Fraudsters are targeting climate scientists with fake conferences in a bid to make cash and obtain details.

Scientists are sent e-mail invitations and directed to a fake conference website - often written using language taken from real scientific meetings.

Typically they are told their travel costs will be refunded - but they have to pay first to reserve a hotel room.

London appears to be their venue of choice, with some invitations imitating the names of top hotels.

One currently live website advertises a conference in Febuary, run by the "Global Warming Volunteer Group" and claiming to "focus on the risks and opportunities posed to society by global warming and... promote the exchange of ideas and learning across the Globe".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12219472

Wind chill warning are in place across much of east and central Canada as Canadians brave some of the lowest winter temperatures in decades.

Quebec City temperatures fell to -25C. Wind chill made it feel more like -40C.

Other parts of east and central Canada are experiencing similar lows and the severe temperatures were set to remain until Tuesday morning.

Despite being a country used to extreme weather, many residents are finding the latest cold snap hard to bear.

Last year's relatively warm winter had raised expectations according to David Phillips, Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada, who told the BBC: "I think we were seduced into thinking this was what winters were going to be."

Upside down

Some of mildest weather is currently being seen in the northern Arctic regions.

The city of Whitehorse in Yukon was enjoying a relatively balmy -1C on Monday.

"We often think that winter begins in the north," said Mr Phillips.

"But we have had some very high temperatures. It's almost as if the weather was upside down."

Further south, in Ottawa, the temperature reached -28.6C, the lowest recorded since 1970. Montreal fell to -22C.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12270764

The SES is asking people to keep an eye on those most vulnerable, as the temperature rises over the next two days.

There is a severe fire warning in seven districts across the state including the Mount Lofty Ranges.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting temperatures to reach the mid 40's in some parts.

Tara Rischmueller from the SES says they have issued an extreme heat warning.

"We encourage people to check on their elderly relatives, friends and neighbours to make sure they're coping with the heat," she said.

"You should ensure that babies and young children stay out of the sun, give babies extra fluids, dress them lightly and keep them where it's cool."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/30/3125047.htm?section=justin

We all know of the "Queensland floods" and of the "inland sea making its way across Victoria", in Australia... But As Paul Sheehan reminds us — and as we Aussie know — WA is getting DRIER....

Twenty-five years ago the rainfall in Perth began to plunge. Last year it almost disappeared. The statistics of the decline are spectacular and unnerving. For nearly 100 years the average runoff in Perth (mostly from rainwater) was 338 gigalitres a year. Over the past decade that average plunged to just 83 gigalitres. Perth had to build a desalination plant. Last year the city, with almost 1.7 million people, received almost no rainfall.

''We can withstand one bad year, we can't withstand two,'' Sue Murphy, chief executive of the Water Corporation of Western Australia, told me. ''This winter we got 11 gigalitres and even half of that came from stored water in a desalination plant. So this year [2010] we got a week's worth of water supply from rain.''

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/biting-the-boom-that-feeds-us-20110130-1a9i6.html

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The rest of Sheehan's blahblah is an argument to bury Labor... But the important bit is the dryness of the place... It has been dry for a very long time and it's getting more serious. When the Freemantle Doctor (the "usual" strong afternoon westerley sea breeze in the Pearth region) is constantly replaced by an inland hot-dry strong easterly, there is something a-changing...

One thing that Sheehan encourages is a sharp increase of the exploitation in WA resources including energy sources — all those activities that are contributing to climate change in some way.

picture by Gus, 2010. Western Australia big dry...

[Yasi] may well be one of the largest and most significant cyclones that we have ever had to deal with," Ms Bligh said.

"This is an event we have to take seriously. I know cyclones can at the last minute turn off the coast, and I certainly hope this one does.

"But the bureau advises me in the most serious terms, that all of the modelling right now says this is going to cross our coast."

Ms Bligh says Yasi is expected to turn into a category-four system by Wednesday.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/31/3126169.htm

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Record high temperatures for February were reached in Sydney's west overnight.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the mercury failed to fall below 24.9 degrees in Richmond - 0.4 degrees higher than the previous record in 2006.

Temperatures in Penrith also stayed at a record of 25.7 degrees which was higher than Tuesday's overnight record temperature of 24.8.

Senior forecaster Elly Spark says high humidity is to blame.

"It's a function of the humidity," she said.

"The temperature can't drop any lower than the dew point, which is determined by the conditions in the air and conditions are incredibly humid at the moment."

Storms and showers are forecast for Sydney today with a high of 34 degrees in the city and 38 degress in the west.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/03/3128628.htm?section=justin

This to be noted after January being about 4 degrees C higher than average in Sydney... Please graze on the humidity factor in global warming, already mentioned on this site many times inciuding here...

CHICAGO — A ferocious winter storm continued to barrel eastward across the United States on Wednesday morning, snarling travel by road, air and rail as it blanketed wide swaths from the Great Plains to New England in deep snow and left a brittle skin of ice over large sections of the Northeast.

As the snowfall slowed and moved out of many areas, federal officials warned people to brace for another blow: bitterly cold temperatures following in its wake. It was not a day to travel. Icy, snow-covered roads were closed in many states. Air travel continued to be an iffy proposition in many parts of the country: by noon some 5,634 flights — or around 18 percent of the nation’s flights — had already been canceled, according to FlightAware.com, a Web site that tracks flights. Amtrak canceled many trains out of Chicago, and there were residual delays on its Northeast corridor between New York and Philadelphia, which was shut down during the morning rush hour.

The American Red Cross opened 73 shelters across nine states.

Chicago was one of the worst hit spots, with hundreds of drivers and passengers reported trapped on Lake Shore Drive overnight. The National Weather Service, in a 10:26 a.m. warning about what it called a “historic killer blizzard,” was blunt about the risks travelers there faced. “Local officials continue to plead with people to stay home and not to travel,” it warned, “as doing so will put your life at risk.”

By midmorning, some 20.2 inches of snow had fallen in Chicago, making it the city’s third-biggest snowstorm even as flakes continued to fall, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts there reached 70 miles an hour, and waves on Lake Michigan topped 13 feet. The 2,000-mile path of the storm left a trail of frozen misery from Oklahoma, which was digging out from record snowfall, to Pennsylvania, which was glazed with ice, to Boston, where officials feared snow and rain would collapse roofs.

In Washington, President Obama was briefed by phone officials from the Department of Homeland SecurityFederal Emergency Management Agency. With 30 states feeling the storm’s impact, the National Weather Service had to upgrade its Web site to handle traffic that reached up to 20 million hits an hour, officials said. and the

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/us/03storm.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Hopefull the cyclone is not going to regenerate itself in the gulf of Carpentaria...