Much of U.S. is cold and getting colder

CNN | Jan 5, 2010

By Jim Kavanagh

CNN iReporter Supriya Shridharan spotted this frozen fountain outside a senior living facility in Roswell, Georgia.

(CNN) — Another wave of Arctic air, colder than the current one, will plummet southward over the eastern two-thirds of the nation starting Wednesday, forecasters say.

Little Rock, Arkansas, could see an actual temperature of 10 degrees and wind chill of 20 below zero on Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

The high temperature will be in the 20s on Thursday and Friday in Dallas, Texas, where consecutive days that cold have not happened since 1998, the weather service said.

“What’s unusual about this is the length of the cold snap,” CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said.

“Typically across the South you’ll get a two- to three-day cold snap, and then temperatures will moderate,” he said. “But we’re getting reinforcing shot after reinforcing shot, and that pattern doesn’t look like it wants to break down until at least next week.”

A homeless man was found frozen to death in Kansas City, Missouri, where the temperature was 1 degree Tuesday morning, and Salvation Army officials said they desperately need donations of hats, gloves and socks, CNN affiliate KCTV reported.

The temperature is not expected to rise above zero in Kansas City on Friday.

A winter storm watch is in effect for Kansas City, where 2 to 4 inches of snow and near-blizzard conditions will be possible on Wednesday afternoon, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said. A winter storm watch has also been issued for Memphis, Tennessee, where 2 to 4 inches of snow will be possible from late Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.

A dusting of snow will be possible in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Morris said.

At least four cold-related deaths have occurred in Tennessee. One was an 81-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who apparently wandered outside during the night wearing nothing but a bathrobe, police said. John Anderson’s body was found in his driveway Monday morning.

The Salvation Army shelter in Lubbock, Texas, is making room to let more people in out of the cold, CNN affiliate KCBD reported.

“In general the shelter is able to handle whatever comes up, so that part isn’t a problem,” Salvation Army Capt. Mike Morton told KCBD. “It’s just getting folks to come in, and for whatever reason, folks have an idea that they don’t want to come into the shelter. That’s their decision, but when it gets single digits it’s time to start seeking shelter.”

Shelters in Jackson, Mississippi, were reaching capacity, CNN affiliate WLBT reported.

“We’ve heard that emergency overflow shelters are going to open and maybe some of our usual people will go there. Now we have one couch and seven sleeping bags left,” Wilbert Logan, director of Billy Brumfield House, told WLBT.

New Jerusalem Church in Jackson was opening its doors to help the homeless.

“We had one of the gentlemen tonight who lives under the bridge. … He’s never been to a shelter, and he said, ‘You know, Miss Liza, my bones can’t handle it anymore,’ ” New Jerusalem Church spokesperson Eliza Garcia told WLBT.

The frigid air reaches all the way to central Florida, jeopardizing berry and citrus crops.

Hard freeze warnings were in effect Tuesday morning for much of northern Florida and parts of other Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.

“For Florida, they’re going to see the coldest stretch in 15 to 25 years,” Marciano said. “They get freezes like this, but they don’t get them for this length of time, and that’s the danger that will probably wear the farmers out.”

Florida citrus growers were relieved that Monday night wasn’t as cold as forecast, sparing their crops for at least one more day.

“We actually were a couple of degrees warmer last night, so we came through with no reports of damage at this point,” said Andrew Meadows, spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade group representing about 8,000 growers.

Growers are spraying water on their trees to form a protective coating of ice, Meadows said. As long as temperatures don’t drop below 28 degrees for more than four hours, damage should be minimal, he said.

However, forecasters say colder air is on the way.

“Tonight’s going to be another anxious night,” Meadows said. “I’m sure a lot of growers will be pulling all-nighters.”

Charlotte County, Florida, planned to open a cold weather shelter Tuesday evening, CNN affiliate WINK reported. Other counties were taking similar steps.

Shoppers at clothing stores were were clearing racks of warm coats, CNN affiliate WKMG in Orlando, Florida, reported.

“There is nothing. We were at Target, Sears, JCPenney, all over. This is my last resort,” shopper Ann Marie Reyes told WKMG.

Burlington Coat Factory said its Orlando area stores are completely out of men’s gloves and have very few hats and gloves for kids.

Lows reached the teens Tuesday morning in parts of Alabama, according to the weather service. Record lows were expected in many areas across the South, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.

