Ice Age Reaches Europe

Temperature drops to minus 32 degrees in Romania!!! (record)

The number of deaths caused by the extreme cold in Europe is growing more and more.
Within 24 hours at least 29 people fell victim to the freezing temperatures and since the beginning of the cold wave registered a week ago at least 87 dead. After the sinking of a freighter in a storm in the Black Sea eight sailors went missing and the heavy ice and snow across Europe provided problems for their rescue.

Since Tuesday, more than 340 people were taken to hospital with hypothermia. The thermometer fell on the night of Wednesday to minus 32.5 degrees Celsius.

In Bulgaria, the weather stations reported record temperatures of up to minus 31.4 degrees Celsius according to media reports. More than 400 schools were closed due to failed heating systems or impassable roads and flu outbreaks.

In Italy also many schools remained closed. The Bologna airport had to suspend its operations temporarily. Meteorologists expect the current week will be remembered as the coldest in Italy since 27 years.

In Germany, the cold front has led to numerous car break downs. ADAC roadside assistance had to complete a record number of more than 20,000 operations, said a spokeswoman for the Automobile Club in Munich.

I live in Germany and we literaly were freezing. Although there wasn't too much snow over here we had tons of ice that prevented the traffic to flow. Lots of accidents and schools closing due to the freezing temperatures.
It's a little scary to be honest, I can't remember the last time we had such a late but strong winter. I hope spring won't be left out this year.
2012 might as well be the beginning of the next ice age.

Here is the full story on it

reply to post by Anim8tr


Well this time last year in the UK it was -10, so far I've only seen -1
Your title of "ice age reaches Europe" is just downright false and misleading - what will you say when this cold snap goes, spring and then summer happens and this "ice age" you talk of is a distant memory!!

In my opinion - threads like this are the reason ATS is going down the pan, dramatic thread titles with very little evidence or facts as to what you are claiming. If this weather had been happening for 3 months solid, or in the height of summer you may be justified in your claim, but it's winter across Europe right now, yes it may be colder than usual, even some record breaking temperatures, but that does **NOT** make it an ice age.

It's not really an ice age now is it? It's just a very cold winter.

reply to post by Anim8tr


Well if it makes you feel better, here near the equator in the Florida Keys its damn near record HEAT! 88 degrees I went swimming it was so damn hot. I'm sure its not a new mini-ice ace.

Bundle up

It's not an ice age, just a particularly cold winter.

Have a look at the UK in 2010; we had a similar situation going into 2011. Don't worry about it too much.

Netherlands here...same Cold story

Maybe this is the cause?

BBC NEWS

I must say, November 2010 was much colder than now.

Originally posted by Anim8tr

Temperature drops to minus 32 degrees in Romania!!! (record)

The number of deaths caused by the extreme cold in Europe is growing more and more.
Within 24 hours at least 29 people fell victim to the freezing temperatures and since the beginning of the cold wave registered a week ago at least 87 dead. After the sinking of a freighter in a storm in the Black Sea eight sailors went missing and the heavy ice and snow across Europe provided problems for their rescue.

Since Tuesday, more than 340 people were taken to hospital with hypothermia. The thermometer fell on the night of Wednesday to minus 32.5 degrees Celsius.

In Bulgaria, the weather stations reported record temperatures of up to minus 31.4 degrees Celsius according to media reports. More than 400 schools were closed due to failed heating systems or impassable roads and flu outbreaks.

In Italy also many schools remained closed. The Bologna airport had to suspend its operations temporarily. Meteorologists expect the current week will be remembered as the coldest in Italy since 27 years.

In Germany, the cold front has led to numerous car break downs. ADAC roadside assistance had to complete a record number of more than 20,000 operations, said a spokeswoman for the Automobile Club in Munich.

I live in Germany and we literaly were freezing. Although there wasn't too much snow over here we had tons of ice that prevented the traffic to flow. Lots of accidents and schools closing due to the freezing temperatures.
It's a little scary to be honest, I can't remember the last time we had such a late but strong winter. I hope spring won't be left out this year.
2012 might as well be the beginning of the next ice age.

edit on 1-2-2012 by Anim8tr because: Subject

You appear to be a troll.

