Global storm activity of early 2010
Encyclopedia
The global storm activity of early 2010 includes major meteorological events in the Earth's atmosphere
from January 1 through to the last day of April, including winter storm
s (blizzard
s, ice storm
s, European windstorm
s), hail
storms, out of season monsoon
rain storms, extratropical cyclone
s, gale
s, microburst
s, flooding, rainstorms and other severe weather
.
The Thunderstorm Season for the Northern Hemisphere began this time of year, beginning on March 1st, and ending on August 31st.
, about 150 kilometres (93.2 mi) southwest of the city of Rio de Janeiro
. At least 35 people were killed at a resort on Ilha Grande
: about 40 people were staying in the hotel which was buried under a mudslide, and the death toll is expected to rise further. In Rio Grande do Sul
, at least seven people are dead and 20 missing after a bridge collapsed due to heavy rains. It is reported to be one of the worst mudslides in Reo De Janero's history.
Fresh overnight snowfall on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day caused disruption in north east England, with roads across Northumberland
, Tyne and Wear
, County Durham
and Teesside
affected. Snow also fell in parts of East Cumbria
. In places it was as deep as 10 centimetres (3.9 in) and motorists were warned not to travel unless their journey was absolutely necessary.
A major snow-related weather warning was put out in Alaska
on 30 December. The expected snowstorm was probably part of the same weather system that hit the Russian Far East
from December 30 to January 5.
Between January 1 and 2, 2010, 50- and 70-year record low temperatures and snowfall hit northern China and Korea
starting 1 January. Blizzards also hit Mongolia
's Dundgobi province.
A heavy storm surge
hit northeastern New Brunswick
on January 2, leading to over $750,000 in damage in the community of Port Elgin
.
Heavy record-breaking snow also fell in Moscow in early January 2010. and light snow briefly fell in Greece and Turkey.
On January 2, a weather front with a northerly wind brought heavy snow to the northwest of England. Wythenshawe
near Manchester Airport had 5 inches (12.7 cm) of snow. This affected road transport on 2 January, particularly in the Greater Manchester
area with conditions on the M60
, M602
and M66
reported to be poor, while Snake Pass
, which links Manchester
with Sheffield
was closed.
As a snowstorm entered Scotland, a number of roads across the country were closed including three junctions of the M9 while the motorway was shut in both directions at the Newbridge Roundabout
in Edinburgh
during the evening because of heavy snow, and did not open again until the following day. Problems were also reported on the A96 and the A939. Rail services between Inverness
and Central Scotland were also affected by poor weather.
Possibly more than 200 people died in northern India, mostly in Uttar Pradesh
after a cold snap and accidents in heavy fog
around 2 and 3 January.
Heavy rain fell in parts of southwestern Brazil.
on the 4th.
Heavy snow fell in northern China and grounded hundreds of flights on the 4th. It and forced Hong Kong
's Financial Secretary
John Tsang
and Monetary Authority Chief Executive Officer Norman Chan
to cancel a trip to Beijing
. Beijing was hit by a blizzard starting the evening of the 2nd, with 70–80% of flights cancelled out of Beijing Capital International Airport
on January 4. Close to 20 cm of snow fell in the north of the city, and close to 25 cm in Seoul. Schools across the area were closed, and Premier Wen
asked local governments to ensure safe transportation, continued food supplies, and continued agricultural production. Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing and the province of Inner Mongolia
. It was also predicted on January 7 for snow to reach the provinces of Jiangsu
, Anhui
, Henan
and Hubei
on January 9 according to China National Radio
. One person was killed in Xinjiang Autonomous Region as a result of the storm. Emergency services handed out extra cattle fodder
in Tibet.
Japan's Hokkaido
island was hit by heavier snowfall, causing heavy travel disruption and some airport closures.
By January 4 about 30 people, including 28 children and an elderly man, died from cold-related causes in the last 11 days across Bangladesh
as snow and a cold wave
swept over the north and centre of the nation. Freezing fog also occurred on the 4th in Punjab
, India. Some parts of Bangladesh were the hardest hit with temperatures plummeting as low as 6°C according to meteorologist Sanaul Haque, who predicted the cold wave may continue for another day.
The New Brunswick
villages of Upper Cape and Port Elgin
were devastated as a massive hurricane-strength blizzard
hit Nova Scotia
, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
on January 4, causing massive blackout
s in its wake.
Light snow briefly fell in Lebanon
, Jordan
, Israel
and Palestine
and further snow was reported in Niigata
, Japan.
By January 4 about 30 people, including 28 children and an elderly man, died from cold-related causes in the last 11 days across Bangladesh
as snow and a cold wave
swept over the north and centre of the nation. Freezing fog also occurred on the 4th in Punjab
, India. Some parts of Bangladesh were the hardest hit with temperatures plummeting as low as 6°C according to meteorologist Sanaul Haque, who predicted the cold wave may continue for another day.
Heavy rain and serever cold his southern Bangladesh
and Italy
.
On the 4th, the UN issued a Green Alert in Albania
as northern rivers swell with melt water
In its monthly summary, Met Éireann
, Ireland
's weather service, said December was the coldest month for 28 years for most of the country and the coldest of any month since February 1986 at a few stations.
In Scotland, Fife
Council became the first local authority to confirm that its supply of grit was exhausted on the 4th of January, after it received less than it had ordered from suppliers. Government Ministers denied there was a shortage of grit and salt and insisted there were "very substantial" supplies for Scotland
's roads.
Italy suffered from both heavy rain in the south and heavy snow in the north.
January 4 saw four villages in Sakhalin lose power as a result of a storm. The 2,000 strong town of Tamari was worst hit. Blizzard struck Sakhalin
island, a narrow island in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk
, off the coast of Siberia
and just 25 miles north of Japan's snowy Hokkaido island.
On the 4th, many motorways in Shandong
were closed and 19 flights cancelled in the Yantai International Airport. Eventually the No. 1820 train, carrying more than 800 passengers, started off at after being stranded for 12 hours.
January 4 saw Seoul
's heaviest snowfall since 1937 according to the Korea Meteorological Administration
(KMA). The blizzard dumped 25.8 centimetres (10.2 in) of snow on the town.
Avalanches and heavy snow hit the Russian's Sakhalin Island, which was smothered by a snow cyclone and blizzard, the Island's emergency officials said.
Civil authorities were put on a major alert in the snow-torn province of Shandong
on January 4 as more snow fell in both Shandong and Beijing
. Travel wasaffected as the snowstorm paralyzed Beijing on January 4, 2010.
January 5 in northeastern China saw a smooth flow of traffic, with no gridlock
or serious traffic accidents being reported after the snowstorm that caused traffic chaos on the 4th, according to the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. The city's bus and subway train services were up and running according as plan. During the peak hours on Monday morning, the Beijing Subway Operating Company dispatched 20 additional trains to ease the heavy passenger flow. The bus of all routes started off on time that morning, according to the Beijing Public Transport Holdings. Inner Mongolia
was still in a critical situation as teams batteled to clear severe rural snow drifts.
4–8 inches (10–20 centimeters) of snow fell in Beijing on the 5th, in the largest snowfall since 1951.
The 2,000 weather modification offices in China, which are responsible for bombing the skies with silver iodide
to induce rain or snow were put in to use. Schools in Beijing
and Tianjin
closed and because the cities' traffic was in chaos. The capital received the harshest Siberian winds in decades. Temperatures for the 5th were forecast to plunge to −16°C, a 40-year record low, after a daytime maximum of −8°C. The head of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, Guo Hu, linked the blizzard-like conditions of the first week of January to unusual atmospheric patterns caused by global warming
.
Heavy snow started to fall in Seoul
, South Korea
and it was reported that a leading North Korean Communist party
official had frozen to death, in his home, situated in the country's Sepo
kun
(or county).
During the traffic peak hours of Monday morning, the Beijing Subway Operating Company dispatched 20 additional subway trains to ease the heavy passenger flow. City workers were deployed to clean the snow in the city's main roads with about 15,710 tonnes of snow-dissolving agent, Beijing Environmental Sanitation Group Co., Ltd. official Zhang Zhiqiang
said. On the 4th, many motorways in Shandong were closed and 19 flights were cancelled at Yantai International Airport.
In Inner Mongolia
, 13 trains were delayed that Monday in Hohhot
, the regional capital, according to the Hohhot railway authorities.
The Met Office
issued weather warnings for every region in the UK except the Northern Isles
. An extreme weather warning was issued for southern areas for overnight snowfall which could bring accumulations from 25 to 40 cm (9.8 to 15.7 in). BBC Weather and the Met Office also warned that temperatures in the Highlands of Scotland could drop to -20 C later in the week. The Met Office also confirmed that the UK is experiencing the longest prolonged cold spell since December 1981. The Harrogate district endured over six inches and had been a regular feature on BBC News
broadcasts.
A local record of 48 centimetres (18.9 in) of snow was lying in Aviemore
and 3 to 4 ft (0.9144 to 1.2 ) of snow was recorded within the Cairngorms National Park
. Most parts of Scotland had further snowfalls during the night of 4/5 January.
Due to shortage of road grit conventionally made from rock salt, road grit was being made by or for road-gritters from cooking-type salt mixed with builders' sand; and the public bought up large amounts of cooking salt and table salt from food shops to put on their paths and drives. The Government was reported to have reallocated reserve supplies of road salt and grit from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and sent it to Cumbria
and Fife due to the higher priority of even lower salt and grit reserves, along with the greater snow clearance work, according to Radio Oxford.
A heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon
weather also hit parts of Australia in early 2010. Victoria, the scene of horrific bushfires the year before, had a far colder summer, with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009. August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina
, and flooding and hailstorms
hit southeastern Australia and Queensland
in March 2010. The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China, however, contributed to a severe drought
in the southwest. Bolivia
, Venezuela
, Mali
, Mauritania
, Morocco
and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010. On between May 12 and 26, both Mauritania
, the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal
and Mali
faced both a drought and famine in 2010.
airport are disrupted by further snowfall and record low temperatures for the Helsinki region.
On January 6, the London Borough of Harrow
closed 58 schools and 73 flights were cancelled at Heathrow as 3 cm of snow fell at Heathrow Airport.
Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing
and the province of Inner Mongolia
. Electricity rationing started on January 7. Snow had started falling in Gangsu province by January 7. It also was projected on January 7 to have reached the provinces of Jiangsu
, Anhui
, Henan
and Hubei
on January 9 according to China National Radio
.
The Chinese government said that China faced its worst ice risk in 30 years. By the night of January 8–9, the major snowstorms predicted on January 7 for the provinces of Jiangsu
and Anhui
, had arrived and the emergency services were put on alert.
Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing
and the province of Inner Mongolia
. Snow reached the provinces of Jiangsu
, Anhui
, Henan
and Hubei
on January 9. One person was killed in Xinjiang Autonomous Region as a result of the storm.
The synoptic
situation in northern Europe settled to a steady northeast wind which brought snow showers and belts of snow.
The British Army
had to help stranded motorists in southern areas.
The Met Office confirmed that 40 centimetres (15.7 in) of snow fell in some parts of southern England.
A "severe" warning issued by the Met Office
was in place for every region in the UK. Scottish First Minister
Alex Salmond
said Scotland
was experiencing its worst winter since 1963.
Further deaths in Wales, Shetland and Aberdeenshire were recorded. Roads in the southeast were left with long traffic jams and abandoned cars. 8,000 schools were closed.
In Eastern Parts, there were accumulations of 40 cm to 50 cm in places. In Kent, six inches of snow fell in four hours in the early evening.
By 7 January 2010, 22 people had died in the UK because of the freezing conditions.
Heavy snow blocked many roads in the Irish Republic
. Dublin Airport
closed on Wednesday 6 January and again on Friday 9 January. Cork Airport closed on Sunday 10 January at 6:30 pm and didn not re-open until 12:30 pm on Monday 11 January. Dublin Bus
canceled all services for a time. Knock Airport was also closed. A new Irish record low temperature of -9 C was also recorded in Dublin, Ireland. Temperatures in County Limerick
dropped to -11.1 C. Varying amounts of snow fell across Ireland on the 7th and 8th and road salt reserves began to run low.
The snow fell heavily in some places of Spain including Prades (Tarragona
, southern Catalonia
) which received 120 cm of snow after a storm lasting over 30 hours. The BBC News
reported heavy snowfall as far south as Granada
, in Spain.
25 Nepalese people, mostly children, died as a blizzard swept over most of Nepal
on January 7. Snowstorms probably also occurred in mountainous Bhutan
and Sikkim
, but no reports were forthcoming.
Heavy snow also fell in Chicago
on the 7th
In Norway, temperatures hit −42°C on the 7th in the central village of Folldal
a as snow fell across Scandinavia
and -42.4 C at Tynset
. on the 8th as Kuusamo
in Finland, the lowest registered temperature was -37.1 C. Heavy blizzards and snow storms raged across Germany, Scandinavia
and the northwestern parts of European Russia
.
In Poland, more snow hit the Lower Silesian Voivodeship
and nine people died across the country in a 48-hour period, bringing the total weather-related deaths to 139 since the start of November, a police spokesman said. Most of the victims were vagrants, whose tragic lifestyle left them prone to the cold.
Switzerland's 24.5 kilometres (15.2 mi) Gotthard Road Tunnel
reopened to trucks on the 8th, following heavy snowfalls over the previous 2 days.
A heavy and snowy cyclone
hit the Aleutian Islands on January 7 and 8. Snow accompanied a cold wave moving south through North America on January 8, and Mexico City
received snowfall accumulations. In the mountainous regions, temperatures dropped to −10°C, killing nine people. The snow continued to fall on the 10th. Bitter weather may have wiped out some Alaska
n reindeer
as temperatures and snow depths exceeded those of the extraordinarily harsh winter of 1963 to 1964.
January 7 saw the snow and ice continuing to affect the snow-tormented counties of Oxfordshire
, Warwickshire
, Buckinghamshire
, Gloucestershire
and Northamptonshire
. Because of the dangerous conditions concerning the build-up of snow and black ice
, Banbury Museum
, the Cherwell District Council customer service centre and Cherwell District Council tourist information centre were closed. Many Oxfordshire locations had between 1 and 2 ft of unmelted snow by then. Cherwell District Council workers began using a mixture of table salt and sand
instead of their diminishing road grit and rock salt supplies.
Record overnight temperature lows of -22.3 C were recorded in Altnaharra
, Caithness
shire, in the Scottish Highlands
on the 7th. as another area of low pressure over the North Sea
started bringing further fronts of snow over the east of Great Britain on 7 January, accompanied with cold, easterly winds. The snow continued in to the 9th and the UK almost ran out of road salt, rock salt, table salt and road grit supplies due to the heavy demand from various agencies and local government bodies.
By 7 January 2010 twenty-two people had officially died in the UK because of the freezing conditions. The Department of Health
wildly over-estimated that the cold weather could cause up to 40,000 excess deaths in the UK if it continued much longer. 122 people had already died in Poland, most of them reportedly homeless and 11 had died in Romania
. Deaths in Bosnia and Austria luckily stood at only 4, with Kosovo only losing 1 life so far.
The heavy snowfall across the British Isles between January 6 to 9, resulted in large-scale traffic disruption, closed airports, many canceled trains and hundreds of school closures. A polar low
developing in the English Channel
brought fronts of snow over southern England before moving south and dissipating. Two middle-aged men died after falling into a frozen lake in Leicester
, in the English Midlands. 27 major companies in Britain were ordered to halt using gas on the 9th in order to maintain supplies amid unprecedented levels of demand and major companies had their gas turned off on the 8th, in the first such move since 2003, although there was no immediate danger for households of supplies running out. The Automobile Association
, a motor vehicle breakdown service, said they had dealt with about 340,000 breakdowns since December 17, including a local government
snow plough that had overturned after it had hit black ice near Huddersfield
. A representative from Oxfordshire
also confessed to the local media that they had a snowplough breakdown earlier in the day. Several thousand schools remained closed and several of the weekend's Premier League football matches were cancelled.
Overnight temperatures of -22.3 C were recorded in Altnaharra
in the Scottish Highlands
. Heavy snow fell in the North of England throughout the day giving significant accumulations. A high of –7.7°C was recorded at Tulloch Bridge.
Heavy snow fell in Denmark on the 8th. By the evening of January 8, the Rügen
Islands off the northeast coast of Germany was covered, on average, in 30 centimetres of snow while the capital Berlin was carpeted with snow and ice. Autoclub Europa warned that chaotic traffic conditions could potentially leave large parts of Germany completely paralysed as the country prepared for further freezing conditions as forecasters warned that temperatures would drop below −20 degrees Celsius (−4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. German officials had also acknowledged a shortage of grit and fear that high winds and drifting snow had closed may German autoroutes and roads, along with parts of Frankfurt airport
. As shortages in road salt and grit were already being feared, while the authorities recommended that people consider stocking up with a few days' worth of food and water. The A5 autoroute leading from Baden-Württemberg
into France was closed on Friday afternoon, leading to a queue of hundreds of lorries building up. The road was opened again on Saturday morning, enabling careful drivers to proceed with their journeys. Snow was also proving to be a major problem in Saxony
and the Rhineland
. The country's nature protection group N.A.B.U.
has recommended that people put out food for birds since the cold and snowy weather had ruined their usual feeding patterns.
Meanwhile, some light snow also fell in Kosovo, Udmurtia
and Ryazan Oblast
, but heavier snow fell in many parts of Ukraine. Temperatures fell as low as −30°C and −29°C in parts of Ukraine and similar temperatures occurred in neighbouring parts of Russia. Heavy show would hit Moscow on the 9th.
A husky
dog race took place in Thetford
on the 8th.
On Saturday, the 9th of January, Banbury
officer PC Paul Froggatt urged people not to try walking on the frozen Oxford Canal
by the Castle Quay Shopping Centre in Banbury or in Oxford
city. Thames Valley Police
had also logged cases of people falling through the ice in Milton Keynes
, Bracknell
and Aylesbury
. One man even tried to drive his car down a part of the frozen canal in Oxford
and nearly died after it fell through the ice, while another man died on Teesside
as he tried to rescue some puppies that were stranded on melting ice on the River Tees
. Oxford City Council also warned of the dangers of playing on the frozen canal
and/or frozen lakes.
A new wave of heavy snow was first reported in central and northern of France on the 9th, with the both the Cotentin Peninsula
and Paris being the worst-affected parts of France. The French government said all non-essential travel should be avoided in these localities. Significant snowfalls caused major delays to train services, blocked roads and some 15,000 people in areas around city of Arles
experienced power cuts power lines collapsed under the weight 30 centimetres of snow. Airlines cancelled a quarter of flights on Paris's main Charles de Gaulle airport. Road salt and grit supplies were running low in some districts due to their unexpectedly heavy use.
in nearly 50 years, as 2, 500 homes being evacuated. An artificial lake in the Kosinj valley overflowed after it rose by 8 centimetres in 1 hour. The worst hit areas in Albania were the Shkodra district and to a lesser degree Tirana
.
On 10 January, Croatia declared a national flood emergency as the Neretva river valley is flooded. The town of Metkovic
was also flooded as the river reached a near record high level. Northern Croatia
also got flooded in related storm system. Heavy hailstorms also hit the Dubrovnik
that day.
Snow hit the Czech Republic
on 10 January.
During the early hours of 10 January, light snow showers spread across parts of Central England and Wales
. The maximum temperature was -13.5 °C in Altnaharra
and low of -18.4 °C was recorded at Kinbrace. On the 11th rain, sleet and snow travelled northwards throughout the early hours. Allenheads
in England had fears over a potential 15 ft (4.6 m) snowdrift
. A low of -21.0 °C was recorded in Altnaharra in Highland Region.
More than 300 flights were cancelled in the 10th and 11th at Germany's Frankfurt Airport
. All three runways were cleared and being used by the 12th despite of light snow falls that day.
The snowstorms and blizzards of the 11th brought widespread travel chaos to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. Airport
s, Motorways and railways were closed en masse due to heavy snow and ice. Lithuania
, Latvia
, Estonia
, Finland, Liechtenstein
, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia
also reported some snowfall.
The Banbury Guardian
and Oxford Mail
released videos and photos of Oxford and Banbury on the 11th as part of a name and shame
campaign against the idiotic people walking on the frozen canal.
January 10 saw heavy snow fall in Chicago.
On January 10, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
cancelled a trip to Washington to monitor L.A.'s response to the Southern California
rainstorms. Villaraigosa had been scheduled to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter meeting at the nation's capital on Wednesday and was going speak about the success of the city's summer jobs program for at-risk youth.
Freezing rain
storms battered parts of Sichuan
, Yunnan
and Hubei
, killing dozens of people.
On 10 January, 1 person died and 5,435 were evacuated after a snowstorm in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs
. A total of 261,800 people in 12 counties or cities were affected by the blizzards.
On 11 January, intense snowstorms hit a still beleaguered Europe. Many cars and a lorry were stuck in drifting snow near the northern German town of Soehlen. The German transport ministry warned people to travel on essential journey only. Polish authorities reported that there were about 140 hypothermia
deaths in Poland, that nearly 50,000 Polish residents without electricity, that the PKP trains
were delayed by as much as 9 hours and that most of Poland's homeless shelters were overflowing. Some shops were running out of drinking chocolate. A similar situation was also occurring in the shops and homeless shelters of the Czech Republic. Snow also fell in Belarus
.
Coal supplies ran low at power plants as the death toll rose to two in the strong snowstorm in the Altai
and temperatures fell to -40°C on 12 January.
Coast, where two men were killed in a car they were driving when it hit a tree in Nordvorpommern
after skidding in the treacherous conditions. Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein
were also badly hit by snowy and freezing conditions.
Both the National Beef Association and National Farmers' Union Scotland asked for the Scottish Government to help rebuild steadings, which in some cases are not covered by insurance. Heavy snowfall continued for a second day in Aberdeenshire
, Aberdeen
and Rutland
.
A further 5 to 10 cm of snow fell across the UK during the midday of January 12, including Stafford
in Staffordshire
. Many schools were once again closed across England and Wales. There were many road accidents and closures; the M25 motorway
was down to one lane between Leatherhead
and Reigate
whilst roads stretching right across southern Great Britain were untreated causing havoc for commuters. Gatwick and Birmingham
airports were closed and many flights were delayed at Heathrow.
During 13 January the weather system continued north affecting much of Northern England
before reaching Scotland
.
Eight of Oxfordshire
's 33,000-volt
electricity substations
, which were situated in Kennington
, Kidlington
, Wheatley
, Wantage
, Deddington
, Eynsham
, Berinsfield
and Cholsey
, near Wallingford failed apparently due to an electrical overload, causing several local blackouts; later saboteurs were officially blamed in the damage, and not an overload or mechanical failure as initially thought, according to Oxford Mail
. The only way into the Wye Valley
on the 13th, was by snow plough, tractor
or quad bike
. Teachers and parents helped dig out Princes Risborough School
as about 6 inches of snow falls across Buckinghamshire
and Oxfordshire, according to Bicester Advertiser
and Bucks Herald
newspaper. Peter Cornal of Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
and Principal Jonathan Johnson of Aylesbury Vale Academy both warned people not to skate on Watermead Lake in Buckinghamshire.
On 14 January, southerly to south-easterly winds brought bands of snow to northern parts of Britain. An inch of snow fell in Glasgow
with further accumulations in areas outside the other towns and cities. Travel was disrupted somewhat.
About 440 Welsh schools were either fully or partially closed on Thursday the 14th.
The English snowfall began to ease on the 14th and the British government ordered an inquiry into the road salt and grit shortage scandal crisis, travel disruption and the poor handling of the disaster by various British companies and agencies.
As the thaw took hold in the UK and France, rain began to fall across the UK. An 11-year-old girl named Naeemah Achha slid up on a patch of ice outside St. Michael from St. John Primary School in Blackburn, Lancashire
on the 14th and died later in Royal Manchester Children's Hospital
the next day. Head teacher
Kay Cant described her as an intelligent, vivacious, kind and popular girl. Blackburn with Darwen Council's leader Michael Lee described her death as a very shocking incident.