The Weatherization Trust, a nonprofit group in Omaha, Nebraska, stepped in to help a family whose furnace quit in the midst of the freeze, CNN affiliate KETV reported.

Tracy O’Boyle and her family have been using an oven to stay warm, but the nonprofit group has procured a replacement furnace, to be installed by the end of the week, KETV reported.

“We’re just grateful we’re going to get the furnace in a few days,” O’Boyle told KETV. “We’ve already lasted more than a week without one and it’s been really cold.”

The temperature in Omaha was 14 below zero Tuesday morning.

Share your photos, video of winter weather near you

A large restaurant burned to the ground Monday in Indianapolis, Indiana. Firefighters’ efforts were hampered by frozen fire hydrants, CNN affiliate WRTV reported.

The northern Plains could see wind chills of 20 to 30 below zero through Wednesday, Myers said.

“Some locations could see temperatures 30 to 40 degrees below normal” on Thursday across parts of the Plains, upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley, Morris said. By Friday morning, afternoon highs will struggle to make it above zero, he said.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the temperature was minus 7 Tuesday morning. In Chicago, Illinois, it was 17, with a wind chill of 6. In Birmingham, Alabama, it was 20 degrees, but the wind made it feel like 8 degrees.

A winter storm warning for moderate to heavy snowfall was in effect into Tuesday afternoon in parts of northwestern Washington state, northern Idaho, Montana and northern Wyoming, the weather service said.

Moderate to heavy snowfall also is possible in much of North Dakota from Tuesday to Wednesday, the weather service said.

France to criminalize ‘psychological violence’, electronic tagging for repeat offenders

France to introduce new law banning ‘psychological violence’ in marriages

Sociologist Pierre Bonnet said: ‘The next step will be to make rudeness a criminal offence.’

Daily Mail | Jan 5, 2010

By Peter Allen

France will become the first country in the world to ban ‘psychological violence’ within marriage later this year.

The new law, which would also apply to co-habiting couples, would see people getting criminal records for insulting their loved ones during domestic arguments.

Electronic tagging would be used on repeat offenders, according to the country’s prime minister, Francois Fillon, who announced the law.

If it proves successful, it could be introduced in other European countries including Britain.

But critics dismissed the measure as a ‘gimmick’ which would be impossible to implement.

The law is particularly aimed at protecting women who currently suffer the worst attacks of this kind, ranging from off-hand comments about their appearance to threats of physical violence.

Mr Fillon said: ‘It’s an important step forward as the creation of this offence will allow us to deal with the most insidious situations – situations that leave no visible scars, but which leave victims torn up inside.’

He added that his government would also be experimenting with electronic surveillance measures to ‘monitor the effectiveness of restraining orders against a violent spouse’.

Psychologist Anne Giraud said: ‘Squabbling couples will allege all kinds of things about each other, but they won’t necessarily be true.

‘The police are likely to be called out more and more when this law comes into force this year, but often it will be a case of one person’s word against the other.

‘Psychological violence is a very serious matter, but punishing it through the courts is a very different matter altogether.’

Critics have also said the government should not be intervening in private domestic arguments in which no one got hurt.

Sociologist Pierre Bonnet said: ‘The next step will be to make rudeness a criminal offence. The police and courts will be over-stretched trying to deal with the numerous cases.’

A TV advertising campaign was used last year to try and highlight domestic violence in France. It showed a husband who regularly insults his wife, leaving her mentally traumatised.

In 2008, 157 French women were killed by their husband or partner, with hundreds more suffering domestic physical violence.

A spokesman for Mr Fillon said the new law was supported by the government, and was likely to come into effect within six months.

British MI5 told US about Detroit bomber’s terror links ‘a year ago’

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab set an explosive device attached to his body alight while on the Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25 Photo: REUTERS

Britain told American intelligence agents more than a year ago that the Detroit bomber had links to extremists, according to Downing Street.

Telegraph | Jan 4, 2010

By Robert Winnett, Duncan Gardham and Toby Harnden in Washington

The prime minister’s spokesman indicated that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was named in a file of people based in Britain who had made contact with radical Muslim preachers. The file was said to have been sent to the US authorities in 2008.

White House sources disputed the Downing Street account, stating that no such intelligence information was passed by Britain before the attempted Christmas Day attacks. The White House declined to respond officially.

A British official said there appeared to have been a misunderstanding about what Downing Street had said: “There is nothing to stand up the suggestion that the UK provided information to the US that it could or should have acted upon.”

