14 Deaths Reported in Midwest Snowstorm

gosh, I guess global warming is science fiction. somebody better
inform president algore



MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Fierce wind blew snow across roads and stranded
hundreds of drivers on Midwestern highways Friday, as thousands
shivered without power and airlines were forced to call off hundreds
of flights.

At least 14 storm-related deaths have been reported since the snow
began falling Wednesday, including a 10-year-old Wisconsin boy who
died Friday in a car accident.

The storm left more than a foot of snow in some areas Friday. Even as
the flakes stopped falling by afternoon, gusts of 40 mph prompted
blizzard warnings and prevented major highways from reopening.

Officials at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport canceled 500
flights, blaming bad weather elsewhere.

In the Northeast, a storm dumped snow across northern New England,
while areas to the south were left with a messy mix of snow, sleet and
freezing rain.

Hundreds of miles of interstate highway in Iowa, Minnesota and South
Dakota remained closed for much of Friday, with plow drivers forced to
pull off roads because of the wind-blown snow.

More than 100 vehicles were abandoned as their stranded drivers were
rescued in Iowa, where blizzard warnings were extended into Saturday.

"Mobility and visibility are horrendous right now with wind chills
hovering around zero - conditions are very treacherous," Lt. Col. Greg
Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said Friday
afternoon.

Close to 400 rigs crowded the parking lot of the Trails Truck and
Travel Center, where Interstates 90 and 35 converge at Albert Lea,
Minn.

"All I see is trucks. It's just a sea of trucks," manager Rick Boyer
said.

"Everybody's standing around watching weather reports on our display
TVs. They're blocking up the aisles," he said.

In North Dakota, a section of Interstate 94 was shut down.

The weather knocked out power to close to 80,000 Michigan homes and
businesses, and about half were still in the dark Friday, utility
officials said.

"It's a whale of a storm," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. "Overall,
things are going as well as they could."

Pawlenty mobilized the National Guard, and the governors of Iowa and
South Dakota issued disaster declarations.

In Wisconsin, a 10-year-old child died of injuries suffered in a two-
vehicle crash on a slippery road on Friday, while a pickup truck
driver died in Michigan after colliding with a delivery truck on a
slick road. A 75-year-old man also died when his car collided with a
semi-truck, authorities said.

A truck driver died in Massachusetts when his tractor-trailer rolled
down an embankment, and a 16-year-old driver in Minnesota was killed
when he passed a semi, spun out and was hit by the truck.

A teenage girl and a man were killed in North Dakota in a crash
between a sport utility vehicle and a car on an ice-covered highway,
the Highway Patrol said Friday.

Traffic accidents Wednesday and Thursday also killed another person in
Michigan, a couple in North Dakota and a woman and two teenagers in
Wisconsin. A ninth person died while shoveling snow in Nebraska.

Minneapolis had 11 inches of snow by sunrise Friday. Western Iowa got
up to 17 inches, and strong wind built up drifts 10 feet high. The
eastern Dakotas had up to 18 inches.

The storm, the area's second major winter blast in a week, was part of
a larger line of thunderstorms and snowstorms that stretched from
Minnesota to the Gulf Coast. Tornadoes killed 20 people in Missouri,
Georgia and Alabama, including eight students in an Alabama high
school, authorities said.

In Maine, a woman was critically injured when her car spun into a
canal, stranding her for three hours, and a plow driver had to swim to
safety after his vehicle smashed through a guardrail and into a river.

New York City got 2 1/2 inches of rain, and drivers in northern
suburbs found flooded highways and water that rose above park benches.
A mudslide stopped a commuter train, but no one was hurt.

---

Associated Press writers Mike Wilson in Des Moines, Iowa, Timberly
Ross in Omaha, Neb., Jerry Harkavy in Portland, Maine, David N.
Goodman in Detroit and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, N.D., contributed to
this report.