It was revealed on the 14th that all of the British county councils, London boroughs and unitary authorities were advised by the government to have six days' supplies of road salt in 2009. Up to 30 councils rejected last year's offer of thousands of tonnes of de-icing salt at a reduced price, to use on the roads this winter according to the BBC
. The British Salt
Director David Stephen made an offer out of the firm's 60,000 tonnes stockpile at Middlewich
, Cheshire
, in April 2009, but virtually no one to take up the offer. Evidence suggests that only a few took up the government's advice. The Highways Agency
had 13 days worth of road salt, while Glasgow
, Kirklees
, Derbyshire
, Derby
City, Buckinghamshire
, Cherwell District and the London Borough of Harrow
took up the offer and raised their stock piles to seven days worth. The Cherwell Borough
, Bicester Parish, Oxfordshire
, Slough
borough, Harrow, Leicestershire
, Buckinghamshire
, Fife
, Brighton and Hove unitary authority, Liverpool
city, Pembrokeshire
, Lancashire
, Belfast
city and Perth and Kinross
councils nearly to run out of salt
. Scotland, Cumbria, Northumbria and Northern Ierland were getting priority access to salt due to the severity of the local landscape and storm activity.
There were also road closures in Ceredigion
including the A4120 at Ponterwyd
, and the A4086 at Nant Peris in Gwynedd
had been shut down due to hazardous driving conditions. All of Caerphilly
's 90 schools and Rhondda Cynon Taf's (RTC) 130 schools either were fully or partially shut except to pupils sitting there. To Wales' Education Minister
Leighton Andrews
, Welsh First Minister
Carwyn Jones
and the WJEC exam board helped organise the Welsh GCSEs and A-level exam locations. A Merthyr Tydfil
exam was held in a local sports centre's hockey
arena according to the BBC.
Temperatures of +43.6C were reported in parts of Australia as a heat wave hit most of the country. Heavy rain also fell in parts of Indonesia
and Queensland
, Australia.
and Japan on the 15th. Light snow was reported in Latvia
on the 14th and 15th.
On the 15th, Greater Manchester Police
said seven people had been injured when 10 cars crashed on the A627(M) in Oldham.
Met Office
severe weather warnings covered Wales and western parts of England and Scotland and snow was forecast for the Pennines
and Scottish and Welsh hills. The Environment Agency
has warned about flooding in some areas of England and Wales. BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas warned of localised flooding in western parts of the UK caused by melting snow, rain and gale-force winds.
Later on, the Environment Agency warned that heavy rain and snow melting in slightly warmer temperatures meant that there was a risk of some localised flooding from drains, especially in Wales and parts of England, but homes were unlikely to be affected as 15 flood watches were put in place. They warned that flood warnings for possible isolated river flooding in these areas, as heavy rain moves in from the south west on Friday evening. The Met Office
and said heavy rain would move in from the west accompanied by strong to gale force winds on Saturday. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency
had five flood watch
es under way. Thames Valley Police
warned motorists about surface flooding and aquaplaning on Oxfordshire
's roads.
The 15th brought rain and thawing to much of southwest England and a pocket around Greater Manchester
. In the city of Manchester
rain on frozen ground had overnight caused glazed frost which had largely (but not completely) gone by morning, and at midday the clouds were running fast from the south; the January snowfall was melting fast, but the pre-Christmas snowfall, which was trodden had half thawed to slush and then frozen hard to solid ice overnight, was slower to melt. In Scotland the thaw melted fresh snow. Flood warnings were issued.
Snow fell in parts of southern Scotland
and Yorkshire
on the 16th. The Cairngorm Ski Centre was closed as an army of diggers was trying to clear its car park after further snowfalls. The river Derwent
was put under a flood watch
in places on the 16th.
On January 17, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was given more than 850 tons of grain, edible oil and other daily supplies, 4,950 tons of coal and 900 tons of emergency cattle fodder.
On January 17, both melting snow, heavy rain and frozen ground have caused flooding in much of England, Scotland and Wales. The Environment Agency issued a total of 23 flood warnings were issued in England, one in force for Scotland and two in Wales. In Scotland a landslide led to the temporally closure of the A76 in Dumfries and Galloway
, while a section of the M74 was shut temporally shut due to flooding.
Many properties in Maesteg
, Bridgend
, Ebbw Vale
and Monmouth
were also flooded. Mid and West Wales Fire service sent extra appliances to the Carmarthen Bay
holiday village
at Kidwelly
, where the flooding was described as 'major to severe'. The River Wye
, River Dee
(Welsh: Afon Dyfrdwy) in the lower Dee Valley, River Cherwell
(at Banbury
) and River Severn
were all in full flood.
Severn Trent Water, which provides water to central England and parts of Wales
, said it had drafted in extra staff as ruptured and frozen pipes began to thaw. Many pipes had ruptured in the Welsh Marches
and a sewerage pipe had become blocked in outer Birmingham
. The company's senior operations manager, Fraser Pithie, said the firm had been called out to more than 470 burst and ruptured pipes since the 10th and their call centre staff had taken more than 10,000 calls.
and even as far as parts of both Pennsylvania
and New Jersey
. 200 homes were evacuated as floods hit parts of California as up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in the first of the storms. Rescue and flood prevention services soon got everything under control, but one man was killed when a tree fell onto his house. Two horses also died after being hit by lighting in a Santa Barbara
field. Rare tornado warnings were enforced in parts of Southern California, including southern Los Angeles, Long Beach
, Southeastern San Diego County, and Anaheim. Flash flood
watches covered Los Angeles, Santa Barbara
, and the Ventura counties. An EF-0 tornado was even reported in Southeastern San Diego County, that lasted for 1 minute, 30 seconds! Jim Rouiller, the senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics Inc., said in that the storms (more specifically, the 4th storm, which was the strongest one) were the worst series of storms since 1997 (the one that caused the 1997 Northern California New Year's Day Flood. The 4th storm also neared the record of the lowest pressure system ever experienced in San Diego (as the 4th storm registered a minimum pressure of 978 millibars). He expected that evening's storm to bring from 4 to 12 inches of rain, severe mudslides, a few tornado
es and heavy mountain snow ranging from 6 to 15 feet across the Sierra range. A heavy rain storm also hit Santee, California
on January 19
Heavy rain fell in Oxfordshire
and King's Sutton
, causing some flooding. The River Cherwell
nearly flooded Banbury
and in parts of Oxford
. Light snow fell in the Pennines
the 19th.
, as snow covered Mount Hermon
in Israel
.
Both Wakehurst Place, near Ardingly
, West Sussex
and Bedgebury Pinetum
, near Lamberhurst
in Kent
, have also been damaged. Iain Parkinson, Wakehurst's woodland and conservation manager who has worked on the estate for 23 years, said it was the worst storm he had ever seen in the park.
California
State water officials warned on January 21 that one week of heavy rain and snow was not enough to end the drought
, which is entering its fourth year by 2010. According to measurements on the Thursday, the average water content of state's mountain ranges' snowpack
s, considered the state's biggest de facto 'reservoir', was at 107% percent of normal capacity. As the fourth and potentially most powerful of the week's storms slammed in to California, officials predicted as much as four feet (1.2 metres) of snow would fall in Northern California
.
A new snow storm came over the Peter the Great Gulf
, near Vladivostok
on January 21. The Onland Mountains and Sikhote-Alin Mountains were buried in snow as the weather system swept through Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais, Russia. Lake Khanka froze over and was then covered in snow. The ice on the lake was reported to be several inches thick and the snow was spreading into China's Heilongjiang
province.
21 January witnessed the final day of some Banbury
schools remaining shut after 2 weeks general closure, in which most remained shut throughout the fortnight. The video of people skating
and walking on the Oxford Canal
was shown on regional TV again, along with a nationwide online version. Heavy rain fell in Oxfordshire
, Warwickshire
and Leicestershire
as light snow fell in the Pennines on the 22nd.
The snowstorm that began on Friday night, the 22nd was also hitting parts of Bulgaria
, where a man suffering from a heart attack died in the country's northeastern region of Silistra
, when the ambulance
he was being carried on was road that was blocked by several snow drifts. Power, gas and water cuts occurred in Istanbul
. In Turkey's western region, near the Greek
and Bulgaria
n borders, villages were cut off and all the major roads were blocked by heavy snow. A bus overturned in Istanbul, injuring 10 people; Bulgarian authorities urged people to avoid travel due to heavy snowfall. Dozens of stranded cars and trucks were abandoned due to heavy snow in eastern Bulgaria and a train was trapped near the border with Romania
. Some snow was also reported in neighboring parts of Romania.
Freshly fallen snow blanketed the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains
on the morning after the fourth storm of the week dissipated on January 23, 2010 northwest of Wrightwood, California
. Snow was reported in many parts of California. Severe rain fell in parts of Los Angeles on the 24th. 500 people were evacuated from a small village in La Paz County, Arizona
due to a flash flood
.
A total of four people died on the 24th and 25th as snowstorms hit Turkey. The frozen body of 78-year-old Mehmet Aksit was found outside the small town of Akkisla
in central Kayseri
province after relatives reported him missing. On the 24th, Nuri Turhan, an 81-year-old Korean War
veteran's corpse was found in a mountainous region of Turkey's Aydin
province, where he had gotten lost walking the day before and a 75-year-old man died of hypothermia
in the northwestern Turkish province of Tekirdag
.
The 4th person was found dead in a fierce snowstorm that caused power outages in Turkey and traffic chaos in neighbouring Bulgaria on the 25th.
Turkish climatologists working for Istanbul's Natural Disaster Coordination Committee told Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News that snowfall was predicted to continue until Monday evening and reach about 35 centimetres (14 inches) in parts of Istanbul.
It was revealed that at least 22 people had died due to low temperatures in Romania
in the last five days by January 25.
In late 2009 and early 2010 a series of massive snow and ice storms that swept the Dakotas caused a number of Indian Reservation
s to lose power, heat, and running water for an extended period of time. The storms were most severe in both Ziebach and Dewey
counties, South Dakota
. The heavy snow, ice storms and low temperatures of January 26 led to Interstate 90
being closed from Chamberlain
to the Minnesota
border. At nightfall on Monday the 25th, Interstate 29
was closed from Sioux Falls to the North Dakota
border.
Power company officials estimated that about 7,600 customers in South Dakota
and 100 in North Dakota
did not have power on Monday. Some phone systems have also experienced brief telecommunications outages. Kristi Truman, director of the North Dakota Office of Emergency Management was concerned about failing water and power supplies.
Power outages began with a storm in December knocking down around 5,000 power poles, and has been accelerated by an ice storm on January 22 knocking down another 3,000 power lines on the reservation. Among the tribes of South Dakota said to be suffering from the multiple storms are the Cheyenne River Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Flandreau-Santee Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
"There's been winters this bad before, but not with rain so bad it freezes the power lines and snaps the poles", said Joseph Brings Plenty, the 38-year-old chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. The worst day was on the 28th, when a Native American
froze to death in his home after running out of fuel.
The reservations were further buffeted by the First North American blizzard of 2010
, which further depleted foodstocks and exacerbated the power problems.
25 Nepalese people, mostly children, died as a blizzard swept over most of Nepal
on January 7. Snowstorms probably also occurred in mountainous Bhutan
and Sikkim
, but no reports were forthcoming.
's and Prypiat River's floodplains. Climatologists from the Ukrainian Hydro-meteorological Centre warned that the 2010 spring flood could be most severe in the past 10 years and that snow packs in some regions are more than usual. They also told the Ukrainian news agency UKRINFORM
that February would bring more snow. Weather forecasters said that the abnormal winter in Ukraine has seen severe snowfalls being replaced with long-lasting frosts and temperatures as low as −30°C and the predicted flooding was an inevitability, both along the Prypiat River in the Volyn Oblast
and in Ternopil Oblast
and the River Dnieper in Kiev
as the snow layer is twice as high than in recent years.
A stiff frost
, temperatures of −2°C to −3°C and a light mist occurred in Oxfordshire
and western Northamptonshire
, during the night as a cold front
crossed the UK. Several cars crashed due to skidding on black ice
.
On January 28, blizzards and severe sub-zero temperatures that have killed more than a million livestock in Mongolia
would force thousands of herders to migrate to shantytowns near the capital city of Ulan Bator. Extreme winter weather that began in December and followed a hard summer drought that prevented farmers from stockpiling food for their livestock. Dangerously heavy snow and temperatures as low as -40°C have affected 19 of Mongolia's 21 provinces, with more than 14,000 Mongolian and Chinese
Red Cross volunteers across the region scrambling to deliver emergency food aid to impoverished herders who have lost nearly all their cattle.
The extreme weather had killed more than one million livestock, the herders' main source of income, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on the 29th. The bad weather has also reduced food security, intensified poverty and increased domestic rural-urban migration for many families. Central Dundgobi Province is one of those in the grip of a 'dzud' event (that is to say a 'major natural disaster'). A local herder named Javzmaa Batbold, a herder in Adaatsag County, Dundgobi province said that 120 of his 500 cattle had died so far. His ger
(a traditional Mongolian felt and wood dwelling) was completely covered in snow, and only when the door's side cleared off did it reveal a dwelling lay underneath. The weather became rather extreme as 80 percent of Mongolia's territory was covered by snow, with depths of 20 to 90 centimetres.
The State Emergency Commission issued an appeal to Mongolia's people to launch a campaign to offer aid to herders and called for the international community
to donate food, medicines and equipment as well as funds to help herders. Most cattle in Adaatsag county of Dundgovi Province (Central Gobi), Mongolia died of hypothermia
on the 30th. Fuel supplies were also running low.
Snowstorms hit the east coast of America and the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the 30th and 31st.
Heavy snow fell in the German Rhineland
on the 30th and 31st. Travel chaos was widespread as the snow spread into Hungary and the rest of Germany.
Heavy snow storms also hit Luxembourg
on January 31.
The 30th saw heavy snow storms hit the east coast of America.
A nor'easter
dumped tons of snow over much of central and eastern parts of the United States. The nor'easter unleashed heavy snow over the Central United States, and left some places with over 15 inches or (39 cm) of snow. It then moved eastward and made a sly
turn up the coast of America, and left some places with over 12 inches of snow on Saturday, January 30, 2010. Rain and floods also hit Southern California
. 6 inches of rain and temperatures of 15°C were recorded at Long Beach
and L.A.
on the 31st.
aid arrived in Mongolia and included 10 million Yuan
's (1.46 million U.S. dollars') worth of food, portable power generators and quilt
s. Mr. Enkhbold Miyegombo, Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia
and head of the State Emergency Commission, said the aid given showed an embodiment of brotherhood between China and Mongolia, and Chinese Ambassador Yu Hongyao said he was confident that Mongolians would overcome the disaster in time. It was said to be the worst snow storms in both Mongolia
and Inner Mongolia
in at least 30 years. The Red Cross Society of China
has also announced a donation of 30,000 dollars for Mongolia, and Kazakhstan
sent several hundred tonnes of food aid to the country. Mongolia formally requested aid from the United Nations
on the 2nd, after the extreme cold is calculated to have killed about 3% of the nation's 44,000,000 head of cattle thus far.
On February 1, utility crews were working overtime to get power back to the 14,000 residents of Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. The wind chill
factor averaged about -25º and there was about 1 foot of snow on the ground on average.
A powerful Alberta clipper
-type storm came from the north and headed towards an area of moist air left over from the previous day's thunderstorm over the Midwest on the 1st of February and was merging over central North America. It was estimated that it could potentially drop up to 6 inches on the Canadian Prairies
and North Dakota
initially and eventually add 2 more inches as it hung around over night.
February 1 saw the earlier California
n storm track its way through northern Mexico and New Mexico
. It would shortly hit the east coast and cause chaos in the Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland areas by the February 6.
A cyclone and heavy rain-induced floods hit the Canary islands
on February 1 and 2. An unusual event dropped 82 mm of rain and flooded out 27,000 homes over a 24-hour period. Some mobile phones become inoperable due to storm-related interference and power supplies were cut overnight in some places. The average February rainfall is only 36 millimetres.
February 4 saw the worst winter in Beijing
in 50 years, worst in Seoul
in 70 years.
The snow and frost activity was proving to be exceptionally bad that winter across northern India. Official reports suggest that the states of Punjab, Bihar
, Haryana
and Uttar Pradesh
have borne the brunt of the freezing temperatures in India.
Officials at Canada's Vancouver Games were also worried about the lack of snow and frost.
The east coast had records various record low temperatures in southern states such as Georgia
Alabama
and Florida
in the USA.
The eastern seaboard
, had like the western seaboard also suffered one of the worst winters on record. An already snow bound Washington, D.C. was expected to receive up to another 20 inches of snow that weekend . Snow was also threatening the American football
championship event known as the Super Bowl
.
11 were killed by avalanches in Farah
, Bamyan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces between the 4th and the 8th a spokesman of the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority said. The Afghan flash flood
s and avalanches left 20 others dead in the rest of the country on February 8. The provincial authorities had summoned an emergency meeting and loya Jurga to discuss responses on 8 February. Both Shah Wali Kot and Shorandam districts were the worst affected. Afghanistan generally expects about 400,000 people every year, according to experts at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
A series of avalanches caused by a storm in eastern Afghanistan
killed 172 people on February 8 and 9.
by February 5.
The second big snowstorm of the winter hammered the Washington, D.C. area on February 5. The El Niño phenomenon was blamed for the unusually high sea surface temperature
s in the Pacific Ocean that moved east, thus pulling rainfall along with it. Normally, El Niño brings increased rainfall across the east-central and eastern Pacific, leading to drier than normal conditions over northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The storm created historic snowfall totals in the Middle Atlantic states, rivaling the Knickerbocker Storm
of 1922, as well as extensive flooding and landslides in Mexico. The blizzard stretched from Mexico and New Mexico to New Jersey
, killing forty-one people in Mexico, New Mexico
, Maryland
, Virginia
and other places along its track.
Some places across Eastern West Virginia
, Maryland
, Northern Virginia
, Washington, D.C., and Delaware
were buried in between 2 and 3 ft (0.6096 and 0.9144 m) of snow
, causing air, rail, and Interstate highway
travel to come to a halt. On February 6, authorities said about 4 inches of rain fell in Hollywood Hills
and 3.2 inches in Santa Barbara.
The snow storms of February 6 and 7 left record levels of snow in many cities. Approximately 2 ft (60 cm) of snow had fallen by midday on Saturday. The mayor of Washington, D.C., and the governors of Virginia
and Maryland
declared states of emergency as the storm hit both Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia
, Delaware
, Pennsylvania
and New Jersey
. Amtrak
canceled several trains between New York and Washington, D.C., and also between Washington, D.C. and some southern destinations. The storm arrived less than two months after a December storm dumped more than 16 inches (41 cm) of snow in Washington, D.C.. Many power outages were also reported in the city.
February 7 saw yet more major power outages in the Washington, D.C. region. At least 420,000 homes were under a blackout as the snow felled trees and cut power lines. Some 300,000 homes were without electricity in Maryland and neighboring Virginia, while Washington, D.C. was reporting an initial figure of 100,000 power outages for that day. Emergency workers struggled to restore power as 2 ft (61 cm) of snow and a record snowfall 3 ft of (91 cm) fell on Maryland. Transport was badly disrupted from West Virginia to southern New Jersey. Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland have declared a short term state of emergency
, allowing them to activate the National Guard in order to help cope with the storm's onslaught.
A father and daughter of McKeesport
were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning
after improperly using a domestic petrol generator after a power outage. On the February 7 two children drowned trying to cross the swollen Chapulin River in the central state of Guanajuato
, and other child deaths occurred in Angangueo
, Zitácuaro
, and Ocampo
. In total, twenty-eight deaths in the states of Michoacán
, Mexico State, and the Distrito Federal (Mexico City) in Mexico have been attributed to the storm on February 6 and 7.
On the 7th 10 people are dead in across Kandahar Province
according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society
(ARCS). Najibullah Barith, ARCS's director in Kandahar
complained of lack of the local and national resources.
A series of avalanches
caused by a storm in eastern Afghanistan
killed 172 people on February 8 and 9.
On the 7th 10 people are dead in across Kandahar Province
according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society
(ARCS). Najibullah Barith, ARCS's director in Kandahar
complained of lack of the local and national resources.
11 were killed by avalanches in Farah
, Bamyan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces between the 4th and the 8th a spokesman of the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority said. The Afghan flash flood
s and avalanches left 20 others dead in the rest of the country on February 8. The provincial authorities had summoned an emergency meeting and loya Jurga to discuss responses on 8 February. Both Shah Wali Kot and Shorandam districts were the worst affected. Afghanistan generally expects about 400,000 people every year, according to experts at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
A series of avalanches caused by a storm in eastern Afghanistan
killed 172 people on February 8 and 9.
The 2010 Salang avalanches consisted of a series of at least 36 avalanche
s that struck the southern approach to the Salang tunnel
north of Kabul
, Afghanistan
on February 8 and 9 in 2010, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 of travellers. They were caused by a freak storm in the Hindu Kush
mountains located in Afghanistan
.
Several heavy avalanches killed 15 and on a highway north of Kabul
killed at least 15 and injured 55 on the 8th and 9 February, according to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). A few other avalanches and landslides also hit other parts of the snow laden Hindu Kush
at this time.
60 died and hundred were still missing On February 9 a treacherous mountain pass
in Afghanistan
series of avalanches smashed into and badly damaged an 2.6 km (1.6 mi) long Soviet
-built Salang tunnel
after several days of heavy snow in the Hindu Kush
. Afghan Interior Minister
, Hanif Atmar 24 dead were found and 40 more were feared dead. The Defence Minister
, Abdul Rahim Wardak said 3,000 people had been trapped in vehicles along the mountain pass, that is at an altitude 3,400 meters (11,000 feet), but about 2,500 were rescued later that day. The road passengers got trapped in their vehicles out side of the Salang Tunnel
, 9 miles north of Kabul
. The International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) sent 2 helicopters to help evacuate people and drop essential supplies, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) said. Only helicopter
s and pack horses could get there.
A powerful Alberta clipper
from western Canada and moist air from a line of thunderstorms over the mid-western United States merged over the central US on the 7th. In some places this dropped 6 inches (15.2 cm) over the Central and Eastern United States, much of it over areas already hit by the previous blizzard. 10–15 in (25.4–38.1 cm) was expected to fall on Washington, D.C., and up to 1–2 ft (0.3048–0.6096 m) of snow was forecast from New York City northward into New England
. Several inches of snow fell in both Washington, D.C. and New York City on the night of February 10 and 11.
On February 8, there was nearly 45 centimetres (17.7 in) of snow recorded at Reagan National Airport, and nearby Dulles International Airport recorded a local record of 80 centimetres (31.5 in).
", by US president Barack Obama
, after an SUV in his motorcade carrying journalists was damaged by a snapped limb, injuring one person. An area all the way from Pennsylvania
to New Jersey
, across the BosWash
corridor and south down to Virginia
, was under at least 60 centimetres (23.6 in) of snow. Parts of Northern Maryland had 90 centimetres (35.4 in). The storm killed three people.
Snow began to fall throughout Oxfordshire
, North London
, and Bavaria
on the February 8 and February 10. Heavy winds and snow flurries also hit parts of Leicestershire
, Northamptonshire
, in Turkey, and Amur Krai, on February 9. 1 person suffered moderate injuries after slipping on ice in one of the rural northern districts of Amur Krai. On February 10 a deep cyclone formed over the Adriatic Sea
bringing heavy snowfall over large parts of Bulgaria
, Serbia
, Macedonia
and lesser parts of Romania
. Severe weather warnings have been issued in these countries. In Western Bulgaria it snowed non-stop for more than 48 hours, with up to a metre of snow accumulation in Kyustendil
.
United States federal government activities were ground to a halt by the, in some places 3 ft deep, snowfall in Washington, D.C. on the 10th.
February 11 saw heavy snow east coast USA, but power workers resorted electricity
supplies to 100,000 users in Maryland
on February 11 and some more was predicted for the next day.
