27 January 2010

The Deep-Freeze Continues



Courtesy of Global Disaster Watch...

U.S. - Monday's storm was a "pattern breaker." "It has created a huge rift in the jet stream, which in turn will let much colder air enter the central and eastern part of the country. Winter is taking back the reigns this week. The east will be much colder from midweek on." A winter storm is expected to take shape over the southern Plains on Thursday. Forecasters expect the storm to follow a southern track with the potential to produce a substantial amount of snow from the southern Plains to the mid-Atlantic region....

CHINA - An avalanche in western China has killed 14 people, bringing the reported death toll from a fierce cold snap to at least 27. The avalanche occurred on Tuesday in Yili prefecture, an area along the border with Kazakhstan. The news comes after the nation's media earlier this week reported 13 people had died in Xinjiang from the WORST SNOWSTORMS IN SIX DECADES. Twelve of those had perished in avalanches. China has endured an UNUSUALLY HARSH WINTER, reaching its height since January 1 with heavy snow across vast parts of the country's north and west, but Xinjiang has suffered the hardest from a series of Siberian blizzards. Thousands have been left homeless after the heavy snows led houses to collapse while thousands of livestock have died from exposure or starvation after grazing fields were buried in snow.

EUROPE - A bitter winter across central Europe is starting to bite. The inside car windows have frozen and some are using hair dryers to warm the engine. In Romania, the cold Siberian front has claimed the lives of 11 people in the last 24 hours, 22 in five days. The outlook is bleak, with temperatures at night expected to plummet to below minus 30. Schools have closed, those that are open are struggling to heat the classrooms improvising with electric radiators, the pupils studying with their coats on. And power in Poland is one of the biggest causalities in the big freeze that has gripped that country. In the south more than 10,000 households are without heating and lighting. These extremes are especially difficult for homeless people. 11 have reported to have died last night, bringing the total of deaths to 202 since the beginning of November, including a 13-year-old boy who died of hypothermia. The freezing conditions are starting to spread across Turkey....

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