Weird Weather Watch 2007

Cold snap clobbers California citrus crop

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Three nights of freezing temperatures have destroyed up to three-quarters of California's $1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday as forecasters warned the weather could continue.

Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also have suffered damage in the cold snap, agricultural officials said.

"This is one of those freezes that, unfortunately, we'll all remember," said A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Melbourne power cut by bush fire

Massive power cuts and soaring temperatures have caused havoc in the Australian state of Victoria.

Electricity supplies to about 200,000 people were hit after a bushfire knocked out power lines linking Victoria to the national grid.

Originally posted by mrsdudara
What I find the most bizzar of all is the fact that quite a bit of Canada, and parts of Alaska are warmer than California, Arizonia, New Mexico, and most of the US right now.

Im sorry, but that's just not right.

Originally posted by cybertroy

Is there a pattern at all to this weather?

Originally posted by soficrow
No - the old patterns have been broken by global warming. Now, the planet is trying to find its balance, and new patterns.

We're on a wild ride - and it's not over yet.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
There is a pattern -- it's the classic El Niño pattern.;

El Nino, Global Warming, and Anomalous U.S. Winter Warmth
This poses the first obvious conundrum for the pure "El Nino" attribution of the current warmth: since we were actually in a (weak) La Nina (i.e., the opposite of 'El Nino') last winter, how is it that we can explain away the anomalous winter U.S. warmth so far this winter by 'El Nino' when anomalous winter warmth last year occured in its absence?

The second conundrum with this explanation is that, while El Nino typically does perturb the winter Northern Hemisphere jet stream in a way that favors anomalous warmth over much of the northern half of the U.S., the typical amplitude of the warming (see Figure below right) is about 1C (i.e., about 2F). The current anomaly is roughly five times as large as this. One therefore cannot sensibly argue that the current U.S. winter temperature anomalies are attributed entirely to the current moderate El Nino event.

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Europe mops up after storm kills 46
"We've never had such a situation in Germany," Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn said.

More than 1 million homes had no electricity in the Czech Republic, which was hit by winds of up to 112 mph. A million households in Germany suffered blackouts and tens of thousands of homes in Poland and Austria also were hit.

The storm led to the deaths of at least three people in the Czech Republic, 12 in Germany, 14 in Britain, six in the Netherlands, three in France, two in Belgium and six in Poland.

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Huge waves crash in the port of Wimereux, northern France. Countries across Europe were counting the cost of a devastating storm that killed at least 40 people and left widespread damage and disruption to travel and power supplies.(AFP/Philippe Huguen)