
normally warm) low-lying areas were around the freezing point of 32
degrees Fahrenheit.
On January 26, according to a Times of India article, India's
financial capital Mumbai reached a low temperature of 10.8 degrees
Celsius, the lowest in 45 years. Amritsar was the coldest place in
Punjab with the mercury tumbling seven notches below normal to settle
at a low of minus 1.6 degrees C. Frigid temperatures in Punjab and
Haryana forced residents to light bonfires.
IRAN:
On January 12th, it was re****ted in the Tehran Times that President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad chaired a session, examining ways to solve problems
caused by the recent two weeks of unprecedented cold in the northern
provinces of the country. Government ministers, the governors of four
provinces, as well as a number of other state and military officials
were present at the meeting. Ahmadinejad visited the province to look
into the problems, including gas supply cuts in certain regions.
Mazandaran Province, mostly its central and eastern parts, suffered
fuel shortages over a 10 day period.
According to an article in the Gulf Daily News, some areas of Iran saw
snow for the first time in years. Officials said a number of people
had died from the cold or in traffic accidents caused by the weather.
Government offices, schools and universities were closed in some
regions to conserve fuel.
SAUDI ARABIA:
During the same period, northern parts of Saudi Arabia were covered
with snow. Schools, mosques and administrative bodies were paralyzed,
RIA Novosti re****ted. The oil-rich kingdom was hit with subzero
temperatures and snow storms with freezing winds of up to 50 km/h
(30mp/h). Some regions experienced problems with water supplies as
pipes froze, and livestock died from the cold. Saudi national media
said the winter is the coldest in the country for 20 years. Morning
and afternoon prayers are being combined in many mosques because of
the morning cold.
IRAQ:
On January 11th, snow fell in Baghdad for the first time in 100 years.
Rare snowfalls were also recorded in the west and center of Iraq,
plunging temperatures to zero degrees Centigrade (32 degrees
Fahrenheit) and even colder. The snow in Baghdad, which melted
quickly, began falling before dawn and continued until after 9 am,
residents said. Snow also fell in the northern mountainous regions of
Iraq, which is not uncommon. "Baghdad has never seen snow falling in
living memory," said Dawood Shakir, director of the meteorology
department. "These snowfalls are linked to the climate change that is
happening everywhere."
CHINA:
In the second half of the month, China was hit with the most brutal
winter weather to hit the nation in 50 years according to an article
in the Times Online. Snow, ice and bitter cold crippled thousands of
trains and trucks loaded with coal and food. There were widespread
power shortages. More than 800,000 residents in Chenzhou, the main
city in Hunan province, had been without power and water supplies for
five days (when the article was written). Snow added to energy
shortages by halting the supply of coal. Railway tracks were blocked
by snow.
VOA News re****ted that China's leaders were ru****ng to oversee
disaster relief efforts. Heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures
left dozens of people dead, and millions of others stranded who were
trying to return home for the main holiday of the year. Some train
travelers at the Beijing West Rail Station had been waiting for more
than a week to get on a train (when the article was written). The
situation was particularly severe in the southern city of Guangzhou,
where tens of thousands of people were stranded in and around the main
train station.
USA:
The year started off with a cold wave across the USA during the first
week of January. The Butane-Propane News (BPN) of California issued a
re****t that said propane inventories fell sharply that week caused by
"strong demand".
In Florida, during the same period, citrus growers re****ted "only
minor damage... from a blast of cold air, even as snow flurries fell
in at least one part of the Sun****ne State." Temperatures in many
areas of northern Florida dropped into the 20s.
Upstate New York had single-digit readings and wind chills well below
zero. It was 8 degrees below zero in Watertown, NY, with the wind
chill making it feel like 20 below. In Saranac Lake in the
Adirondacks, it was 17 below with calm winds. The lowest reading in
Maine was 23 below near Ashland, the National Weather Service said.
Global-warming then abated somewhat as temperatures became milder for
the next two weeks. The global-warming skeptics started to gloat and
point to this as proof that global-warming was over forever. But the
cold weather started to return as arctic air building over the Polar
regions of Canada and Siberia, pushed southwards across the U.S. in a
phenomenon commonly known as the "Siberian Express". The NFC
Champion****p Game played at Green Bay, Wisconsin on January 20th, was
the third coldest playoff game in NFL history.
