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Households worried about the high cost of keeping warm this winter will draw little comfort from the Farmers' Almanac, which predicts below-average temperatures for most of the U.S. "Numb's the word," says the 192-year-old publication, which claims an accuracy rate of 80 to 85 percent for its forecasts that are prepared two years in advance. The almanac's 2009 edition, which goes on sale Tuesday, says at least two-thirds of the country can expect colder than average temperatures, with only the Far West and Southeast in line for near-normal readings. "This is going to be catastrophic for millions of people," said...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Consumers who use heating oil to warm their homes will face higher prices this winter. Although some people are working on ways to deal with the problem, it threatens to impoverish even middle-class American families.About 8.1 of the 107 million households in the United States rely on heating oil as their main heating fuel, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Heating oil prices used to be cheap, but now are around $5 per gallon and expected to go higher. That means that households could face home heating costs of thousands of dollars for the cold...

High natural gas costs expected to boost heating bills this winterBy THOMAS CONTENT tcontent@journalsentinel.com Posted: July 6, 2008 Consumers should expect energy price sticker shock to continue well past the summer driving season, as pain at the pump is poised to give way to furnace frustration next winter. The price of gasoline, above $4 for the past month, is on people’s minds — and it’s visible at nearly every major intersection. But another energy jolt may be coming as the price of natural gas, the primary fuel used to heat Wisconsin homes, is at historic highs for this time of...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday. Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them. About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

D.C. Fire Hazmat Teams responded to an apparent suicide in the District after fire officials said the man may have killed himself using cyanide. Police got a call around 4:30 p.m. on Monday for an unconscious male at a house in the 4300 block of 36th Street. Two officers responded and found a man laying next to a small vile of cyanide. Immediately, fire officials said police left the home and called in the hazmat crew, which is standard procedure. -snip-

It's just as you suspected - this has been the snowiest winter ever in the Ann Arbor area, or at least since 1880 when record-keeping started. And it's not over yet. That's because we're not even into April, a month that normally averages almost 2.5 inches of that pesky white stuff. If this winter continues the way it's been going, we could be in store for more than that. Consider this month. Normally in March, we get about 8.3 inches of snow, said Dennis Kahlbaum, a University of Michigan weather observer. So far in March, with more than a week...

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Several dozen schools were expected to remain shut this week in the Canadian province of Quebec over fears their roofs may collapse under the weight of near record amounts of snow, officials said on Monday. Administrators at Montreal's French-language school board said only 73 of the roughly 200 schools shut since Friday will reopen on Tuesday. Some of the others may not open until after the four-day Easter weekend, which begins Friday. "The objective, of course, is to open the maximum of schools but at the same time to proceed carefully because we want there to be...

Ottawa recovers from near-record snowfallThe Red Cross has set-up cots in the Ottawa airport for the hundreds of people stranded there today, after more than 50 centimetres of snow fell on the capital city during this weekend's massive storm. Meteorologist Paul Delannoy happened to be stuck at the airport, waiting for his wife's flight to arrive. He spoke to CTV Newsnet Sunday afternoon. "There's hardly anything moving at the Ottawa airport," he said. "There are people sleeping everywhere, piles of suitcases and lots of people waiting for in-coming passengers who aren't coming." Ottawa now has had 410.7 centimetres of snow...

Record snow buries Columbus By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago Snow plows and clean-up crews were to continue working overtime Sunday to dig out of a record-setting snow storm that buried Ohio's capital city and many parts of Ohio and Indiana. The heavy winter storm dumped more than 20 inches of snow on Columbus on Saturday, while blizzard conditions shut down highways and stranded air travelers in the region. The storm eventually swept into the East Coast, battering Pennsylvania and New Jersey with a line of thunderstorms. By early Sunday, tens of thousands were left without electric...

To measure the depths of our Minnesota winter this year, just try drilling a hole through lake ice. At Medicine Lake on Tuesday, angler Leroy Thurber had to go down about 30 inches to find water. His experience is not uncommon. In fact the Minnesota DNR estimates ice around the state ranges from 2 feet to 40 inches thick. On some lakes, that thick ice sheet, and snow cover have proved to be a double-whammy for the fish population. The DNR says that blocks sunlight, affects photosynthesis, and robs fish of oxygen. So-called winterkill can then occur. So, rather than...