Diplomatic sources said that the Prime Minister’s spokesman had intended to refer to information gleaned by MI5 after the Christmas Day incident following an exhaustive examination of records going back through Abdulmutallab’s time in Britain up to October 2008.

The implication that the US failed to act could embarrass President Barack Obama, who is already under pressure after failures by US intelligence to identify the bomber.

It could also add to concern over the state of the “special relationship” between Downing Street and the White House following last year’s dispute over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber.

It is extremely unusual for the Prime Minister’s office to comment on intelligence matters. The move could be seen as an attempt to rebuff criticism from senior American figures who claimed that Britain had nurtured Islamic extremism.

At first it was thought that MI5 gathered only limited information on Abdulmutallab and had therefore not alerted the US.

However, in an official briefing, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said that British intelligence was shared with the Americans.

He said: “Clearly there was security information about this individual’s activities and that was information that was shared with the US authorities. That is the key point.”

The spokesman added: “We are pretty certain that he was radicalised outside the UK. He [Abdulmutallab] left the UK in October 2008.

“But it is also clear that while he was here he was attempting to make contact with people and that is the intelligence we were able to secure from the intelligence services.”

Last night, a Downing Street spokesman added: “We do routinely share large quantites of intelligence with the US on a two-way basis so we can build up a picture of the potential threats we face.

In regard to the Detroit bomber, the UK and US had gathered partial information and this had been shared in the usual way. Since the incident, we have built up a fuller picture.

There is no suggestion that the US did not act on intelligence information that they received from the UK.”

Questions will be asked about how much MI5 knew about Abdulmutallab and whether the information was correctly handled. Sources said he was given the attention he warranted at the time, and the fact that he associated with other extremists in this country was not surprising.

Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, studied at University College London between 2005 and 2008. He then left the country and was thought to have travelled to Yemen.

He attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear on Northwest Airlines flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day.

The decision by Downing Street to give details of the shared intelligence was unlikely to be welcomed by the White House. It was the latest in a series of incidents, which have strained relations between Britain and America.

Last summer, the Americans were angered by the decision of the Scottish administration to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds. In September, Mr Obama rebuffed five requests for a private meeting with the Prime Minister when he visited New York.

At the weekend, the Prime Minister announced a British-US initiative to tackle terrorism in Yemen. The White House then made it clear that Mr Brown had not spoken to President Obama since the Detroit bomber was apprehended. The Prime Minister was then forced to admit that it was an old programme.

Last week, it was found that the bomber had come to the attention of MI5 when he made contact with a number of individuals who were under surveillance. However, MI5 was not thought to have identified Abdulmutallab as a threat and he was not fully investigated. The bomber was therefore not placed on international watch lists and was able to board a plane from Nigeria to America, via Amsterdam last month.

Although he appeared in a number of top secret intelligence reports, Abdulmutallab was allowed to keep his American visa.

Abdulmutallab’s father contacted the CIA in November to give them warning that his son was involved with fundamentalists in Yemen.

Communications were intercepted in Yemen, which referred to a possible attack by “the Nigerian”. American intelligence experts have criticised the failure to identify the potential threat and drawn comparisons with 2001, when the CIA and FBI missed warning signs of the September 11 attacks.

Full body scanners may break child pornography laws

Body scanner at Manchester Airport

The full-body scanners are up to 10 times more expensive than the usual metal detectors, which cost up to $15,000 (£9,400) Photo: AFP/Getty Images

The full body scanners being introduced to Britain’s airports risk breaking child protection laws against making indecent images of children, campaign groups have claimed.

Telegraph | Jan 5, 2010

By Heidi Blake

Airport staff member demonstrating a full body scan at Manchester Airport in Manchester, north-west England: Passenger profiling needed as well as scanners, airlines chief warns

The pictures created by the scanners are so graphic they are tantamount to “virtual strip searching”, according to privacy campaigners who oppose the use of the security devices.

Ministers may be forced to consider making under-18s exempt from the scans and civil liberties campaigners are demanding measures to ensure the images, which will include those of celebrities, are not leaked onto the internet.

Airport officials say the images from the £80,000 scanners are only seen by a single security officer in a remote location before it is deleted.

But a 12-month trial at Manchester airport of scanners which reveal naked images of passengers only went ahead last month after children were exempted.

The decision came after Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, gave warning that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a “pseudo-image” of a child.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport told The Guardian: “We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners. It is vital staff are properly trained and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account.