On the 11th, about least 10 cm (4 in) of snow fell in some areas and strong winds have caused drifting in places across Kent
and East Sussex
. Snow also fell in Sheffield
, Berkshire
, Brighton
and the Grampian Mountains. Dover
's coastguard helped dig out a stranded ambulance in the town. Kent County Council
said all primary routes and secondary routes where possible had been gritted on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the snow showers. Kent Fire and Rescue Service
said it was helping some motorists stuck in snow drifts in parts of the county including Margate
, Dover
and Lydd
. Chief Inspector Simon Black, of Kent Police
, said that all main routs were passable, but some were down to a single snow-free lane and BBC Radio Kent
said that drivers should make essential journeys. Also 4 of its 4x4 vehicles
were helping to transfer staff and patients to and from hospitals in Eastbourne
and Hastings
, in East Sussex
. The exit slip road off the M20
, at junction 11a, closed because of the snow. A Dover
lad was moderately burnt after spilling paraffin
he was trying to put in to a portable domestic generator unit that day.
in Hawai'i
were confirmed soon after. The snow on February 12-13 forced the cancellation of Bi-Lo
Myrtle Beach
Marathon XIII after the 5k portion had been run the previous night. A record depth of 12.5 inches of snow fell within 24 hours in the Dallas–Fort Worth urban metro on the 13th. The result of the massive snowstorm led to whole school districts being shut down and over 200,000 buildings were left without power, and forced to use fire and candles to light and heat their homes. A 1 ft tall wind-induced wave swept 3 people off of various southern Californian beaches on the 14th, slightly injuring one. Light snow fell in both parts of Hampshire
and Fife
, and heavily in the mountainous regions of Sakhalin Island on the 15th.
Moderate amounts of snow fell in Gwent
and Northamptonshire
on the 16th. Weather forecasters warned of more snow predicted across South East Wales
and parts of Central England. Moderate snow fall was reported in both Oxfordshire
, Northamptonshire
, Leicestershire
, the Malvern Hills
, Pembrokeshire
, Bristol
, Aberdeenshire
and Greater London
on the 17 and 18 February. The various London Authorities warned of growing travel chaos in London on the 18th.
Over two inches of snow had fallen in part of Gwent, Pembrokeshire
and Gloucestershire
on the 18th. The roadways in the Gloucestershire town of Dursley
had been quickly covered in snow that as a cold weather front
moved over the west of the county of Gloucestershire, Chief Inspector Steve Porter, of Gloucestershire Constabulary
told motorists to take care and warned that many roads including the B4221 at Gorsley
and the A4136 at Longhope
had had major accidents. Most of the roads would be closed due to heavy snow for the next few days. Moderate amounts of snow also fell in part of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire on the 19th.
between the 18th and 20th.
Heavy snow in Ireland forced the cancellation of the National Hurling League
(NHL) hurling
match between Kilkenny
and Tipperary
at Semple Stadium
in Thurles
on February 20. A horse racing meeting in Naas
was abandoned due to heavy snow the following day.
Light snow fell in Oxfordshire
overnight on the 20th and 21st, causing minor traffic disruption. Manchester Airport was heavily disrupted late on the 20th, closed at 07.10am on the 21st, but opened later that morning after much heavy work clearing the snow off of the runways. Flights were still disrupted by midday.
A Eurostar
train, with between 700, 740 and 800 passengers on board, broke down in Kent
due to the extremely cold weather and heavy snow in the United Kingdom.
The Paris-to-London service eventually left Gare du Nord
railway station in Paris two hours late at about 8.15pm UK time
after an unattended bag caused a security alert. Everything was going according to plan, until they were two minutes away from Ashford
at 10.15 pm, when the train suddenly stopped, the lights flicked briefly and all power failed, leaving the victims in complete darkness at around 10.45 pm. Passengers reported that the lighting was flickering on and off in a "very spooky manner" throughout the journey, until the Eurostar suddenly stopped, and the lights finally went out completely. It then became stiflingly hot inside the train as the ventilation system shut down due to the power outage
on board the stricken Eurostar
train. The chaos grew when most of the toilets stopped working and the staff struggled to find emergency lighting switches. Eventually the train manager walked through all the train carriages, using his emergency torch, announcing that another train and a bus were being sent to rescue them. Passengers carrying luggage then had to clamber down ladders on to the tracks and then back up on to the rescue train that arrived alongside the failed one. The rescue train arrived at St Pancras just after 2.30am on the 22nd, more than four-and-a-half hours later than the scheduled arrival time and the bus also took a few to Ashford, where they took local trains to London. Eurostar technical spokesman, Mr. Bram Smets, said it has stopped in what he described as a "major technical problem". Eurostar has launched a probe into the breakdown which left passengers stranded for 4 hours.
Between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. local time (and UTC
), 108 mm (4¼ inches) of rain was recorded at Funchal
weather station and 165 mm (6½ inches) of rain at the weather station on Pico do Areeiro. The average rainfall in Funchal for the whole of February is 88.0 mm (3½ inches). Damage was confined to the southern half of the island.
About 42 people were reported dead and about 68 to 100 injured as rain-induced floods and mudslides hit the Portuguese island of Madeira on the 20th, local authorities said. The floodwaters tore down buildings, overturned cars
and knocked down trees.
The local civil protection service declared that it was "overwhelmed" by emergency calls, according to a duty police officer
in an interview with a journalist from the Reuters
news agency. According to Portuguese media, the storms were the deadliest on the east Atlantic island since prior to October 1993, when 8 people died and 19 were injured.
The Portuguese military sent specialist rescue teams to the island of Madeira
on the 21st, when it was estimated that least 38 people were known to have died in the most extreme rainstorms in 17 years as tonnes of mud and stones brought down the slopes of the island, flooding the streets of the regional capital, Funchal
, and other towns. All utilities were knocked out across large swathes of the island. Ribeira Brava was also badly flooded on the 21st. Portuguese Prime Minister
Jose Socrates
, who was in Madeira, ordered an immediate rescue and aid mission for the island. Portuguese President Cavaco Silva expressed his condolences in a televised statement.
A Portuguese Navy
supply ship
, with a helicopter
, food and medical equipment
was sent to the islands that lie about 900 km/560miles from the Portuguese mainland. The Island is very popular with foreign tourists. Officials from the Portuguese Department of Emergencies said that emergency teams, 56 military rescuers, search dogs and 36 firefighter
s were being sent to the island straight away.
The Island's authorities and the local civil protection board told CNN
that one British tourist was missing. 10 British music students from a religious school in the Channel Islands
were found alive in Funchal
along with an Irish tourist as the city is thrown in to meteorological chaos. Local authorities informed the AFP news agency
that 70 people were hospitalized.
On the 22nd, 102 to 120 were confirmed injured and 42 were confirmed dead in Madeira. 2 British tourists were among the dead.
, the English Midlands
and Merseyside
on the 23rd and heavy snow fell in the Scottish Highlands
on the 24th.
On February 24 a meteorological state of emergency was declared in 21 Mongolia's provinces due to the exceptionally cold conditions. It is purported to be the coldest snap for 50 years and that a person has already died of hypothermia.
A major winter storm
started plowing its way through upstate New York
, southern Vermont
and Berkshire County, Massachusetts
on the 23rd. Colonie, New York saw a total of 17 inches of snow. Hancock, Massachusetts
had seen 9.5 inches, with the forecast total at 10-15 inches, and Stamford, Vermont
had seen 9 inches.
Salem County, New Jersey
was hit by heavy snow fall on the 24th, and 4 to 12 inches of snow were predicted to fall the next day by weather forecasters. Just under 1,000,000 were left without electricity in New England
, Pennsylvania
and New York
.
On February 23, snow fell in Southeast Texas
. Snow accumulated in counties north of Houston such as Conroe, Texas
, which received 2 inches of snow. Huntsville, Texas
had seen about 2 to 3 inches as well as College Station. Only a trace of snowfall fell in Houston, Texas
.
A winter storm warning was issued for counties north of Houston, while Houston had a winter weather advisory.
The extreme winter storm
spun around the Northeast
by the 25th. Oneonta, New York
had seen 44.5 in (113 cm) of snow from this storm. New York City had seen 20.9 in (53.1 cm), and Philadelphia had seen 11.5 in (29.2 cm) of snow. Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
had remained under light rain. Boston
has seen 4.5 in (11.4 cm) of rain from this storm, and 9.2 in (23.4 cm) was reported in Belfast, Maine
. Major flooding prevailed along coastal New England
. The Shawsheen River
at Wilmington, Massachusetts
was at 8 feet above its banks, and the Merrimack River
at Amesbury, Massachusetts
was at 20 feet above banks. On Friday morning and night, most of Massachusetts
, New Hampshire
and Maine
were without power. Sustained winds of up to 65 mph pounded the Cape Ann
area of eastern Massachusetts. Wind gusts of up to 95 mph were reported in Gloucester, Massachusetts
and Rockport, Massachusetts
. Millions of trees were felled in the wind from Providence
to Bangor
. Boston
received 52 mph sustained winds and 74 mph gusts. Between February 25 and 26 flood warning
s covered most of Rhode island
, the Pawtuxet River
valley, Boston
and Norfolk County
in eastern Massachusetts
. Orange County, New York
saw 2 to 3 feet of snow in Montgomery
and Bullville
.
Widespread snowfall across Scotland
brought extreme distruption. 61 cm of snow was recorded in Aviemore
as hundreds of people were stranded in cars in Dunblane
. Schools and transport services were distrupted. Two people died in Glencoe
in an avalanche
. Temperature
s reached -19.2°C in Braemar
. Some people in Perthshire
were stranded in their cars for 17 hours. 45,000 homes in Scotland
were left without power. 30 schools were closed on the 25th.
On February 26, heavy snow hit New York and more was forecast for the next day.
On February 27 unusually heavy monsoon rains hit Haiti
. 11 people died the town in Les Cayes
, 3 died in the village of Torbeck
,
5 died in the village of Les Cayes's Gelee as rain induced mudslides and flood waters hit them.
In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding which buried or washed away roads and railways leading to the ancent city of Machu Picchu
, trapping over 2,000 tourists in addition to 2,000 locals. Machu Picchu was temporarily closed, but it reopened on 28 February 2010. Peru's rail crew has been hard at work since then, and Machu Picchu reopened to tourists on 1 April 2010.
and central France on the 27th. Winds of up to 140 km/h (87 mph) caused chaos as the storm moved from Portugal up through the Bay of Biscay, while a maximum gust of 228 km/h (141.7 mph) in Spain and 241 km/h (149.8 mph) in France were recorded. Both Belgium and Denmark were hit by heavy rainstorms overnight as the windstorm moved further northeast. The storm system moved across the Massif Central
into the Brittany
peninsula, and areas of France bordering Belgium and Germany are on alert for heavy rain and high winds. An Italian was also injured when a hurricane-force wind capsized his yacht
off the coast of Portugal. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy
expressed his condolences to relatives of victims, and said that he would visit the stricken area on Monday. The French Prime Minister François Fillon
said France would formally declare the storm a natural disaster, freeing up funds to help communities rebuild themselves. Rail services were severely affected in northern Spain and a number of trains in western France were delayed because of flooded tracks in southern and western France. British Airways
canceled several flights and Air France
said 100 of its flights had been cancelled from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Wind speeds hit 175 km/h at the top of the Eiffel Tower
, French radio reported on the 28th. The French meteorological service said that shortly after 1700 local time (1600 GMT) the storm passed into Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and there also were reports of high winds in the Swiss Alps
on March 1. Spain's Canary Islands
, particularly La Palma
, Gran Canaria
and Tenerife
, were also hit by the storm, although there was no great damage. The French Departments of Vendée
and Charente-Maritime
were in ruins and over 1 million homes lost electricity supplies. Television, radio and mobile phone service were also disrupted in some places.
On February 28 the French part storms killed 7 people drowned in various villages in the Vendée
region, while 3 old folk people and a kid were found dead in Charente Maritime near La Rochelle
. A bloke was killed by a falling tree branch in the south-western town of Luchon, where winds reached 90mph. At least 5 other people were reported missing and dozens others injured and a kid died in Northern Portugal 5 people were missing and 1 was injured in Aytre
. The French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux
declared the storm as a natural catastrophe. The Météo France weather agency predicted the storm was by then heading towards Denmark.
and L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer
. Nicolas Sarkozy
visited the coastal town of Aiguillon-sur-Mer, the hardest hit area of France where a total 25 had died in the storm.
The 2010 Queensland floods
saw inundation of the towns of Charleville
, Roma
, St George
and Theodore
among others. The floods were caused by rainfall generated by a monsoon trough described by a Bureau of Meteorology
forecaster as "almost like a tropical cyclone over land". Over the period 1–3 March, rainfall totals of between 100–300 mm (4 to 12 inches) were observed in the area. This water ran into already saturated rivers and creeks in the area. Losses from cotton crops destroyed at Theodore and the area around St George and Dirranbandi are expected to be significant.
The floods, described by the Queensland Minister for Primary Industries Tim Mulherin
as the "worst flood in 120 years" are however expected to provide a billion dollar boost to the local economy, following the "worst drought since Federation
" The floods have seen a large increase in the Australian plague locust
population and the Australian Plague Locust Commission
is concerned the locusts will head south and destroy what is expected to be a bumper winter grain crop. On 21 March,
The 2010 Uganda landslide occurred in the district of Bududa
in eastern Uganda
on 1 March 2010. The landslide
was triggered by heavy rain between 12 pm and 7 pm that day. At least 100 people were believed to have been killed.
The Ugandan Red Cross
stated that rescuers had recovered 50 bodies, whilst a Ugandan government minister has put the death toll at over 100. The chairman of the eastern Bududa district suggested that the death toll could be as high as 300. The landslide struck villages on the slopes of Mount Elgon
, including Nameti, Kubewo, and Nankobe. Officials and aid workers have warned that there may be further landslides, as heavy rain continues to fall in the region.
AirTran Airways
cancelled several flights out of Atlanta Airport due to bad weather on March 1 and 2.
On March 1, the Environment Agency
issued 169 flood warning
s in over East Anglia
, Yorkshire
, Wrexham
, Tyne and Wear
, Cambridgeshire
, Bedfordshire
, Oxfordshire
, Kent
and West Sussex
. The Thames Flood Barrier closed twice in less than 24 hours to protect London from a combined high tide and tidal surge in the Thames estuary
, where it had been predicted that the water would rise by another 50 cm. Andy Batchelor, Tidal Area Flood Risk Manager, said that the Thames Barrier would close yet again should we need to protect the 1.25 million people living and working in London's floodplain
.
Heavy snow storms hit the Virginia
ns and parts of Maryland
on March 2.
The Ewaso Nyiro River river in Kenya
burst its banks and flooded a safari park
's guest house on the 3rd, killing nine people.
20 people died on the 4th as an avalanche hit 2 villages in the mountains of Afghanistan
's Wakhan Mountains
.
Several dozen ships, some with nearly one thousand passengers were stranded in rapidly forming sea ice
due to cold weather and strong winds in the Gulf of Bothnia
, between Sweden and Finland and near the Baltic Sea
. Some of the ships were freed by icebreaker
s on March 5.
On March 5, 20,000 were made homeless as flood induced landslides hit Bududa, Uganda
.
were a series of storm
s that passed through much of the Australian state of Victoria
on 6 March and 7 March 2010. One of the most severe storms passed directly over Greater Melbourne, bringing lightning
, flash flooding, very large hail
and strong winds to the state's capital. It was described as a "mini-cyclone".
On March 8, Catalonia
saw its heaviest snowfall in 25 years; up to 50 centimetres fell in Barcelona
. Over 200,000 residents of North-Eastern Spain were left without power, and up to 500 passengers were evacuated from a train travelling to Southern France, which also was experiencing blizzard conditions, with many schools closing. Nîmes
and Perpignan
were the worst-hit.
A state of emergency was declared in Northern Spain, on the 10th of March, due to the unseasonal blizzards. Forty roads in France were closed with snow reportedly 3 ft deep in some areas. Italy also experienced the effects of the Arctic blast; there was traffic chaos in Siena
, Assisi
and Pisa
, with snowstorms stretching as far south as Rome. On the sunshine island of Majorca, havoc ensued with 6 major roads closing, due to unseasonal snowfall.
On March 10 Transport and power supplies were disrupted by blizzards around Zagreb
, hurricanes around Rijeka
and a mixture of both in Dalmatia
. Both Istria
, the northern Adriatic coast and Lika
, had electricity supply problems, according to Croatian Power Company (HEP).
Heavy rain and rapid snow-melt contributed to the failure of the Kyzyl-Agash dam
in Kazakhstan
on March 11, killing more than 40 people.
On March 12, about 4,000 people were made homeless by floods in the Kazakh towns of Almaty
, Kyzyl-Agash, and Zhylbulak. A total of 30 people had been confirmed dead as the flood waters from, the dam that had burst on the 12th reached 2 meters deep on March 13.
The American military officials closed Misawa Air Base
on 10 March as a blizzard swept across northern Japan, dumping a record-setting 20 inches of snow on the base by mid-afternoon. A cyclone with snowstorms approached Kamchatka coast from the Sea of Okhotsk
on the 13th and preceded to move inland by the 15th, after which the storms died out in Eastern and Central Kamchatka with no casualties. The Ust-Bolsheretsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
and Yelizovo
districts of Kamchatka were badly hit by the high wind and snowfall.
The fourth major winter storm to strike the East coast of the United States
caused widespread flooding, severe beach erosion
, and tree and structural damage from Virginia
to Maine
on the 13th. The storm killed at least nine people, and left over 1 million without electricity. After the storm, severe to record flooding occurred at the Pawtuxet River
in Rhode Island and along the upper tributaries of the Mississippi River
.
BBC Weather
reports that areas of Portugal and Spain have witnessed the heaviest recorded levels of precipitation
since the Second World War on the 16th.
Australia faced the worst flooding in 60 years as 134 people in the small rural town of Wanaaring, just south of the Queensland
/New South Wales
boarder, remains cut off on the 18th. The Paroo River
peaked at 4.8 meters and broke its banks on the 17th.
A major sandstorm Kano
in northern Nigeria
on the morning of March 19 . The whole federal state was filled with sandstorms
. All flights into and out of the federal state were cancelled amid softy fears. Similar events occurred over the border in the drought hit Niger
. The Harmattan
wind caused others in Mauritania. Rain fall had paradoxically gone down in the African Sahel
region as it went up in most other parts of the World.
20 people died on the 4th as an avalanche hit 2 villages in the mountains of Afghanistan
's Wakhan Mountains
.
made landfall in southeastern Queensland on the 21st, producing heavy rains and flooding.
After nearly a month of flooding in the Croatia
n Kosinj Valley has been the centre of about 11 million Kuna/ (1,514,000 Euros) worth of damages in the region of Lika
, Croat officials said on the 22 of March.
Heavy sandstorms
hit Beijing
between March 20 and 22. On March 23, a major storm sweeps of the lens west of the Bohai Sea
and the Yellow Sea
, and finally falls on the North Korea
and South Korea
. The Xinjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei regions were already faceing drought and sandstorms earlyer this month.
A major sandstorms hit both Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea
and inland Sierra Leone
. Another gets southern Algeria
, inland Mauritania, Mali and northern Côte d'Ivoire
.
A major hail storm hit Perth, Western Australia
, more than 158,000 houses were blacked out at the height of the storm and estimates on the insurance damage are over a $1 billion.
with rain turning to snow Midlands northwards. The UK Met Office
has issued severe weather warnings for the following regions:
Northern Ireland, North West England
, Wales
, Yorkshire & Humber, West Midlands
, S.W. Scotland, Lothian & Borders, East Midlands
and North East England
. Temperatures are expected to go sub zero once again. Snow is forecast from Cardiff
, Wales northwards. The warnings come a day after top British meteorologists from outside the UK Met Office predicted the UK's hottest summer on record for 2010 on the 28th.
Snow fell in Scotland
on 30 March, stranding drivers on a motorway leaving them to dig out their cars, the MetOffice released weather alerts for only Scotland and Northern Ireland
as the south wasn't as cold as forecasted however heavy snow is falling on higher ground in England and Wales, however temperatures in the South West of the UK fell dramatically around lunch time of the 30th of march and snow is falling in some areas in South Wales and South West England
.
The Met Office updated its warnings on March 30, the following areas of the UK are in severe weather warnings; Wales
, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Met Office has also issued extreme weather warnings of Severe Blizzards, Severe Drifting Snow & Very Heavy Snowfall in Western Northern Ireland and North East Scotland where 40–50 cm of snow is now forecasted to fall with drifts over 5 feet tall. Heavy thuner storms hit parts of Hampshire
and temperatures begin to rise in Southern England
and Greater London
.
On March 31, 48,000 Northern Irish, 24,000 Scottish
and 150 Irish
homes are with out power as heavy snow falls in both Northern Ireland
, parts of Staffordshire
, and Scotland's Southern Uplands
. About 300 people are feed by rescue services when 120 vehicles ventured out during a blizzard in County Londonderry
's Glenshane Pass
. Sadly, 17 year old Natasha Paton, from Cleghorn in southern Lanarkshire
dies as the coach she was in skids and crashes in the snow on the A73 road, outside Wiston
, also in southern Lanarkshire. She was om a trip to visit Alton Towers
, Staffordshire
on a trip from Biggar in Lanarkshire, that was organised by Lanark Grammar School
The UK Met Office
has issued severe weather warnings for the next day in the following regions:Northern Ireland, Northern England, Wales and Scotland.
The storm follows the coldest winter in decades to hit the UK and this is the second most severe storm to hit the UK this year, the most severe was the January 6 snowfall in Southern England
and South Wales
, despite lower snow depth of 40 cm the south is less prepared and has a higher population density than Northern Ireland
and Scotland
so caused more chaos and damage to the UK economy. First Great Western
closed both Islip railway station
and Bicester Town railway station
for part of the day due to heavy snow fall on espoused stretches of track. Snow also causes travel disruption for bus
es and cars in South Glamorgan
.
Both the Rhone
and the Danube
begin to swell at there upper sections due to heavy rain and snow related melt water on the 31st.
issued severe weather warnings for April 1 in the following regions: Northern Ireland, Northern England, Wales and Scotland. Heavy rain fell in Banbury and moderate snow fell in Scotland on the 2nd.
April 1 and 2 had temperatures plummet to minus 50 degrees in Mongolia's Tuul valley, The peasant villager Urna said she bought "400 bundles of grass and tons of feed so that we would be ready" for any further bad weather. According to the Mongolian Red Cross have reported that about 4,500,000 head of livestock perished as a result of the bad weather this year. Tume, who lives in Ulan Bator said that he had noticed that there were several particle harsh winters in a row to. He blamed climate change
, but experts said that overgrazing by cattle had also child of most of the country's grassland.
The April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides
are an extreme weather
event that has affected the State of Rio de Janeiro
in Brazil in the first days of April 2010. At least 212 people have died, 161 people have been injured (including several rescuers), while at least 15,000 people have been made homeless. Meteolagists exspessed concern over the intensity of the storms and there aftermath. The worst part was on the 5th and 6th.
i police claimed the foundations were weakened by illegal lifting of sand by local sand traders.
Heavy rain also hit the borders of Armenia
and Azerbijan in the evening.
after the western side of a low pressure system sank southward from eastern Ontario
on April 27, merging with part of a second low. Vermont
was hit with the most snow, which totalled as much as 60 cm (2 ft). Close to 30,000 customers were left without power.
in southern Alberta
as the cold sector of a storm dumped over 25 cm (9.8 in) of snow in the Calgary
area. Highway 2 was closed, ice coated some roads, and another 10 cm (3.9 in) was expected to fall on Friday along with strong winds.