PITTSBURGH - To the list of simple childhood pleasures whose safety has been questioned, add this: eating snow. A recent study found that snow — even in relatively pristine spots like Montana and the Yukon — contains large amounts of bacteria. Parents who warn their kids not to eat dirty snow (especially the yellow variety) are left wondering whether to stop them from tasting the new-fallen stuff, too, because of Pseudomonas syringae, bacteria that can cause diseases in bean and tomato plants. But experts say there's no need to banish snow-eating along with dodgeball, unchaperoned trick-or-treating and riding a bike...

I’m no scientist. Neither is Nobel Prize winning global warming alarmist and hypocrite Al Gore. Nor are the legions of global warming deniers who are pointing to a stretch of cold weather as “proof” that global warming is a myth. We are, most of us, not qualified in any way, shape, or form to make any kind of technical or scientific judgment on most of the evidence relating to climate change unless we happen to hold an advanced technical degree and are able to examine that evidence in its totality and not pick and choose headlines that bolster one’s political...

** EXCERPT **The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature. It is no wonder that some scientists, opinion writers, political operatives and other people who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming have jumped on this as a teachable moment. “Earth’s ‘Fever’ Breaks: Global COOLING Currently Under Way,” read a blog post and news release on Wednesday...

A late winter storm raged across much of western Europe overnight Friday and through much of Saturday, with winds measuring over 220 kilometres per hour in places, leaving several dead, uprooting trees, cutting off electricity and causing a train crash. In Germany, a high-speed ICE train crashed before dawn Saturday into a tree that fell on a track during a storm raging across Europe, and at least two motorists were killed in other storm-related accidents. The German railways said the engine driver was injured in the collision at Bruehl near Bonn, but the high-speed inter-city express train, bound for Vienna,...

GILFORD, N.H. (AP) - Much of this week's winter carnival in Gilford has been canceled, due to too much winter. Parks and Recreation Director Herb Greene notes that the cancellation of 2 events was due to poor road conditions and snow-filled parking lots. Of the three events originally scheduled for Wednesday, the Cardboard Box Sled Derby has been rescheduled to Friday morning.

So cold it's getting hot It may be cold, but CBC reassures us that calamity still loomsAh, the weather. It's cold as hell out there. How cold is it? It's so cold the CBC had to rush to assure all of us that global warming is still a big, big problem. With record snow falls, record cold snaps, the return of sea ice to the north, snow in the Middle East and a deep freeze in China, any sensible person might begin to wonder and even have doubts about global-warming theory and climate change. A little skepticism might begin to...

When I got into Taipei last night it was downright cold. I expected it to be cool, but it is cold. The heat in the hotel was non existant. Most of the buildings do not have conditioned air and office workers are working in jackets. A fellow engineer in Taipei told me that snow is showing up in the nearby mountains and that fish are dying because of the cold weather. There have been deaths in Southern China due to the cold. In the north, it is so cold, it cannot snow since the cold air is drying up the...

LONDON, Feb 28 (APP) :The United Kingdom has airlifted aid worth 1.5 million pounds (US $ 3 million) to support international relief efforts for the growing humanitarian crisis in the Central Asian State of Tajikistan hit by the severe wintry conditions and energy crisis. The funding will help provide essential items and services for those at risk by the severe winter temperatures and the energy crisis facing the country, the UK’s International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander said on Thursday. He said the Department for International Development (DFID) has organised two separate emergency airlifts to transport vital supplies including blankets, baby...

CONCORD, N.H. - Another snowstorm swept across New England on Wednesday, toppling seasonal snowfall records and dumping so much heavy snow on buildings that some collapsed under the weight. An unoccupied summer pizza shop collapsed at Weirs Beach in Laconia, after the roof sagged about halfway into the two-story building and bowed the walls out, officials said. On Tuesday, several people had to flee as the roof fell in at the Over Easy Cafe in Ossipee, N.H. The dangerous snow load has kept roofing contractors and homeowners been busy. "People can't keep up with the snow. They think it's going...

FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Feb. 19, 2008 – Afghan and coalition forces are working with national government officials to help farmers endure the harsh winter in this western Afghanistan province bordering Iran. A village elder puts his allotment of veterinary medicines in his shawl to carry back to his village from the Shib Koh district center in Farah province, Afghanistan, Feb. 5, 2008. Photo by Staff Sgt. Marie Schult, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The winter has been especially harsh. Severe snow and ice storms have made it nearly impossible for villagers to travel to nearby cities to...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Heavy snow and slush has forced officials at Kansas City International Airport to close and cancel numerous flights. Airport spokesman Joe McBride says the runways were closed around 6:30 a.m. Sunday when testing showed conditions were too slick to safely operate planes. The airport sees about 440 flights a day. Four inches of snow had fallen at Kansas City International as of 10 a.m. Forecasters predict snow will continue well into the afternoon.

There's an upside to the extreme cold temperatures northern Canadians have endured in the last few weeks: scientists say it's been helping winter sea ice grow across the Arctic, where the ice shrank to record-low levels last year. Temperatures have stayed well in the -30s C and -40s C range since late January throughout the North, with the mercury dipping past -50 C in some areas. Satellite images are showing that the cold spell is helping the sea ice expand in coverage by about 2 million square kilometres, compared to the average winter coverage in the previous three years. "It's...

SIERRA VISTA — A winter storm lingered over Cochise County on Friday, bringing flurries of snow and splashes of rain. The cool weather, however, brought little measurable precipitation through 9:30 p.m. on Friday. And there were few reported problems due to the weather. At the Libby Army Airfield on Fort Huachuca, a National Weather Service monitoring station had measured just 0.11 of an inch of precipitation for the 12-hour period starting at about 6 a.m. At the Sierra Vista fire station on Fry Boulevard, only a trace of rain was recorded in the 24-hour period ending at 6 p.m. on...

As Hong Kong shivers through its second-longest cold spell since 1885, scientists point to global warming to explain the abnormal cold weather phenomenon worldwide. "We are seeing extremely unusual weather across the world," said polar researcher Rebecca Lee Lok-sze.

BALTIMORE - Maryland election officials got a judge to give voters an extra 90 minutes to get to the polls Tuesday after icy weather created traffic gridlock in parts of the state. The polls were scheduled to close at 8 p.m., but hours were extended to 9:30 p.m. Voter turnout had been expected to be high in Maryland's Democratic primary between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, but the inclement weather made elections officials question whether the turnout would remain high. Accidents were reported along busy U.S. 50 and Interstate 97 in central Maryland, said state elections chief Linda Lamone....

Last night’s snowfall sent Madison’s winter total plowing into the record books, breaking the all-time snowfall record of 76.1 inches in 1978-79. “Anytime you set records, it is sort of a momentous occasion, but it doesn’t mean anything more than we’ll be out just like any other storm,” said Madison streets superintendent Al Schumacher. Jon Martin, University of Wisconsin chair of the atmospheric and ocean sciences department said there is a lot of variability from one winter to another, and it is difficult to put a finger on why this winter has been so snowy. “This is a very abnormal...

Bitter Afghan winter kills 650Last Modified: 10 Feb 2008 Source: PA News More than 650 people have died and others have suffered such severe frostbite they have had limbs amputated in Afghanistan's most bitter winter for years. Afghanistan's statistics mark this year as the coldest in a decade - but that is only as far back as the national weather records go, and many believe it is the harshest winter in 30 years. In a hospital in Herat several men lay side by side in hospital beds, their arms and legs freshly-bandaged stubs after being amputated.

There have been a number of indications that January 2008 has been an exceptional month for winter weather in not only North America, but the entire Northern Hemisphere...... Now to add to this, we have images and reports from NOAA and Rutgers University of large anomalies of snow cover extent for the northern hemisphere in January 2008. [[[[see link: http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/jan08-northern-hemisphere-snow-cover-largest-since-1966/

China has had its hardest winter in decades, with even the southern provinces blanketed in snow, sleet, ice, and fog for the last several weeks. The lengthy winter storms and unusually cold temperatures have brought China to a standstill, as the central government got caught unprepared for it: Chinese weather experts have admitted that they were not properly prepared for the snow storms that have left hundreds of thousands stranded. The cold weather seen in recent weeks has been the worst to hit central and southern provinces in decades. Officials have blamed freak conditions, but on Monday the head of...

