Cold Kills At Least 100 Across Eastern Europe - -26F In Poland, Germany

[hatrack]

Bone-chilling weather claimed dozens of lives Monday across Europe as glacial temperatures swept the Baltics to the Balkans, brought rare snowfalls to Istanbul and sparked a scramble for heating fuel. The unusually low temperatures, which are predicted to last until Wednesday but probably not extend into western Europe, has left well over 100 fatalities in Germany, Poland, Russia, Turkey and the Czech Republic.

"You'd have to go back at least 10 years, sometimes 20 years, to find such sharp colds," said Patrick Galois, a meteorologist with Meteo-France.

Polish authorities said 27 people had died of exposure there since Friday, where overnight temperatures dipped to minus 32 Celsius (minus 26 Fahrenheit), bringing to 150 the number who have died this winter. Nearly half of the dead were homeless, of whom 90 percent were drunk.

In Ukraine, 24 people died in the past 24 hours as a result of the extreme weather conditions, the health ministry said, bringing to at least 45 the toll since temperatures plunged last week. Officials in Russia put the toll from the weekend at 12, including seven in Moscow, in Romania authorities said 11 had died there over three days, and in the Czech Republic five people died over the same period. In Germany, four froze to death after the mercury dropped in some areas to minus 24 degrees C (minus 11 F).

EDIT

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Eastern_Europe_Freezes_In_Killer_Cold.html

[Ksec]

1. wow. Thats amazing.

Here in eastern Ohio its like fall, and has been for weeks. Normally its bone chilling. My heart goes out to those people

[Dunvegan]

2. First many hundreds die in France from temps over 100 F in the summer...

...now they're freezing to death.

Global Thermostat FUBAR, anyone?

[hatrack]

4. Yeah, that was back in 2003 - except it was tens of thousands

The estimates for France, the worst-hit nation, were right around 30,000 total dead in the heatwave. Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany had some hundreds of heatwave deaths each.

[NanceGreggs]

3. And how many US citizens will die of the cold this winter ...

... because they can't afford to heat their homes? How many others will die in house fires, due to burning inappropriate fuel (paper, wood) in an effort to keep warm?

Well, you know the Bush philosophy: "We'll be killing 'em here, so we don't have to just kill 'em over there."

[hatrack]

5. We'll never know about it, will we?

There will be missing white chicks and Angelina Jolie's pregnancy to cover, doncha know!!

[NanceGreggs]

6. And if Brad and Angelina ...

... filed for divorce on the same day they got married, the MSM would probably self-implode!!!!

[Dogmudgeon]

8. The good thing about Brad and Angelina

They're progressives.

Even if the media uses them to distract us, they still put some of their money into causes we like.

It's half a loaf, I know, but when it comes to the MSM, we're dealing with some major loafers -- and heels.

--p!

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Has this been linked to thermohaline current failure?

Is it being studied? (I would guess that it is being intensively studied.) I have been appallingly negligent in my "research" this year.

Some news came out last spring that about two-thirds of the known Northeastern Atlantic thermohaline, heat-carrying oceanic "chimneys" -- like atmospheric thermals, but in the ocean -- had just disappeared. Since they are the primary "heat pumps" for the British Isles and Scandinavia, I'm wondering if, for instance, UK Meteo has drawn any tentative conclusions about it.

The last two "record-breaking" cold winters in Europe led to late, cold winters in North America. By themselves, no big deal, but statistical analysis is much more demanding than human observation. If this becomes an ongoing thing, then we would have a good case for the beginning of a new ice age -- at least a Little Ice Age, and possibly the end of the 13 kA interglacial warm spell.

--p!

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Depends on who you're asking

It has by me, for instance: the 2003 heatwave just counted as proof to myself I was right about THC shutdown being a) real, and b) really bad news, as it would give Europe more "continental" weather - hot in summer, cold in winter.

The UK met office went on record a while back as saying this would happen, but whether this is sufficient proof that it *is* happening is another matter. Needless to say, it got buried in the press and will come as a complete surprise to everybody.

[hatrack]

10. Hard to say - the paleoclimate record indicates "madhouse decades"

I.e., periods in which weather patterns "flickered" over periods of 20 or even just 10 years - exreme cold followed by blazing heatwaves, all evidenced in forminifera deposits, thicknesses of dust layers and the like.

Would what we're seeing now look like what we would have seen back around the beginning or end of the Younger Dryas? Maybe, but it's difficult to say.