The frigid air spilling out of the Arctic has been hitting parts of Russia as well as North America:
“Air temperatures in Siberia have been 10-15 degrees lower than average for a long time, and record lows have been registered in many regions. Chief Meteorologist of the Western Siberian Directorate for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, Renad Yagudin, told TASS that the meteorological station Uchebnaya that is located on the left bank of the Ob River, displayed temperatures a bit lower than -40 degrees in the area on February 6. This is the most frigid in the history of weather monitoring for this date, breaking the previous record of -39.6 degrees.
“In addition, Yagudin said that new lows were set in the Maslyaninsky, Kochenevsky and Iskitimsky districts of the Novosibirsk Region…
“A historic low was also broken in the town of Novokuznetsk, in the Kemerovsky district, which had endured for more than 50 years. “The coldest winter period here was in 1968-1969. If we compare it with this period, we can say that Novokuznetsk broke those records. On February 10, 1969, a temperature of -41.8 degrees was recorded, whereas today the temperature plummeted to minus 42 degrees,” the press secretary of the Kemerovsky Center for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Natalya Poluektova told TASS.”
http://tass.com/society/1043508
“Saskatoon shattered a 112 year-old record Wednesday when temperatures fell to – 42.6 C, according to Environment Canada. The previous record was set in 1907 at -41.7 C.
“Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning Wednesday, prompting the province to remind people of its cold weather strategy, which is providing shelter for people in need.”
https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/this-is-saskatoon-s-coldest-day-in-112-years-1.4285699
“Thawing ice from last week’s extreme cold is jamming up rivers in the Midwest and Northeast — causing evacuations and a big, wet mess. Rapid warmups can cause ice jams in rivers.
“The ice doesn’t crack uniformly, and chunks can temporarily block the river’s flow, causing it to spill inland.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/06/us/ice-jams-flooding-wxc/index.html
“Roughly 9,920 Havana residents were forced from their homes by the tornado that hit the Cuban capital 10 days ago, killing six people, injuring 195 others and damaging more than 4,800 residences, Cuban official media reported on Wednesday.
“Most of the displaced people are staying with relatives and friends…”
http://www.gulftoday.ae/portal/d82263bf-edff-4fa6-999d-254b98def35f.aspx
“The municipality of Rio de Janeiro decreed on Wednesday night the “state of crisis” due to heavy rains, with winds of up to 110 km per hour, which caused flooding, fell trees and created fear of landslides in favelas.
“The Rio Operations Center (COR) asked the Cariocas “to move only in case of extreme need”, to warn the authorities if there are “signs of cracks” in the homes and to be attentive “to the sirens” warning of the risk of landslides.”
https://www.latercera.com/mundo/noticia/rio-decreta-estado-crisis-lluvias-torrenciales/519104/
“Chile does not manage to get away from extreme weather.
“Last week he was in the news because of a heat wave that has left unprecedented records and, for a couple of days, also due to the floods that are affecting the most arid desert in the world, Atacama . The videos that have been made viral are spectacular…”
“The damage bill is rising in Townsville as deadly floodwaters slowly recede and residents begin to mop up in the wake of record-breaking rainfall.
“In just 10 days, parts of the Far North Queensland city copped the same amount of rain which falls in Melbourne over three years. The Victorian capital, which was also hit with freak storms overnight, receives about 600mm of rain each year, less than a third of what has fallen since the monsoonal trough started ravaging Townsville.”
“Another round of storms is set to hit parts of Victoria today, after hail stones the size of ping-pong balls lashed the state overnight.
“A severe weather warning is in place most of the state, with northeast districts and parts of Gippsland forecast to be hardest hit.”
“With many regions [of New Zealand] tinder-dry, a report on soil moisture shows no improvement ahead. NIWA’s weekly soil moisture report assesses severely to extremely dry conditions.”
“Neither snow nor rain fell in the Seoul metropolitan area throughout the whole month of January, making it the driest January on record, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.”
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/02/07/2019020701382.html
“Water shortages and crop failure caused by record-low rainfalls in Pakistan are forcing some farming families to abandon their land, fleeing what officials say is the worst drought to hit the country in years, while others are selling their last breeding animals or seed stocks to survive.
“Authorities and aid groups say conditions are deteriorating in large swathes of Sindh to the south and Balochistan to the west, where both provincial governments have declared emergencies. Disaster management officials say at least 2.8 million people are affected in the two provinces’ worst-hit districts.”
“Pakistan’s northern and northwestern parts have witnessed record snowfall last month which would help raise the water table in the country, officials said…
“Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the rain and snow calling it a “blessing from God”… Pakistan is running out of fresh water at an alarming rate, experts say, which could spell disaster for the agriculture-based economy.”
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/pakistan-receives-record-snowfall-in-winter/1386029
““The recent rainfall [in Kwa-Zulul Natal, South Africa] has created a false impression that the drought we experienced from 2015 is over. Our dams have not been replenished to their pre-drought levels and the danger of running out of water is still very real,” said Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube yesterday.
“Dube-Ncube said if the drought persists, the province will have no choice but to impose water restrictions.”
“Billions of tons of meltwater flowing into the oceans from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could boost extreme weather and destabilize regional climate within a matter of decades, researchers said Wednesday.
“These melting giants — especially the one atop Greenland — are poised to further weaken the ocean currents that move cold water south along the Atlantic Ocean floor while pushing tropical waters northward closer to the surface, they reported in the journal Nature.”
“The last four years were the hottest since global temperature records began, the UN confirmed on Wednesday in an analysis that it said was a “clear sign of continuing long-term climate change.”
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation said in November that 2018 was set to be the fourth warmest year in recorded history…”
[but it was the warmest on record for the oceans and almost certainly the worst globally for wildfires].
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/06/last-four-years-have-hottest-record-un-says/
“While 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record, British meteorologists are predicting the next five years will be much hotter…”
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