Italian Ice
A boat pushes through ice on a frozen Venice canal. Credit: Sky News
An unusually harsh winter has brought snowy and icy conditions to Europe. Now that winter weather has even made its way to down the famous canals of Venice. A cold snap as frozen over the waterways, coated areas as far south as Rome in snow, and caused the closure of many schools.
More on the Cold in Europe from the Washington Post:
* At least 450 deaths have been blamed on the cold weather (Reuters), mostly in central and eastern Europe – a large fraction in the Ukraine
* Wunderground said the cold snap is the most severe since 1991; Reuters reported it’s the worst February cold snap in 26 years
* Much of the Danube river is iced over, halting or restricting navigation in Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Austria; Bulgaria set a new record low of -28.6 C (-19.5 F) this morning (Reuters)
A barge lays on the border of a frozen river in the harbour of Duisburg, western Germany, on February 8, 2012. The cold snap has gripped Europe for more than a week. (PATRIK STOLLARZ – AFP/GETTY IMAGES) * The cold is straining power supplies in Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Germany, and Austria (Reuters, Voice of America)
* 93 stations from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute reported record low temperatures on February 5 (Bloomberg via Climate Central)
* Up to 8” of snow fell in Rome last weekend, the most since 1986 (AP)
* Paralyzing snow has cutoff entire villages in northern Italy, Serbia and Bosnia
* More snow and extreme cold is expected in northern Italy into the Balkans Friday into the weekend as a storm drops southward. The Toronto Star reports “Rome’s mayor has ordered schools in the Italian capital closed on Friday and Saturday as more snow and frigid temperatures are expected in the forecast.”
* The cold and snow extended into Northern Africa last weekend: 2-3” of snow fell in Tripoli, Libya, perhaps the most since 1956 (Wunderground); 4” fell in Algiers, Algeria – the first snowfall in 8 years, and the most in decades (Reuters)
Why So C0ld?
From the UK Met Office:
The current cold weather across Europe is in sharp contrast to the mild, wet and windy conditions across much of Europe through December and January. The cause of the cold conditions is the development of a large ‘blocking’ anticyclone over Scandinavia and north-western Russia. Easterly winds on the southern edge of this system has transported cold continental air westwards, displacing the more usual mild westerly influence from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the British Isles.
A ‘blocking anticyclone’ can be thought of being like a very large boulder in a stream. This boulder acts like a damn, stopping the flow of the stream. In this instance a block stops the more normal westerly flow that brings milder conditions, allowing colder conditions to win out from the east.