Frigid Weather Blankets U.S.

Temperatures Plummet In The Plains; Thousands Of New Englanders Still Without Power

(AP)  Freezing air blanketed much of the nation Tuesday, making roads hazardous in Texas and slowing recovery from ice storm blackouts in New England, in the second day of a bitter cold wave.

Temperatures were 20 below zero and lower across the northern Plains, and a band of snow, freezing rain and sleet stretched from Kansas and Nebraska along the Ohio Valley to Maine.

Dozens of schools closed in Kentucky and Tennessee because of slippery roads and salt truck crews started working before dawn. Up to a half-foot of snow had fallen in parts of Kentucky.

"It's pretty treacherous," said Jodi Shacklette, a Kentucky State Police dispatcher in Elizabethtown. "We're working wrecks just left and right."

Authorities in Lincoln, Neb., blamed some 20 accidents on the weather.

Police in north Texas had to close some highway overpasses because they were so slippery with ice.

Some of the sharpest cold Tuesday was in northern Minnesota, where Hibbing bottomed out at 32 below zero and International Falls dropped to 28 below. In the middle of the state, St. Cloud fell to 24 below, breaking its old record of 21 below set in 1963.

The weather service posted winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of the Southwest - where New Mexico had numerous school closings, including those in Albuquerque - and the Ohio Valley.

Winter weather advisories were in effect across eastern Nebraska and much of the Midwest and from Texas to New England, where utilities were still repairing power lines snapped by last week's devastating ice storm.

New Hampshire utilities reported roughly 113,000 homes and businesses still without power Tuesday, down from a peak of 430,000. Central Maine Power said about 10,700 customers were still in the dark and a spokesman said it expected to have power restored Wednesday. About 77,000 customers are still waiting for service in Massachusetts, state officials said.

New Hampshire residents were warned Tuesday that some of them might have to wait longer than expected for electricity.

"It's fair to say there may be some pockets of customers that would be (without power) beyond the weekend," said Tom Goetz, chairman of the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. In places, he said, utility workers must still wait for other crews to clear fallen limbs and other debris before they can reach outages.

While the cold slammed across the West and Midwest on Monday, the Northeast had enjoyed unseasonably mild weather, with temperatures above 50 in New England and to 65 in New York City.

"Finally, everyone is walking around in the neighborhood. It is so nice," said JoAnn Trudeau, 62, who hasn't had power since Friday morning at her home in Hooksett, N.H., near Manchester.

However, the cold also was moving into the Northeast. Manchester had a 9 a.m. temperature Tuesday of 37 and readings were expected to go down during the day, not up.

Even Southern California was warned of temperatures felling into the mid-30s by late Wednesday.

On Monday, thermometers read 31 below Monday in Glasgow, Mont., and the wind chill was 45 below, the weather service said. The Texas Panhandle had lows in the single digits, and Goodland, Kan., registered a record low of minus 10.

The cold wave and storms that accompanied had been implicated in at least 14 deaths. An avalanche in Colorado killed a Ski Patrol member, and exposure probably killed an 87-year-old man found outside his Montana nursing home. Weather-related traffic accidents were blamed for three deaths in Oklahoma, one in Illinois and two each in Minnesota, Missouri and California. In Northern California, a man was washed off a jetty by large waves and a homeless woman died of exposure.

[laeion]

What about this?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/16/melting.ice/index.html?iref=24hours

[jmagarotz]

I have to go with majority of scientists on this one, as opposed to the talking heads on fascist Fox News.

Posted by mtee12 at 04:09 AM : Dec 17, 2008

Yup, My mind''s made up don''t confuse me with facts.

I say let''s have a public debate with credible professionals and study "ALL" the facts not with the "Sky is Falling" tax and spenders we have now.

[whatchange-2009]

Sure hope you don''''t own beachfront property because if you get your wish, you''''d better learn how to tread water.

Posted by LloydBest1 at 06:12 AM : Dec 17, 2008 *********************************** What happens when the ice melts in your glass of water? Nothing? That''s what I thought you''d say.

[lloydbest1]

"Which of the following extreme climate situations causes more deaths?
(A) a cold winter
(B) a hot summer
The answer is (A) by a massive margin.
So, why aren`t we doing everything we possibly can to promote and accelerate global warming until the two numbers are comparable?
That`s when our planet will have its ideal, optimum temperature." Posted by juwboy at 05:35 AM : Dec 17, 2008

Source?

Sure hope you don''t own beachfront property because if you get your wish, you''d better learn how to tread water.

[juwboy]

Which of the following extreme climate situations causes more deaths?

(A) a cold winter
(B) a hot summer

The answer is (A) by a massive margin.

So, why aren`t we doing everything we possibly can to promote and accelerate global warming until the two numbers are comparable?

That`s when our planet will have its ideal, optimum temperature.

[juwboy]

According to United Nations data, global temperatures have remained static since 1997.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide has steadily increased since then.

So, how can anyone claim that carbon dioxide causes global warming?