Earth's atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
from January 1 through to the last day of April, including winter storm
Winter storm
A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...
s (blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
s, ice storm
Ice storm
An ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain, also known as a glaze event or in some parts of the United States as a silver thaw. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least of ice on exposed surfaces...
s, European windstorm
European windstorm
A European windstorm is a severe cyclonic windstorm associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure that track across the North Atlantic towards northwestern Europe. They are most common in the winter months...
s), hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
storms, out of season monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
rain storms, extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are a group of cyclones defined as synoptic scale low pressure weather systems that occur in the middle latitudes of the Earth having neither tropical nor polar characteristics, and are connected with fronts and...
s, gale
Gale
A gale is a very strong wind. There are conflicting definitions of how strong a wind must be to be considered a gale. The U.S. government's National Weather Service defines a gale as 34–47 knots of sustained surface winds. Forecasters typically issue gale warnings when winds of this strength are...
s, microburst
Microburst
A microburst is a very localized column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface that are similar to, but distinguishable from, tornadoes, which generally have convergent damage. There are two types of microbursts: wet microbursts and dry microbursts...
s, flooding, rainstorms and other severe weather
Severe weather
Severe weather phenomena are weather conditions that are hazardous to human life and property.- Examples Include :Severe weather can occur under a variety of situations, but three characteristics are generally needed: a temperature or moisture boundary, moisture, and , instability in the...
.
The Thunderstorm Season for the Northern Hemisphere began this time of year, beginning on March 1st, and ending on August 31st.
January
January 1–3
The worst affected municipality has been Angra dos ReisAngra dos Reis
Angra dos Reis is a Brazilian municipality located in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro state. It is located at an altitude of 6 meters and includes in its territory 365 offshore islands. It was discovered on January 6, 1502, but has been under continual settlement since 1556. Its population...
, about 150 kilometres (93.2 mi) southwest of the city of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. At least 35 people were killed at a resort on Ilha Grande
Ilha Grande
Ilha Grande is an island located off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, and part of the municipality of Angra dos Reis. The island is largely undeveloped and noted for its scenic beauty, which includes tropical beaches, luxuriant vegetation and a rugged landscape. The land area is...
: about 40 people were staying in the hotel which was buried under a mudslide, and the death toll is expected to rise further. In Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
, at least seven people are dead and 20 missing after a bridge collapsed due to heavy rains. It is reported to be one of the worst mudslides in Reo De Janero's history.
Fresh overnight snowfall on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day caused disruption in north east England, with roads across Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
, County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
and Teesside
Teesside
Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...
affected. Snow also fell in parts of East Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
. In places it was as deep as 10 centimetres (3.9 in) and motorists were warned not to travel unless their journey was absolutely necessary.
A major snow-related weather warning was put out in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
on 30 December. The expected snowstorm was probably part of the same weather system that hit the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
from December 30 to January 5.
Between January 1 and 2, 2010, 50- and 70-year record low temperatures and snowfall hit northern China and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
starting 1 January. Blizzards also hit Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
's Dundgobi province.
A heavy storm surge
Storm surge
A storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically tropical cyclones and strong extratropical cyclones. Storm surges are caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea...
hit northeastern New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
on January 2, leading to over $750,000 in damage in the community of Port Elgin
Port Elgin, New Brunswick
Port Elgin is a Canadian village in Westmorland County, New Brunswick.Port Elgin is situated near the Nova Scotia border at the mouth of the Gaspareaux River where it empties into Baie Verte.-History:...
.
Heavy record-breaking snow also fell in Moscow in early January 2010. and light snow briefly fell in Greece and Turkey.
On January 2, a weather front with a northerly wind brought heavy snow to the northwest of England. Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe is a district in the south of the city of Manchester, England.Formerly part of the administrative county of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s to resolve the problem of its inner...
near Manchester Airport had 5 inches (12.7 cm) of snow. This affected road transport on 2 January, particularly in the Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
area with conditions on the M60
M60 motorway
The M60 motorway, or Manchester Orbital, is an orbital motorway circling Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It passes through all Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolton...
, M602
M602 motorway
The M602 motorway is a relatively short motorway, leading traffic into Manchester and Salford by-passing the suburban town of Eccles.The motorway itself was meant to be a part of a bigger scheme, the South Lancashire Motorway...
and M66
M66 motorway
The M66 is a motorway in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England. It is long and provides part of the route between the M62 and M60 motorways and the M65, with the rest being provided by the A56.-Route:...
reported to be poor, while Snake Pass
Snake Pass
The Snake Pass is the name given to the remote, higher reaches of the A57 road where it crosses the Peak District between Manchester and Sheffield in the north of England...
, which links Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
with Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
was closed.
As a snowstorm entered Scotland, a number of roads across the country were closed including three junctions of the M9 while the motorway was shut in both directions at the Newbridge Roundabout
Newbridge, Edinburgh
Newbridge is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is south of Kirkliston. Newbridge had a total population of 1,013 at the 2001 Census.-Local amenities:...
in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
during the evening because of heavy snow, and did not open again until the following day. Problems were also reported on the A96 and the A939. Rail services between Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
and Central Scotland were also affected by poor weather.
Possibly more than 200 people died in northern India, mostly in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
after a cold snap and accidents in heavy fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
around 2 and 3 January.
Heavy rain fell in parts of southwestern Brazil.
January 4–5
Heavy rain fell in BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
on the 4th.
Heavy snow fell in northern China and grounded hundreds of flights on the 4th. It and forced Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
's Financial Secretary
Financial secretary
Financial secretary is an administrative and executive government position within the governance of a State, corporation, private or public organization, small group or other body with financial assets....
John Tsang
John Tsang
John Tsang Chun-wah , GBM, JP, is the current Financial Secretary of Hong Kong. His responsibility is to assist the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in overseeing policy formulation and implementation in financial, monetary, economic, trade and employment matters. He exercises control over the...
and Monetary Authority Chief Executive Officer Norman Chan
Norman Chan
Norman Chan , CHAN Tak-Lam Norman, SBS, JP , is a Chinese banker, treasury official, and civil servant. Chan currently serves as the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, a position he has held since on 1 October 2009, following the retirement of his predecessor, Joseph Yam...
to cancel a trip to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. Beijing was hit by a blizzard starting the evening of the 2nd, with 70–80% of flights cancelled out of Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport, is the main international airport serving Beijing, China. It is located northeast of Beijing's city center in an enclave of Chaoyang District that is surrounded by rural Shunyi District. The airport is owned and operated by the Beijing Capital...
on January 4. Close to 20 cm of snow fell in the north of the city, and close to 25 cm in Seoul. Schools across the area were closed, and Premier Wen
Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
asked local governments to ensure safe transportation, continued food supplies, and continued agricultural production. Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing and the province of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
. It was also predicted on January 7 for snow to reach the provinces of Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
on January 9 according to China National Radio
China National Radio
China National Radio is the national radio station of the People's Republic of China. Its headquarters are in Beijing.- History :The infrastructure began with a transmitter from Moscow to set up its first station in Yan'an...
. One person was killed in Xinjiang Autonomous Region as a result of the storm. Emergency services handed out extra cattle fodder
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
in Tibet.
Japan's Hokkaido
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
island was hit by heavier snowfall, causing heavy travel disruption and some airport closures.
By January 4 about 30 people, including 28 children and an elderly man, died from cold-related causes in the last 11 days across Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
as snow and a cold wave
Cold wave
A cold wave is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24 hour period requiring substantially increased protection to agriculture, industry, commerce, and...
swept over the north and centre of the nation. Freezing fog also occurred on the 4th in Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, India. Some parts of Bangladesh were the hardest hit with temperatures plummeting as low as 6°C according to meteorologist Sanaul Haque, who predicted the cold wave may continue for another day.
The New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
villages of Upper Cape and Port Elgin
Port Elgin, New Brunswick
Port Elgin is a Canadian village in Westmorland County, New Brunswick.Port Elgin is situated near the Nova Scotia border at the mouth of the Gaspareaux River where it empties into Baie Verte.-History:...
were devastated as a massive hurricane-strength blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
hit Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
on January 4, causing massive blackout
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
s in its wake.
Light snow briefly fell in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and further snow was reported in Niigata
Niigata Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The capital is the city of Niigata. The name "Niigata" literally means "new lagoon".- History :...
, Japan.
By January 4 about 30 people, including 28 children and an elderly man, died from cold-related causes in the last 11 days across Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
as snow and a cold wave
Cold wave
A cold wave is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24 hour period requiring substantially increased protection to agriculture, industry, commerce, and...
swept over the north and centre of the nation. Freezing fog also occurred on the 4th in Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, India. Some parts of Bangladesh were the hardest hit with temperatures plummeting as low as 6°C according to meteorologist Sanaul Haque, who predicted the cold wave may continue for another day.
Heavy rain and serever cold his southern Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
On the 4th, the UN issued a Green Alert in Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
as northern rivers swell with melt water
In its monthly summary, Met Éireann
Met Éireann
Met Éireann is the national meteorological service in Ireland, part of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.-History:...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
's weather service, said December was the coldest month for 28 years for most of the country and the coldest of any month since February 1986 at a few stations.
In Scotland, Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
Council became the first local authority to confirm that its supply of grit was exhausted on the 4th of January, after it received less than it had ordered from suppliers. Government Ministers denied there was a shortage of grit and salt and insisted there were "very substantial" supplies for Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
's roads.
Italy suffered from both heavy rain in the south and heavy snow in the north.
January 4 saw four villages in Sakhalin lose power as a result of a storm. The 2,000 strong town of Tamari was worst hit. Blizzard struck Sakhalin
Sakhalin
Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...
island, a narrow island in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
, off the coast of Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and just 25 miles north of Japan's snowy Hokkaido island.
On the 4th, many motorways in Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
were closed and 19 flights cancelled in the Yantai International Airport. Eventually the No. 1820 train, carrying more than 800 passengers, started off at after being stranded for 12 hours.
January 4 saw Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
's heaviest snowfall since 1937 according to the Korea Meteorological Administration
Korea Meteorological Administration
The Korea Meteorological Administration is the National Meteorological service for Korea. The service started in 1904 joining the WMO in 1956. Numerical Weather Prediction is performed using the Unified Model software suite.-External links:* * *...
(KMA). The blizzard dumped 25.8 centimetres (10.2 in) of snow on the town.
Avalanches and heavy snow hit the Russian's Sakhalin Island, which was smothered by a snow cyclone and blizzard, the Island's emergency officials said.
Civil authorities were put on a major alert in the snow-torn province of Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
on January 4 as more snow fell in both Shandong and Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. Travel wasaffected as the snowstorm paralyzed Beijing on January 4, 2010.
January 5 in northeastern China saw a smooth flow of traffic, with no gridlock
Gridlock
The term gridlock is defined as "A state of severe road congestion arising when continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill; a traffic jam of this kind." The term originates from a situation possible in...
or serious traffic accidents being reported after the snowstorm that caused traffic chaos on the 4th, according to the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. The city's bus and subway train services were up and running according as plan. During the peak hours on Monday morning, the Beijing Subway Operating Company dispatched 20 additional trains to ease the heavy passenger flow. The bus of all routes started off on time that morning, according to the Beijing Public Transport Holdings. Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
was still in a critical situation as teams batteled to clear severe rural snow drifts.
4–8 inches (10–20 centimeters) of snow fell in Beijing on the 5th, in the largest snowfall since 1951.
The 2,000 weather modification offices in China, which are responsible for bombing the skies with silver iodide
Silver iodide
Silver iodide is a yellow, inorganic, photosensitive iodide of silver used in photography, in medicine as an antiseptic, and in rainmaking for cloud seeding.-Crystal structure:...
to induce rain or snow were put in to use. Schools in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
closed and because the cities' traffic was in chaos. The capital received the harshest Siberian winds in decades. Temperatures for the 5th were forecast to plunge to −16°C, a 40-year record low, after a daytime maximum of −8°C. The head of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, Guo Hu, linked the blizzard-like conditions of the first week of January to unusual atmospheric patterns caused by global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
.
Heavy snow started to fall in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
and it was reported that a leading North Korean Communist party
Workers' Party of Korea
The Workers' Party of Korea is the ruling Communist party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , commonly known as North Korea. It is also called the Korean Workers' Party...
official had frozen to death, in his home, situated in the country's Sepo
Sepo
Sepo is a kun, or county, in Kangwon province, North Korea. It was created as a separate entity following the division of Korea.-Physical features:...
kun
Administrative divisions of North Korea
The administrative divisions of North Korea are organized into three hierarchical levels. Many of the units have equivalents in the system of South Korea. At the highest level are nine provinces, two directly governed cities, and three special administrative divisions. The second-level divisions...
(or county).
During the traffic peak hours of Monday morning, the Beijing Subway Operating Company dispatched 20 additional subway trains to ease the heavy passenger flow. City workers were deployed to clean the snow in the city's main roads with about 15,710 tonnes of snow-dissolving agent, Beijing Environmental Sanitation Group Co., Ltd. official Zhang Zhiqiang
Zhang Zhiqiang
Zhang Zhiqiang is a Chinese Rugby union player who plays at the fly-half position.Zhiqiang is considered the greatest Chinese Rugby player of all-time. He plays for the China Agricultural University club in Beijing, and prior to this, he had a stint with the Leicester Tigers during the 2003-04...
said. On the 4th, many motorways in Shandong were closed and 19 flights were cancelled at Yantai International Airport.
In Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
, 13 trains were delayed that Monday in Hohhot
Hohhot
Hohhot , is a city in north-central China and the capital of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, serving as the region's administrative, economic, and cultural centre....
, the regional capital, according to the Hohhot railway authorities.
The Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
issued weather warnings for every region in the UK except the Northern Isles
Northern Isles
The Northern Isles is a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney...
. An extreme weather warning was issued for southern areas for overnight snowfall which could bring accumulations from 25 to 40 cm (9.8 to 15.7 in). BBC Weather and the Met Office also warned that temperatures in the Highlands of Scotland could drop to -20 C later in the week. The Met Office also confirmed that the UK is experiencing the longest prolonged cold spell since December 1981. The Harrogate district endured over six inches and had been a regular feature on BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
broadcasts.
A local record of 48 centimetres (18.9 in) of snow was lying in Aviemore
Aviemore
Aviemore is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popular for skiing and other winter sports, and for hill-walking in the Cairngorm...
and 3 to 4 ft (0.9144 to 1.2 ) of snow was recorded within the Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorms National Park
The Cairngorms National Park is a national park in north east Scotland, established in 2003. It was the second of two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament, after Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, set up in 2002. The park covers the Cairngorms range of mountains, and...
. Most parts of Scotland had further snowfalls during the night of 4/5 January.
Due to shortage of road grit conventionally made from rock salt, road grit was being made by or for road-gritters from cooking-type salt mixed with builders' sand; and the public bought up large amounts of cooking salt and table salt from food shops to put on their paths and drives. The Government was reported to have reallocated reserve supplies of road salt and grit from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and sent it to Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
and Fife due to the higher priority of even lower salt and grit reserves, along with the greater snow clearance work, according to Radio Oxford.
A heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
weather also hit parts of Australia in early 2010. Victoria, the scene of horrific bushfires the year before, had a far colder summer, with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009. August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and flooding and hailstorms
2010 Victorian storms
The 2010 Victorian storms were a series of storms that passed through much of the Australian state of Victoria on 6 March and 7 March 2010. One of the most severe storms passed directly over Greater Melbourne, bringing lightning, flash flooding, very large hail and strong winds to the state's capital...
hit southeastern Australia and Queensland
2010 Queensland floods
Heavy rain in March 2010 saw much of south western and central Queensland undergo major flooding. The floods saw inundation of the towns of Charleville, Roma, St George and Theodore among others...
in March 2010. The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China, however, contributed to a severe drought
2010 China drought and dust storms
The 2010 China drought and dust storms were a series of severe droughts during the spring of 2010 that affected Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hebei and Gansu in the People's Republic of China as well as parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Thailand,...
in the southwest. Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010. On between May 12 and 26, both Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
and Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
faced both a drought and famine in 2010.
January 6–9
Snow and fog occurred in Germany from January 3 to January 10. The Finnish railways and HelsinkiHelsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
airport are disrupted by further snowfall and record low temperatures for the Helsinki region.
On January 6, the London Borough of Harrow
London Borough of Harrow
The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...
closed 58 schools and 73 flights were cancelled at Heathrow as 3 cm of snow fell at Heathrow Airport.
Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and the province of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
. Electricity rationing started on January 7. Snow had started falling in Gangsu province by January 7. It also was projected on January 7 to have reached the provinces of Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
on January 9 according to China National Radio
China National Radio
China National Radio is the national radio station of the People's Republic of China. Its headquarters are in Beijing.- History :The infrastructure began with a transmitter from Moscow to set up its first station in Yan'an...
.
The Chinese government said that China faced its worst ice risk in 30 years. By the night of January 8–9, the major snowstorms predicted on January 7 for the provinces of Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
and Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, had arrived and the emergency services were put on alert.
Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and the province of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
. Snow reached the provinces of Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
on January 9. One person was killed in Xinjiang Autonomous Region as a result of the storm.
The synoptic
Synoptic scale meteorology
The synoptic scale in meteorology is a horizontal length scale of the order of 1000 kilometres or more. This corresponds to a horizontal scale typical of mid-latitude depressions...
situation in northern Europe settled to a steady northeast wind which brought snow showers and belts of snow.
The British Army
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
had to help stranded motorists in southern areas.
The Met Office confirmed that 40 centimetres (15.7 in) of snow fell in some parts of southern England.
A "severe" warning issued by the Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
was in place for every region in the UK. Scottish First Minister
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
said Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
was experiencing its worst winter since 1963.
Further deaths in Wales, Shetland and Aberdeenshire were recorded. Roads in the southeast were left with long traffic jams and abandoned cars. 8,000 schools were closed.
In Eastern Parts, there were accumulations of 40 cm to 50 cm in places. In Kent, six inches of snow fell in four hours in the early evening.
By 7 January 2010, 22 people had died in the UK because of the freezing conditions.
Heavy snow blocked many roads in the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
. Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport, , is operated by the Dublin Airport Authority. Located in Collinstown, in the Fingal part of County Dublin, 18.4 million passengers passed through the airport in 2010, making it the busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland, followed by Cork and Shannon...
closed on Wednesday 6 January and again on Friday 9 January. Cork Airport closed on Sunday 10 January at 6:30 pm and didn not re-open until 12:30 pm on Monday 11 January. Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus is a public transport operator in Ireland. It operates an extensive bus network of 172 radial, cross-city and peripheral routes and 18 night routes in the city of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area. The company, established in 1987, is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann which is...
canceled all services for a time. Knock Airport was also closed. A new Irish record low temperature of -9 C was also recorded in Dublin, Ireland. Temperatures in County Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
dropped to -11.1 C. Varying amounts of snow fell across Ireland on the 7th and 8th and road salt reserves began to run low.
The snow fell heavily in some places of Spain including Prades (Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
, southern Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
) which received 120 cm of snow after a storm lasting over 30 hours. The BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
reported heavy snowfall as far south as Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, in Spain.
25 Nepalese people, mostly children, died as a blizzard swept over most of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
on January 7. Snowstorms probably also occurred in mountainous Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
and Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
, but no reports were forthcoming.
Heavy snow also fell in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
on the 7th
In Norway, temperatures hit −42°C on the 7th in the central village of Folldal
Folldal
Folldal is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Dovre. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Folldal. The new municipality of Folldal was separated from Alvdal in 1914.-Name:...
a as snow fell across Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and -42.4 C at Tynset
Tynset
Tynset is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tynset.-Name:...
. on the 8th as Kuusamo
Kuusamo
Kuusamo is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in the Oulu province and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
in Finland, the lowest registered temperature was -37.1 C. Heavy blizzards and snow storms raged across Germany, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and the northwestern parts of European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
.
In Poland, more snow hit the Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province , is one of the 16 voivodeships into which Poland is currently divided. It lies in southwestern Poland...
and nine people died across the country in a 48-hour period, bringing the total weather-related deaths to 139 since the start of November, a police spokesman said. Most of the victims were vagrants, whose tragic lifestyle left them prone to the cold.
Switzerland's 24.5 kilometres (15.2 mi) Gotthard Road Tunnel
Gotthard Road Tunnel
The St. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland runs from Göschenen in the Canton of Uri at its northern portal, to Airolo in Ticino to the south, and is just under in length below the St. Gotthard Pass...
reopened to trucks on the 8th, following heavy snowfalls over the previous 2 days.
A heavy and snowy cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...
hit the Aleutian Islands on January 7 and 8. Snow accompanied a cold wave moving south through North America on January 8, and Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
received snowfall accumulations. In the mountainous regions, temperatures dropped to −10°C, killing nine people. The snow continued to fall on the 10th. Bitter weather may have wiped out some Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
as temperatures and snow depths exceeded those of the extraordinarily harsh winter of 1963 to 1964.
January 7 saw the snow and ice continuing to affect the snow-tormented counties of Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
and Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. Because of the dangerous conditions concerning the build-up of snow and black ice
Black ice
Black ice, sometimes called glare ice or clear ice, refers to a thin coating of glazed ice on a surface.While not truly black, it is virtually transparent, allowing black asphalt/macadam roadways to be seen through it, hence the term "black ice"...
, Banbury Museum
Banbury Museum
Banbury Museum is a local museum in the town of Banbury, north Oxfordshire, England.The museum is located in the centre of Banbury by the Oxford Canal. Its displays present the history of the town. They include the English Civil War, Banbury as a market town in Victorian times, the Oxford Canal,...
, the Cherwell District Council customer service centre and Cherwell District Council tourist information centre were closed. Many Oxfordshire locations had between 1 and 2 ft of unmelted snow by then. Cherwell District Council workers began using a mixture of table salt and sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
instead of their diminishing road grit and rock salt supplies.
Record overnight temperature lows of -22.3 C were recorded in Altnaharra
Altnaharra
-Notable persons:*Linda Norgrove, kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and killed by a US grenade during a rescue effort.-External links:**...
, Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
shire, in the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
on the 7th. as another area of low pressure over the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
started bringing further fronts of snow over the east of Great Britain on 7 January, accompanied with cold, easterly winds. The snow continued in to the 9th and the UK almost ran out of road salt, rock salt, table salt and road grit supplies due to the heavy demand from various agencies and local government bodies.
By 7 January 2010 twenty-two people had officially died in the UK because of the freezing conditions. The Department of Health
Department of Health (United Kingdom)
The Department of Health is a department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for government policy for health and social care matters and for the National Health Service in England along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish,...
wildly over-estimated that the cold weather could cause up to 40,000 excess deaths in the UK if it continued much longer. 122 people had already died in Poland, most of them reportedly homeless and 11 had died in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. Deaths in Bosnia and Austria luckily stood at only 4, with Kosovo only losing 1 life so far.
The heavy snowfall across the British Isles between January 6 to 9, resulted in large-scale traffic disruption, closed airports, many canceled trains and hundreds of school closures. A polar low
Polar low
A polar low is a small-scale, long-lived atmospheric low pressure system that is found over the ocean areas poleward of the main polar front in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The systems usually have a horizontal length scale of less than and exist for no more than a couple of days. ...
developing in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
brought fronts of snow over southern England before moving south and dissipating. Two middle-aged men died after falling into a frozen lake in Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, in the English Midlands. 27 major companies in Britain were ordered to halt using gas on the 9th in order to maintain supplies amid unprecedented levels of demand and major companies had their gas turned off on the 8th, in the first such move since 2003, although there was no immediate danger for households of supplies running out. The Automobile Association
The Automobile Association
The Automobile Association , a British motoring association founded in 1905 was demutualised in 1999 to become a private limited company which currently provides car insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans and motoring advice, and other services...
, a motor vehicle breakdown service, said they had dealt with about 340,000 breakdowns since December 17, including a local government
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
snow plough that had overturned after it had hit black ice near Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
. A representative from Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
also confessed to the local media that they had a snowplough breakdown earlier in the day. Several thousand schools remained closed and several of the weekend's Premier League football matches were cancelled.
Overnight temperatures of -22.3 C were recorded in Altnaharra
Altnaharra
-Notable persons:*Linda Norgrove, kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and killed by a US grenade during a rescue effort.-External links:**...
in the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
. Heavy snow fell in the North of England throughout the day giving significant accumulations. A high of –7.7°C was recorded at Tulloch Bridge.
