Four skiers have been killed and another injured in an avalanche in the French Alps, as the deadly Siberian weather system nicknamed "Beast from the East" continued to cause chaos across Europe.

• More than 20 people have died in Poland since the cold snap began
• Emergency shelters have been opened in many countries to help the homeless and citizens left stranded
• Hundreds of flights were cancelled in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland

The group was on a ski touring expedition in an off-trail area near Entraunes, close to the Italian border in the southern Alps.

The identities of the skiers were not immediately released. Prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre of Nice said in remarks shown on French television that they were "seniors", all with experience in backcountry skiing.

Meanwhile, the extraordinary weather system, which has now claimed more than 50 lives, continued to bring disruption to many countries across Europe.

More than 20 people have died in Poland alone since the cold snap began, many believed to be rough sleepers.

Some Polish cities have installed heaters in the streets in a bid to help the most vulnerable.

Emergency shelters have been opened in many countries to help the homeless and citizens left stranded by disrupted transport services.

The big chill also froze canals in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. Ice on the historic Prinsengracht canal was thick enough for residents to lace up their skates and glide across its frozen surface. Tourists without skates slid across the ice, taking selfies.

"It's just cool. You can go fast and you see the world from a slightly different perspective," said skater Noldus Reijnders.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland. Trains broke down. Motorists found themselves stuck on highways and trapped in frosty conditions for hours.

"This is particularly unusual weather," British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said. 

"It's something that happens very rarely in this country."

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-03/beast-from-the-east:-four-dead-in-...

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Read also: 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33287

See also: 

Eric Metaxas is a denialist of global warming often used by Uncle Rupe... (including the victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections)... 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31847

Six people, including two children, have been killed in the United States during a fierce winter storm authorities say they will "never forget".

• Five dead, including 6yo and 11yo boys
• 2.4 million homes and businesses without power in north-east, mid-west
• Coastal communities warned storm "life and death" situation

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Boston warned the weather event was a "life and death" situation for people living along the coast.

Hurricane-force winds lashed the Massachusetts capital and nearby communities, where storm surges and high tides sent seawater into the streets — the second time the area has been flooded this year.

Forecasters said the system had moved away from the region on Saturday (local time) but would continue to lash the coast with damaging winds, hampering power restoration efforts and causing additional flooding

On Friday a six-year-old boy in Virginia and an 11-year-old boy in New York state were killed after winds brought down trees onto their homes.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-04/storms-lash-united-states-killing-...

Dangerous thunderstorms that dumped heavy rain on Brisbane are no longer threatening the south-east Queensland area.

The Bureau of Meteorology had warned of slow-moving thunderstorms affecting Gympie, Somerset, South Burnett, Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay Council Areas on Sunday evening.

Meteorologist Andrew Bufalino said although they did not look like much on the radar, the storms had caused "extraordinary rainfall rates".

"Right now, we are seeing around 50 millimetres within half an hour over numerus [sic] gauges and that is expected to continue as it tracks further north," he said Sunday evening.

Nearly 100 millimetres of rain was recorded at Mount Mee, north of Brisbane, in an hour.

Earlier on Sunday Brisbane's north copped heavy rainfall, with 80 millimetres recorded in the semi-rural suburb of Samford in just 30 minutes.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-04/dangerous-storm-hits-brisbane/9507736

Global warming is changing intensity and frequencies of atmospheric disturbances. There will be a point (first on the northern hemisphere) when the climate zoning becomes topsy turvy beyond recognition — like the "beast from the east". The sea level will also rise faster than predicted.

Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33287

By Shaye Wolf

According to alarming weather data released this week, the Arctic just experienced its warmest winter on record. This is devastating news for polar bears, who are suffering as their sea-ice habitat melts from under their paws.

Polar bears are a global-warming poster child for good reason. Their struggle provides compelling, real-time evidence of climate change. But it also puts polar bear science in the crosshairs of climate science deniers.

To mark International Polar Bear Day last week, the dubiously named Global Warming Policy Foundation climate science denial thinktank released a report by Susan Crockford that grossly misrepresents scientific research findings on polar bears.

It’s full of the same rhetoric and misinformation you can find on her blog, infamous for its popularity in the climate science denier blogosphere.

Crockford, a zooarchaeologist, has never published an article on polar bears in a peer-reviewed journal. Documents leaked in 2012 exposed that she was on the payroll of the Heartland Institute, a propaganda machine that has cashed checks from Exxon and Koch Industries.