If a theory doesn`t fit the facts, the theory is wrong.

[avigil2]

It is freaking cold here in Seattle. I''ve lived here for about 10 years and I''ve never felt it this cold before. Brrr....

[presjfk]

I am hanging out very happily in shorts and a T-Shirt in Miami. Posted by sly_64 "


Why I live in NJ? I have no idea. The weather, taxes, and politics all suck.

[debinok1]

Excerpt from Science Magazine July 1997:

Despite the current relatively warm climate on Earth, regular recurring epochs of glaciation have dominated the planet for the past million years. Ten times, glaciers have advanced and then retreated with the duration of retreat (and corresponding warmth) frequently lasting not more than 10,000 years. The Earth has been in a warm period for about 10,000 years now.

[debinok1]

Are people so phobic of everything anymore, if the planet changes and we end up in the weather pattern of the arctic, we have to move, simple, but we cant stop it, we can plan for it, we can evacuate, but we cannot control nature.

[barbaram99]

I am in Seattle and it is in the 20s. Brr. I thot it is colder than normal as the wind blew yesturday and I told my friend that the wind blowing. and as a Mainer it use to get chilly in the winter and tons of snow in them small Maine towns. That was years ago. I do hate the cold as I am in my 50s. My friend asked if I needed any extra blankets nope I have blankets to keep warm.

[bobgee_1999]

CBSisPravda1 (et. al):

You, obviously, have no idea what you''re talking about, on at least two counts.

In the first place, the cold snap has no bearing whatever on the reality of Global Warming. Global Warming is simple physics, and incontrovertible. No reputable scientists doubts it; the only argument is the cause. The Global Warming model allows for extreme weather swings, including extremes of cold.
Regardless, Gore did not originate the term or the theory.

In the second, Fox is America''s version of Pravda. They are not only biased, but make, in practice, no secret of the fact (regardless of their Orwell-esque sloganeering). Actually, their justification is exactly the same as Pravda: "All other news sources, domestic and foreign are lying, only we have the truth."

[debinok1]

In greenland the melted ice revealed where people had lived and grown food. then it froze over and they left, now its thawing out again, THE PLANET CHANGES!!!

[debinok1]

Oh for crying out loud, they have found fossils of sea animals in the mountains and the deserts, which tells us at one point in history those places were UNDER WATER, the planet changed NOW THEIR NOT. Good Grief.

[sly_64]

I am hanging out very happily in shorts and a T-Shirt in Miami.

[louiville2]

"Proponents of human induced warming and climate change told us that an increase in CO2 precedes and causes temperature increases. They were wrong. They told us the late 20th century was the warmest on record. They were wrong. They told us, using the infamous %u201Chockey stick%u201D graph, the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) did not exist. They were wrong. They told us global temperatures would increase through 2008 as CO2 increased. They were wrong. They told us Arctic ice would continue to decrease in area through 2008. They were wrong. They told us October 2008 was the second warmest on record. They were wrong. They told us 1998 was the warmest year on record in the US. They were wrong it was 1934. They told us current atmospheric levels of CO2 are the highest on record. They are wrong. They told us pre-industrial atmospheric levels of CO2 were approximately 100 parts per million (ppm) lower than the present 385 ppm. They are wrong. This last is critical because the claim is basic to the argument that humans are causing warming and climate change by increasing the levels of atmospheric CO2 and have throughout the Industrial era. In fact, pre-industrial CO2 levels were about the same as today, but how did they conclude they were lower?" http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/exposing-the-global-warming-myth-co2-levels/

[laeion]

Before you put Al Gore down on his Global Warming video, research Global Warming. According to the calender, the season we''re currently in is Fall, but we''re seeing all this cold weather coming in. Global Warming increases overall temperature recorded through the year, not just for one season or month. It also causes temperature, weather, climate change, to become more severe/extreme. By extreme, you''re looking at the temperature dropping passed the average level.

[cbs_tom]

did you happen to notice the mysterious TsunamiPosted by ms1-1-1 at 10:23 AM : Dec 16, 2008
OK..Can''t take it anymore. Are you insisting that a satellite is responsible for a sunami? Do you realize how much power would be required for such an event? An atomic bomb would not cause such a thing!
Great movie though!

[vcofreason]

All this global warming is making me shiver. I''d better get some extra blankets. I''d like to have 1% of all the money wasted on global warming "studies" (a.k.a "natural cyclical changes in the earth" *eyeroll*) and put it towards my heating bill since it''s so COLD!!

I like how they talk about really bad hurricanes the likes of which we''ve never seen. Look up the Galveston hurricane of 1900. It was like a Cat 5. They are not getting stronger, idiots are just moving closer to the water.

[hawksprings]

"You can not point to one frigid week or even one frigid season in one part of the world to claim warming (or cooling) on a global scale is or is not happening."
Posted by LloydBest1

But if you are a Global Warming Sheep, you can point to one day of hot weather to prove it.