Heavy snow fell in Denmark on the 8th. By the evening of January 8, the Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
Islands off the northeast coast of Germany was covered, on average, in 30 centimetres of snow while the capital Berlin was carpeted with snow and ice. Autoclub Europa warned that chaotic traffic conditions could potentially leave large parts of Germany completely paralysed as the country prepared for further freezing conditions as forecasters warned that temperatures would drop below −20 degrees Celsius (−4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. German officials had also acknowledged a shortage of grit and fear that high winds and drifting snow had closed may German autoroutes and roads, along with parts of Frankfurt airport
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport may refer to:Airports of Frankfurt, Germany:*Frankfurt Airport , the largest airport in Germany*Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport, a general aviation airport*Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , a converted U.S...
. As shortages in road salt and grit were already being feared, while the authorities recommended that people consider stocking up with a few days' worth of food and water. The A5 autoroute leading from Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
into France was closed on Friday afternoon, leading to a queue of hundreds of lorries building up. The road was opened again on Saturday morning, enabling careful drivers to proceed with their journeys. Snow was also proving to be a major problem in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
and the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
. The country's nature protection group N.A.B.U.
Nabu
Nabu is the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort, Sarpanitum, and as the grandson of Ea. Nabu's consort was Tashmetum....
has recommended that people put out food for birds since the cold and snowy weather had ruined their usual feeding patterns.
Meanwhile, some light snow also fell in Kosovo, Udmurtia
Udmurtia
The Udmurt Republic , or Udmurtia is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Izhevsk. Population: -History:...
and Ryazan Oblast
Ryazan Oblast
Ryazan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Ryazan, which is the oblast's largest city. Population: -Geography:...
, but heavier snow fell in many parts of Ukraine. Temperatures fell as low as −30°C and −29°C in parts of Ukraine and similar temperatures occurred in neighbouring parts of Russia. Heavy show would hit Moscow on the 9th.
A husky
Husky
Husky is a general name for a type of dog originally used to pull sleds in northern regions, differentiated from other sled dog types by their fast hard pulling style...
dog race took place in Thetford
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
on the 8th.
On Saturday, the 9th of January, Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
officer PC Paul Froggatt urged people not to try walking on the frozen Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
by the Castle Quay Shopping Centre in Banbury or in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
city. Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police, formerly known as Thames Valley Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley area covered by the ceremonial counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire....
had also logged cases of people falling through the ice in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
and Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
. One man even tried to drive his car down a part of the frozen canal in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and nearly died after it fell through the ice, while another man died on Teesside
Teesside
Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...
as he tried to rescue some puppies that were stranded on melting ice on the River Tees
River Tees
The River Tees is in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines, and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar.-Geography:...
. Oxford City Council also warned of the dangers of playing on the frozen canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
and/or frozen lakes.
A new wave of heavy snow was first reported in central and northern of France on the 9th, with the both the Cotentin Peninsula
Cotentin Peninsula
The Cotentin Peninsula, also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy, forming part of the north-western coast of France. It juts out north-westwards into the English Channel, towards Great Britain...
and Paris being the worst-affected parts of France. The French government said all non-essential travel should be avoided in these localities. Significant snowfalls caused major delays to train services, blocked roads and some 15,000 people in areas around city of Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
experienced power cuts power lines collapsed under the weight 30 centimetres of snow. Airlines cancelled a quarter of flights on Paris's main Charles de Gaulle airport. Road salt and grit supplies were running low in some districts due to their unexpectedly heavy use.
January 10–11
Heavy rain and melt water caused the worst floods in AlbaniaAlbania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
in nearly 50 years, as 2, 500 homes being evacuated. An artificial lake in the Kosinj valley overflowed after it rose by 8 centimetres in 1 hour. The worst hit areas in Albania were the Shkodra district and to a lesser degree Tirana
Tirana
Tirana is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of over...
.
On 10 January, Croatia declared a national flood emergency as the Neretva river valley is flooded. The town of Metkovic
Metkovic
Metković is a city in the Dubrovnik-Neretva county of Croatia, located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the river Neretva and on the border with Herzegovina.-Demographics:...
was also flooded as the river reached a near record high level. Northern Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
also got flooded in related storm system. Heavy hailstorms also hit the Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
that day.
Snow hit the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
on 10 January.
During the early hours of 10 January, light snow showers spread across parts of Central England and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. The maximum temperature was -13.5 °C in Altnaharra
Altnaharra
-Notable persons:*Linda Norgrove, kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and killed by a US grenade during a rescue effort.-External links:**...
and low of -18.4 °C was recorded at Kinbrace. On the 11th rain, sleet and snow travelled northwards throughout the early hours. Allenheads
Allenheads
Allenheads is a village in Northumberland, England, situated in the Pennines to the north of Weardale. It is the village at the highest altitude in England. Allenheads is situated 8 miles further along the river East Allen from Allendale...
in England had fears over a potential 15 ft (4.6 m) snowdrift
Snowdrift
A snowdrift is a deposit of snow sculpted by wind into a mound during a snowstorm. Snowdrifts resemble sand dunes and are formed in a similar manner, namely, by wind moving light snow and depositing it when the wind is slowed, usually against a stationary object. Snow normally crests and slopes...
. A low of -21.0 °C was recorded in Altnaharra in Highland Region.
More than 300 flights were cancelled in the 10th and 11th at Germany's Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport may refer to:Airports of Frankfurt, Germany:*Frankfurt Airport , the largest airport in Germany*Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport, a general aviation airport*Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , a converted U.S...
. All three runways were cleared and being used by the 12th despite of light snow falls that day.
The snowstorms and blizzards of the 11th brought widespread travel chaos to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. Airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
s, Motorways and railways were closed en masse due to heavy snow and ice. Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Finland, Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
also reported some snowfall.
The Banbury Guardian
Banbury Guardian
The Banbury Guardian is a local tabloid newspaper published in Banbury, Oxfordshire. It serves north Oxfordshire, southwest Northamptonshire and southeast Warwickshire...
and Oxford Mail
Oxford Mail
Oxford Mail is a daily tabloid newspaper in Oxford, England owned by Newsquest. It is published six days a week. It is a sister paper to the weekly tabloid The Oxford Times.-History:...
released videos and photos of Oxford and Banbury on the 11th as part of a name and shame
Name and Shame
To name and shame is to "publicly say that a person, group or business has done something wrong". It is used to discourage some kinds of activity by publishing the names of those involved.-Anti-social and criminal:...
campaign against the idiotic people walking on the frozen canal.
January 10 saw heavy snow fall in Chicago.
On January 10, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa , born Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr., is the 41st and current Mayor of Los Angeles, California, the third Mexican American to have ever held office in the city of Los Angeles and the first in over 130 years. He is also the current president of the United States Conference of...
cancelled a trip to Washington to monitor L.A.'s response to the Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
rainstorms. Villaraigosa had been scheduled to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter meeting at the nation's capital on Wednesday and was going speak about the success of the city's summer jobs program for at-risk youth.
Freezing rain
Freezing rain
Freezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air, many hundred feet , just above the surface, and then freeze upon impact with any object they encounter. The resulting...
storms battered parts of Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
, Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
, killing dozens of people.
On 10 January, 1 person died and 5,435 were evacuated after a snowstorm in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs
Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China is a ministry under the jurisdiction of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, responsible for social and administrative affairs. It was founded in May 1978, and the current Minister is Li Xueju...
. A total of 261,800 people in 12 counties or cities were affected by the blizzards.
On 11 January, intense snowstorms hit a still beleaguered Europe. Many cars and a lorry were stuck in drifting snow near the northern German town of Soehlen. The German transport ministry warned people to travel on essential journey only. Polish authorities reported that there were about 140 hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
deaths in Poland, that nearly 50,000 Polish residents without electricity, that the PKP trains
PKP Intercity
PKP Intercity is a company of PKP Group responsible for long-distance passenger transport. It runs about 350 trains daily, connecting mainly large aglomerations and smaller towns, also servicing most of the international trains....
were delayed by as much as 9 hours and that most of Poland's homeless shelters were overflowing. Some shops were running out of drinking chocolate. A similar situation was also occurring in the shops and homeless shelters of the Czech Republic. Snow also fell in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
.
Coal supplies ran low at power plants as the death toll rose to two in the strong snowstorm in the Altai
Altay Prefecture
Altay Prefecture is located in northern Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 118,015 km² and a population of 561,667 . It is a part of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture...
and temperatures fell to -40°C on 12 January.
January 12–14
On 12 January, heavy snow caused hundreds of accidents, halted flights, and downed power lines in Poland; more than 160 people were trapped overnight on a frozen stretch of German roadway. Hundreds of road accidents were also reported in Germany over the weekend, especially along the BalticBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
Coast, where two men were killed in a car they were driving when it hit a tree in Nordvorpommern
Nordvorpommern
Nordvorpommern was a Kreis in the northern part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The district was created in 1994 by merging the three previous districts Grimmen, Ribnitz-Damgarten and Stralsund. On 4 September 2011, it was merged to Vorpommern-Rügen.It was situated at the coast of the Baltic...
after skidding in the treacherous conditions. Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
were also badly hit by snowy and freezing conditions.
Both the National Beef Association and National Farmers' Union Scotland asked for the Scottish Government to help rebuild steadings, which in some cases are not covered by insurance. Heavy snowfall continued for a second day in Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
, Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
and Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
.
A further 5 to 10 cm of snow fell across the UK during the midday of January 12, including Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. Many schools were once again closed across England and Wales. There were many road accidents and closures; the M25 motorway
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
was down to one lane between Leatherhead
Leatherhead
Leatherhead is a town in the County of Surrey, England, on the River Mole, part of Mole Valley district. It is thought to be of Saxon origin...
and Reigate
Reigate
Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
whilst roads stretching right across southern Great Britain were untreated causing havoc for commuters. Gatwick and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
airports were closed and many flights were delayed at Heathrow.
During 13 January the weather system continued north affecting much of Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
before reaching Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Eight of Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
's 33,000-volt
Volt
The volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
electricity substations
Electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...
, which were situated in Kennington
Kennington, Oxfordshire
Kennington is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire, just south of Oxford. The village occupies a narrow stretch of land between the River Thames and the A34 dual carriageway...
, Kidlington
Kidlington
Kidlington is a large village and civil parish between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and southwest of Bicester.-History:...
, Wheatley
Wheatley, Oxfordshire
Wheatley is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of Oxford.-Archaeology:There was a Roman villa on Castle Hill, about southeast of the parish church. It was excavated in 1845, when Roman coins dating from AD 260 to 378 and fragments of Roman pottery and Roman tiles were...
, Wantage
Wantage
Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....
, Deddington
Deddington
Deddington is a civil parish in Oxfordshire about south of Banbury. In scale Deddington is a village, but it has a town centre with a market place and the local football team is called Deddington Town FC.-History:...
, Eynsham
Eynsham
Eynsham is a village and civil parish about east of Witney in Oxfordshire, England.-History:Eynsham grew up near the historically important ford of Swinford on the River Thames flood plain...
, Berinsfield
Berinsfield
Berinsfield is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, about southeast of Oxford.-History:Palaeolithic and Roman artefacts were found during 20th century excavations to build the village. The Roman road between Dorchester-on-Thames and Alchester runs through the centre of Berinsfield...
and Cholsey
Cholsey
Cholsey is a village and civil parish south of Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire....
, near Wallingford failed apparently due to an electrical overload, causing several local blackouts; later saboteurs were officially blamed in the damage, and not an overload or mechanical failure as initially thought, according to Oxford Mail
Oxford Mail
Oxford Mail is a daily tabloid newspaper in Oxford, England owned by Newsquest. It is published six days a week. It is a sister paper to the weekly tabloid The Oxford Times.-History:...
. The only way into the Wye Valley
Wye Valley
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. It is one of the most dramatic and scenic landscape areas in southern Britain....
on the 13th, was by snow plough, tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
or quad bike
Quad bike
A Quad bike is recognised by UK law as a vehicle with four wheels and a mass of less than 550 kg.To drive a quad bike on a public road, in the UK, requires a B1 licence as well as tax, insurance and registration.-19th century:...
. Teachers and parents helped dig out Princes Risborough School
Princes Risborough School
Princes Risborough School is a co-educational secondary school in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. In September 2011 the school became an Academy.. It takes children from the age of 11 through to the age of 18 and has approximately 925 pupils...
as about 6 inches of snow falls across Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
and Oxfordshire, according to Bicester Advertiser
The Oxford Times
The Oxford Times is a weekly newspaper, published each Thursday in Oxford, England. It is published from a large production facility at Osney Mead, west Oxford, and is owned by Newsquest, the UK subsidiary of US-based Gannett Company....
and Bucks Herald
Bucks Herald
The Bucks Herald is a weekly newspaper, published every Wednesday and covering Aylesbury and its surrounding villages in the Aylesbury Vale area of Buckinghamshire, England. It was first published on January 7, 1832....
newspaper. Peter Cornal of Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is a British charity which aims to promote safety. It is particularly known for its vocal campaigns on issues of road safety, including Tufty the road crossing squirrel, the Cycling Proficiency Test and the Green Cross Code, as well as on issues of...
and Principal Jonathan Johnson of Aylesbury Vale Academy both warned people not to skate on Watermead Lake in Buckinghamshire.
On 14 January, southerly to south-easterly winds brought bands of snow to northern parts of Britain. An inch of snow fell in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
with further accumulations in areas outside the other towns and cities. Travel was disrupted somewhat.
About 440 Welsh schools were either fully or partially closed on Thursday the 14th.
The English snowfall began to ease on the 14th and the British government ordered an inquiry into the road salt and grit shortage scandal crisis, travel disruption and the poor handling of the disaster by various British companies and agencies.
As the thaw took hold in the UK and France, rain began to fall across the UK. An 11-year-old girl named Naeemah Achha slid up on a patch of ice outside St. Michael from St. John Primary School in Blackburn, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
on the 14th and died later in Royal Manchester Children's Hospital
Royal Manchester Children's Hospital
The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is a children's hospital based in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. It is part of the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust...
the next day. Head teacher
Head teacher
A head teacher or school principal is the most senior teacher, leader and manager of a school....
Kay Cant described her as an intelligent, vivacious, kind and popular girl. Blackburn with Darwen Council's leader Michael Lee described her death as a very shocking incident.
It was revealed on the 14th that all of the British county councils, London boroughs and unitary authorities were advised by the government to have six days' supplies of road salt in 2009. Up to 30 councils rejected last year's offer of thousands of tonnes of de-icing salt at a reduced price, to use on the roads this winter according to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The British Salt
British Salt
British Salt Limited is a United Kingdom-based chemical company that produces pure white salt. The company is owned by the management and private equity company LDC...
Director David Stephen made an offer out of the firm's 60,000 tonnes stockpile at Middlewich
Middlewich
Middlewich is a market town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is east of the city of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach....
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, in April 2009, but virtually no one to take up the offer. Evidence suggests that only a few took up the government's advice. The Highways Agency
Highways Agency
The Highways Agency is an executive agency, part of the Department for Transport in England. It has responsibility for managing the core road network in England...
had 13 days worth of road salt, while Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Kirklees
Kirklees
The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 401,000 and includes the settlements of Batley, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Kirkburton, Marsden, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
City, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, Cherwell District and the London Borough of Harrow
London Borough of Harrow
The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...
took up the offer and raised their stock piles to seven days worth. The Cherwell Borough
Cherwell (district)
Cherwell is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district takes its name from the River Cherwell, which drains south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford....
, Bicester Parish, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
borough, Harrow, Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, Brighton and Hove unitary authority, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
city, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
city and Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross is one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth is the administrative centre...
councils nearly to run out of salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
. Scotland, Cumbria, Northumbria and Northern Ierland were getting priority access to salt due to the severity of the local landscape and storm activity.
There were also road closures in Ceredigion
Ceredigion
Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...
including the A4120 at Ponterwyd
Ponterwyd
Ponterwyd is a village in Ceredigion, Wales. It lies in the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales, approximately 12 miles east of Aberystwyth on the A44 road.-Historical background:...
, and the A4086 at Nant Peris in Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...
had been shut down due to hazardous driving conditions. All of Caerphilly
Caerphilly
Caerphilly is a town in the county borough of Caerphilly, south Wales, located at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley, with a population of approximately 31,000. It is a commuter town of Cardiff and Newport, which are located some 7.5 miles and 12 miles away, respectively...
's 90 schools and Rhondda Cynon Taf's (RTC) 130 schools either were fully or partially shut except to pupils sitting there. To Wales' Education Minister
Education minister
An education minister is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters.-Country-related articles and lists:Minister of Education may refer to:...
Leighton Andrews
Leighton Andrews
Leighton Andrews is a Welsh Labour politician, currently the National Assembly for Wales member for Rhondda since 2003...
, Welsh First Minister
First Minister
A First Minister is the leader of a government cabinet.-Canada:In Canada, "First Ministers" is a collective term that refers to all Canadian first ministers of the Crown, otherwise known as heads of government, including the Prime Minister of Canada and the provincial and territorial premiers...
Carwyn Jones
Carwyn Jones
Carwyn Howell Jones is a Welsh politician and the First Minister of Wales. The third official to lead the Welsh Government, Jones has been Assembly Member for Bridgend since 1999. In the coalition government of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, he was appointed Counsel General for Wales and Leader of...
and the WJEC exam board helped organise the Welsh GCSEs and A-level exam locations. A Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
exam was held in a local sports centre's hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
arena according to the BBC.
Temperatures of +43.6C were reported in parts of Australia as a heat wave hit most of the country. Heavy rain also fell in parts of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia.
January 15–18
As the snow cleared from the United States, the British Isles and Europe, rain began to fall in place on the 14th and the snow also began to relent in both China, KoreaKorea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Japan on the 15th. Light snow was reported in Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
on the 14th and 15th.
On the 15th, Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...
said seven people had been injured when 10 cars crashed on the A627(M) in Oldham.
Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
severe weather warnings covered Wales and western parts of England and Scotland and snow was forecast for the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
and Scottish and Welsh hills. The Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
has warned about flooding in some areas of England and Wales. BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas warned of localised flooding in western parts of the UK caused by melting snow, rain and gale-force winds.
Later on, the Environment Agency warned that heavy rain and snow melting in slightly warmer temperatures meant that there was a risk of some localised flooding from drains, especially in Wales and parts of England, but homes were unlikely to be affected as 15 flood watches were put in place. They warned that flood warnings for possible isolated river flooding in these areas, as heavy rain moves in from the south west on Friday evening. The Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
and said heavy rain would move in from the west accompanied by strong to gale force winds on Saturday. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland’s environmental regulator. Its main role is to protect and improve Scotland's environment...
had five flood watch
Flood watch
Flood alerts are issued by weather agencies to alert residents that flood conditions are a possibility for their area.-Types of flood alerts:...
es under way. Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police, formerly known as Thames Valley Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley area covered by the ceremonial counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire....
warned motorists about surface flooding and aquaplaning on Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
's roads.
The 15th brought rain and thawing to much of southwest England and a pocket around Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
. In the city of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
rain on frozen ground had overnight caused glazed frost which had largely (but not completely) gone by morning, and at midday the clouds were running fast from the south; the January snowfall was melting fast, but the pre-Christmas snowfall, which was trodden had half thawed to slush and then frozen hard to solid ice overnight, was slower to melt. In Scotland the thaw melted fresh snow. Flood warnings were issued.
Snow fell in parts of southern Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
on the 16th. The Cairngorm Ski Centre was closed as an army of diggers was trying to clear its car park after further snowfalls. The river Derwent
River Derwent, Cumbria
The Derwent is a river in the Lake District of the county of Cumbria in the north of England. The name Derwent is derived from a Celtic word for "oak trees"....
was put under a flood watch
Flood watch
Flood alerts are issued by weather agencies to alert residents that flood conditions are a possibility for their area.-Types of flood alerts:...
in places on the 16th.
On January 17, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was given more than 850 tons of grain, edible oil and other daily supplies, 4,950 tons of coal and 900 tons of emergency cattle fodder.
On January 17, both melting snow, heavy rain and frozen ground have caused flooding in much of England, Scotland and Wales. The Environment Agency issued a total of 23 flood warnings were issued in England, one in force for Scotland and two in Wales. In Scotland a landslide led to the temporally closure of the A76 in Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...
, while a section of the M74 was shut temporally shut due to flooding.
Many properties in Maesteg
Maesteg
Maesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 17,859, but it is now at an estimate of 20,000....
, Bridgend
Bridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...
, Ebbw Vale
Ebbw Vale
Ebbw Vale is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River, south Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough...
and Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
were also flooded. Mid and West Wales Fire service sent extra appliances to the Carmarthen Bay
Carmarthen Bay
Carmarthen Bay is an inlet of the south Wales coast. The coastline includes famous beaches, including the Pendine Sands and Cefn Sidan sands, and is partially covered by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park....
holiday village
Holiday village
A holiday village is a park, that is developed as a holiday resort in which the visitors stay in villas. There is a central area with shops, entertainment and other amenities. One of the most well known chains of holiday villages is Center Parcs.A holiday village is also a system of club hotels...
at Kidwelly
Kidwelly
Kidwelly is a town in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, approximately north-west of the main town of Llanelli.It lies on the River Gwendraeth Fach above Carmarthen Bay. The town is twinned with French village St Jacut de la Mer.-History:...
, where the flooding was described as 'major to severe'. The River Wye
River Wye
The River Wye is the fifth-longest river in the UK and for parts of its length forms part of the border between England and Wales. It is important for nature conservation and recreation.-Description:...
, River Dee
River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
(Welsh: Afon Dyfrdwy) in the lower Dee Valley, River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
(at Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
) and River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
were all in full flood.
Severn Trent Water, which provides water to central England and parts of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, said it had drafted in extra staff as ruptured and frozen pipes began to thaw. Many pipes had ruptured in the Welsh Marches
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
and a sewerage pipe had become blocked in outer Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. The company's senior operations manager, Fraser Pithie, said the firm had been called out to more than 470 burst and ruptured pipes since the 10th and their call centre staff had taken more than 10,000 calls.
January 17–26
On Sunday, January 17 to Saturday, January 26, a series of 4 very powerful rainstorms bore down on Southern California, and spread eastward on the 20th, piling more snow across the Great PlainsGreat Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
and even as far as parts of both Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. 200 homes were evacuated as floods hit parts of California as up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in the first of the storms. Rescue and flood prevention services soon got everything under control, but one man was killed when a tree fell onto his house. Two horses also died after being hit by lighting in a Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
field. Rare tornado warnings were enforced in parts of Southern California, including southern Los Angeles, Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, Southeastern San Diego County, and Anaheim. Flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
watches covered Los Angeles, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, on the Pacific coast. As of 2010 the county had a population of 423,895. The county seat is Santa Barbara and the largest city is Santa Maria.-History:...
, and the Ventura counties. An EF-0 tornado was even reported in Southeastern San Diego County, that lasted for 1 minute, 30 seconds! Jim Rouiller, the senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics Inc., said in that the storms (more specifically, the 4th storm, which was the strongest one) were the worst series of storms since 1997 (the one that caused the 1997 Northern California New Year's Day Flood. The 4th storm also neared the record of the lowest pressure system ever experienced in San Diego (as the 4th storm registered a minimum pressure of 978 millibars). He expected that evening's storm to bring from 4 to 12 inches of rain, severe mudslides, a few tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
es and heavy mountain snow ranging from 6 to 15 feet across the Sierra range. A heavy rain storm also hit Santee, California
Santee, California
Santee is a suburban city in San Diego County, California with a population of 53,413 at the 2010 census. Although it is a part of the East County region, Santee is located just from the Pacific Ocean. The city is connected to the coastline by State Route 52, a six-lane freeway that runs from...
on January 19
Heavy rain fell in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
and King's Sutton
King's Sutton
King's Sutton is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, England in the valley of the River Cherwell. The village is about south-east of Banbury, Oxfordshire...
, causing some flooding. The River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
nearly flooded Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
and in parts of Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. Light snow fell in the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
the 19th.
January 19–30
On 20 January, heavy rainstorms wreaked havoc in HaifaHaifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, as snow covered Mount Hermon
Mount Hermon
Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top there is “Hermon Hotel”, in the buffer zone between Syria and Israeli-occupied...