How the hell does anything in your post equate to an ice age?

Originally posted by facchino
reply to post by Anim8tr

 

...but it's winter across Europe right now, yes it may be colder than usual, even some record breaking temperatures, but that does **NOT** make it an ice age.

edit on 1-2-2012 by facchino because: (no reason given)

If we consider it Geologically, we are living in an interglacial, or warm period and the next ice age is overdue so why not expect one now? Better be ready than sorry.

Originally posted by MysticPearl


How the hell does anything in your post equate to an ice age?

If you are able to count these facts together you might be able to see why this equates to an ice age.

- Record minus temperatures (not only in europe but also in other parts of the world -search ATS-)
- People freezing to death in relatively high numbers.
- Public transportation breaking down due to blocked and icy roads.
- Unusual harsh cold front after a relatively warm winter period.

Kinda misleading heading but it brings a good point, Makes you wonder weather the Thermohaline Cycle is changing or has been severly disrupted by Desalinization and what some had said the large quantities of oil contaminating the gulf as caused a displacement and change in currents, The UK and surrounding countries would be one of the first to notice changes in it due to annual drops in temps. Just a thought, some speculation and fact there. take it as you want.

Not an ice age, but they seem to have stolen Canada's winter.

Those are temperatures that the northern part and the prairies are used to, but this year our temperatures are at least 20C above normal.
It's zero celcius where I am, that's way too warm for this time of year.

It always turns out bad, when people aren't used to the cold, or aware of the dangers. We usually lose a couple of people every year, but over in Europe they're losing so many. Houses aren't properly insulated, and they don't know all the tricks of keeping warm. Or driving in the stuff.

Originally posted by Pegasus2000
Kinda misleading heading but it brings a good point, Makes you wonder weather the Thermohaline Cycle is changing or has been severly disrupted by Desalinization and what some had said the large quantities of oil contaminating the gulf as caused a displacement and change in currents, The UK and surrounding countries would be one of the first to notice changes in it due to annual drops in temps. Just a thought, some speculation and fact there. take it as you want.

Indeed this could result in fatal consequences cause the currents which are located in the atlantic ocean, are strongly influenced by "global warming". This change in the ocean would result to a new ice age in Europe.

reply to post by Pegasus2000

Just a thought, some speculation and fact there. take it as you want.

Well this is a fact:

If the fresh water were to enter the North Atlantic in large volumes, the concern would be that it might disturb the currents that have such a great influence on European weather patterns. These currents draw warm waters up from the tropics, maintaining milder temperatures in winter than would ordinarily be expected at northern European latitudes.

It's a snip from this article BBC NEWS

ok we are not overdue for an ice age the next one is not due for another 50k years. This cold snap has reached areas where it dosent happen. In north Africa it has snowed. Italy snow? Corsica snow? Yes this cold snap will end and another one will happen but the frequency of cold weather hitting areas wheres its never been known, has increased these last few years. Rapid warming= rapid cooling. However the cooling has not taken hold just yet it will still get warmer until it reaches its tipping point. When that happens we will see the cooling and it can take hold within 100years. A good indication of this tipping point is in the salinity of sea water in the gulf stream.

Originally posted by minor007
ok we are not overdue for an ice age the next one is not due for another 50k years. This cold snap has reached areas where it dosent happen. In north Africa it has snowed. Italy snow? Corsica snow? Yes this cold snap will end and another one will happen but the frequency of cold weather hitting areas wheres its never been known, has increased these last few years. Rapid warming= rapid cooling. However the cooling has taken hold just yet it will still get warmer until it reaches its tipping point. When that happens we will see the cooling and it can take hold within 100years. A good indication of this tipping point is in the salinity of sea water in the gulf stream.

edit on 1-2-2012 by minor007 because: (no reason given)

You might want to start posting some more scientific here cause I sure have:

