Free Republic

A man in Kansas lost all his feet toes after walking for an hour in the snow wearing only dress shoes. As I read the article (link), I wondered how many people could have easily been caught in the same situation. Some people do keep an emergency kit of some sort in their cars. Usually this is some kind of basic car breakdown kit or of bug out bag.

Even independently of the Obama administration’s policies, the U.S. energy grid has been undergoing some major shifts in the past few years. As the shale revolution has gained steam and natural gas has become more abundant, the proportion of electricity we get from coal has decreased while the role of viable-substitute natural gas has gotten bigger. Many defenders of the Obama administration’s incoming regulations for new and existing coal-fired power plants point to this ongoing market shift as part of their rationale, arguing that the transition to cleaner-burning natural gas is happening anyway and that all these regulations are just...

Will Sochi be the last Winter Olympics? Has the Earth run out of snow? Readers on the east coast may find this essay from The Atlantic’s Ian Freidman a little ironic today, but he warned just as the snowstorm hit the entire East Coast that global warming was making the Winter Olympics potentially extinct, and that Sochi proves his point: One of the warmest Winter Olympics in history is getting warmer.Temperatures reached the low-60s today in Sochi, and they’re expected to stay there on Thursday and Friday. For some perspective, the weather in the coastal resort is now roughly as...

Interstates remained gridlocked around the Raleigh-Durham area Wednesday night, creating eerily similarities to the traffic nightmare in Atlanta just two weeks ago. The trouble started around lunch as businesses and schools released early, just as the heaviest snow started falling. NCDOT online maps showed no one was moving on I-40, I-85 and other major roads. According to ABC 11 in Raleigh, police weren't even responding to minor accidents, instead telling drivers to exchange license and insurance information. Officers want to clear the roads as quickly as possible. One driver in Durham told The Weather Channel he'd only gone one mile...

The potentially devastating winter storm that forecasters and the governor have been warning about for days began unfolding before daybreak Wednesday as temperatures dropped to 32 degrees or below and began freezing the precipitation that returned overnight. ... “All of the interstates, all of the secondary routes, all of the surface streets, are all iced over,” Arum said. “Where you are right now is where you’re going to be tomorrow morning, there’s no doubt about it.” ... The number of power outages is growing by the minute. Just before 5 a.m., the number of customers in the dark was 2,000....

Atlanta won't get fooled again. The South is bracing for another blast of winter weather starting Monday night, and Georgia and its biggest city are determined to avoid a repeat of last month's disaster. Cold will meet precipitation, creating an icy mess from northeast Texas to the Carolinas through Wednesday, according to Weather.com. After 2 inches of snow in late January debilitated parts of Georgia — particularly Atlanta — leaving kids stranded in schools and cars stuck on highways overnight, the state’s transportation department cried wolf last Thursday when declaring a winter weather storm watch for Atlanta that wasn’t. But...

An avalanche that occurred in northern Italy last week appears to be so slow moving it’s almost as if the footage taken of it is in slow motion. But it’s its speed that might have a saving grace for the inhabitants of the town nestled in the Alps. For five long minutes, snow buried the area in the Passiria valley in South Tyrol, Italy, which is near the Austrian border.

EAGLES MERE — A popular winter attraction in Sullivan County is back on after a two year hiatus. The ice toboggan slide in Eagles Mere is up and running and Friday night fans came out in droves for ride. Flying at neck-braking speeds, feeling icy winds slap your face, the ice toboggan slide in Eagles Mere is simply a pure adrenaline rush. “Most amazing thing in the world,” said Elizabeth Decherney of Eagles Mere. “I’m like freaking out about going on it but that’s just because I’m a worrier,” said Tori Garcia, who was up from Virginia visiting her grandmother....

<p>Tennis star Maria Sharapova led a group of six notable Russian athletes for the torch lighting at Friday's Opening Ceremony.</p> <p>Sharapova was joined by pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, former gymnast Alina Kabaeva (who has been linked romantically to Vladimir Putin), figure-skating legend Irina Rodnina, wrestling star Alexander Karelin and former hockey goaltender Vladislav Tretiak.</p>

A frustrated 4 year old wanted to play outside and after 10 minutes of playing this is what he had to say...