Gordon Brown gave the go-ahead at the weekend for the scanners to be rolled out across all Britain’s major airports, and said travellers would see the gradual introduction of full-body scans and hand luggage checks for traces of explosives.

The Prime Minister told the BBC that the Government would do everything in its power to tighten security following the attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate a bomb on a plane bound for the USA on Christmas Day.

BAA, which runs six UK airports, said it would now install the devices “as soon as is practical” at Heathrow.

A spokesman said: “It is our view that a combination of technology, intelligences and passenger profiling will help build a more robust defence against the unpredictable and changing nature of the terrorist threat to aviation.”

But he added that nothing had yet been decided on exactly which passengers would undergo the full body scans, and declined to comment on how soon BAA would be extending the use of scanners to other airports.

More snow and icy conditions as Britain faces ‘one of coldest winters in 100 years’

More snow and freezing conditions are causing travel chaos Photo: PA

Britain awoke to more snow and freezing conditions today causing further travel chaos and disruption as the country faces one of the coldest winters in 100 years.

Telegraph | Jan 5, 2010

By Murray Wardrop

With up to 4 ins of snow due to fall in parts of the country today, heavier deluges are predicted to hit many others later this week wreaking havoc on roads, railways and at airports.

MeteoGroup said up to 6ins (15cm) of snow could end up lying over “wide areas” by Friday, with the south experiencing “significant or even major difficulties to infrastructures, particularly transport”.

Temperatures fell as low as 14F (-10C) across southern England overnight, with no end in sight to the freezing weather.

Stephen Davenport, senior meteorologist at MeteoGroup, said: “This is stretching the limits of short to medium term forecasting but so entrenched is this cold-weather pattern that it seems only a major upheaval in the atmosphere will bring a return to something milder.

“Should conditions continue in a similar vein then by March we might just be looking back at one of the coldest winters of the last 100 years.”

He added: “There are more immediate concerns in the shape of a very snowy spell this week.

“Heavy snow showers or more widespread snow will continue to move across northern and eastern areas of Britain, bringing further accumulations of several centimetres in places and causing notable disruptions to transportation.

“And the highly-populated south is likely to see snow that will at times be widespread, persistent and severe enough to bring significant or even major difficulties to infrastructures, particularly transport.

Ten train services between London and Leeds on the East Coast Main Line were cancelled today.

Several London to Glasgow services on the line were also stopping at Edinburgh, with a number of others affected.

The line operator said it would be operating a revised timetable today due to the adverse weather conditions.

Budget airline easyJet cancelled a number of flights on its European network, including two between Luton and Milan.

The Highways Agency also said the A66 in Cumbria was closed in both directions between the junctions with A1 and A685. The closure is expected to last for several hours.

Manchester Airport said it had closed due to heavy snow and Liverpool Airport is also experiencing difficulties.

Passengers are being urged to check their flight status with the airline.

Glasgow Airport said it was open , but heavy snow and icy conditions across the Britain would result in delays and cancellations.

Travellers were also being advised to check with their airline.

Today a band of snow will move down from Scotland bringing showers to northern England, northern Wales and possibly Northern Ireland.

By midafternoon it will have reached the south east and by the evening there could be disruptive snowfall in the south, the south Midlands and south Wales.

The Met Office warned of heavy snow in the Scottish highlands, Wales, northern England and the Midlands.

Temperatures will barely top freezing during the day, with London set to be the warmest at 37F (3C). Manchester could possibly touch 34F (1C), Glasgow will hover around 32F (0C) and Cardiff 36F (2C).

Commuters suffered more disruption yesterday as they returned to work after the Christmas break, with thousands of schoolchildren enjoying an extra day off due to the weather.

Yesterday the AA was experiencing its busiest ever day, with the organisation on schedule to attend more than 25,000 breakdowns over the 24 hours.

The AA also warned that the roads were likely to be even busier today when worsening weather conditions combined with the return to school in many areas.

Grit stocks in England are holding up according to the Highways Agency, but Fife council in Scotland had to have several hundred tonnes of salt and grit delivered by the Scottish government after supplies ran low.

A Scottish Government spokesman said Fife Council received 250 tonnes of salt and grit yesterday following a delivery of 50 tonnes the day before.

Highland Council also said it had used 30,000 tonnes of salt over the past three weeks – more than the total it used during 2006/7.

