Showing posts with label Met Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Met Office. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

‘Global Warming’ In The Sahara Desert: ‘We Woke Up To See SNOW!’

saharasnow


It snowed 16 inches in the Sahara Desert near the town Ain Sefra in Algeria after a storm hit on Sunday. This is the third time in 40 years that snow has fallen on the city.


Residents also awoke to snow in 2016 and 2017.  But this time, they got about 16 inches of the white stuff. While the actual town of Ain Sefra only saw a few inches of snow, the sand dunes in the desert, which is on the outskirts of the town, were covered.


“We were really surprised when we woke up to see snow again. It stayed all day on Sunday and began melting at around 5 pm,” said Photographer Karim Bouchetata. When Bouchetata says “again”, the photographer is referring to another snowstorm not long ago. In 2016, the town known as “The Gateway to the Desert” saw deep snow shortly after Christmas and it caused chaos, with passengers stranded on buses after the roads became slippery and icy.


But children made the most of it, sledding down the desert sand dunes and building snowmen.


The cold snap comes as Europe and the United States froze in bitter temperatures. Winter Storm Grayson, battering the US east coast, has seen the sea freeze in Cape Cod, along with the Niagra Falls in stunning scenes.


“Cold air was pulled down south into North Africa over the weekend as a result of high pressure over Europe,” said a spokesman for the Met Office earlier. “The high pressure meant the cold weather extended further south than normal.” Ain Sefra is about 3,281 feet above sea level and surrounded by the Atlas Mountains.


The Sahara Desert covers most of Northern Africa and it has gone through shifts in temperature and moisture over the past few hundred thousand years. Although the Sahara is very dry today, it is expected to become green again in about 15,000 years and was green in the past.  This change was blamed on “global warming” or “climate change.”

Monday, November 27, 2017

Health Officials Warn: 40,000 Could Die As Britain Hit With 3 Week Long Arctic Cold

cold


Britain is facing a three-week long arctic chill that will see temperatures plummet and significant snowfall, according to health officials, who are warning that residents should be prepared for the imminent threat to human health. 40,000 could die from the cold.


Temperatures in Britain are expected to go as low degrees Celcius or 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next three weeks and extremely heavy snowfall is expected in Essex and London. Health chiefs have now issued a warning ahead of the prolonged cold spell, calling on the public to check on those who may be at risk.


Britain risks a re-run of some of December’s 2010’s mayhem. This cold spell also forecasts snow and ice, meaning some roads will be impassable, trains will be halted, planes will be risking cancellations, and football matches could be called off because of frozen fields. December shivers nudging -12 Celsius (even in the South) were forecast by The Weather Company and The Weather Outlook.


Dr. Thomas Waite, of Public Health England’s Extreme Events team, said: “As the weather is going to get colder everywhere in the coming days, this is a really good time to check on those who may be at-risk. People with diseases such as heart and lung conditions, older people and young children can feel the ill-effects of cold weather more than the rest of us.”


“To stay well this winter we all need to play a part. Is there someone you know who could be at risk when the weather gets cold? Could you help them out by fetching shopping or prescriptions? When the colder weather arrives there are several things we can do to keep well, wear several thin layers instead of fewer thicker ones, keep parts of the home you’re using heated to at least 18C and keep a careful eye on the weather forecasts,” said Waite.



It is feared colder-than-usual weather will kill close to 40,000 Brits this winter after 34,000 excess winter deaths were recorded in the mild winter a year ago. Winter’s average cold weather death toll is 25,000. The Met Office said Arctic air means Britain’s -7 C coldest nights of winter are possible on Wednesday and Thursday in both the South and North, beating the -6.3 C on Saturday morning at Topcliffe, North Yorkshire.


Many who die in cold weather are elderly but these victims would not die anyway in coming months, the Department of Health emphasized. Twenty percent of winter deaths are of people under the age of 75, with 11 percent under 65, Office for National Statistics figures show.