Record Cold Wave Sweeps Balkans - Reuters

[hatrack]

BELGRADE - "Snowbound villagers fought off starving wolves and the River Danube iced over as a Siberian frost gripped much of the Balkans for the second straight week, killing at least a dozen people.

Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania all registered record or near-record low temperatures, according to local press reports. In Karajukica Bunari on the Serbia-Montenegro border the temperature fell to minus 34 Celsius (minus 29 Fahrenheit). Meteorologists predicted the January 1954 record of minus 38.4 would fall in the coming days.

On Wednesday, the central Bulgarian town of Sevlievo had a 50-year record low temperature of minus 34C, and according to inland shipping reports the River Danube waterway was partially iced up in dozens of places, from Hungary to Romania. "Huge blocks of thick ice are floating on the river. We expect the lower Danube to be completely iced by tomorrow," the Bulgarian state news agency BTA quoted an official as saying.

Temperatures hit a 15-year low of minus 36C in eastern Romania. The Black Sea coast was badly hit by frozen snowdrifts topping 2 metres (6 feet) and many roads were closed."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29465/story.htm

[indigobusiness]

1. As the world turns...

so does the worm.

[Boomer]

2. More signs of climate destabilization

Ah, if only "global warming" was a kind and gentle process. Instead, it's a kareening ride through weather extremes.

Hurricane season should be a lot of fun this year, too.