At the end of January, heavy snow storms hammered the western states
from Wa****ngton to Arizona, closing schools and government offices,
causing widespread havoc on roads and even shutting down one ski
resort. On January 28th, a search was under way for three snowmobilers
missing in the Colorado mountains. The roofs of several businesses
collapsed under the weight of snow in northern Idaho, while avalanches
forced the evacuations of dozens of homes. The Navajo Nation declared
an emergency on its sprawling reservation. About 20 inches of snow
fell around Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. The San Juan Mountains of
southern Colorado were socked with 30 inches of snow and wind gusts as
high as 100 mph.
In southeastern and south central Minnesota, a band of snow falling at
up to 1 inch per hour was accompanied by winds gusting at 20 to 40
miles per hour on January 28th, prompting the National Weather Service
to issue a blizzard warning. The bad weather was followed by bitter
cold temperatures according to KSTP.com. The conditions were being
driven by the arctic cold front.
In Chicago, a temperature plunge of 50 degrees accompanied by 40
m.p.h. winds, dropped temperatures to zero Fahrenheit with windchills
of 40- to 50-degree-below-zero according to the Chicago Tribune. Over
the full 138 years of Chicago's official weather records, a comparable
plunge occurred just 17 times.
CANADA:
Much like the U.S., Canada experienced cold temperatures early in the
month and then got a respite until late in the month when they were
likewise hit by the "Siberian Express". According to a Canada.com
article, residents of the Prairies dealt with blustery winds and
deadly temperatures dipping into the minus 50s Celsius, while other
areas faced blizzard conditions.
In Saskatchewan, a three-year-old girl was found frozen to death on
January 29th and the search was continuing for her one-year-old baby
sister. The father of the children was found suffering from frostbite
near his home, approximately 250 kilometres east of Saskatoon where
the temperatures were about -35 C. An avalanche hit a popular ski
resort south of Calgary; no injuries were re****ted. In the Maritimes,
the weather was not quite as severe, but snow and sleet brought havoc,
leaving thousands without power in Prince Edward Island. In Vancouver,
heavy snowfalls caused commuter chaos.
Uranium City in northern Saskatchewan (about 1,340 kilometres north of
Saskatoon) earned the ignominious distinction of being the coldest
place on the continent at -59 C, said Environment Canada meteorologist
Bob Cormier. It was followed closely by Aulavik National Park on Banks
Island in the Northwest Territories at -57 C. A tiny hamlet in the
middle of Alberta, called Dapp, registered -53 C.
RUSSIA:
On January 16th in Siberia, temperatures were being forecast to hit
minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit). Government
agencies were placed on high alert as freezing temperatures had
already caused overloading of electricity grids and power
interruptions in the regions of Irkutsk and Tomsk because of overused
home heaters. At least two deaths and more than 30 frost-bite cases
had already been re****ted in Irkutsk (when the article was written).
Average January temperatures in large Siberian cities usually range
between minus 15 degrees Celsius and minus 39 degrees Celsius. On
Saturday, January 19th, the temperature in Ojmjakon, Siberia actually
fell to -60.2C (-76F). Schools were closed down in at least four
regions because of the cold.
In neighboring Georgia, whose climate is subtropical, temperatures
plunged to as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius. Lake Paliastomi in
western Georgia froze for the first time in 50 years, re****ted
Rustavi-2 television.
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
“In scientific circles, C02 is referred to as a `trace gas’ that, for
hundreds of thousands of years, has remained at or below five
ten-thousandths of the atmosphere by volume. Even among the so-called
`greenhouse gases’ (GHG), C02 accounts for less than 4%, with water
vapour being by far the most significant GHG. C02 is clearly a
miniscule component of the massive mechanisms that create climate and
cause climate change.”
Dr. Timothy Ball, Chairman of the Natural Resources Steward****p Project
(NRSP.com), Former Professor Of Climatology, University of Winnipeg
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