In Idahna, Ore., there is so much snow, residents' roofs are starting to collapse. The mayor has requested that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski declare the area a state of emergency and send help. Eighteen inches of snow fell in the last 24 hours on top to 6 feet of snow already there, Idahna Mayor Karen Clark said Sunday. There is literally nowhere to put the snow. "We have buildings with snow on them in danger of collapsing. Snow around doors in danger of bursting, some homes have already sustained damage," Clark said. The town does not have the resources to...

Death and chaos in blizzard Britain Daniel Foggo EMERGENCY services were at full stretch yesterday coping with the devastation caused by a blast of wintry weather that stranded hundreds of motorists, cut power to thousands and brought havoc to shipping. At least one person died as a result of the weather that brought sub-zero temperatures, gales and blizzards across large parts of Britain. A 20-year-old mother was killed near Aberdeen after the car she was travelling in with her young daughter and boyfriend flipped over on an icy road on Friday night. She was cut from the wreckage and pronounced...

CDC: Flu outbreaks reported in 11 states By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Fri Feb 1, 8:29 PM ET WASHINGTON - Flu season is in full swing, with wide outbreaks in 11 states — and a new strain is starting to emerge that this year's vaccine doesn't specifically target, the government's public health chief said Friday. People still should get their flu shot, and there's plenty available, Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press. So far, the majority of flu cases are being caused by strains that are a good match...

Punxsutawney Phil sees shadow, predicts more winter ahead 2 minutes ago If you believe in folklore, bundle up for six more weeks of wintry weather. This is Groundhog Day, and the furry little critter known as Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. That, according to tradition, means six more weeks of winter. The apathetic-looking rodent was pulled from his stump by members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle. They are the local businessmen in the Western Pennsylvania town who carry out the February 2nd ritual while garbed in top hats and tuxedos. The ceremony was preceded by a...

UPDATE: Michigan-city area woman died of hypothermia trying to conserve energy By STAN MADDUX, Tribune Correspondent By Tiffany Griffin Story Created: Jan 22, 2008 at 11:14 AM EST Story Updated: Jan 22, 2008 at 2:02 PM EST MICHIGAN CITY — Authorities say a Michigan City-area woman’s tendency to turn off the heat to save energy probably contributed to her freezing to death. Related Content The frozen body of Stella Chambers, 61, was discovered about 5 p.m. Monday under the covers in her bed, according to LaPorte County Deputy Coroner Mark Huffman. Police said Chambers had a hat and several layers...

...ACCUMULATING SNOW CONTINUES TONIGHT... .SNOW WILL CONTINUE ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN TONIGHT. A BAND OF HEAVY SNOW IS LIKELY FOR DODGE...WASHINGTON AND OZAUKEE COUNTIES WHERE UP TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW COULD FALL BY TUESDAY MORNING

(CNN) -- Bitter cold gripped most of the United States on Monday, with temperatures dipping below normal from coast to coast. Temperatures in the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains were about 30 degrees below normal, CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider said. "It's very hard to find any part of the country that's warm," Schneider said.

PORTLAND, Maine - Temperatures dropped to breathtaking levels, well below zero, in extreme northern sections of Maine early Monday. Thermometers registered 34 degrees Fahrenheit below zero at Van Buren, 27 below at Presque Isle and 26 below at Allagash, the National Weather Service reported. In the northern Rockies, Butte, Mont., registered 32 below at 8 a.m. — with a wind chill of minus 47, the weather service said. Another of the nation's usual cold spots, International Falls, Minn., ...

Deep Chill Sets in Across U.S. From Fargo to FloridaSiberian Express Brings the Coldest Weather of the Year This Weekend, but Football Goes On Jan. 19, 2008 James Russell walks through the falling snow in Montgomery, Ala., Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008. Residents of central Alabama awoke to a light snow which was expected to continue through most of the day. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) Arctic air is freezing the upper Midwest, blasting brutally cold temperatures and extreme wind chills through North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, into Illinois and Indiana, and down to Missouri and parts of Iowa. For weeks, cold air...

There have been a number of deaths and considerable damage to crops in the Middle East as temperatures in the region have fallen to exceptional lows. Local reports say that 10 people died in Saudi Arabia after snowfalls. In Syria, temperatures have dropped to minus 16 degrees Celsius. There has been widespread damage to crops in Syria, Jordan and Israel. There has also been snow in the Iraqi capital Baghdad for the first time in living memory. The Middle East is a region used to extremes of temperature - but not ones like these. Kuwaiti meteorologists are eagerly watching thermometers...

