UK Daily Mail

Britain’s workforce was tonight embroiled in a second night of snow chaos with forecasters warning there is worse to come. Police in several counties have been urging people to leave work early - with up to eight more inches of snow predicted in London and the South East tonight. Eurostar said that half of its services would be cancelled today. It advised passengers to only make essential journeys.

Crawling along: Motorists edge their way forward in the centre of York today

Anyone who doesn’t have to travel is being warned to stay at home as temperatures plummet to -6c. Surrey Superintendent Chris Moon said: ‘I have put out several severe weather warnings in my career, but this one I really must stress.’ Large swathes of the country ground to a halt this afternoon - with many roads, rail lines and airports forced to close.

Scores of passengers were forced to sleep in broken-down trains overnight after two trains became stuck in the snow, while passengers stranded at Gatwick faced the prospect of bedding down for another night in the terminal. The airport shut down with hundreds of flights cancelled after two runways became inoperable. An airport spokesman said: ‘We brought in extra people to try to clear the runway. We had a vast army of people, but as fast as they were clearing the snow, the quicker it settled again.’ The facility will remain shut until at least 6am at the ‘very, very earliest’. And passengers at Edinburgh Airport were also left stranded after it shut early because of the harsh weather.  Scotland has recorded its worst November snowfall for 40 years, with temperatures expected to fall to -25C overnight.

Rail services around the country are also expected to be disrupted through the night and tomorrow, with special timetables running in worst-hit areas. A spokesman for Network Rail said that the south and east were expected to be hardest hit by the weather overnight. ‘We are expecting particularly heavy snow tonight in Kent and Sussex, and while there will be a contingency timetable in operation, people can expect delays and should check online if possible before they start their journey.’

Asked how operators are handling the hazard, the spokesman said: ‘I wouldn’t want to generalise about the country as a whole as there are some train operators that have run a near perfect service today - yet if you move further south you’ll find 2ft of snow and disrupted services

Snow dog: A giant canine igloo made by Geoff Maloney and his children in the garden of their Teesville home

A blizzard in Manchester today makes driving conditions treacherous

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Sweden braces for record freeze

The Local Science and Technology News

Stockholm is forecast to experience its coldest seasonal temperatures for over 100 years this week as winter weather takes hold of the country, according to the Swedish Meteorological Institute (SMHI). Temperatures across the country are expected to drop to record lows for the first week of December, with the exception of the far north, with averages coming in 7-10 degrees Celsius below normal.

Stockholm registered -11 degrees Celsius at the weekend, the coldest November temperature since 1965 and the mercury is set to plunge further on Wednesday and Thursday, dropping as low as -15. Last week temperatures as low as -36 degrees Celsius have been recorded in Sweden as snowfalls and storm winds play havoc with transport services. This required the military to be called out to help.

“It is far below average temperatures, which usually oscillate around zero at this time of the year,” said Alexandra Ohlsson, a meteorologist with SMHI.

Dalarna and Jamtland in northern Sweden will also be hit with the harsh weather. The Storsjon lake in the heart of Jamtland’s main city Ostersund has already frozen over in most parts.

SMHI forecasted that in southern and central areas the cold will ease off somewhat come Friday. Northern Norrland will however drop to minus 14-17 degrees Celsius in the middle of the day.

The sub-zero temperatures are here to stay though, even in the south, Alexandra Ohlsson said. “It looks like the sub-zero temperatures will persist,” she said.

With more snow on the way in from the Baltic Sea, the current high snow depth of eight decimetres, recorded in Tidaholm in western Sweden, is set to be exceeded.

Habo and Mullsjo are some of the most wintry white municipalities in southern and central Sweden, and warnings have been issued over the dangers associated with heavy snowfalls. Emergency services in Jonkoping county in central Sweden are urging people to check their roofs, especially split-level houses where deep pockets of heavy snow can form.

SMHI was reluctant to issue a forecast for Christmas and on whether the temperatures will remain low enough to keep away the slush that typifies the festive season in many parts of southern and central Sweden.

Read more and see comments here. Two comments are copied.

12:13 November 30, 2010 by StockholmSam

Why tell Al Gore? He pointed it out rather clearly in his movie. One symptom of climate change resulting from global warming is that certain areas will experience much colder winters. The basic idea of climate change is that the earth’s ecology is a holistic system and each piece depends on the other pieces. When one piece gets out of whack, the other pieces adjust. These adjustments are expected to take the form of extreme heatwaves and droughts in some areas as well as extreme cold spells in other areas. Simple to understand, really.

17:24 November 30, 2010 by roaringchicken92
The global warming alarmists are also now telling us that air pollution in Asia, particularly in China, is the primary cause of the global cooling we’ve experienced over the last ten years. Scientists are trying to encourage operators of coal-fired generator plants to clean up their emissions so they can again set about reemphasizing that air pollution causes global warming.

Another group of these scientists has just returned from the arctic summer to tell us that polar ice is melting. They will now head to the antarctic summer to prove that the polar ice is melting there as well.

Guys and gals, if you tell me that “pollution is bad, we should do something about it” or “overfishing is dangerous and needs to be controlled”, I’m apt to believe you. Don’t feed me self-contradictory bullsh*t and expect me to believe it.