Phil predicts six more weeks of winter!!!!

In a briefing late Tuesday night, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal deflected criticism for the traffic nightmare plaguing Metro Atlanta saying in part that the crippling weather was "unexpected" and that government officials made preparations based on forecasts that called for "the majority of the effects of the storm" to be "south of here." "We have been confronted with an unexpected winter storm that has hit the metropolitan Atlanta area," the governor said.  But a timeline of winter storm watches, warnings, and advisories paints a different picture, one that shows that the governor and other government officials had nearly a day to prepare...

Irina Starykh, the reigning European champion selected for the Russian Olympic team, is reportedly among three biathletes who have failed drugs tests. In what is a bitter drugs-related blow for the host nation with the Opening Ceremony of the Games just nine days away the suspension of three unnamed athletes - from Russia and Lithuania - was announced in a statement by the International Biathlon Federation (IBU). The statement revealed "four adverse analytical findings were obtained in samples of three IBU athletes from Russia and Lithuania," and "the outcome of the test showed the presence of a non-specific substance." It...

GULFPORT – Over 150 frozen sharks have surfaced on beaches across the gulf coast region due to the impact of Winter Storm Leon on Tuesday according to wildlife officials. The largest area of concentration appears to be around Gulfport, Mississippi, which has seen at least 67 of the frozen animals. Wildlife officials say that the sharks, who migrate to this area during the winter, were caught off guard by the most severe winter storm in several decades. “Like many of us, I suspect the sharks did not believe that the area would actually receive any winter weather,” Mississippi Department of...

ATLANTA (AP) -- Students camped out with teachers in school gyms or on buses and commuters abandoned cars along the highway to seek shelter in churches, fire stations - even grocery stores - after a rare snowstorm left thousands of unaccustomed Southerners frozen in their tracks.

OK folks, this whole winter is getting out of hand. I write from the frostbitten thumb of the enchanted mitten, otherwise known as Michigan. I went to go to lunch a couple of hours ago and it was -1 out with a strong south breeze that puts the wind chill at about -30. I shudder to open my next heating bill. I should be able to tell it from the other mail by weight alone. We have absolutely smashed the January snowfall records (at approx. 38" if I recall) and there still a few days left to bulk up the...

The next blast of brutal cold will grip most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States early this week and could yield the lowest temperatures so far this winter in many communities. While harsh cold is returning to the Midwest and Northeast this weekend, it will pale in comparison to what will follow for Monday through Wednesday. The impending polar plunge will rival the frigid days from earlier this January for the coldest daytime highs and nighttime lows so far this winter. This does not include South Florida. The arctic air first plunged into the Upper Midwest, northern Plains...

(Reuters) - Millions of Americans are feeling the pinch of a propane shortage this week as brutal cold exposes the supply vulnerabilities of a fuel that heats homes, schools and businesses across wide swathes of the United States. Prices of the fuel, a liquefied petroleum gas, have rocketed to all-time highs in Midwestern states, distributors are rationing supplies, and some schools have shut due to a lack of the fuel during this year's second bout of Arctic weather.

Washington, Jan 24 (ANI): Only six of the previous Winter Olympics host cities will be cold enough to reliably host the Games by the end of this century if global warming projections prove accurate. Even with conservative climate projections, only 11 of the previous 19 sites could host the Games in the coming decades, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and Management Center Innsbruck (Austria). “The cultural legacy of the world’s celebration of winter sport is increasingly at risk,” said Professor Daniel Scott, a Canada Research Chair in Global Tourism and lead author of the...

January could end up with as many sub-zero days as Pittsburgh region had in past decade combined The mercury hasn't hit bottom yet. January ranks as one of the most bitingly cold months Western Pennsylvanians can remember, though certainly not a record. A cold snap early in the month made the temperature plummet to 9 below zero near Pittsburgh International Airport with a wind chill that felt like 30 below. State College-based AccuWeather predicts a low of 10 below zero on Tuesday as part of the latest bone-chilling cold spell, one that will extend through at least Jan. 31. “We've...