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Both Wakehurst Place, near Ardingly
Ardingly
Ardingly is a village and civil parish in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty about north of Haywards Heath in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. The village is about south of London, south-south-west of East Grinstead, southeast of Crawley, north of Brighton and ...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
and Bedgebury Pinetum
Bedgebury Pinetum
Bedgebury National Pinetum at Bedgebury, Kent, in the United Kingdom, is a recreational and conservational arboretum and, with the National Arboretum at Westonbirt, comprises the UK National Arboreta. It was established as the National Conifer Collection in 1925 and is now recognised as the most...
, near Lamberhurst
Lamberhurst
Lamberhurst is a village and civil parish in Kent although the latter parish was at first in both Kent and East Sussex. The line of the county border was adjusted following the Local Government Act 1894, which required that parish boundaries be aligned with counties...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, have also been damaged. Iain Parkinson, Wakehurst's woodland and conservation manager who has worked on the estate for 23 years, said it was the worst storm he had ever seen in the park.
California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
State water officials warned on January 21 that one week of heavy rain and snow was not enough to end the drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
, which is entering its fourth year by 2010. According to measurements on the Thursday, the average water content of state's mountain ranges' snowpack
Snowpack
Snowpack forms from layers of snow that accumulate in geographic regions and high altitudes where the climate includes cold weather for extended periods during the year. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as they melt. Snowpacks are the drinking water source for...
s, considered the state's biggest de facto 'reservoir', was at 107% percent of normal capacity. As the fourth and potentially most powerful of the week's storms slammed in to California, officials predicted as much as four feet (1.2 metres) of snow would fall in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
.
A new snow storm came over the Peter the Great Gulf
Peter the Great Gulf
The Peter the Great Gulf is the largest gulf of the Sea of Japan adjoining the coast of Russia's Primorski Krai...
, near Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
on January 21. The Onland Mountains and Sikhote-Alin Mountains were buried in snow as the weather system swept through Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais, Russia. Lake Khanka froze over and was then covered in snow. The ice on the lake was reported to be several inches thick and the snow was spreading into China's Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
province.
21 January witnessed the final day of some Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
schools remaining shut after 2 weeks general closure, in which most remained shut throughout the fortnight. The video of people skating
Ice skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
and walking on the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
was shown on regional TV again, along with a nationwide online version. Heavy rain fell in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
and Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
as light snow fell in the Pennines on the 22nd.
The snowstorm that began on Friday night, the 22nd was also hitting parts of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, where a man suffering from a heart attack died in the country's northeastern region of Silistra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...
, when the ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
he was being carried on was road that was blocked by several snow drifts. Power, gas and water cuts occurred in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. In Turkey's western region, near the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n borders, villages were cut off and all the major roads were blocked by heavy snow. A bus overturned in Istanbul, injuring 10 people; Bulgarian authorities urged people to avoid travel due to heavy snowfall. Dozens of stranded cars and trucks were abandoned due to heavy snow in eastern Bulgaria and a train was trapped near the border with Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. Some snow was also reported in neighboring parts of Romania.
Freshly fallen snow blanketed the north side of the San Gabriel Mountains
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains Range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east...
on the morning after the fourth storm of the week dissipated on January 23, 2010 northwest of Wrightwood, California
Wrightwood, California
Wrightwood is a census-designated place in San Bernardino County, California. It sits at an elevation of . The population was 4,525 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. Snow was reported in many parts of California. Severe rain fell in parts of Los Angeles on the 24th. 500 people were evacuated from a small village in La Paz County, Arizona
La Paz County, Arizona
La Paz County is a county in the western part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census its population was 20,489. The county seat is Parker...
due to a flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
.
A total of four people died on the 24th and 25th as snowstorms hit Turkey. The frozen body of 78-year-old Mehmet Aksit was found outside the small town of Akkisla
Akkisla
Akkışla is a town and district of Kayseri Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 9,864 of which 3,265 live in the town of Akkışla.-External links:* *...
in central Kayseri
Kayseri
Kayseri is a large and industrialized city in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Kayseri Province. The city of Kayseri, as defined by the boundaries of Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, is structurally composed of five metropolitan districts, the two core districts of Kocasinan and...
province after relatives reported him missing. On the 24th, Nuri Turhan, an 81-year-old Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
veteran's corpse was found in a mountainous region of Turkey's Aydin
Aydin
Aydın is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River at a commanding position for the region extending from the uplands of the valley down to the seacoast...
province, where he had gotten lost walking the day before and a 75-year-old man died of hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
in the northwestern Turkish province of Tekirdag
Tekirdag
Tekirdağ , the ancient Bisanthi , is a city in Eastern Thrace, in the European part of Turkey. Tekirdağ is the capital of Tekirdağ Province, felt by the local people to be a quieter and more pleasant town than the industrial centre of Çorlu, which it administers. The city population as of 2009 was...
.
The 4th person was found dead in a fierce snowstorm that caused power outages in Turkey and traffic chaos in neighbouring Bulgaria on the 25th.
Turkish climatologists working for Istanbul's Natural Disaster Coordination Committee told Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News that snowfall was predicted to continue until Monday evening and reach about 35 centimetres (14 inches) in parts of Istanbul.
It was revealed that at least 22 people had died due to low temperatures in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
in the last five days by January 25.
In late 2009 and early 2010 a series of massive snow and ice storms that swept the Dakotas caused a number of Indian Reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
s to lose power, heat, and running water for an extended period of time. The storms were most severe in both Ziebach and Dewey
Dewey County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,972 people, 1,863 households, and 1,386 families residing in the county. The population density was 3 people per square mile . There were 2,133 housing units at an average density of 1 per square mile...
counties, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
. The heavy snow, ice storms and low temperatures of January 26 led to Interstate 90
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 is the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It is the northernmost coast-to-coast interstate, and parallels US 20 for the most part. Its western terminus is in Seattle, at Edgar Martinez Drive S. near Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field, and its eastern terminus is in...
being closed from Chamberlain
Chamberlain, South Dakota
Chamberlain is a city in Brule County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,387 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Brule County. Chamberlain is home to the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, which profiles the lives of nomadic Plains Indians...
to the Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
border. At nightfall on Monday the 25th, Interstate 29
Interstate 29
Interstate 29 is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern United States. I-29 runs from Kansas City, Missouri, at a junction with Interstate 35 and Interstate 70 to the Canadian border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba Highway 75 via the short Manitoba Highway 29.-Route...
was closed from Sioux Falls to the North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
border.
Power company officials estimated that about 7,600 customers in South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
and 100 in North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
did not have power on Monday. Some phone systems have also experienced brief telecommunications outages. Kristi Truman, director of the North Dakota Office of Emergency Management was concerned about failing water and power supplies.
Power outages began with a storm in December knocking down around 5,000 power poles, and has been accelerated by an ice storm on January 22 knocking down another 3,000 power lines on the reservation. Among the tribes of South Dakota said to be suffering from the multiple storms are the Cheyenne River Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Flandreau-Santee Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
"There's been winters this bad before, but not with rain so bad it freezes the power lines and snaps the poles", said Joseph Brings Plenty, the 38-year-old chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. The worst day was on the 28th, when a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
froze to death in his home after running out of fuel.
The reservations were further buffeted by the First North American blizzard of 2010
First North American blizzard of 2010
The February 5–6, 2010 North American blizzard also known as "Snowmaggedon" was a winter storm and severe weather event that tracked from the U.S. states of California to Arizona through northern Mexico, the American Southwest, the Midwest, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions...
, which further depleted foodstocks and exacerbated the power problems.
25 Nepalese people, mostly children, died as a blizzard swept over most of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
on January 7. Snowstorms probably also occurred in mountainous Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
and Sikkim
Sikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
, but no reports were forthcoming.
January 28–31
On January 28 floods tore through the River DnieperDnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
's and Prypiat River's floodplains. Climatologists from the Ukrainian Hydro-meteorological Centre warned that the 2010 spring flood could be most severe in the past 10 years and that snow packs in some regions are more than usual. They also told the Ukrainian news agency UKRINFORM
Ukrinform
The National News Agency of Ukraine or Ukrinform is a Kiev-based Ukrainian news agency founded in 1918 during the Ukrainian War of Independence....
that February would bring more snow. Weather forecasters said that the abnormal winter in Ukraine has seen severe snowfalls being replaced with long-lasting frosts and temperatures as low as −30°C and the predicted flooding was an inevitability, both along the Prypiat River in the Volyn Oblast
Volyn Oblast
Volyn Oblast is an oblast in north-western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Lutsk. Kovel is the westernmost town and the last station in Ukraine of the rail line running from Kiev to Warsaw.-History:...
and in Ternopil Oblast
Ternopil Oblast
Ternopil Oblast is an oblast' of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Ternopil, through which flows the Seret River, a tributary of the Dnister.-Geography:...
and the River Dnieper in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
as the snow layer is twice as high than in recent years.
A stiff frost
Frost
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually...
, temperatures of −2°C to −3°C and a light mist occurred in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
and western Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, during the night as a cold front
Cold front
A cold front is defined as the leading edge of a cooler mass of air, replacing a warmer mass of air.-Development of cold front:The cooler and denser air wedges under the less-dense warmer air, lifting it...
crossed the UK. Several cars crashed due to skidding on black ice
Black ice
Black ice, sometimes called glare ice or clear ice, refers to a thin coating of glazed ice on a surface.While not truly black, it is virtually transparent, allowing black asphalt/macadam roadways to be seen through it, hence the term "black ice"...
.
On January 28, blizzards and severe sub-zero temperatures that have killed more than a million livestock in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
would force thousands of herders to migrate to shantytowns near the capital city of Ulan Bator. Extreme winter weather that began in December and followed a hard summer drought that prevented farmers from stockpiling food for their livestock. Dangerously heavy snow and temperatures as low as -40°C have affected 19 of Mongolia's 21 provinces, with more than 14,000 Mongolian and Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Red Cross volunteers across the region scrambling to deliver emergency food aid to impoverished herders who have lost nearly all their cattle.
The extreme weather had killed more than one million livestock, the herders' main source of income, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on the 29th. The bad weather has also reduced food security, intensified poverty and increased domestic rural-urban migration for many families. Central Dundgobi Province is one of those in the grip of a 'dzud' event (that is to say a 'major natural disaster'). A local herder named Javzmaa Batbold, a herder in Adaatsag County, Dundgobi province said that 120 of his 500 cattle had died so far. His ger
Yurt
A yurt is a portable, bent wood-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by Turkic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises a crown or compression wheel usually steam bent, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall...
(a traditional Mongolian felt and wood dwelling) was completely covered in snow, and only when the door's side cleared off did it reveal a dwelling lay underneath. The weather became rather extreme as 80 percent of Mongolia's territory was covered by snow, with depths of 20 to 90 centimetres.
The State Emergency Commission issued an appeal to Mongolia's people to launch a campaign to offer aid to herders and called for the international community
International community
The international community is a term used in international relations to refer to all peoples, cultures and governments of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them...
to donate food, medicines and equipment as well as funds to help herders. Most cattle in Adaatsag county of Dundgovi Province (Central Gobi), Mongolia died of hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
on the 30th. Fuel supplies were also running low.
Snowstorms hit the east coast of America and the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the 30th and 31st.
Heavy snow fell in the German Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
on the 30th and 31st. Travel chaos was widespread as the snow spread into Hungary and the rest of Germany.
Heavy snow storms also hit Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
on January 31.
The 30th saw heavy snow storms hit the east coast of America.
A nor'easter
Nor'easter
A nor'easter is a type of macro-scale storm along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada, so named because the storm travels to the northeast from the south and the winds come from the northeast, especially in the coastal areas of the Northeastern United States and Atlantic Canada...
dumped tons of snow over much of central and eastern parts of the United States. The nor'easter unleashed heavy snow over the Central United States, and left some places with over 15 inches or (39 cm) of snow. It then moved eastward and made a sly
Sly
-People:* Sly Stone , American musician and frontman for Sly & the Family Stone* Sylvester Stallone , American actor* Sly Bailey , British businesswoman, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, UK's largest newspaper publisher, and non-executive director of EMI* Sly Dunbar , Jamaican drummer* Sylvain...
turn up the coast of America, and left some places with over 12 inches of snow on Saturday, January 30, 2010. Rain and floods also hit Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. 6 inches of rain and temperatures of 15°C were recorded at Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
and L.A.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on the 31st.
February 1–4
On February 1, the Chinese governmentGovernment of the People's Republic of China
All power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...
aid arrived in Mongolia and included 10 million Yuan
Chinese yuan
The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The yuan is the primary unit of account of the Renminbi.A yuán is also known colloquially as a kuài . One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo or colloquially máo...
's (1.46 million U.S. dollars') worth of food, portable power generators and quilt
Quilt
A quilt is a type of bed cover, traditionally composed of three layers of fiber: a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding and a woven back, combined using the technique of quilting. “Quilting” refers to the technique of joining at least two fabric layers by stitches or ties...
s. Mr. Enkhbold Miyegombo, Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia
Prime Minister of Mongolia
The Prime Minister of Mongolia is the highest member of the Mongolian government's executive arm, and heads the Mongolian cabinet. The Prime Minister is appointed by Parliament, and can be removed by a vote of no confidence.-Powers:...
and head of the State Emergency Commission, said the aid given showed an embodiment of brotherhood between China and Mongolia, and Chinese Ambassador Yu Hongyao said he was confident that Mongolians would overcome the disaster in time. It was said to be the worst snow storms in both Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
and Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
in at least 30 years. The Red Cross Society of China
Red Cross Society of China
The Red Cross Society of China is the national Red Cross Society in the People's Republic of China.-Origins and history before 1949:...
has also announced a donation of 30,000 dollars for Mongolia, and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
sent several hundred tonnes of food aid to the country. Mongolia formally requested aid from the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
on the 2nd, after the extreme cold is calculated to have killed about 3% of the nation's 44,000,000 head of cattle thus far.
On February 1, utility crews were working overtime to get power back to the 14,000 residents of Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. The wind chill
Wind chill
Wind chill is the felt air temperature on exposed skin due to wind. The wind chill temperature is always lower than the air temperature, and the windchill is undefined at the higher temps...
factor averaged about -25º and there was about 1 foot of snow on the ground on average.
A powerful Alberta clipper
Alberta clipper
An Alberta clipper is a fast moving low pressure area which generally affects the central provinces of Canada and parts of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Most clippers occur between December and February, but can also occur occasionally in the month of November...
-type storm came from the north and headed towards an area of moist air left over from the previous day's thunderstorm over the Midwest on the 1st of February and was merging over central North America. It was estimated that it could potentially drop up to 6 inches on the Canadian Prairies
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are largely covered...
and North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
initially and eventually add 2 more inches as it hung around over night.
February 1 saw the earlier California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
n storm track its way through northern Mexico and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. It would shortly hit the east coast and cause chaos in the Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland areas by the February 6.
A cyclone and heavy rain-induced floods hit the Canary islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
on February 1 and 2. An unusual event dropped 82 mm of rain and flooded out 27,000 homes over a 24-hour period. Some mobile phones become inoperable due to storm-related interference and power supplies were cut overnight in some places. The average February rainfall is only 36 millimetres.
February 4 saw the worst winter in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
in 50 years, worst in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
in 70 years.
The snow and frost activity was proving to be exceptionally bad that winter across northern India. Official reports suggest that the states of Punjab, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
and Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
have borne the brunt of the freezing temperatures in India.
Officials at Canada's Vancouver Games were also worried about the lack of snow and frost.
The east coast had records various record low temperatures in southern states such as Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in the USA.
The eastern seaboard
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
, had like the western seaboard also suffered one of the worst winters on record. An already snow bound Washington, D.C. was expected to receive up to another 20 inches of snow that weekend . Snow was also threatening the American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
championship event known as the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
.
11 were killed by avalanches in Farah
Farah Province
Farah is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Farah. Farah is a spacious and sparsely populated province that lies on the Iranian border...
, Bamyan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces between the 4th and the 8th a spokesman of the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority said. The Afghan flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
s and avalanches left 20 others dead in the rest of the country on February 8. The provincial authorities had summoned an emergency meeting and loya Jurga to discuss responses on 8 February. Both Shah Wali Kot and Shorandam districts were the worst affected. Afghanistan generally expects about 400,000 people every year, according to experts at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
A series of avalanches caused by a storm in eastern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
killed 172 people on February 8 and 9.
February 5–11
Power outages in both the Dakotas now covered only 100 rural electric customers and minimal numbers in Bismarck, North DakotaBismarck, North Dakota
Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. The city's population was 61,272 at the 2010 census, while its metropolitan population was 108,779...
by February 5.
The second big snowstorm of the winter hammered the Washington, D.C. area on February 5. The El Niño phenomenon was blamed for the unusually high sea surface temperature
Sea surface temperature
Sea surface temperature is the water temperature close to the oceans surface. The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used, but it is between and below the sea surface. Air masses in the Earth's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a...
s in the Pacific Ocean that moved east, thus pulling rainfall along with it. Normally, El Niño brings increased rainfall across the east-central and eastern Pacific, leading to drier than normal conditions over northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The storm created historic snowfall totals in the Middle Atlantic states, rivaling the Knickerbocker Storm
Knickerbocker Storm
The Knickerbocker Storm was a blizzard that occurred on January 27–28, 1922 in the upper South and middle Atlantic United States. The storm took its name from the resulting collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C. shortly after 9 p.m...
of 1922, as well as extensive flooding and landslides in Mexico. The blizzard stretched from Mexico and New Mexico to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, killing forty-one people in Mexico, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and other places along its track.
Some places across Eastern West Virginia
Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia
The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is a narrow stretch of territory in the northeast of the state, bordering Maryland and Virginia, United States. The Eastern Panhandle Board of Realtors and other local civic organizations consider only the three Easternmost counties, Jefferson, Berkeley and...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
, Washington, D.C., and Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
were buried in between 2 and 3 ft (0.6096 and 0.9144 m) of snow
, causing air, rail, and Interstate highway
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...
travel to come to a halt. On February 6, authorities said about 4 inches of rain fell in Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
and 3.2 inches in Santa Barbara.
The snow storms of February 6 and 7 left record levels of snow in many cities. Approximately 2 ft (60 cm) of snow had fallen by midday on Saturday. The mayor of Washington, D.C., and the governors of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
declared states of emergency as the storm hit both Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
canceled several trains between New York and Washington, D.C., and also between Washington, D.C. and some southern destinations. The storm arrived less than two months after a December storm dumped more than 16 inches (41 cm) of snow in Washington, D.C.. Many power outages were also reported in the city.
February 7 saw yet more major power outages in the Washington, D.C. region. At least 420,000 homes were under a blackout as the snow felled trees and cut power lines. Some 300,000 homes were without electricity in Maryland and neighboring Virginia, while Washington, D.C. was reporting an initial figure of 100,000 power outages for that day. Emergency workers struggled to restore power as 2 ft (61 cm) of snow and a record snowfall 3 ft of (91 cm) fell on Maryland. Transport was badly disrupted from West Virginia to southern New Jersey. Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland have declared a short term state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
, allowing them to activate the National Guard in order to help cope with the storm's onslaught.
A father and daughter of McKeesport
McKeesport, Pennsylvania
McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in the United States; it is located at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 19,731 at the 2010 census...
were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs after enough inhalation of carbon monoxide . Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect...
after improperly using a domestic petrol generator after a power outage. On the February 7 two children drowned trying to cross the swollen Chapulin River in the central state of Guanajuato
Guanajuato
Guanajuato officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato....
, and other child deaths occurred in Angangueo
Angangueo
Angangueo is a town and municipality located in far eastern Michoacán state in central Mexico noted for its history of mining and its location in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. It is located in high rugged forested mountains, with the town in a small canyon...
, Zitácuaro
Zitácuaro
Zitácuaro is a city in the Mexican state of Michoacán. The city is the administrative centre for the surrounding municipality of the same name, which lies at the extreme eastern side of Michoacán and borders on the adjacent state of México...
, and Ocampo
Ocampo
- Places named Ocampo :Argentina:* Villa Ocampo, San Isidro, Buenos AiresMexico:* Michoacán de Ocampo, a state* Ocampo, Chihuahua* Ocampo, Coahuila* Ocampo, Durango* Ocampo, Guanajuato* Ocampo, Michoacán* Ocampo, TamaulipasPhilippines:...
. In total, twenty-eight deaths in the states of Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, Mexico State, and the Distrito Federal (Mexico City) in Mexico have been attributed to the storm on February 6 and 7.
On the 7th 10 people are dead in across Kandahar Province
Kandahar Province
Kandahar or Qandahar is one of the largest of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in southern Afghanistan, between Helmand, Oruzgan and Zabul provinces. Its capital is the city of Kandahar, which is located on the Arghandab River. The province has a population of nearly...
according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society
Afghan Red Crescent Society
The Afghan Red Cross Society is the Afghan affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The Society has existed for over 70 years although with limited structure due to the prevailing conditions which have affected the country at large for over 20 years.-...
(ARCS). Najibullah Barith, ARCS's director in Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
complained of lack of the local and national resources.
A series of avalanches
2010 Salang avalanches
The 2010 Salang avalanches consisted of a series of at least 36 avalanches that struck the southern approach to the Salang tunnel, north of Kabul, Afghanistan on February 8 and 9, 2010, burying of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travellers...
caused by a storm in eastern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
killed 172 people on February 8 and 9.
On the 7th 10 people are dead in across Kandahar Province
Kandahar Province
Kandahar or Qandahar is one of the largest of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in southern Afghanistan, between Helmand, Oruzgan and Zabul provinces. Its capital is the city of Kandahar, which is located on the Arghandab River. The province has a population of nearly...
according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society
Afghan Red Crescent Society
The Afghan Red Cross Society is the Afghan affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The Society has existed for over 70 years although with limited structure due to the prevailing conditions which have affected the country at large for over 20 years.-...
(ARCS). Najibullah Barith, ARCS's director in Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
complained of lack of the local and national resources.
11 were killed by avalanches in Farah
Farah
-Given name:* Farah Pahlavi , née Dibah, the last Empress of Iran* Farah , a Bollywood actress of 80s* Farah Hussain, Pakistani actress and presenter* Farah Khan, Indian choreographer and director...
, Bamyan, Ghor and Daykundi provinces between the 4th and the 8th a spokesman of the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority said. The Afghan flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
s and avalanches left 20 others dead in the rest of the country on February 8. The provincial authorities had summoned an emergency meeting and loya Jurga to discuss responses on 8 February. Both Shah Wali Kot and Shorandam districts were the worst affected. Afghanistan generally expects about 400,000 people every year, according to experts at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
A series of avalanches caused by a storm in eastern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
killed 172 people on February 8 and 9.
The 2010 Salang avalanches consisted of a series of at least 36 avalanche
Avalanche
An avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
s that struck the southern approach to the Salang tunnel
Salang tunnel
The Salang Tunnel , located in Parwan province, is a link between northern and southern Afghanistan crossing the Hindukush mountain range under the difficult Salang Pass....
north of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
on February 8 and 9 in 2010, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 of travellers. They were caused by a freak storm in the Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...
mountains located in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
Several heavy avalanches killed 15 and on a highway north of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
killed at least 15 and injured 55 on the 8th and 9 February, according to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). A few other avalanches and landslides also hit other parts of the snow laden Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...
at this time.
60 died and hundred were still missing On February 9 a treacherous mountain pass
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
series of avalanches smashed into and badly damaged an 2.6 km (1.6 mi) long Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-built Salang tunnel
Salang tunnel
The Salang Tunnel , located in Parwan province, is a link between northern and southern Afghanistan crossing the Hindukush mountain range under the difficult Salang Pass....
after several days of heavy snow in the Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...
. Afghan Interior Minister
Interior minister
An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
, Hanif Atmar 24 dead were found and 40 more were feared dead. The Defence Minister
Defence minister
A defence minister is a person in a cabinet position in charge of a Ministry of Defence, which regulates the armed forces in some sovereign nations...
, Abdul Rahim Wardak said 3,000 people had been trapped in vehicles along the mountain pass, that is at an altitude 3,400 meters (11,000 feet), but about 2,500 were rescued later that day. The road passengers got trapped in their vehicles out side of the Salang Tunnel
Salang tunnel
The Salang Tunnel , located in Parwan province, is a link between northern and southern Afghanistan crossing the Hindukush mountain range under the difficult Salang Pass....