The prolonged cold weather in Scotland has also led to a temporary ban on shooting certain bird species – the first time such a measure has been imposed in 13 years.

Yesterday, overrunning rail engineering works caused 60-minute rush hour delays to trains in and out of London’s Liverpool Street station.

And on London Underground there were part-suspensions on the District and Hammersmith and City lines due to signal failures.

Even the fountains in Trafalgar Square iced over in the sub-zero temperatures.

Elsewhere Merseyrail services were delayed by up to 30 minutes and rail passengers were hit by poor weather in Scotland which led to delays between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Buses replaced trains between Ormskirk and Preston and between Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, while a signalling problem near Dagenham Dock in Essex led to delays on services to and from Fenchurch Street station in London.

New Year freeze, avalanches leave trail of death across Europe

Fishing boats are stuck in ice in the northern German harbour town of Greetsiel. AFP

AFP | Jan 4, 2009

PARIS — A cold snap across Europe killed 13 people in Poland over the New Year as avalanches and skiiing accidents left at least 10 others dead in the Alps, police and rescuers said Monday.

As temperatures plunged to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) in Poland at the start of the year, the number of cold-related deaths rose to 122 so far this winter, police said.

Most victims were homeless men aged 35 to 50 who died of hypothermia while drunk, they said.

In the Swiss Alps avalanches killed at least five people with three others missing, emergency services and police said.

The first avalanche hit on Sunday in the central Bernese Alps, killing one skier. Emergency services were searching survivors from another avalanche that struck half an hour later.

Eight helicopters carrying doctors, rescuers and avalanche dogs were despatched to the disaster site and pulled out eight people alive.

Some of the survivors were in a critical condition and three died later in a hospital, including a doctor who had arrived to treat people following the first avalanche.

Rescuers also found the body of a hiker buried in the snow while three other people — two Swiss and a German — were reported missing, police said in a statement.

Emergency services were unable to restart the search on Monday amid the difficult weather conditions, said Theo Maurer of Switzerland’s mountain rescue services.

In western Switzerland’s canton of Valais, a mountain guide and his client were hit by an avalanche on Sunday, officials said.

The guide was able to get out alive but his client died, with the body found buried under 80 centimetres (32 inches) of snow.

Steady snowfall overnight and all day Monday led to several road accidents and caused rare delays in the Swiss public transport system.

A 32-year-old German tourist was killed in eastern Switzerland’s Ofen mountain pass, after her motor home collided head-on with a car that skidded on black ice, police said.

Several accidents were also reported on the busy motorway linking the cities of Lausanne and Geneva.

A metro line in Lausanne was disrupted for two hours on Monday while in Geneva, public buses were running with delays.

In western Austria rescue officials said they found the bodies of two German skiers, aged 18 and 19, who had fallen into a ravine.

Another avalanche hit mountains on France’s border with Italy on Friday, killing three people, French police said.

Western Europe is shivering through one of its coldest winters in decades with heavy snowfalls causing serious disruption to road, rail and air traffic over the Christmas and New Year holiday periods.

In southern France a number of high-speed trains were delayed for up to two and a half hours near Cavaillon and in the Lyon region, state railway operator SNCF said after France’s second city was blanketed by 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow.

At Lyon’s Saint-Exupery airport 13 flights were canceled.

The nearby Alpine city of Grenoble recorded 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow, a figure unseen since November 2005, causing serious disruptions on roads.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand was in hospital overnight Sunday after skidding on black ice with his scooter, the ministry said, but he was expected to resume his work later Monday.

In Britain, some 60 revellers were stranded for three days at the Tan Hill Inn, England’s highest pub, standing 1,700 feet (518 metres) above sea level, in the northern Yorkshire Dales after snowstorms on New Year’s Eve.

A snowplough on Sunday finally broke through the more than two-metre (seven-foot) snow drifts, ending the revelry, dubbed Britain’s longest-running New Year’s Eve party by newspapers on Monday.

Vermont snowfall hits all-time historic record depth

Vermonters embrace record snowfall

CNN | Jan 4, 2010

By Edmund DeMarche

Paul Tamasi, owner of Angelina's Pizzeria in Cambridge, Vermont, uses a snow blower Sunday outside his eatery.

(CNN) — Chris Giard’s kids figured school was going to be closed. After all, a 40-year-old snowfall record was shattered over the weekend, as Burlington, Vermont, saw some 33.1 inches of snow — the greatest in its history.

