Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 02/01/2008 9:10:34 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
128 Million Square Kilometers Were Covered By Snow At China
Source:China Meteorological News Press
According to CMA meteorological satellite remote sensing monitoring for snow cover, up to January 28, the total area covered by snow at 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) is 128.21 million square kilometers.
More than 90% of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei and Shannxi were covered by snow. The depth of snow cover at central Anhui and south Jiangsu is 30~45 cm and some areas even reached 50 cm.
China suffered rare and sustained low temperature, rain, snow and freezing weather since January 10.
Experts said that there are two reasons of this weather process, La Nina event and abnormal atmospheric circulation.
The La Nina event is the main reason of this weather process. The La Nina state came into being at August 2007 and developed rapidly. Up to January, 2008, the sea-surface temperature of east-central equatorial Pacific had been keeping over 0.5℃ lower than that of the conventional years. Stronger La Nina event can strengthen the middle latitudes atmospheric circulation and may consequently bring lower temperature and more precipitation to east China, especially Yangtze River basin and its north area.
The rare, sustained, steady abnormal atmospheric circulation at Eurasia is the direct reason of the weather process. The abnormal circulation had last 19 days (the average in January is 6 days), was favorable for invasion of cold air through Gansu Corridor. The strong northwest Pacific subtropical high has been staying above the sea southeast of China, so the cold and warm air join mainly at the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and its south. The southern branch trough at south of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is most active for more than ten years and brings more warm and wet air to China. A temperature inversion layer caused by cold and warm air is the main reason of the widespread freezing rain. (Feb.1)
By Lin Lin
I wonder what what the huge runoff of all this snow down the Yangtze River this spring will do to the area of the Three Gorges Dam?
Excerpt - BEIJING, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - China's heaviest snow storms in 50 years have wreaked havoc on the country's economy causing damage of $7.5 billion, a senior official said...
Crops and farmland have been particularly badly hit with around 17.5 acres of agricultural land affected. The Ministry of Agriculture was cited as saying that 14.4 million poultry had died from the cold, as well as over 870,000 pigs, 450,000 sheep and 85,000 cattle...
Some amazing numbers here and some are obviously wrong or incorrectly translated. 17.5 acres is obviously incorrect. But wow, 14.4 million poultry ? Almost a million pigs ? Almost 1/2 million sheep ? All frozen to death.
Looks like the Chinese are not waiting for the next Al Gore BoBo's Warming Tour.
An armored vehicle crushes down ice covered road at Lujiang section of He'an Highway in Lujiang, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 2, 2008. An armonred vehicle was ordered to deice thick ice covered the road due to continuous icy weather in recent days. (Xinhua Photo)
I sure hope we have someone in our government that realizes what could potentially happen due to a significant Global Cooling cycle.
The problem with using those heavy armored vehicles is it will cause a lot of damage to the roads over there, not that the roads were in good shape in the first place.
I have a feeling we will see mass riots in China that will make Tienanmen square look like a picnic.
Experts blame snow disaster on La Nina, atmospheric circulation
Excerpt
Experts said that the latest La Nina conditions developed last August throughout the tropical Pacific and strengthened at the sharpest pace in 56 years. The sea-surface temperature during the past six months was 0.5 degree Celsius lower than normal years.
"The La Nina weather pattern is expected to prevail at least till the end of spring," said Jiao Meiyan, director of the National Meteorological Center.
Winter storms leave Chinese dark, cold, hungry in "dead cities"
CHANGSHA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- With heavy snow snarling much of China for the past three weeks, cutting power and disrupting transportation, people in many areas have been living in what they call "dead cities".
For those who were not lucky enough to secure a hotel room, coal became a sought-after commodity.
Ms. Duan, who works at a construction site, was happy to be someplace with a stock of coal. "With the coal, we could not only get warmth, but cook as well," she said. She added that the price of noodles had jumped from 1.5 yuan a kilogram to 2.5 yuan. With the water supplies cut, Duan said that they had to boil snow for water to drink.
Wow. Carbon to the rescue ! You can go 30 days without food supposedly, so mass starving has probably not happened yet. My guess is that the people living in homes that collapsed due to the snow are homeless and in the most danger of freezing. Those without electricity are also in danger of exposure to cold.
Just saw weather report that more snow is on its way to these same regions of China. Prayers for those suffering in the cold in China.
“128 Million Square Kilometers Were Covered By Snow At China (up to 20 inches)
China Meteorological News Press ^ | 02/01/08 | Lin Linz”
Turn up the heat a little more, Global Warming!
Am glad to see that the army appears to be getting supplies to some of those most affected by the snow.
About time that the Army did something positive for the people of China.
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