It is not just in people and places that cultural divisions raise their ugly heads. It also happens in weather. In my first fifty years, spent largely in Maryland and D.C., there were maybe five times that the weather was so bad I was trapped in my home. Now that I live on the top of a mountain in the Blue Ridge, being trapped at home by the weather is an ordinary circumstance that happens several times a year, and we prepare for it, routinely. People in most parts of the nation may consider the Weather Channel as not particularly...

NASA Observes La Niña: This 'Little Girl' Makes A Big ImpressionThe blue area throughout the center of this image shows the cool sea surface temperature along the equator in the Pacific Ocean during this La Niña episode. (Credit: NASA/Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio) ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2008) — Cool, wet conditions in the Northwest, frigid weather on the Plains, and record dry conditions in the Southeast, all signs that La Niña is in full swing. With winter gearing up, a moderate La Niña is hitting its peak. And we are just beginning to see the full effects of this oceanographic phenomenon,...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2008 – The Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Kapisa Team delivered winter coats and shoes to a village in the Nijrab district of Afghanistan’s Kapisa province yesterday. A smiling Afghan girl carries a box of shoes delivered by the International Security Assistance Force’s Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team, during a humanitarian aid drop Jan. 4, 2008, in the Nijrab district of Afghanistan’s Kapisa province. The PRT delivered coats and shoes to the village of Shoki. Photo by U.S. Air Force Senior Airman James Bolinger  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Humanitarian assistance drops spread goodwill and provide basic needs,...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells. Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been. A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A tornado was reported in central Arkansas Tuesday, a day after a freak cluster of January twisters sprung up in the unseasonably warm Midwest and demolished houses, knocked a railroad locomotive off its tracks and briefly shuttered a courthouse. One person was killed as the twister damaged a residence, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Others were injured, said Jim Campbell, Assistant Director for Pope County 911. "We've got some homes damaged, trees and roads and stuff like that," he said. The tornadoes came as record high winter temperatures were...

MOSCOW. (Oleg Sorokhtin for RIA Novosti) – Stock up on fur coats and felt boots! This is my paradoxical advice to the warm world. Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases. The real reasons for climate changes are uneven solar radiation, terrestrial precession (that is, axis gyration), instability of oceanic currents, regular salinity fluctuations...

By TRAVIS REED Associated Press Writer ORLANDO, Fla. - A wintry system that added inches to record snow accumulations in some Northern states sent temperatures plummeting Wednesday in the South, where farmers scrambled to protect their crops. ...snip... Crops can withstand some cold, but not for long. Thirty-two degrees for four hours will damage an orange, for example, but 28 degrees for that long can actually ruin the tree. Most of the citrus industry is situated south, for this very reason, and in those areas it was not expected to get as cold. ...snip... The unusually low temperatures led New...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Today's snowstorm made this month the snowiest December in New Hampshire in more than a century. The National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, said Concord, where New Hampshire records are kept, beat the previous record of 43 inches of snow in December by an inch and a half. That record was set in 1876. Overall, the storm left 10.1 inches in Concord, and more in other parts of the state.

Major Storm Causes Swath of BlackoutsBy CARRIE ANTLFINGER Associated Press Writer December 23. 2007 2:10PM Joshua Crowe, 28, uses a push broom to get his car out of the snow on Saturday Dec. 22, 2007, in Wichita, Kan. Parts of Kansas have been blanketed with snow for the second weekend in a row. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, G. Marc Benavidez) MILWAUKEE Highways were hazardous for holiday travelers Sunday and thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity in the Midwest as a storm blew through the region with heavy snow and howling wind. At least eight deaths had been blamed...

<p>December 8: 6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!</p>

(With the average speed of a sled reaching 19 mph, some health officials push for wearing helmets) Although she can't remember, Emily Ziebell was probably having fun four years ago while night sledding in Waukesha. It was close to midnight at Lowell Park, which has one of the best sledding hills in the county, and Ziebell, who had just turned 20, jumped on a snow tube with a friend. The friend fell off while they were zooming down the hill, but Ziebell continued and slammed into a tree trunk, splitting open her skull and crushing her left arm. Ziebell, now...