A leading scientist has revealed that Europe could be just 3 years away from the start of a new Ice Age. While climate change campaigners say global warming is the planet's biggest danger, renowned physicist Vladimir Paar says most of central Europe will soon be covered in ice. The freeze will be so complete that people will be able to walk from England to Ireland or across the North Sea from Scotland to northern Europe. Professor Paar, from Croatia's Zagreb University, has spent decades analysing previous ice ages in Europe and what caused them. "Most of Europe will be under ice, including Germany, Poland, France, Austria, Slovakia and a part of Slovenia," said the professor in an interview with the Index.hr. "Previous ice ages lasted about 70,000 years. That's a fact and the new ice age can't be avoided. ... And he added: "The reality is that mankind needs to start preparing for the ice age. We are at the end of the global warming period. The ice age is to follow. The global warming period should have ended a few thousands of years ago, we should have already been in the ice age. Therefore we do not know precisely when it could start - but soon."

reply to post by Anim8tr


yeah i do its called Milankovitch Cycle

Now the only other way to get an early iceage not brought on by the glacial periods is through volcanic activity like a supervolcano going off, a meteor hitting the Earth throwing up dust blanketing the sky or by rapid warming

reply to post by minor007


Mate thanks for the link it was a very educative reading. This Milankovitch cycles theory (so it's not a fact...yet) has few problems:

The 100,000-year problem is that the eccentricity variations have a significantly smaller impact on solar forcing than precession or obliquity and hence might be expected to produce the weakest effects. The greatest observed response is at the 100,000-year timescale, while the theoretical forcing is smaller at this scale, in regard to the ice ages.[10] However, observations show that during the last 1 million years, the strongest climate signal is the 100,000-year cycle. In addition, despite the relatively great 100,000-year cycle, some have argued that the length of the climate record is insufficient to establish a statistically significant relationship between climate and eccentricity variations.[11] Various explanations for this discrepancy have been proposed, including frequency modulation[12] or various feedbacks (from carbon dioxide, cosmic rays, or from ice sheet dynamics). Some models can reproduce the 100,000 year cycles as a result of non-linear interactions between small changes in the Earth's orbit and internal oscillations of the climate system.[13][14] [edit]400,000-year problem The 400,000-year problem is that the eccentricity variations have a strong 400,000-year cycle. That cycle is only clearly present in climate records older than the last million years. If the 100ka variations are having such a strong effect, the 400ka variations might also be expected to be apparent. This is also known as the stage 11 problem, after the interglacial in marine isotopic stage 11 which would be unexpected if the 400,000-year cycle has an impact on climate. The relative absence of this periodicity in the marine isotopic record may be due, at least in part, to the response times of the climate system components involved—in particular, the carbon cycle. [edit]Stage 5 problem The stage 5 problem refers to the timing of the penultimate interglacial (in marine isotopic stage 5) which appears to have begun ten thousand years in advance of the solar forcing hypothesized to have caused it (the causality problem).

(from WIKI

Please feel free to send any abundance of winter wonderland to the US, where we are experiencing some rather screwed up climate at the moment. In my region of Texas today, I was in shorts and cutting down overgrown bushes while fighting off mosquitoes who have grown more brave and arrogant with the lack of cold. Before you know it, the buggers will be knocking at the front door to come inside for air conditioning!

Originally posted by minor007
reply to post by Anim8tr

 

yeah i do its called Milankovitch Cycle

Milankovitch Cycle

...this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years.

This means that we are in the middle of the cooling process with 23.000 years to go before it gets warmer again so you could say that we are at the dawn of the ice age.

reply to post by Hundroid


yeah so what? until we make a time machine and go back in time to check the weather using instruments we are stuck using geological records. They are a great number of factors why things might not fit and untill we can actually see into the past with our own very eyes we have to rely on the geological records. They are many other events which can cause the Earth to go into an iceage and just because they are problems in the model dosent mean its wrong. As I said before a supervolcano like Toba caused an iceage that lasted 1000 years.