---

On the Net:

Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com

National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov

Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com

On 3/03/07 10:47, in article
, "Earl Evleth"
wrote:

Forged but to update you on Europe


Warmest January-February in 85 years recorded

The first two months this year were within a whisker of the record set by
January and February of 1955, which had a mean temperature of a
far-from-cold 14.5 degrees Celsius. The combined mean temperature of 14.1
degrees Celsius for last January and February made these months the second
warmest in the 85-year history of the Meteorological Office.

The Met. Office, today forming part of Malta International Airport plc, said
that this time last year it had reported that February was half a degree
cooler than the average. On the other hand, February this year, with a mean
temperature of 13.8°C, was warmer, by 1.4 degrees more than the average.

Since 1922 there were another eight years with warmer Februaries, with 1955
holding the record at 14.6 °C.

Last month¹s daytime temperatures, with a mean of 16.8°C, were 1.5 degrees
warmer than the average, making it the warmest February days of the past
nine years; however there were another 10 Februaries in the past 85 years
that actually had warmer days.

The warmest February days were those of 1960, with an average of 17.7°C. The
warmest day last month was 15 February, with a high of 18.8°C.

With a mean of 10.8°C, the nights last month were 1.1°C warmer than average.
But they were certainly not the warmest February nights * there were another
10 years with higher temperatures during the night.

The warmest February nights since 1922 were, again, those of 1955 with a
mean of 11.9°C.

The night of 5/6 February was the coldest last month when the thermometer
slipped down to 4.9°C. The chilliest February night on record was that of
7/8 February 1956 when the thermometer showed a minimum of 1.7°C.

February was also very dry. The Met. Office said that with only 17.8mm
rainfall, last month was less than a third of the average for the month.
Rainfall in February is, generally speaking, quite erratic * months of
plenty are often followed by lean months. However there were only nine other
Februaries that were drier than last month, of which five were in the past
30 years.

The highest amount of rainfall last month, 8.4mm, fell during the night of
9/10 February. The wettest February was that of 1965 when the airport
rain-gauge collected 187.9mm, while the driest was that of 1957, with only
3.5mm.

The mean wind speed last month was 9.2 knots (10.6mph or 17 kilometres per
hour) which is somewhat less than average. The highest gust was recorded on
13 February, at 48 knots (55mph or 89 kilometres per hour) from a
northwesterly direction. The most frequent direction last month was the
northwest.

The strongest gust ever measured in February by the Meteorological Office
was 70 knots (81mph or 130 kilometres per hour) from a northwesterly
direction on 4 February 1955.

With an average of five hours and 42 minutes of bright sunshine a day,
February was slightly cloudier than normal.

The brightest day was 17 February with 10 hours and six minutes of bright
sunshine, while the sky was completely overcast on two days * 22 and the 24
February.

On 3/03/07 12:19, in article , "Earl Evleth"
wrote:

Forged but to update you on Europe

and

Beijing, Shanghai hit by warmest winters

Beijing, March 3. (PTI): Hit by global warming, the Chinese capital, Beijing
and the economic hub, Shanghai have experienced the warmest winter breaking
all previous records, the state media reported on Friday.

China has had its warmest year in over half a century in 2006, with an
average temperature of 9.9 degrees Celsius. Thirteen out of 39 climate
observation stations on the usually frigid Tibetan plateau recorded
all-time-high temperatures.

The country has experienced an unusually warm winter, after it recorded an
average temperature of minus 2.6 degrees Celsius from December 1 to February
25, which was 1.8 degrees higher than normal.

Beijing has broken a 160-year-old high temperature record after seeing 16
degrees Celsius on February 5. Whereas, Shanghai in east China has
experienced the warmest winter since 1873, the Shanghai Meteorological
Bureau said on Thursday.

According to latest statistics from the bureau, the average temperature in
the municipality was recorded at 8.1 degrees Celsius from December 2006 to
February this year, an increase of 2.6 degrees from the average winter
temperature in the same period in previous years.

The newly-set record shows the widespread global warming effect on the
country's largest city, Director at the bureau's climate centre, Lei Xiaotu
said.

Lei said the warm weather has reduced energy consumption in some areas, as
it decreased the need for heating in cold winter. Due to high temperatures
the prices of vegetables have also fallen, he added.

