By Steven Goddard,
There has been a lot of talk about the hot weather in Moscow over the last couple of weeks. This normally gets reported as the “hot weather in Russia.” But Russia is a big country, and much of it has been experiencing cold temperatures.
The Caucuses and nearby Kazakhstan have been getting hit by one cold wave after another – as seen in the video below.
Closeup of Kazakhstan below, showing temperatures 10-15C below normal near lake Balkash.
This past winter was one of the coldest on record in Siberia.
Record Low Temperatures Grip Siberia
I R K U T S K, Russia, Jan. 22
Winter in Siberia is usually spectacular and always very cold. But this winter has been relentless. Week after week, temperatures have been dipping to 50 below zero. Siberians are accustomed to the cold, but they were completely unprepared for temperatures this low
In further bad news for Kazakhstan, Alberto Contador is leaving team Astana at the end of the year.
Ryan Maue adds from his Florida State University weather map page, NCEP GFS forecast maps of 2-meter temperature anomalies for the globe and selected regions of the world. The anomalies are based upon the new NCEP CFSR reanalysis which extends from 1979-2009, and has the distinct advantage of being based upon a relatively recent incarnation of the NCEP GFS model (so sorta apples to apples). The climatological averages are based upon a 21-day centered average during the past 30-years. While western Russia bakes, the far east and Europe enjoys fall-like temperatures.
NCEP GFS Global Temperature Anomaly Forecasts
Also, Invest 91L in the central Atlantic is becoming better organized and is poised to develop into a Tropical Depression during the next couple of days. Current long-range models put the disturbance east of the Bahamas in 6-days.
[reply] Estimated 40000 excess deaths from cold in UK last winter. RT-mod
Mod, I’d like to use that in a piece I’m writing. I know you’re the mod and all, but can you post the link? Or just fire to my e-mail? I would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I’m sure much of them died in an effort to cure mother earth of her fever, but it’s damned bitter pill to swallow. In the UK, no less.
[reply]http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/is-the-weather-making-you-ill-1864773.html RogTallbloke-mod
The warmth in Antarctica is pretty noticeable. The lack of warmth in the Arctic is also noticeable.
I believe this one might be for the subsurface sea temps:
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom_inv.html
Which would mean that as soon as summer is over, the ocean rolls over colder water below.
Kiwi paper with Peru story.. temp decline over the past 3 or 4 years..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10662912
[reply] Estimated 40000 excess deaths from cold in UK last winter. RT-mod
That is utter rubbish I’m afraid. BUT I would always prefer global warming to global cooling as would Al Gore, of course.
[reply] Take it up with the UK health authority, the independent newspaper and wikipedia. RT-mod
Cassandra
NOAA almost always shows Antarctica very warm, even during months when UAH shows it much below normal. I don’t know what that is about.
More than temperature maps, pressure maps would tell the tale. But for the purpose of fearmongering, the temps will do.
Steve, my home town of Novosibirsk is in the middle of the current low temperature zone, and Western Siberia is still located in Russia, but Kazakhstan is a separate country now, vegetating under not-so-brilliant dictatorship of Mr. Nazarbayev and his kin. Transcaucasian republics (Armenia and Georgia) are also independant countries.
Mr. Horton above mentions that, according to his observations, Siberians are used to minus 50°C cold. I wouldn’t qualify his statement as correct if it’s applied to the most populated parts of Siberia.
I was born and grew up in Western Siberia, and minus 42-45°C was considered rather extreme. Minus 50°C is a disaster. Petrol starts to freeze, all machinery stops, and people stay indoors.
The vast but almost unpopulated region in Central Eastern Siberia (north of Yakutsk) is famous for frequently hitting as low as minus 50°C. But more populated Southern Siberian areas along the Trans-Siberian railroad, where major cities are located (Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk) rarely experience temperatures lower than minus 40°C, and even that is usually considered dangerous enough to close schools.
I remember going to the Soviet school when it was minus 42°C (the school was at 5-minute walking distance) but most children who lived farther out would not come to school when it hit minus 40°C.