Giard’s kids figured that would translate into no school Monday. And they knew just the man to lobby: Giard is the director of facilities for the Burlington School District, the man who makes the decision to close the school because of inclement weather.

But sadly, Giard’s children — and the rest of the 3,600 children in the district — were packed off to class Monday.

“The city did a great job cleaning the streets,” said Giard. “It’s Vermont in the winter; we’re going to get snow.”

Since last week, the National Weather Service had warned Vermonters of the storm poised to strike the Champlain Valley.

iReport: Pizzeria in Cambridge, Vermont, snowed under

It was forecast to arrive on Saturday morning, bringing eight to 14 inches of snow. But a low-pressure storm over Nova Scotia retrograded and moved west toward Maine and New Hampshire, bringing increased moisture, lowered temperatures and strengthened northern winds — all key ingredients for a lot of snow.

“When you consider all these elements, it’s not surprising we got hit with more snow than anticipated,” said Eric Evenson, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Burlington, which is perched on the shore of Lake Champlain. “But it wasn’t a heavy snow — it was pretty light and easy to manage.”

Vermonters, perhaps accustomed to cold temperatures, seem to have embraced the storm, and call the snow light, fluffy and beautiful.

Michael Townsend, executive editor at the Burlington Free Press newspaper, said the snowfall was more picturesque than treacherous. “It was gorgeous,” he said. “When I woke up, the snow was up to my waist in the front yard. There wasn’t a lot of wind. It was just pretty to look at.”

Eleven inches fell between 10 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday.

Charlie Yerrick, the director of skiing at the Trapp Family Lodge that sits just to the east of Burlington in Stowe, said for the third straight year, the snowfall has been ideal. “The more the merrier,” he said, while he caught his breath after shoveling at the resort.” I see the sun peeking out right now and I’m going to get my camera and take some pictures.”

Steve Goodkind, Burlington’s director of public works, said snow removal is an important function of the city’s government, which allocates $500,000 a year for removal of about 73 inches the city typically receives.

He said the weekend’s snowfall probably hurt the city’s budget since he was forced to more than double snow crews. What’s more, the snowfall occurred on a holiday weekend and lasted for two days.

“Was this the worst snowfall I’ve seen here?” asked Goodkind. “No. On Valentine’s Day, 2007, we were hit hard with a blizzard that had heavy snow. But this was definitely something.”

Goodkind has planned a “snow dump” for Monday night; trucks remove snow from city streets and dump it into a large former oil tank farm in the city.

Fletcher Allen Health Center, the area’s main hospital, has contingency plans in place in the event of a large snowfall, but was not forced to implement them, said spokesman Mike Noble, because the storm was slow-moving and happened on a holiday weekend when only a small number of patients were hospitalized.

Colder temperatures often assist in a snow’s fluff factor. The ratio varies, but in general, the colder the temperature, the less moisture is needed for higher amounts of snow. Colder temperatures in the teens can increase snow amounts by five inches, said Evenson.

“The low-pressure storm made the temperature drop,” said Evenson. “That’s why we had fluffy, pretty snow.”

Scott Whittier, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Burlington said, “We’ve endured snowfall like that before, but this was a substantial storm. It’s historic.”

Crude oil, natural gas stocks gain with record low temperatures across America and Asia

U.S. Indexes Up 1%; Record Low Temperatures

ticker.com | Jan 4, 2010

10:00 AM New York – U.S. stocks followed the gains in Europe and Asia. Two separate reports in China suggest a robust manufacturing expansion and India reported better than expected data. Crude oil and natural gas gained after record low temperatures in the U.S. and record snowfalls in China and Korea.

U.S. stocks head higher in the early trading after crude oil, natural gas and metals gain.

Freezing weather in the U.S. prompted a rise in futures of the crude oil and natural gas of more than 2%. Immediate month futures for crude oil increase to $80.35 a barrel and natural gas jumped more than 5% to $5.82 per mBtu.

Meteorologists are forecasting record low temperatures in Northern and Eastern regions of the U.S. for today and tomorrow. Heavy snow fall in China and South Korea grounded airplanes at airports in Beijing and Seoul.

Gold increased 1.3% to 1,111.25 per ounce and Copper increased to $7,487 a ton in London trading.

A private estimate of manufacturing industry in China and India showed a faster than expected increases in December. The purchasing managers’ index after adjusting for seasonal swings increased to 56.1, the highest read since the tracking began in April 2004 by HSBC Holdings and Markit Economics.