, 9 miles north of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
. The International Security Assistance Force
International Security Assistance Force
The International Security Assistance Force is a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council on 20 December 2001 by Resolution 1386 as envisaged by the Bonn Agreement...
(ISAF) sent 2 helicopters to help evacuate people and drop essential supplies, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) said. Only helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s and pack horses could get there.
A powerful Alberta clipper
Alberta clipper
An Alberta clipper is a fast moving low pressure area which generally affects the central provinces of Canada and parts of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Most clippers occur between December and February, but can also occur occasionally in the month of November...
from western Canada and moist air from a line of thunderstorms over the mid-western United States merged over the central US on the 7th. In some places this dropped 6 inches (15.2 cm) over the Central and Eastern United States, much of it over areas already hit by the previous blizzard. 10–15 in (25.4–38.1 cm) was expected to fall on Washington, D.C., and up to 1–2 ft (0.3048–0.6096 m) of snow was forecast from New York City northward into New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. Several inches of snow fell in both Washington, D.C. and New York City on the night of February 10 and 11.
On February 8, there was nearly 45 centimetres (17.7 in) of snow recorded at Reagan National Airport, and nearby Dulles International Airport recorded a local record of 80 centimetres (31.5 in).
Snowmageddon
Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse and Snowzilla are portmanteaus of the word "snow" with either "Armageddon", "Apocalypse" and "Godzilla" respectively...
", by US president Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, after an SUV in his motorcade carrying journalists was damaged by a snapped limb, injuring one person. An area all the way from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, across the BosWash
BosWash
BosWash is a name coined by futurist Herman Kahn in a 1967 essay describing a theoretical United States megalopolis extending from the metropolitan area of Boston to that of Washington, D.C. The publication coined terms like BosWash, referring to predicted accretions of the Northeast, and SanSan...
corridor and south down to Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, was under at least 60 centimetres (23.6 in) of snow. Parts of Northern Maryland had 90 centimetres (35.4 in). The storm killed three people.
Snow began to fall throughout Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
, and Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
on the February 8 and February 10. Heavy winds and snow flurries also hit parts of Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, in Turkey, and Amur Krai, on February 9. 1 person suffered moderate injuries after slipping on ice in one of the rural northern districts of Amur Krai. On February 10 a deep cyclone formed over the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
bringing heavy snowfall over large parts of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
and lesser parts of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. Severe weather warnings have been issued in these countries. In Western Bulgaria it snowed non-stop for more than 48 hours, with up to a metre of snow accumulation in Kyustendil
Kyustendil
Kyustendil is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of Kyustendil Province, with a population of 44 416 . Kyustendil is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, 90 km southwest of Sofia...
.
United States federal government activities were ground to a halt by the, in some places 3 ft deep, snowfall in Washington, D.C. on the 10th.
February 11 saw heavy snow east coast USA, but power workers resorted electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
supplies to 100,000 users in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
on February 11 and some more was predicted for the next day.
On the 11th, about least 10 cm (4 in) of snow fell in some areas and strong winds have caused drifting in places across Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
. Snow also fell in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and the Grampian Mountains. Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
's coastguard helped dig out a stranded ambulance in the town. Kent County Council
Kent County Council
Kent County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors...
said all primary routes and secondary routes where possible had been gritted on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the snow showers. Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Kent covering a geographical area south of London, to the coast and including major shipping routes via the Thames and Medway rivers. The total coastline covered is ; it has 67 fire stations, and 4 district fire...
said it was helping some motorists stuck in snow drifts in parts of the county including Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
, Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and Lydd
Lydd
Lydd is a town in Kent, England, lying on the Romney Marsh. It is one of the larger towns on the Marsh, and the most southerly town in Kent. Actually located on Denge Marsh, Lydd was one of the first sandy islands to form as the bay evolved into what is now called the Romney Marsh...
. Chief Inspector Simon Black, of Kent Police
Kent Police
Kent Police is the territorial police force for Kent in England, including the unitary authority of Medway.-Area and organisation:The force covers an area of with an approximate population of 1,660,588 . The Chief Constable is currently Ian Learmonth, who was appointed in 2010 and is the former...
, said that all main routs were passable, but some were down to a single snow-free lane and BBC Radio Kent
BBC Radio Kent
BBC Radio Kent is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Kent.It broadcasts on FM on 96.7 , 97.6 and 104.2 also 774 and 1602 MW and DAB.- History :The radio station was launched in 1970 under the name of BBC Radio Medway, originally only serving the...
said that drivers should make essential journeys. Also 4 of its 4x4 vehicles
Sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...
were helping to transfer staff and patients to and from hospitals in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
and Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, in East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
. The exit slip road off the M20
M20 motorway
The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It runs from the M25 motorway to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is long...
, at junction 11a, closed because of the snow. A Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
lad was moderately burnt after spilling paraffin
Paraffin
In chemistry, paraffin is a term that can be used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to a mixture of alkanes that falls within the 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 range; they are found in the solid state at room temperature and begin to enter the...
he was trying to put in to a portable domestic generator unit that day.
February 12–19
Following a storm in the southeast United States on February 12–13, snow was on the ground simultaneously in all 50 U.S. states, an event believed never to have occurred previously. Snow was confirmed in 49 states by February 13, and small patches of remnant snow on the north face of Mauna KeaMauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest...
in Hawai'i
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
were confirmed soon after. The snow on February 12-13 forced the cancellation of Bi-Lo
BI-LO (United States)
BI-LO is a supermarket chain headquartered in Mauldin, South Carolina. As of May 2010, BI-LO operates 207 supermarkets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. The company employs approximately 17,000 people. Supermarket News ranked BI-LO No...
Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is situated on the center of a large and continuous stretch of beach known as the Grand Strand in northeastern South Carolina. It is considered to be a major tourist destination in the...
Marathon XIII after the 5k portion had been run the previous night. A record depth of 12.5 inches of snow fell within 24 hours in the Dallas–Fort Worth urban metro on the 13th. The result of the massive snowstorm led to whole school districts being shut down and over 200,000 buildings were left without power, and forced to use fire and candles to light and heat their homes. A 1 ft tall wind-induced wave swept 3 people off of various southern Californian beaches on the 14th, slightly injuring one. Light snow fell in both parts of Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
and Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, and heavily in the mountainous regions of Sakhalin Island on the 15th.
Moderate amounts of snow fell in Gwent
Gwent (county)
Gwent is a preserved county and a former local government county in south-east Wales. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent....
and Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
on the 16th. Weather forecasters warned of more snow predicted across South East Wales
South East Wales
South East Wales is a loosely-defined region of Wales generally corresponding to the former counties of South Glamorgan, Mid Glamorgan and Monmouthshire...
and parts of Central England. Moderate snow fall was reported in both Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, the Malvern Hills
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern...
, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
and Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
on the 17 and 18 February. The various London Authorities warned of growing travel chaos in London on the 18th.
Over two inches of snow had fallen in part of Gwent, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
and Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
on the 18th. The roadways in the Gloucestershire town of Dursley
Dursley
Dursley is a market town in Gloucestershire, England. It is under the North East flank of Stinchcombe Hill , and about 6 km South East of the River Severn. The town is adjacent with Cam which, though a village, is a community of double the size...
had been quickly covered in snow that as a cold weather front
Cold front
A cold front is defined as the leading edge of a cooler mass of air, replacing a warmer mass of air.-Development of cold front:The cooler and denser air wedges under the less-dense warmer air, lifting it...
moved over the west of the county of Gloucestershire, Chief Inspector Steve Porter, of Gloucestershire Constabulary
Gloucestershire Constabulary
Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire in England...
told motorists to take care and warned that many roads including the B4221 at Gorsley
Gorsley
Gorsley is an area in the southwest Midlands of England, on the border between Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.Gorsley itself is in Gloucestershire, forming part of the civil parish of Gorsley and Kilcot, but nearby Gorsley Common and Little Gorsley are both in Herefordshire...
and the A4136 at Longhope
Longhope
Longhope is a village in west Gloucestershire, situated just outside the Forest of Dean, England, United Kingdom.The placename Longhope means "long, enclosed valley" which describes the aspect of the village....
had had major accidents. Most of the roads would be closed due to heavy snow for the next few days. Moderate amounts of snow also fell in part of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire on the 19th.
February 20 – 22
Heavy snowfall occurred in Wales and the Midlands between the 18th and 20th. including in the Welsh town of Pant Glas, GwyneddGwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...
between the 18th and 20th.
Heavy snow in Ireland forced the cancellation of the National Hurling League
National Hurling League
The National Hurling League is an annual hurling competition between the county teams of Ireland. Contested by 35 teams , it operates on a system of promotion and relegation between four different divisions, with Division One...
(NHL) hurling
Hurling
Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...
match between Kilkenny
Kilkenny GAA
The Kilkenny County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland and is responsible for Gaelic Games in County Kilkenny. The county board has its head office and main grounds at Nowlan Park and is also responsible for Kilkenny inter-county teams...
and Tipperary
Tipperary GAA
The Tipperary County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or C is one of over 30 regional executive boards throughout the world. These executive boards are known as County Boards even though some no longer correspond to the area under the jurisdiction of the counties from which their names...
at Semple Stadium
Semple Stadium
Semple Stadium, located in Thurles, North Tipperary, Ireland, is the home of hurling for Tipperary GAA and for the province of Munster. It is the second largest stadium in Ireland with a capacity of 53,500....
in Thurles
Thurles
Thurles is a town situated in North Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Eliogarty and is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly...
on February 20. A horse racing meeting in Naas
Naas
Naas is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. With a population of just over twenty thousand, it is also the largest town in the county. Naas is a major commuter suburb, with many people residing there and working in Dublin...
was abandoned due to heavy snow the following day.
Light snow fell in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
overnight on the 20th and 21st, causing minor traffic disruption. Manchester Airport was heavily disrupted late on the 20th, closed at 07.10am on the 21st, but opened later that morning after much heavy work clearing the snow off of the runways. Flights were still disrupted by midday.
A Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
train, with between 700, 740 and 800 passengers on board, broke down in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
due to the extremely cold weather and heavy snow in the United Kingdom.
The Paris-to-London service eventually left Gare du Nord
Gare du Nord
Paris Nord is one of the six large terminus railway stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, including Paris Métro and RER...
railway station in Paris two hours late at about 8.15pm UK time
after an unattended bag caused a security alert. Everything was going according to plan, until they were two minutes away from Ashford
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
at 10.15 pm, when the train suddenly stopped, the lights flicked briefly and all power failed, leaving the victims in complete darkness at around 10.45 pm. Passengers reported that the lighting was flickering on and off in a "very spooky manner" throughout the journey, until the Eurostar suddenly stopped, and the lights finally went out completely. It then became stiflingly hot inside the train as the ventilation system shut down due to the power outage
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
on board the stricken Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
train. The chaos grew when most of the toilets stopped working and the staff struggled to find emergency lighting switches. Eventually the train manager walked through all the train carriages, using his emergency torch, announcing that another train and a bus were being sent to rescue them. Passengers carrying luggage then had to clamber down ladders on to the tracks and then back up on to the rescue train that arrived alongside the failed one. The rescue train arrived at St Pancras just after 2.30am on the 22nd, more than four-and-a-half hours later than the scheduled arrival time and the bus also took a few to Ashford, where they took local trains to London. Eurostar technical spokesman, Mr. Bram Smets, said it has stopped in what he described as a "major technical problem". Eurostar has launched a probe into the breakdown which left passengers stranded for 4 hours.
Between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. local time (and UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
), 108 mm (4¼ inches) of rain was recorded at Funchal
Funchal
Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...
weather station and 165 mm (6½ inches) of rain at the weather station on Pico do Areeiro. The average rainfall in Funchal for the whole of February is 88.0 mm (3½ inches). Damage was confined to the southern half of the island.
About 42 people were reported dead and about 68 to 100 injured as rain-induced floods and mudslides hit the Portuguese island of Madeira on the 20th, local authorities said. The floodwaters tore down buildings, overturned cars
CARS
Cars, or automobiles, motor cars, are wheeled motor vehicles used for transporting passengers.Cars or CARS may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Cars , a Disney/Pixar film series...
and knocked down trees.
The local civil protection service declared that it was "overwhelmed" by emergency calls, according to a duty police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
in an interview with a journalist from the Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
news agency. According to Portuguese media, the storms were the deadliest on the east Atlantic island since prior to October 1993, when 8 people died and 19 were injured.
The Portuguese military sent specialist rescue teams to the island of Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
on the 21st, when it was estimated that least 38 people were known to have died in the most extreme rainstorms in 17 years as tonnes of mud and stones brought down the slopes of the island, flooding the streets of the regional capital, Funchal
Funchal
Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...
, and other towns. All utilities were knocked out across large swathes of the island. Ribeira Brava was also badly flooded on the 21st. Portuguese Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Portugal
Prime Minister is the current title of the chief of the Portuguese Government. As chief executive, the Prime Minister coordinates the action of ministers, representing the Government from the other organs of state, accountable to Parliament and keeps the President informed...
Jose Socrates
José Sócrates
José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH , commonly known by José Sócrates , is a Portuguese politician who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011....
, who was in Madeira, ordered an immediate rescue and aid mission for the island. Portuguese President Cavaco Silva expressed his condolences in a televised statement.
A Portuguese Navy
Portuguese Navy
The Portuguese Navy is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the military defence of Portugal....
supply ship
Replenishment Oiler
A replenishment oiler or fleet tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds, which can replenish other ships while underway in the high seas. Such ships are used by several countries around the world....
, with a helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
, food and medical equipment
Medical equipment
Medical equipment is designed to aid in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions.-Types:There are several basic types:* Diagnostic equipment includes medical imaging machines, used to aid in diagnosis...
was sent to the islands that lie about 900 km/560miles from the Portuguese mainland. The Island is very popular with foreign tourists. Officials from the Portuguese Department of Emergencies said that emergency teams, 56 military rescuers, search dogs and 36 firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s were being sent to the island straight away.
The Island's authorities and the local civil protection board told CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
that one British tourist was missing. 10 British music students from a religious school in the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
were found alive in Funchal
Funchal
Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...
along with an Irish tourist as the city is thrown in to meteorological chaos. Local authorities informed the AFP news agency
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
that 70 people were hospitalized.
On the 22nd, 102 to 120 were confirmed injured and 42 were confirmed dead in Madeira. 2 British tourists were among the dead.
February 23–28
Heavy snow fell in OxfordshireOxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, the English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
and Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
on the 23rd and heavy snow fell in the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
on the 24th.
On February 24 a meteorological state of emergency was declared in 21 Mongolia's provinces due to the exceptionally cold conditions. It is purported to be the coldest snap for 50 years and that a person has already died of hypothermia.
A major winter storm
Winter storm
A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...
started plowing its way through upstate New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, southern Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
and Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Berkshire County is a non-governmental county located on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2010 census, the population was 131,219. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield...
on the 23rd. Colonie, New York saw a total of 17 inches of snow. Hancock, Massachusetts
Hancock, Massachusetts
Hancock is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 717 at the 2010 census.- History :...
had seen 9.5 inches, with the forecast total at 10-15 inches, and Stamford, Vermont
Stamford, Vermont
Stamford is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 813 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Stamford is located near the southwestern corner of Vermont, on the Massachusetts state line. To the south of Stamford lie Clarksburg, Massachusetts and Florida, Massachusetts...
had seen 9 inches.
Salem County, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
was hit by heavy snow fall on the 24th, and 4 to 12 inches of snow were predicted to fall the next day by weather forecasters. Just under 1,000,000 were left without electricity in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
On February 23, snow fell in Southeast Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Snow accumulated in counties north of Houston such as Conroe, Texas
Conroe, Texas
Conroe is a suburban city 40 miles north of Houston in the gulf coastal plains/piney woods region of southeast Texas.It is the seat of Montgomery County and falls within the metropolitan area.As of the 2000 U.S...
, which received 2 inches of snow. Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. The population was 35,508 at the 2010 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area....
had seen about 2 to 3 inches as well as College Station. Only a trace of snowfall fell in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
.
A winter storm warning was issued for counties north of Houston, while Houston had a winter weather advisory.
The extreme winter storm
Winter storm
A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...
spun around the Northeast
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
by the 25th. Oneonta, New York
Oneonta, New York
Oneonta is a city in southern Otsego County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, had a population of 13,901. Its nickname is "City of the Hills." While the word "oneonta" is of undetermined origin, it is popularly believed to mean "place of open rocks" in the Iroquois language...
had seen 44.5 in (113 cm) of snow from this storm. New York City had seen 20.9 in (53.1 cm), and Philadelphia had seen 11.5 in (29.2 cm) of snow. Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
had remained under light rain. Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
has seen 4.5 in (11.4 cm) of rain from this storm, and 9.2 in (23.4 cm) was reported in Belfast, Maine
Belfast, Maine
Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 6,668. Located at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River on Penobscot Bay, Belfast is the county seat of Waldo County...
. Major flooding prevailed along coastal New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. The Shawsheen River
Shawsheen River
The Shawsheen River is a tributary of the Merrimack River in northeast Massachusetts. The name has had various spellings. According to Bailey's history of Andover, the spelling Shawshin was the most common in the old records, although Shawshine, Shashin, Shashine, Shashene, Shawshene, and later,...
at Wilmington, Massachusetts
Wilmington, Massachusetts
Wilmington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 22,325 at the 2010 census.-History:Wilmington was first settled in 1665 and was officially incorporated in 1730, from parts of Woburn, Reading and Billerica. Minutemen from Wilmington responded to the alarm...
was at 8 feet above its banks, and the Merrimack River
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...
at Amesbury, Massachusetts
Amesbury, Massachusetts
Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Though it officially became a city in 1996, its formal name remains "The Town of Amesbury." In 1890, 9798 people lived in Amesbury; in 1900, 9473; in 1910, 9894; in 1920, 10,036; and in 1940, 10,862. The population was 16,283 at...
was at 20 feet above banks. On Friday morning and night, most of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
were without power. Sustained winds of up to 65 mph pounded the Cape Ann
Cape Ann
Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. The cape is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston and forms the northern edge of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester, and the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and...
area of eastern Massachusetts. Wind gusts of up to 95 mph were reported in Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
and Rockport, Massachusetts
Rockport, Massachusetts
Rockport is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,952 at the 2010 census. Rockport is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula...
. Millions of trees were felled in the wind from Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
to Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
. Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
received 52 mph sustained winds and 74 mph gusts. Between February 25 and 26 flood warning
Flood warning
Flood warning is closely linked to the task of flood forecasting. The distinction between the two is that the outcome of flood forecasting is a set of forecast time-profiles of channel flows or river levels at various locations, while "flood warning" is the task of making use of these forecasts to...
s covered most of Rhode island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, the Pawtuxet River
Pawtuxet River
The Pawtuxet River is a river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows and drains a watershed of . There are four dams along the river's length.-Course:...
valley, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and Norfolk County
Norfolk County, Massachusetts
-National protected areas:* Adams National Historical Park* Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area * Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site* John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site-Demographics:...
in eastern Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Orange County, New York
Orange County, New York
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
saw 2 to 3 feet of snow in Montgomery
Montgomery, New York
Montgomery, New York may refer to:* Montgomery , New York in Orange County* Montgomery , New York in Orange County* Montgomery County, New York...
and Bullville
Bullville, New York
Bullville, New York is a hamlet in the Town of Crawford in Orange County, New York, USA. It is located at the junction of routes NY-17K and NY-302.Bullville was one of the original four important settlements in the Town of Crawford....
.
Widespread snowfall across Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
brought extreme distruption. 61 cm of snow was recorded in Aviemore
Aviemore
Aviemore is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popular for skiing and other winter sports, and for hill-walking in the Cairngorm...
as hundreds of people were stranded in cars in Dunblane
Dunblane
Dunblane is a small cathedral city and former burgh north of Stirling in the Stirling council area of Scotland. The town is situated off the A9 road, on the way north to Perth. Its main landmark is Dunblane Cathedral and the Allan Water runs through the town centre, with the Cathedral and the High...
. Schools and transport services were distrupted. Two people died in Glencoe
Glen Coe
Glen Coe is a glen in the Highlands of Scotland. It lies in the southern part of the Lochaber committee area of Highland Council, and was formerly part of the county of Argyll. It is often considered one of the most spectacular and beautiful places in Scotland, and is a part of the designated...
in an avalanche
Avalanche
An avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
. Temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
s reached -19.2°C in Braemar
Braemar
Braemar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, around west of Aberdeen in the Highlands. It is the closest significantly-sized settlement to the upper course of the River Dee sitting at an altitude of ....
. Some people in Perthshire
Perthshire
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...
were stranded in their cars for 17 hours. 45,000 homes in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
were left without power. 30 schools were closed on the 25th.
On February 26, heavy snow hit New York and more was forecast for the next day.
On February 27 unusually heavy monsoon rains hit Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. 11 people died the town in Les Cayes
Les Cayes
Les Cayes , is a town and seaport in southwestern Haiti, with a population of approximately 45,904 people . Estimates from 2008 place the population at close to 70,000 people...
, 3 died in the village of Torbeck
Torbeck
Torbeck is a municipality in the Les Cayes Arrondissement, in the Sud Department of Haiti.It has 60,012 inhabitants....
,
5 died in the village of Les Cayes's Gelee as rain induced mudslides and flood waters hit them.
In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding which buried or washed away roads and railways leading to the ancent city of Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for...
, trapping over 2,000 tourists in addition to 2,000 locals. Machu Picchu was temporarily closed, but it reopened on 28 February 2010. Peru's rail crew has been hard at work since then, and Machu Picchu reopened to tourists on 1 April 2010.
Xynthia
51 were killed, 59 injured and 12 are missing in France, 6 killed in Germany, 3 killed and 2 severely injured in Spain, 1 killed in Portugal, 1 in Belgium, 1 in the Netherlands and 1 in England as heavy rainstorms hit the Bay of BiscayBay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...
and central France on the 27th. Winds of up to 140 km/h (87 mph) caused chaos as the storm moved from Portugal up through the Bay of Biscay, while a maximum gust of 228 km/h (141.7 mph) in Spain and 241 km/h (149.8 mph) in France were recorded. Both Belgium and Denmark were hit by heavy rainstorms overnight as the windstorm moved further northeast. The storm system moved across the Massif Central
Massif Central
The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....
into the Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
peninsula, and areas of France bordering Belgium and Germany are on alert for heavy rain and high winds. An Italian was also injured when a hurricane-force wind capsized his yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
off the coast of Portugal. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
expressed his condolences to relatives of victims, and said that he would visit the stricken area on Monday. The French Prime Minister François Fillon
François Fillon
François Charles Armand Fillon is the Prime Minister of France. He was appointed to that office by President Nicolas Sarkozy on 17 May 2007. He served initially until 13 November 2010 when he resigned from being prime minister before a planned cabinet reshuffle.On 14 November 2010, Sarkozy...
said France would formally declare the storm a natural disaster, freeing up funds to help communities rebuild themselves. Rail services were severely affected in northern Spain and a number of trains in western France were delayed because of flooded tracks in southern and western France. British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
canceled several flights and Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
said 100 of its flights had been cancelled from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Wind speeds hit 175 km/h at the top of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
, French radio reported on the 28th. The French meteorological service said that shortly after 1700 local time (1600 GMT) the storm passed into Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and there also were reports of high winds in the Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
on March 1. Spain's Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, particularly La Palma
La Palma
La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands...
, Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago...
and Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
, were also hit by the storm, although there was no great damage. The French Departments of Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
and Charente-Maritime
Charente-Maritime
Charente-Maritime is a department on the west coast of France named after the Charente River.- History :Previously a part of Saintonge, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...
were in ruins and over 1 million homes lost electricity supplies. Television, radio and mobile phone service were also disrupted in some places.
On February 28 the French part storms killed 7 people drowned in various villages in the Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
region, while 3 old folk people and a kid were found dead in Charente Maritime near La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
. A bloke was killed by a falling tree branch in the south-western town of Luchon, where winds reached 90mph. At least 5 other people were reported missing and dozens others injured and a kid died in Northern Portugal 5 people were missing and 1 was injured in Aytre
Aytré
Aytré is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Poitou-Charentes region in southwestern France.Aytré is especially known for its long beach, which is easily accessible from neighbouring La Rochelle, or Les Minimes...
