It’s the worst cold snap in Russia in over 70 years. Hundreds have already frozen to death across Eastern Europe. But you won’t be hearing about this in the mainstream media.
More deadly cold is forecast for Eastern Europe. Source: wxmaps.org/pix/temp4.html (12/20).
The political velcraft.org site reports:
The spate of cold weather that has lasted for weeks in many parts of Europe has now claimed at least 600 lives. Eastern Europe is the worst affected. […]
In the Ukraine, more than 150 deaths have been registered. Sixty-eight people have reportedly died in Poland from the cold, 64 in Russia and an estimated 70 in Belarus. In Romania, the official death toll has risen to 68. In Lithuania, 23 deaths have been reported, 24 in the Czech Republic and 10 in Latvia. At least 16 people have died so far due to the cold in Bulgaria, 13 in Hungary, and a total of 50 in the successor states of Yugoslavia.
Italy has also been severely affected by the cold, with 40 registered victims.”
Live Science here writes:
…the farthest reaches of Siberia to downtown Moscow, the Russian people are being pummeled by a winter so brutal it’s shattering cold-weather records across the continent — and it’s only December.”
The Russian RT reports:
The country has not witnessed such a long cold spell since 1938, meteorologists said, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees lower than the seasonal norm all over Russia. Across the country, 45 people have died due to the cold, and 266 have been taken to hospitals. In total, 542 people were injured due to the freezing temperatures, RIA Novosti reported.
The Moscow region saw temperatures of -17 to -18 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, and the record cold temperatures are expected to linger for at least three more days. Thermometers in Siberia touched -50 degrees Celsius, which is also abnormal for December.
The temperature in Russia’s Sakha (Yakutia) republic has reached minus 50 degrees Celsius. In some districts of this Far Eastern region the temperature has fallen to minus 54 degrees Celsius.”
and reports here:
Temperatures of up to minus 45 degrees Celsius in the Altai region in southeast Siberia have prompted the authorities to declare a regionwide state of emergency.”
The Moscow Times reports:
Health officials said Wednesday that record-breaking cold weather caused the deaths of 21 people the day before.”
and today the Moscow Times reports that the “Death Toll From Cold Keeps Rising“:
…more than 50 people have died from weather-related illnesses. During the cold snap, which started over a week ago, 722 people have been injured, 371 have been hospitalized and 56 have died, RIA-Novosti reported Thursday…”
Not only Eastern Europe and Russia are being battered, but so is the US and Canada. The USA Today reports that so far a storm has left “at least eight people dead, clogged highways and forced hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at airports. The storm was blamed for deaths in at least five states, with parts of Iowa and Wisconsin hit with more than a foot of snow.”
I’ve a feeling that deaths from extreme cold in the former soviet bloc are being significantly under-reported due to bureaucratic inertia. It will only be possible to get even a ball-park figure when the death certificates can be turned into data in the late Spring.
I agree. And the reports of the real damage are just beginning to come in. The toll will likely rise into the thousands.
I checked “Spiegel.de” and this is what I found. Amazing.
A snow storm surprised the Turkish city of Istanbul. The traffic came to a standstill – a helicopter pilot had an emergency landing on the sidewalk beside a park bench.
Video: http://www.spiegel.de/video/schneechaos-in-istanbul-helikopter-landet-auf-buergersteig-video-1243066.html
It looks like that Eastern Europe is not that important. “Schwerer Schneesturm in den USA – mehrere Tote” http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/mehrere-tote-bei-schwerem-schneesturm-im-mittleren-westen-der-usa-a-874226.html
It says in the story: “At least five people were killed”
~600 vs. ~5
This is what happens when you toss boiling water in the cold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS8jHfbcme8
Scary and informative at the same time.
Today (21 Dec) the sea ice in the north-west of the Baltic Sea surpassed the average, see at:
http://www.2007seatraining.de/index.html
I meant “north-east”, and wanted to indicate the the seas ice along Estonia’s coast.
Interesting.
I’ve lived in northern Japan for 8 years. Normally it starts snowing in the last week in December. This year it started in the first week and we’ve had about a metre already. Snow here is a serious business, last winter we had more than 16 metres in town.
We get this volume because the winter weather pattern is for a NW wind from the central Siberian high to load with moisture as it crosses the Sea of Japan, and dump when it meets land. Americans know this as the “lake effect”. Super-cold early start for winter in Russia, early start for snow in Japan.
[…] Cold Blast Claims Over 600 Lives Across Eastern Europe/Russia…”Death Toll Keeps Rising…State O… […]
[…] Cold Blast Claims Over 600 Lives Across Eastern Europe/Russia…”Death Toll Keeps Rising…State O… […]
The Russian RT reported that the temps were 10 to 15 degrees lower than normal. That doesn’t seem like a lot too me. And it snows every year in Istambul. It is close to the same latitude north as New York City.
“The Russian RT reported that the temps were 10 to 15 degrees lower than normal. That doesn’t seem like a lot too me.”
Well, because they usually get a minimum of -50 F.
Do you also agree that when you get 120F instead of 110F as summer maximum temperature, then that is not remarkable at all?
In that case, you are not an alarmist.
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in Dutch we have an expression “siberian cold”
this expressian was already used before the word climatechange was invented;
read also your own citation: “The country has not witnessed such a long cold spell since 1938, meteorologists said, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees lower than the seasonal norm all over Russia.”
most probably there are more homeless and roofless, and that is indeed a shame;
by the way, in München it was more than 20 degrees C! lets wait and see how it is levvelling out;
i am italian and isn’t true that we have had 40 victims
Can’t find out where that came from. But they most definitely had -30 deg C in Abruzzo.
http://www.ilcorrieredabruzzo.it/laquila/cronaca-laquila/26973-ancora-freddo-polare-in-abruzzo-30-a-campo-felice.html