As a scientist, I used to wonder why climate science deniers target polar bears so fiercely: Why put so much energy into trying to obscure the plight of these magnificent creatures?

But the answer is increasingly obvious.

A recent analysis published in BioScience concluded that purveyors of climate science denial, including Crockford, distort the science around polar bears to cast doubt on climate change as a whole.

Because global warming is impossible to debunk, they try to undermine the perceived legitimacy of its mascot. In doing so, they attempt to chip away at the strength and credibility of all climate science by association.

But this year’s International Polar Bear Day was a particularly awkward time to peddle climate misinformation. After all, it followed February’s record-high Arctic temperatures, record-low sea ice and devastating new polar bear data.

At the end of February, temperatures over the entire Arctic north of 80 degrees latitude surged to more than 20 degrees Celsius above normal to temperatures normally seen in May. These were the warmest temperatures ever recorded in February, shocking scientists.

At the North Pole, temperatures may have soared above freezing — as high as 2 degrees Celsius. The northernmost weather station in the world, Cape Morris Jesup at the northern tip of Greenland, experienced an unprecedented 61 hours of temperatures above freezing so far this year.

A study published in July found that since 1980, these spikes of high winter temperatures have become more common, longer- lasting, and more intense. The increase in record-breaking Arctic temperatures is linked to the disappearance of sea ice. And Arctic sea ice is melting fast — much faster than climate models predicted.

Arctic sea ice extent hit record lows during both January and February. Arctic ice cover in each month was more than 520,000 square miles below average, an area larger than the size of Texas and California combined.

A robust body of research has long established that polar bears are profoundly dependent on this Arctic sea ice for their survival — for hunting, raising their cubs, and finding mates. And that shrinking ice is already harming them.

Read more:

https://www.desmog.uk/2018/03/08/opinion-polar-bears-ground-zero-climate...

In January, ExxonMobil filed a legal petition seeking to depose more than a dozen city and county government officials in California, claiming that the municipal officials are defrauding investors by not fully disclosing the risks posed by climate change.

You read that right. Exxon is legally challenging cities and counties for not talking up the risks of climate change enough to the investors who purchase municipal bonds for those localities. Has Exxon had a change of heart and now become concerned about transparency and the impacts of climate change?

Let's take a closer look.

Exxon is responding to the municipalities which have filed lawsuits seeking to hold Exxon and other oil companies accountable for the damages to their cities from sea level rise. Exxon's legal petition is calling those lawsuits a “conspiracy” because — according to its petition — “A collection of special interests and opportunistic politicians are abusing law enforcement authority and legal process to impose their viewpoint on climate change.”

The oil giant goes on to say: “ExxonMobil finds itself directly in that conspiracy’s crosshairs. Even though it has long acknowledged the risks presented by climate change …”

You have to give Exxon’s lawyers credit for the sheer audacity of this legal maneuver and the claims that Exxon “has long acknowledged the risks presented by climate change.”

According to its legal filing, Exxon just wants to be able to talk about climate change but claims its First Amendment rights are being taken away by the lawsuits the various municipalities have filed:

“Through abusive law enforcement tactics and litigation in California, Respondents and others are attempting to stifle ExxonMobil’s exercise, in Texas, of its First Amendment right to participate in the national dialogue about climate change and climate policy.”

How the lawsuits have stifled Exxon’s free speech is not clear from the legal document, but law experts say it certainly looks like an attempt to intimidate anyone considering holding Exxon and the industry accountable for the impacts of climate change.

Read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/03/10/exxon-accuses-california-cities-mi...

The Tasman Sea experienced a "marine heatwave" over summer that pushed the surface temperature to a record high, climate scientists say.

Following a particularly hot summer on both sides of the Tasman and in between, the Bureau of Meteorology and New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research teamed up to release a "special climate statement".

New Zealand's summer was the hottest ever recorded, while Tasmania had its hottest November-January on record.

"Tasmania had its warmest November on record and its second-warmest December and second-warmest January," senior BOM climatologist Dr Blair Trewin said. 

"In New Zealand, they had their hottest summer on record and January was their hottest month on record, so it was exceptionally warm on both sides of the Tasman."

Dr Trewin said the water surface temperature in the southern Tasman Sea was also exceptionally high. 

"They were more than two degrees above average in December and part of January," he said.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-27/bom-and-nz-body-issue-joint-statem...