But Lei said, they are also aware of its negative effects on human health
and environment.

Earl Evleth wrote:

gosh, I guess global warming is science fiction. somebody better
inform president algore

Not only the yahoo address, but the glaring ignorance of all
things scientific brand this as another of Piggy's forgeries!




MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Fierce wind blew snow across roads and stranded
hundreds of drivers on Midwestern highways Friday, as thousands
shivered without power and airlines were forced to call off hundreds
of flights.

At least 14 storm-related deaths have been reported since the snow
began falling Wednesday, including a 10-year-old Wisconsin boy who
died Friday in a car accident.

The storm left more than a foot of snow in some areas Friday. Even as
the flakes stopped falling by afternoon, gusts of 40 mph prompted
blizzard warnings and prevented major highways from reopening.

Officials at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport canceled 500
flights, blaming bad weather elsewhere.

In the Northeast, a storm dumped snow across northern New England,
while areas to the south were left with a messy mix of snow, sleet and
freezing rain.

Hundreds of miles of interstate highway in Iowa, Minnesota and South
Dakota remained closed for much of Friday, with plow drivers forced to
pull off roads because of the wind-blown snow.

More than 100 vehicles were abandoned as their stranded drivers were
rescued in Iowa, where blizzard warnings were extended into Saturday.

"Mobility and visibility are horrendous right now with wind chills
hovering around zero - conditions are very treacherous," Lt. Col. Greg
Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said Friday
afternoon.

Close to 400 rigs crowded the parking lot of the Trails Truck and
Travel Center, where Interstates 90 and 35 converge at Albert Lea,
Minn.

"All I see is trucks. It's just a sea of trucks," manager Rick Boyer
said.

"Everybody's standing around watching weather reports on our display
TVs. They're blocking up the aisles," he said.

In North Dakota, a section of Interstate 94 was shut down.

The weather knocked out power to close to 80,000 Michigan homes and
businesses, and about half were still in the dark Friday, utility
officials said.

"It's a whale of a storm," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. "Overall,
things are going as well as they could."

Pawlenty mobilized the National Guard, and the governors of Iowa and
South Dakota issued disaster declarations.

In Wisconsin, a 10-year-old child died of injuries suffered in a two-
vehicle crash on a slippery road on Friday, while a pickup truck
driver died in Michigan after colliding with a delivery truck on a
slick road. A 75-year-old man also died when his car collided with a
semi-truck, authorities said.

A truck driver died in Massachusetts when his tractor-trailer rolled
down an embankment, and a 16-year-old driver in Minnesota was killed
when he passed a semi, spun out and was hit by the truck.

A teenage girl and a man were killed in North Dakota in a crash
between a sport utility vehicle and a car on an ice-covered highway,
the Highway Patrol said Friday.

Traffic accidents Wednesday and Thursday also killed another person in
Michigan, a couple in North Dakota and a woman and two teenagers in
Wisconsin. A ninth person died while shoveling snow in Nebraska.

Minneapolis had 11 inches of snow by sunrise Friday. Western Iowa got
up to 17 inches, and strong wind built up drifts 10 feet high. The
eastern Dakotas had up to 18 inches.

The storm, the area's second major winter blast in a week, was part of
a larger line of thunderstorms and snowstorms that stretched from
Minnesota to the Gulf Coast. Tornadoes killed 20 people in Missouri,
Georgia and Alabama, including eight students in an Alabama high
school, authorities said.

In Maine, a woman was critically injured when her car spun into a
canal, stranding her for three hours, and a plow driver had to swim to
safety after his vehicle smashed through a guardrail and into a river.

New York City got 2 1/2 inches of rain, and drivers in northern
suburbs found flooded highways and water that rose above park benches.
A mudslide stopped a commuter train, but no one was hurt.

---

Associated Press writers Mike Wilson in Des Moines, Iowa, Timberly
Ross in Omaha, Neb., Jerry Harkavy in Portland, Maine, David N.
Goodman in Detroit and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, N.D., contributed to
this report.

---

On the Net:

Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com

National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov

Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com