The official measure release by China on January 1 indicated that manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace since February 2008.

Record low temperatures down to minus 39F hit Iowa

Subzero temperatures have been the norm across the state.

Radio Iowa | Jan 4, 2010

Iowans are returning to school and work after a holiday weekend of sub-zero temperatures. Meteorologist Miles Schumacher, at the National Weather Service, says several low temperature records were broken over the weekend, including Atlantic with 29-below this morning, though other places were even more frigid.

Schumacher says, “The coldest that we saw was in the Spencer-Estherville area on Saturday morning with temperatures dropping as low as 37-below and that was within a degree of the coldest in the whole United States.”

A wind chill advisory is in effect for much of Iowa this morning, as some areas are in the 30s and 40s below zero.

Schumacher says there likely won’t be any warming up this week across Iowa as highs are expected in the single digits and teens.

Subtle changes are taking place in the weather pattern but he says there may be some warmer air arriving late this weekend or early next week. Schumacher says there is also a chance for some snow in parts of Iowa this week, likely Wednesday into Thursday. He says it should generally only bring between one to four inches across the state, but the big concern is the strong winds behind the system that could blow the fluffy snow and create hazardous driving conditions. It follows two large snowstorms last month, the snowiest December on record for Iowa. Some areas of the state still have more than 24-inches of snow on the ground.

Weather Service meteorologist Rick Chermok from the Valley, Nebraska, office predicts up to six inches of snow will fall with the system moving into the midwest from Canada. Light powdery snow is predicted again, but with the wind, near blizzard conditions could be seen.

His advice is for travelers to make their trek before Tuesday night because of blowing snow and dangerously cold wind chills. Chermok says the temperatures are flirting with breaking records. Normal highs are around 30 with normal lows around 10, so we’re looking at a good 25-30 degrees below normal.

The meteorologist says he feels that if we’re going to have cold weather, it may as well be record breaking…but feels it’s “starting to get old.” He says we can look forward to next week’s temperatures in the 20s and perhaps we’ll see a day or two in the 30s.

Heavy snows and record low temperatures caused by global warming, claim Chinese government officials

Extreme weather linked to climate change, say Chinese

The Age | Jan 5, 2010

by JOHN GARNAUT, BEIJING

FREAK snowstorms and record low temperatures sweeping northern China are linked to global warming, say Chinese officials.

But this week’s dump appears to have no link to the Chinese Government’s relentless efforts to manipulate the weather, which have prompted decades of experiments designed to modify the micro-climate.

Beijing’s first attempt at weather modification involved a fighter-bomber dumping 200 kilograms of dry ice or common kitchen salt – depending on the source – into the clouds to break a drought in 1958, following an edict from Mao Zedong.

Today, China has about 2000 weather modification offices, which bomb the skies with silver iodide to induce rain.

No officials have claimed credit for inducing or amplifying the snow dump, in contrast to November 1, when Beijing recorded its earliest winter snowfall in 22 years.

The Beijing Weather Modification Office later admitted that it had fired 186 rockets into the air to break the drought.

The office also claimed some credit for turning oppressive smog into a brilliant blue sky just in time for China’s National Day military parade on October 1.

And it blasted the sky with 1104 rockets to keep the rain at bay for 2008′s Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

The Southern Weekend newspaper reported that the program had previously been halted in 1980, after a decade in which 169 people were killed and 410 injured due to unspecified weather manipulation-related accidents.

Beijing winters are normally cold but arid, with only a a light dusting of snow. On Sunday, the city experienced up to 33 centimetres of snow, its biggest dump since 1951, immediately followed by the harshest Siberian winds in decades.

Yesterday more than 2 million Beijing and Tianjin students received the day off school because traffic had been thrown into chaos.

Tomorrow morning the mercury is forecast to plunge to minus 16 – a 40-year low – following a daytime maximum of minus 8.

The head of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, Guo Hu, linked this week’s blizzard-like conditions to unusual atmospheric patterns caused by global warming.

Russia’s far-eastern island of Sakhalin has also been paralysed by five days of blizzards and avalanches, cutting off links to the mainland and burying a train, along with three railway workers, under snow drifts three metres deep.

Blizzards hit the island off the eastern coast of Siberia on New Year’s Eve, when an avalanche forced a diesel locomotive and snowplough off their tracks, and continued on Friday, when three workers sent to repair the damage were swept up, according to the Russian state news service RIA Novosti.