Miscellaneous Forum

We read that it is so very cold now in parts of the Northern hemisphere....and people are dying in some countries and that some have no shelter nor warm clothing. It is hard to believe that this still happens .... some have nowhere to go.

How bad is it where you are?

Fortunately, not bad here in Madrid (cold with wind) and no snow. But snow in the north and even in the Balearics. Much worse in central Europe.

Our section of the USA is enjpoying a milder than normal winter, with very little snow so far.

I've heard about the severe cold snap in Europe. Hoping (and praying) that the homeless can find shelter and the rest stay safe during this tough time.

It's not bad at all where I live (S. California). It's been sunny and warm (75F-80F) the past couple of weeks. Supposed to get rain soon, so temps are gonna cool a bit. A bit uncommon for this kind of weather Jan/Feb, but I doubt anyone here is complaining.

We've been very lucky compared to the rest of Europe, and even some parts of Britain. Yesterday we had freezing fog and it's foggy this morning.

Not bad at all anymore. Whole last week here we had some -25C (-13F) and today cool -7C (20F). But it's sad story, at least 300 people have died last week in the Europe. A lot of snow in Central Europe and think e.g. Italy, snow caused troubles to tranportation and food supplies has been difficult to deliver. Luckily temperetures are mostly climbing up currently.

I haven't seen the statistics, but I think that most of the worst victims of the cold weather are homeless people.

Last friday we had very bad weather conditions around Helsinki area and there were 3-5 large traffic crashes (some eye witness said that almost 100 cars in the biggest one). So whole main city traffic was jammed.

Todays news paper: "A Dutch group got lost with a car in Lapland. They were stucked to snow and the temperature was -35C (-32F). They called to police and explained "we are somewhere in the forest!"

Lapland is about 400*200km, they survived only for that they left motor running and had enough gas.

It's cold here, but not hopeless. However, a friend of mine is living in a big cold house in Edinburgh and the landlord refuses to allow them to light the fires in the huge fireplaces! It\s colder inside than out!

Here on the west coast of Norway, we have a couple of plus degrees C. So not very cold. I think central Europe are having wind coming in from Siberia that gives the unnatural cold. It's strange since there is very little ice in the Arctic this winter...

Maybe Daarth that is the problem the ice has moves south a bit
M

Its pretty darn cold here..and my house is old and huge and hard to heat too...we have ice on the inside of the windows and the water in the downstairs loo was frozen yesterday and the sink upstairs has'nt worked for days we are on bottled water up there and anti bacterial gel and flushing the loo with the pipe from the shower on hot......but with all the kids gone to school I can hole up in the one room and just keep this warm until later on.. I am having to fill dog water bowls with warm water as the cold tap water is just too cold for thier poor old mouldy dog teeth..

Its about -8C here now and is predicted to drop to -14C again tonight...

There is always a furore about the homeless people near the central station in Brussells here every year and every year I say the same darn thing..either let them into the unused army bases or set up a temporary caravan/tent city..but they dont do it and every year more die

Might be true, according to the Independent (and some climate expert) the ice situation in the Arctic and Barents Sea has some influence to high pressure in Sipiria. The warm water is like a blower and the moving air gets cold in Sipiria and blows to Europe.

Kirsty, we have oftenly the same troubles. Water pipes freeze and you have to invent new tricks to get water. The real piping problem here comes later, the ice takes more space than water, and the pipes can damage. And when the ice smelts we have water in wrong places. Most of our pipes are unvible in floor and ceilings, you don't even know that something is wrong.

I know that feeling akipaa...I am *almost* dreading the thaw ...the pipes here are like Mario brothers

Todays news paper: "A Dutch group got lost with a car in Lapland. They were stucked to snow and the temperature was -35C (-32F). They called to police and explained "we are somewhere in the forest!"
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yeah, but these temps are not unusual for lapland. nor is anything here in helsinki. we had no unusually cold weather.

so far we had a normal cold finnish winter..last year was worse. snow fell early (in november already) so everybody was unprepared. this year its fine, buses were maybe few minutes late.
usually in helsinki you get around 2 weeks of -20C during the winter, rest is -10C or so average. and its rather dry here so it doesnt feel as cold as -5C in serbia (now that feels really chilly).

our apartments and houses are quite well insulated and warm, so for example i can walk around in a tshirt and its warm. and no socks for me. :=) plus we sleep only in our underwear so you can imagine that its not cold.

ok, there were some crashes, but again, thats nothing unusual for anywhere in the winters (even in the summers). just a normal winter..you get dressed well and downhill you go with a pulkka. :=)

I think central Europe are having wind coming in from Siberia that gives the unnatural cold.
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daarth, its not unnaturally cold in central europe/balkans, its just forgotten cold..when i was growing up and spend winters in serbia, it was every year as cold as this with a lot of snow...then it slowly started changing into warmer winters and african summers..now THAT is unnatural.
normal temperatures in balkans/southern europe should have been warm summers around 30C and very cold winters.