. The French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux
Brice Hortefeux
Brice Hortefeux is a French politician he was Minister of the Interior, Overseas Territories and Territorial collectivities...
declared the storm as a natural catastrophe. The Météo France weather agency predicted the storm was by then heading towards Denmark.
March 1–5
It was confirmed on March 1 that 45-52 (reports vary) French people had died and the government had launched an equine in to why the incident had been so disastrously miss handled. especially around La RochelleLa Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
and L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer
L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer
L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer is a commune in the Vendée department in western France.-Geography:The river Lay forms all of the commune's northwestern border, then flows into the Atlantic Ocean, which forms all of its western border.-References:*...
. Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
visited the coastal town of Aiguillon-sur-Mer, the hardest hit area of France where a total 25 had died in the storm.
The 2010 Queensland floods
2010 Queensland floods
Heavy rain in March 2010 saw much of south western and central Queensland undergo major flooding. The floods saw inundation of the towns of Charleville, Roma, St George and Theodore among others...
saw inundation of the towns of Charleville
Charleville, Queensland
Charleville is a town in south western Queensland, Australia, 758 kilometres by road west of Brisbane . It is the largest town and administrative centre of the Murweh Shire, which covers an area of 43,905 square kilometres...
, Roma
Roma, Queensland
Roma is a town in the western Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia, by rail WNW of Brisbane. It is situated at the junction of the Warrego and Carnarvon highways...
, St George
St George, Queensland
St George is a town of approximately 2400 people in south-western Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the Shire of Balonne. It was named by Major Thomas Mitchell who crossed the Balonne River on St George's Day, 23 April 1846. At the 2006 census, St George had a population of...
and Theodore
Theodore, Queensland
Theodore is a town in Queensland, Australia, situated on the Dawson River. The town - like the Canberra suburb - is named in honour of Labor politician Ted Theodore, Premier of Queensland and Treasurer of Australia in the ministry of Prime Minister James Scullin...
among others. The floods were caused by rainfall generated by a monsoon trough described by a Bureau of Meteorology
Bureau of Meteorology
The Bureau of Meteorology is an Executive Agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together the state meteorological services that existed before then...
forecaster as "almost like a tropical cyclone over land". Over the period 1–3 March, rainfall totals of between 100–300 mm (4 to 12 inches) were observed in the area. This water ran into already saturated rivers and creeks in the area. Losses from cotton crops destroyed at Theodore and the area around St George and Dirranbandi are expected to be significant.
The floods, described by the Queensland Minister for Primary Industries Tim Mulherin
Tim Mulherin
Timothy Sean "Tim" Mulherin is an Australian politician. Born in Mackay, he was a clerk on the Mackay Electricity Board before becoming involved in politics. From 1994 to 1995 he was a state organiser of the Australian Labor Party. In 1995, he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as...
as the "worst flood in 120 years" are however expected to provide a billion dollar boost to the local economy, following the "worst drought since Federation
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
" The floods have seen a large increase in the Australian plague locust
Australian plague locust
The Australian plague locust is a native Australian insect in the family Acrididae and a significant agricultural pest....
population and the Australian Plague Locust Commission
Australian Plague Locust Commission
The Australian Plague Locust Commission is a division of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, created in 1974 to manage outbreaks of the Australian plague locust, spur-throated locust and migratory locust in eastern Australia...
is concerned the locusts will head south and destroy what is expected to be a bumper winter grain crop. On 21 March,
The 2010 Uganda landslide occurred in the district of Bududa
Bududa District
Bududa District is a district in Eastern Uganda. Like most other Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Bududa.-Location:Bududa District is bordered by Sironko District to the north, the Republic of Kenya to the east, Manafwa District to the south and Mbale District to the west...
in eastern Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
on 1 March 2010. The landslide
Landslide
A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...
was triggered by heavy rain between 12 pm and 7 pm that day. At least 100 people were believed to have been killed.
The Ugandan Red Cross
Uganda Red Cross Society
Uganda Red Cross Society was founded in 1962 and previously it was part of the British Red Cross. It has its headquarters in Kampala.-External links:**...
stated that rescuers had recovered 50 bodies, whilst a Ugandan government minister has put the death toll at over 100. The chairman of the eastern Bududa district suggested that the death toll could be as high as 300. The landslide struck villages on the slopes of Mount Elgon
Mount Elgon
Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale.- Physical features :It is the oldest and largest solitary volcano in East Africa, covering an area of around 3500 km²....
, including Nameti, Kubewo, and Nankobe. Officials and aid workers have warned that there may be further landslides, as heavy rain continues to fall in the region.
AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of the Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines, is an American low-cost airline headquartered in Orlando, Florida. AirTran operates over 650 daily flights , primarily in the eastern and midwestern United States...
cancelled several flights out of Atlanta Airport due to bad weather on March 1 and 2.
On March 1, the Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
issued 169 flood warning
Flood warning
Flood warning is closely linked to the task of flood forecasting. The distinction between the two is that the outcome of flood forecasting is a set of forecast time-profiles of channel flows or river levels at various locations, while "flood warning" is the task of making use of these forecasts to...
s in over East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, Wrexham
Wrexham
Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...
, Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. The Thames Flood Barrier closed twice in less than 24 hours to protect London from a combined high tide and tidal surge in the Thames estuary
Thames Estuary
The Thames Mouth is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea.It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, although physically the head of Sea Reach, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary...
, where it had been predicted that the water would rise by another 50 cm. Andy Batchelor, Tidal Area Flood Risk Manager, said that the Thames Barrier would close yet again should we need to protect the 1.25 million people living and working in London's floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
.
Heavy snow storms hit the Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
ns and parts of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
on March 2.
The Ewaso Nyiro River river in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
burst its banks and flooded a safari park
Safari park
A safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals...
's guest house on the 3rd, killing nine people.
20 people died on the 4th as an avalanche hit 2 villages in the mountains of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
's Wakhan Mountains
Wakhan
Wakhan or "the Wakhan" is a very mountainous and rugged part of the Pamir and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in Badakshan Province.-Geography:...
.
Several dozen ships, some with nearly one thousand passengers were stranded in rapidly forming sea ice
Sea ice
Sea ice is largely formed from seawater that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs below the freezing point of pure water, at about -1.8 °C ....
due to cold weather and strong winds in the Gulf of Bothnia
Gulf of Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.-Name:...
, between Sweden and Finland and near the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
. Some of the ships were freed by icebreaker
Icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...
s on March 5.
On March 5, 20,000 were made homeless as flood induced landslides hit Bududa, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
.
March 6–19
The 2010 Victorian storms2010 Victorian storms
The 2010 Victorian storms were a series of storms that passed through much of the Australian state of Victoria on 6 March and 7 March 2010. One of the most severe storms passed directly over Greater Melbourne, bringing lightning, flash flooding, very large hail and strong winds to the state's capital...
were a series of storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
s that passed through much of the Australian state of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
on 6 March and 7 March 2010. One of the most severe storms passed directly over Greater Melbourne, bringing lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
, flash flooding, very large hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
and strong winds to the state's capital. It was described as a "mini-cyclone".
On March 8, Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
saw its heaviest snowfall in 25 years; up to 50 centimetres fell in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. Over 200,000 residents of North-Eastern Spain were left without power, and up to 500 passengers were evacuated from a train travelling to Southern France, which also was experiencing blizzard conditions, with many schools closing. Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
and Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
were the worst-hit.
A state of emergency was declared in Northern Spain, on the 10th of March, due to the unseasonal blizzards. Forty roads in France were closed with snow reportedly 3 ft deep in some areas. Italy also experienced the effects of the Arctic blast; there was traffic chaos in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
, Assisi
Assisi
- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...
and Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, with snowstorms stretching as far south as Rome. On the sunshine island of Majorca, havoc ensued with 6 major roads closing, due to unseasonal snowfall.
On March 10 Transport and power supplies were disrupted by blizzards around Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, hurricanes around Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
and a mixture of both in Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
. Both Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
, the northern Adriatic coast and Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
, had electricity supply problems, according to Croatian Power Company (HEP).
Heavy rain and rapid snow-melt contributed to the failure of the Kyzyl-Agash dam
Kyzyl-Agash Dam
The Kyzyl-Agash Dam failure occurred in a dam located outside the village of Kyzyl-Agash, Almaty Province, Kazakhstan. On 11 March 2010, the dam burst, flooding the village...
in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
on March 11, killing more than 40 people.
On March 12, about 4,000 people were made homeless by floods in the Kazakh towns of Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
, Kyzyl-Agash, and Zhylbulak. A total of 30 people had been confirmed dead as the flood waters from, the dam that had burst on the 12th reached 2 meters deep on March 13.
The American military officials closed Misawa Air Base
Misawa Air Base
right|thumb|A US Navy C-2 at Misawa is a United States military facility located northeast of the railway station in Misawa, west of the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Towada, northwest of Hachinohe, and north of Tokyo, in Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region in the northern part of the...
on 10 March as a blizzard swept across northern Japan, dumping a record-setting 20 inches of snow on the base by mid-afternoon. A cyclone with snowstorms approached Kamchatka coast from the Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
on the 13th and preceded to move inland by the 15th, after which the storms died out in Eastern and Central Kamchatka with no casualties. The Ust-Bolsheretsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Population: .-History:It was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy...
and Yelizovo
Yelizovo
Yelizovo is a town in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, located on the Avacha River northwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Population: Founded in 1848 as the village of Stary Ostrog , it was renamed Zavoyko in 1897, after the Russian admiral Vasily Zavoyko who led the defense of Petropavlovsk in 1854....
districts of Kamchatka were badly hit by the high wind and snowfall.
The fourth major winter storm to strike the East coast of the United States
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
caused widespread flooding, severe beach erosion
Coastal erosion
Coastal erosion is the wearing away of land and the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage...
, and tree and structural damage from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
to Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
on the 13th. The storm killed at least nine people, and left over 1 million without electricity. After the storm, severe to record flooding occurred at the Pawtuxet River
Pawtuxet River
The Pawtuxet River is a river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows and drains a watershed of . There are four dams along the river's length.-Course:...
in Rhode Island and along the upper tributaries of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
BBC Weather
BBC Weather
BBC Weather is the BBC's department in charge of preparing and broadcasting weather forecasts and is now part of BBC News. The broadcast meteorologists are employed by the Met Office...
reports that areas of Portugal and Spain have witnessed the heaviest recorded levels of precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
since the Second World War on the 16th.
Australia faced the worst flooding in 60 years as 134 people in the small rural town of Wanaaring, just south of the Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
/New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
boarder, remains cut off on the 18th. The Paroo River
Paroo River
The Paroo River is a river in Eastern Australia and is often considered to be major tributary of the Darling River in eastern Australia, although its flow generally dissipates before it reaches the Darling...
peaked at 4.8 meters and broke its banks on the 17th.
A major sandstorm Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
in northern Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
on the morning of March 19 . The whole federal state was filled with sandstorms
Dust storm
A dust / sand storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil to move from one place and deposition...
. All flights into and out of the federal state were cancelled amid softy fears. Similar events occurred over the border in the drought hit Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
. The Harmattan
Harmattan
The Harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. It blows south from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March...
wind caused others in Mauritania. Rain fall had paradoxically gone down in the African Sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
region as it went up in most other parts of the World.
20 people died on the 4th as an avalanche hit 2 villages in the mountains of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
's Wakhan Mountains
Wakhan
Wakhan or "the Wakhan" is a very mountainous and rugged part of the Pamir and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in Badakshan Province.-Geography:...
.
March 21–24
Cyclone UluiCyclone Ului (2010)
Severe Tropical Cyclone Ului was one of the fastest intensifying tropical cyclones on record, strengthening from a tropical storm to a Category 5 equivalent cyclone within a 30 hour span...
made landfall in southeastern Queensland on the 21st, producing heavy rains and flooding.
After nearly a month of flooding in the Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n Kosinj Valley has been the centre of about 11 million Kuna/ (1,514,000 Euros) worth of damages in the region of Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
, Croat officials said on the 22 of March.
Heavy sandstorms
Dust storm
A dust / sand storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil to move from one place and deposition...
hit Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
between March 20 and 22. On March 23, a major storm sweeps of the lens west of the Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of...
and the Yellow Sea
Yellow Sea
The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. Its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden...
, and finally falls on the North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. The Xinjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei regions were already faceing drought and sandstorms earlyer this month.
A major sandstorms hit both Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
and inland Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
. Another gets southern Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, inland Mauritania, Mali and northern Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
.
A major hail storm hit Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, more than 158,000 houses were blacked out at the height of the storm and estimates on the insurance damage are over a $1 billion.
March 28–31
The UK was expecting one last shot at winter a huge snow storm is expected to drive up from the South WestSouth West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...
with rain turning to snow Midlands northwards. The UK Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
has issued severe weather warnings for the following regions:
Northern Ireland, North West England
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Yorkshire & Humber, West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
, S.W. Scotland, Lothian & Borders, East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...
and North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
. Temperatures are expected to go sub zero once again. Snow is forecast from Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales northwards. The warnings come a day after top British meteorologists from outside the UK Met Office predicted the UK's hottest summer on record for 2010 on the 28th.
Snow fell in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
on 30 March, stranding drivers on a motorway leaving them to dig out their cars, the MetOffice released weather alerts for only Scotland and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
as the south wasn't as cold as forecasted however heavy snow is falling on higher ground in England and Wales, however temperatures in the South West of the UK fell dramatically around lunch time of the 30th of march and snow is falling in some areas in South Wales and South West England
South West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...
.
The Met Office updated its warnings on March 30, the following areas of the UK are in severe weather warnings; Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Met Office has also issued extreme weather warnings of Severe Blizzards, Severe Drifting Snow & Very Heavy Snowfall in Western Northern Ireland and North East Scotland where 40–50 cm of snow is now forecasted to fall with drifts over 5 feet tall. Heavy thuner storms hit parts of Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
and temperatures begin to rise in Southern England
Southern England
Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...
and Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
.
On March 31, 48,000 Northern Irish, 24,000 Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and 150 Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
homes are with out power as heavy snow falls in both Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, parts of Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, and Scotland's Southern Uplands
Southern Uplands
The Southern Uplands are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas . The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to collectively denote the various ranges of hills within this region...
. About 300 people are feed by rescue services when 120 vehicles ventured out during a blizzard in County Londonderry
County Londonderry
The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...
's Glenshane Pass
Glenshane Pass
The Glenshane Pass is a major mountain pass cutting through the Sperrin Mountains in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is in the townland of Glenshane on the main Derry to Belfast route, the A6.-Features:It is a Special Area of Conservation...
. Sadly, 17 year old Natasha Paton, from Cleghorn in southern Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
dies as the coach she was in skids and crashes in the snow on the A73 road, outside Wiston
Wiston, South Lanarkshire
Wiston is a small village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located south east of Lanark and south west of Biggar.Located in the Southern Uplands it is immediately to the south of Tinto, one of the highest points in the locality. The Garf Water, a tributary of the River Clyde, runs through...
, also in southern Lanarkshire. She was om a trip to visit Alton Towers
Alton Towers
Alton Towers is a theme park and resort located in Staffordshire, England. It attracts around 2.7 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom. Alton Towers is also the 9th most visited theme park in Europe...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
on a trip from Biggar in Lanarkshire, that was organised by Lanark Grammar School
Lanark Grammar School
Lanark Grammar School is a secondary school in Lanark, Scotland. It was founded in 1183, and celebrated its octocentenary in 1983, including a visit by The Princess Anne. Notable former pupils include rally driver Colin McRae and General William Roy, a contributor to the Ordnance Survey project...
The UK Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
has issued severe weather warnings for the next day in the following regions:Northern Ireland, Northern England, Wales and Scotland.
The storm follows the coldest winter in decades to hit the UK and this is the second most severe storm to hit the UK this year, the most severe was the January 6 snowfall in Southern England
Southern England
Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...
and South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
, despite lower snow depth of 40 cm the south is less prepared and has a higher population density than Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
so caused more chaos and damage to the UK economy. First Great Western
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....
closed both Islip railway station
Islip railway station
Islip railway station serves the village of Islip, Oxfordshire, England. Islip is north-east of Oxford. Services run south to away and north-east to .Islip is served by Chiltern Railways using Class 165 Diesel Multiple Units.-History:...
and Bicester Town railway station
Bicester Town railway station
Bicester Town is the smaller of two railway stations serving the town of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The larger is . Bicester Town station is miles north-east of . It is operated by Chiltern Railways.-History:...
for part of the day due to heavy snow fall on espoused stretches of track. Snow also causes travel disruption for bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es and cars in South Glamorgan
South Glamorgan
South Glamorgan is a preserved county of Wales.It was originally formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as a county council area...
.
Both the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
and the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
begin to swell at there upper sections due to heavy rain and snow related melt water on the 31st.
April 1–6
On March 31, the UK Met OfficeMet Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
issued severe weather warnings for April 1 in the following regions: Northern Ireland, Northern England, Wales and Scotland. Heavy rain fell in Banbury and moderate snow fell in Scotland on the 2nd.
April 1 and 2 had temperatures plummet to minus 50 degrees in Mongolia's Tuul valley, The peasant villager Urna said she bought "400 bundles of grass and tons of feed so that we would be ready" for any further bad weather. According to the Mongolian Red Cross have reported that about 4,500,000 head of livestock perished as a result of the bad weather this year. Tume, who lives in Ulan Bator said that he had noticed that there were several particle harsh winters in a row to. He blamed climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, but experts said that overgrazing by cattle had also child of most of the country's grassland.
The April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides
April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides
The April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides was an extreme weather event that has affected the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the first days of April 2010. At least 212 people have died, 161 people have been injured , while at least 15,000 people have been made homeless...
are an extreme weather
Extreme weather
Extreme weather includes weather phenomena that are at the extremes of the historical distribution, especially severe or unseasonal weather. The most commonly used definition of extreme weather is based on an event's climatological distribution. Extreme weather occurs only 5% or less of the time...
event that has affected the State of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro (state)
Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...
in Brazil in the first days of April 2010. At least 212 people have died, 161 people have been injured (including several rescuers), while at least 15,000 people have been made homeless. Meteolagists exspessed concern over the intensity of the storms and there aftermath. The worst part was on the 5th and 6th.
April 17
Two buildings suddenly fell into the River Buriganga in Nababerchar city's Kamrangirchar district during a heavy storm on April 17, 2010. BangladeshBangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i police claimed the foundations were weakened by illegal lifting of sand by local sand traders.
Heavy rain also hit the borders of Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
and Azerbijan in the evening.
April 27–28
A major snowstorm hit New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
after the western side of a low pressure system sank southward from eastern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
on April 27, merging with part of a second low. Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
was hit with the most snow, which totalled as much as 60 cm (2 ft). Close to 30,000 customers were left without power.
April 28–30
Snow fell east of the Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
in southern Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
as the cold sector of a storm dumped over 25 cm (9.8 in) of snow in the Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
area. Highway 2 was closed, ice coated some roads, and another 10 cm (3.9 in) was expected to fall on Friday along with strong winds.
See also
- Winter stormWinter stormA winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...
- 2010 Romanian floods2010 Romanian floodsThe 2010 Romanian floods were the result of an extreme weather event that struck Romania in late June 2010. Currently, at least 21 people died. The north-east of the country, especially Suceava County was most affected...
- 2010 Slovenia floods2010 Slovenia floodsThe 2010 Slovenia floods, on the weekend of 17–19 September 2010, were caused by heavy rains in Slovenia, resulting in one of the worst floods in the country's history. Among the regions affected were the capital Ljubljana, the Zasavje region, Laško, the Slovenian Littoral and the Lower Carniola...
- 2010 Var floods2010 Var floodsThe 2010 Var floods were the result of heavy rainfall in southern France that caused severe floods in the department of the Var in the evening of 15 June 2010. As well as generalized flooding, there were also flash floods. Meteorologists say the floods are the worst in the region since 1827,...
- 2010 Central European floods2010 Central European floodsThe 2010 Central European floods were a devastating series of weather events which occurred across several Central European countries during May, June and August 2010. Poland was the worst affected. Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine were also affected.At least...
- Winter storms of 2008–2009
- 2010 Victorian floods2010 Victorian floodsThe 2010 Victorian floods were a widespread series of flood events across the state of Victoria, Australia. The floods, which followed heavy rain across southeastern Australia in early September 2010, caused the inundation of about 250 homes, hundreds of evacuations and millions of dollars of...
- Winter of 2009–2010 in EuropeWinter of 2009–2010 in EuropeThe winter of 2009–2010 in Europe was unusually cold. Globally, atypical weather patterns brought cold, moist air from the north. Weather systems were undergoing cyclogenesis from North American storms moving across the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and saw many parts of Europe experiencing heavy...
- East Asian snowstorms of late 2009
- Winter of 1946–1947 in the United Kingdom
- 2010 floods
- 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat wave
- Winter of 1962–1963 in the United Kingdom
- February 2009 Great Britain and Ireland snowfallFebruary 2009 Great Britain and Ireland snowfallThe snowfall across the British Isles in February 2009 was a prolonged period of snowfall that began on 1 February 2009. Some areas experienced their largest snowfall levels in 18 years. Snow fell over much of Western Europe. The United Kingdom's Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann issued severe...
- Winter of 1990–1991 in Western EuropeWinter of 1990–1991 in Western EuropeThe winter of 1990–1991 was a particularly cold winter in Western Europe, noted especially for its effect on the United Kingdom, and for two significantly heavy falls of snow which occurred in December 1990 and February 1991. Sandwiched in between was a period of high winds and heavy rain which...
- 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull2010 eruptions of EyjafjallajökullThe 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull were volcanic events at Eyjafjöll in Iceland which, although relatively small for volcanic eruptions, caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over an initial period of six days in April 2010. Additional localised disruption...
- 2010 Western Australian storms2010 Western Australian stormsThe 2010 Western Australian storms were a series of storms that travelled over south-western Western Australia on 21 and 22 March 2010. One of the more intense storm cells passed directly over the capital city of Perth between 3:30pm and 5:00pm on Monday 22 March 2010...
in Earth's Southern HemisphereSouthern HemisphereThe Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"... - 2010 Victorian storms2010 Victorian stormsThe 2010 Victorian storms were a series of storms that passed through much of the Australian state of Victoria on 6 March and 7 March 2010. One of the most severe storms passed directly over Greater Melbourne, bringing lightning, flash flooding, very large hail and strong winds to the state's capital...
in Australia - Cyclogenesis
- Jet streamJet streamJet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents found in the atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. The main jet streams are located near the tropopause, the transition between the troposphere and the stratosphere . The major jet streams on Earth are westerly winds...
- Arctic dipole anomalyArctic dipole anomalyThe Arctic dipole anomaly is a pressure pattern characterized by high pressure on the arctic regions of North America, and a low pressure on the Eurasia region. This pattern sometimes replaces the Arctic oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation. It was observed for the first time in the...
- Arctic oscillationArctic oscillationThe Arctic oscillation or Northern Annular Mode/Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode is an index of the dominant pattern of non-seasonal sea-level pressure variations north of 20N latitude, and it is characterized by pressure anomalies of one sign in the Arctic with the opposite anomalies centered...
- North Atlantic oscillationNorth Atlantic oscillationThe North Atlantic oscillation is a climatic phenomenon in the North Atlantic Ocean of fluctuations in the difference of atmospheric pressure at sea level between the Icelandic low and the Azores high. Through east-west oscillation motions of the Icelandic low and the Azores high, it controls the...
- Pacific-North American teleconnection patternPacific-North American teleconnection patternThe Pacific-North American teleconnection pattern is a climatological term for a large-scale weather pattern with two modes, denoted positive and negative, and which relates the atmospheric circulation pattern over the North Pacific Ocean with the one over the North American continent.The positive...
- El Niño-Southern OscillationEl Niño-Southern OscillationEl Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years...
- Gulf StreamGulf StreamThe Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...
- Severe weather of the Indian subcontinent during 2010