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The coldest April day ever recorded is forecast for Minneapolis on Friday, when the high is predicted to reach only 21 degrees (F). On Thursday, when highs are expected to reach the mid-30s (F), the Minnesota Twins could play their coldest home opener on record, noted Star Tribune meteorologist Paul Douglas.

Read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/04/04/

Read from top. Global warming is real and anthropogenic...

National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science.

The research for the first time projects the risks from rising seas and flooding at 118 coastal national park sites, including the National Mall, the original Jamestown settlement and the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Originally drafted in the summer of 2016 yet still not released to the public, the National Park Service report is intended to inform officials and the public about how to protect park resources and visitors from climate change.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting obtained and analyzed 18 versions of the scientific report. In changes dated Feb. 6, a park service official crossed out the word “anthropogenic,” the term for people’s impact on nature, in five places. Three references to “human activities” causing climate change also were removed.

The 87-page report, which was written by a University of Colorado Boulder scientist, has been held up for at least 10 months, according to documents obtained by Reveal. The delay has prevented park managers from having access to the best data in situations such as reacting to hurricane forecasts, safeguarding artifacts from floodwaters or deciding where to locate new buildings.

The omissions reflect a broader crackdown on climate science at federal agencies, including removal of references to human impacts, since President Donald Trump took office. Trump previously called climate change a Chinese hoax, took steps to withdraw from an international agreement to cut greenhouse gases and moved toward reversing President Barack Obama’s policies to regulate power plant emissions.

Read more:

https://www.revealnews.org/article/wipeout-human-role-in-climate-change-...

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Record-breaking temperatures and fierce winds have left fire services struggling to contain a bushfire south of Adelaide, and residents are being urged to flee their homes or enact their bushfire survival plans.

The Country Fire Service (CFS) has issued a watch and act warning for Inman Valley – near Stockwell and Kemmiss Hill road – saying lives could be threatened as the out-of-control fire moves north.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/weather/2018/apr/08/south-australia-bushfire...

This morning, residents of Marshall County, West Virginia, awoke at 4:15 a.m. to a major natural gas rupture and explosion on TransCanada's Leach XPress pipeline on Nixon Ridge — a quickly built pipeline only half a year old.

The fire was visible for miles, local TV news reported. Police warned anyone who could see the flames to evacuate — and the Emergency Management Agency director of neighboring Ohio County said officials had received dozens of 911 calls from locals able to see the fire, which was extinguished roughly four hours later. The blast was so powerful that one resident told a local CBS affiliate it felt like a tornado was passing through.

No one was injured, and no property damage was reported, TransCananda said in a statement released today, adding that the cause of the explosion was not yet determined.

The Leach XPress pipeline is just six months old, having been put into service on January 1, 2018.

At the time, TransCanada emphasized that it was built quickly — but safely. “Leach XPress was done in less than a year,” Scott Castleman, manager of U.S. Gas Communications for TransCanada, said in a January statement.

“We’re looking forward to generations of safe operations,” he added. “This is truly a best-in-class pipeline and we look forward to many years of safe, reliable, and efficient operation on behalf of our customers.”

Leach XPress is the first in a series of major TransCanada pipeline construction projects — and part of a larger sprint to build out oil and gas pipelines nationwide, spurred by an urgent push to get shale gas and oil to market.

“This is our first major pipeline in our growth portfolio,” Castleman said in January. “There’s currently about 8 and a half billion dollars in pipeline projects in the works for the U.S. and TransCanada.”

Read more...

https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/06/07/new-transcanada-leach-xpress-pipel...

A record slow freeze of many regions of the Arctic this winter is making it harder for pregnant polar bears to find birthing dens.

The delayed formation of sea ice during autumn has worried biologists, who fear a first “extirpation event” – the local extinction of a species – may be approaching faster than forecast for the most affected populations.

The waters around Svalbard, an archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, have a little over half the average area of ice for this time of year. According to the Norwegian Ice Service, the 172,291 sq km (66,522 sq m) of ice on 14 November was the lowest for this time of year since records began in 1967.

October also saw a huge departure from previous trends, particularly in the Barents Sea, which had freakishly warm weather in February and August. Scientists say these shifts, which are caused by the manmade heating of the globe, are disrupting the behaviour of species that depend on thick winter ice, such as narwhals, seals, belugas and polar bears.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/23/slow-arctic-freeze-r...

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