äkkipää..are you in helsinki?

in apartment buildings, at least ours, the pipes are heated all the time, that is, in the winter all pipes, in the summer the bathroom pipe is always warm to prevent freezing.

Yes, I like that Fugu, our summers are so cold that we definitely need bathroom heating then to prevent icing :)

Here in Oslo it's a normal winter. Pretty much snow, temperatures between minus 5 and minus 15 (Centigrades), nice and warm indoors. But I'm too old for winter, I hate it, all this dressing and undressing, in addition to that the Oslo winter air is extremely polluted.

you mean, so cold like the last several summers when we had around 30C for several weeks? ;=) and in fact least summer (2011) which lasted from early june till mid september? :=)))

Yes Marg. It's really cold in the area where I live. In some parts of Italy there is a lot of snow also.

I'm in Serbia and it's freeezing over here, it's been snowing since friday non stop.... -12C at the moment, here are some pics from Belgrade:

http://www.blic.rs/galerija/19/3394/Sneg-zavejao-Beograd

warm and sunny in my part of the world.

but just had a 6.8 intensity earthquake and aftershocks...

Oh pleeeease...I am sitting in the office and we are all suffocating here because the A/C is broken at the moment. Yuck.
It was around 85 out this weekend and we went to the beach. The water wasn't even cold.
All the homeless in the US come to Florida, so they avoid freezing up north. There are SO many of them here. I SO want to move out of this State sometimes

Very mild winter in Chicago. 2 very minor snow storms with no snow currently on the ground.

yep, andrea, thats because our government (serbian) is as usual not prepared for the most uncommon thing called winter in february. :=))

i was looking at some blic pictures and laughing a bit for the traffic being in absolute collaps in belgrade and children not going to school for that such an amount of snow..we have about 2 times as much here in helsinki. :=)

naaahhh its just mental process. I just road from Paris to Vannes with -6C and snow on the ground, but the highways at least one lane was clear. No problems.
Now some public transport got tripped, airports, trains cancelled, bus delayed, but the car, just past thru ::)

Now the cold spell might last to wednesday and by some to friday in France. Any snow ball time lol!
Cheers

Yep Keti, it's crazy over here. They even declared state of emergency (did i translate correct? vanredno stanje)! No one is clearing the snow, in Novi Sad i haven't seen any wehicles clearing the snow in 3 days! I work at the Institute of cardiovascular diseases in Sremska Kamenica, it was a struggle to get up here by car this morning... Oh, one must love snow in Serbia ;) At least kids are happy :)

In Aachen-Germany is -11c at the moment and is snowing again with lots of black ice..
Bitola -Macedonia (I am off there in 2 weeks) is -31c with mini storm which started yesterday.
Second in 5 days last snow fall is 40cm on the top of the previous of 110com..
Very cold and 61 confirmed dead..Govermany is on full alert as it is now on amber alert for natural disaster.
The army use helicopters to reach the high up in the mountain vilages to deliver food and move elderly and ill to the nearest big towns and hospitals... Ppl are not wenturing aout if they do not have to.. Acording to my mum, she has not left her flat for the last 4 days!
Hope weather will be better when I get there :(

It's not -31C in Bitola any more :) I was out in just a tee-shirt and fleece yesterday, and it rained over the weekend so a lot of the snow melted. It is snowing again today, so who knows?

Old joke.
A young polar bear was talking to his mother in Chester Zoo one day.
Mummy, am I a polar bear?
Of course you are son, she replied.
Mummy, are you sure I'm a polar bear?
Do you not have white fur and look like a bear, she replied?
Mummy, are you really sure I'm a polar bear?
Look, she replies, you father is a polar bear, I'm a polar bear, your sister is a polar bear and we come from the artic.
Why all the questions?

I'm bleeding freezing :o)