Henry Chance
May i suggest the following reading: Dynamic Analysis of Weather and Climate, M.Leroux, Springer 2010 where such questions are well answered among others?
Random
Local temperatures are only relevant when they are above average.
High temperatures are climate, low temperatures are weather.
Alexander Feht says:
August 1, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Steve, my home town of Novosibirsk is in the middle of the current low temperature zone….
I was born and grew up in Western Siberia, and minus 42-45°C was considered rather extreme. Minus 50°C is a disaster. Petrol starts to freeze, all machinery stops, and people stay indoors.
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BRRrrrrr -35C was cold enough to cause a friend and I to have frostbite while waiting for a school bus in New York.
Thanks for the first hand info.
I remember going to the Soviet school when it was minus 42°C (the school was at 5-minute walking distance) but most children who lived farther out would not come to school when it hit minus 40°C.
As for a piddling several degree Centigrade rise, I would like to point out that Ottawa (my eponymous city) varies in temperature by 60 centigrade every 6 months.
If I read the anomaly is correct, one of the coldest winters days in Melbourne is 5°C warmer than average?
Currently suffering in 99 deg F, my sympathies are somewhat limited.
The question is: Is it better to die from heatstroke or from frostbite?
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
August 1, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I don’t know about the Antarctic, but I see La Nina!
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and what is that blue thing coming off the west coast of Africa? 😉
Kold in the glorious nation of Kasakhstan? – not much fun for all those potassium miners. (Is K mining open cast?)
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
August 1, 2010 at 12:41 pm
[reply] Estimated 40000 excess deaths from cold in UK last winter. RT-mod
………….
I am shocked by that number.
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It’s been going on for years topping over 25,000 regularly each winter. Imagine if the same number died during the recent heatwave in the UK. “We must act now.” Yet poor pensioners are treated like badly!
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=574
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/2008/dec/29/health-warning-cold-weather-met-office
During last winter, we had SIX WEEKS of continuous sub-zero temps, bottoming out at -20 degrees centigrade, in my home county in the lower Rhine area of Germany, where winters are supposed to be ABOVE zero normaly, with only a handful of days showing sub-zero temps every other few years, or so.
This may sound funny, compared to regular siberian winter temps. But it ain’t funny anymore, when cities with millions of inhabitants are completely unprepared for such harsh winters and their economies come to a screetching halt for weeks on end, due to (unaccustomed) cold weather.
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“Around 25,000 extra people die in the winter months compared to other times of the year in England and Wales. Last year there were 40,000 excess deaths, as a result of the unusually low temperatures…..And they are worse in Britain than in countries with colder winters, such as Scandinavia. ”
Source: The Independent
Other sources: click, click, click.
This is nothing unusual. See the 1998/99 and 1999/200 winter excess deaths of over 40,000 for each winter click.
I respect your sceptical mind but you must back up your sweeping statement with evidence.
Steve in SC says:
August 1, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Currently suffering in 99 deg F, my sympathies are somewhat limited.
The question is: Is it better to die from heatstroke or from frostbite?
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Neither are any fun ( it was 99F here in NC for the last week) but I think frostbite is worse. It is VERY painful as you thaw out and the damage never goes away completely. With heat stroke you feel awful but you are not usually screaming in pain as you recover. (cool shower) That why I moved south among other reasons.
Maybe I am reading it wrong but it looks like excess winter deaths in the UK have actually been coming down since 1950!
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/hsq/HSQ20seasonal.pdf
Estimated 40000 excess deaths from cold in UK last winter
“Impacts of global cooling”
0:46 video
Something to watch: When does snow first fall in interior Russia (Siberia)?
The intense, cold winter Arctic air masses get their roots from Siberia, which is cut off from any moderating influences. The sooner snow falls there….
I’ve long been intrigued by the notion of hearing the “Whisper of the Stars” which is possible at -50 C (-56 F) but having encountered a low of only -33 F I’m still waiting.
Search on the term “Whisper of the Stars” and you will find something interesting to read. For example:
http://rt.com/Russia_Now/Basic_facts/Climate.html
Western Siberia experienced 3 months of -30c temperatures this past winter, the result of HP agglutinations too.