...After more than 200 people (click title to entry - thank you) were killed in Arctic temperatures in eastern Europe, the pattern of snowfall moved west, dumping two metres (6.5ft) of snow in parts of Bosnia. On Sunday, the authorities used helicopters to evacuate sick people and deliver food to thousands cut off by the country's highest snowfall on record.
More than 100 remote Bosnian villages were cut off by the snowfall. A state of emergency was declared in the capital, Sarajevo, which has been under more than a metre of snow since Friday, with schools closed, trams stuck in snowdrifts and people trapped in cars. With roads closed and no public transport in much of Sarajevo, some neighbourhoods reported water shortages and residents struggled to reach the shops to buy food.
In neighbouring Serbia, about 70,000 people remained cut off from services. Rare snowfall on Croatia's Adriatic coast left three dead, and the army was called in to help clear snow...
Nothing to envy though. Tornadoes and burgeoning Tropical Storms make life no less threatening.
February 03, 2012 12:44 PM
If the skies fail to yield any frozen precipitation in the next six to eight weeks, the greater Charlotte region could experience its first-ever winter without any snow.
This is a stark contrast to last year’s abnormally snowy season, which left children celebrating multiple school closings and parents fretting dangerous and icy road conditions.
According to the National Weather Service, the region has had at least a trace of snow every year since records began in 1878, producing an average of 5.7 inches of snowfall for the past 134 years.
Though the Charlotte region, which includes Gaston County, has always enjoyed modest amounts of snow, the chance of a snowless winter would make 2011-2012 a landmark season in metrological history. Since 2001, an average of 4.8 inches of snow has fallen in the region, peaking at the unusually high total of 14.5 inches during the winter of 2003-2004....
