Bears Breaking Hibernation As Warm Weather Sweeps Russia, Scandinavia

[hatrack]

Russian bears are meant to hibernate in winter and wake up in March.
But the weather has been so mild this year that a black bear in St Petersburg zoo has not gone to sleep at all, and a brown bear has already woken up believing it is spring.

It's the same story in Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where hunters report that one of the warmest winters ever recorded has woken bears several months early.

EDIT

According to climatologists in Scandinavia, Russia, Estonia and Iceland, record or well above average temperatures are being recorded across a great swathe of Scandinavia and northern Europe as balmy winds linked to the same Atlantic storm that brought gale-force winds and flooding this week to Scotland, blow in from the west. "Temperatures have been 8-9C (46-49F) higher than normal," said Roman Vilfant, head of Russia's Gidromettsentr weather monitoring centre. "The first 10 days of January have been very warm indeed. Usually air temperatures begin rising above zero after March 27.


EDIT

The wild fluctuations predicted by climatologists could be seen yesterday in Alaska. After the warmest summer and wettest springs ever recorded last year - which had seen wasps flying at 73 degrees north - the climate research centre yesterday said that the temperature had plummeted to a chilling -46F in Fairbanks. Meanwhile, the warm weather in Russia and Scandinavia is expected to end in the next few days. By the middle of next week, temperatures are predicted to be fluctuating between -5 to -15C - leaving some very confused bears."

EDIT/END

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1391019,00.html

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. "Wasps flying at 73 North"

:wtf:?

[Combat Honey]

2. Mushrooms in January!!!

I happened to read an article in a newspaper that in someone's backyard mushrooms were suddenly growing above ground in January...and this happened in Finland, more than 60 degrees northern latitude...Exceptional!

[LiberalEsto]

3. Estonia - tropical paradise

I can picture my relatives there planting palm trees some day.