Big freeze leaves trail of deaths across Asia


ISABEL REYNOLDS

INDIA'S capital New Delhi recorded its lowest temperature for 70 years yesterday as unusually cold weather continued to cause havoc across Asia.

In Japan, where at least 63 people have died and more than 1,000 have been injured since heavy snowfalls began last month, troops and volunteers shovelled snow from roofs and roads, while in China's Xinjiang province cattle were dying in the fields in temperatures of -43C and a 25-mile section of the Yellow River froze.

In Bangladesh, at least 20 people have died from exposure, disease and malnutrition over the past three days because of a cold snap there.

In India, residents of the capital awoke yesterday to a temperature around freezing point, forcing officials to shut primary schools for three days. TV footage showed a layer of ice on the grass in parks and on the roofs of cars.

"I was so excited. This is the first time I have seen it (frost)," said a teenage girl wearing a thick sweater.

But thousands of homeless and those without heating were hard hit. And further north, Indian Kashmir continued to shiver as overnight temperatures dipped to -6C.

"It is terribly cold. I feel like we are living in a refrigerator," said 34-year-old housewife Rubina Malik.

For the first time in ten years, parts of the famous Dal lake in the regional capital Srinagar were frozen. Authorities banned skating on the lake after a child drowned when the thin ice cracked.

More than 100 people have died in northern India since December because of the cold. The coldest recorded temperature in New Delhi is -0.6C (30.92F) in 1935.

In Japan workers were trying to clear snow which was up to ten feet deep in some of the worst-hit areas of Niigata prefecture, and to reopen blocked roads in Nagano prefecture.

Many of the dead there were elderly people who fell from their roofs while trying to clear snow, while others were crushed when their houses collapsed under the weight of the drifts.

"It's frightening," said a woman in Akita City, in northern Japan, as local government workers began to shovel snow from her roof.

"There were creaking sounds and I couldn't open the doors because of the weight of snow."

China is in the middle of its coldest winter in 20 years, the China Daily newspaper said. Even in the usually mild province of Guangdong in the south, temperatures dipped as low as 5C on Friday while some local roads have frozen over with more than an inch of ice.

In Xinjiang, where heavy snowfalls and temperatures as low as -43C forced the evacuation of almost 100,000 people earlier in the week, conditions remained testing.

In the province's northern Altay region, temperatures were hovering around -26C after falling to 37C and killing cattle over the past few days, said an official from the local meteorological bureau.

Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming.

Damn CFC's....


Doh!!

It's BUSH's FAULT!!!  

Quoted: Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming.

Quoted: Quoted: Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming.

+1

Kerry: "I voted for Global warming before I voted for Global cooling."

It's Bush's fault for refusing to sign the ....Toyota clean air accords.

Quoted: Kerry: "I voted for Global warming before I voted for Global cooling." It's Bush's fault for refusing to sign the ....Toyota clean air accords.

Honda makes accords, not Toyota.  

Its fucking 67 here in Richmond though

Think Little Ice Age.

It's been unusually warm all winter here in Utah.

It's like 40 degrees during what is normally the coldest part of the year around here. It's way warmer that normal for some reason, so ya - that makes sense.

Quoted: Its fucking 67 here in Richmond though

Is that warm or cold for you?

It is 28 in Minneapolis.  It could be 20 below in January.

Quoted: Think Little Ice Age.

+1

Quoted: Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming.

it's supposed to hit 80 here in L.A. today

Quoted: it's supposed to hit 80 here in L.A. today

80+ here in Phoenix! This unseasonably warm winter pissed me off this year.

My winter was outsourced to India.

Dey tuk'r snow!

Quoted: Quoted: Its fucking 67 here in Richmond though Is that warm or cold for you? It is 28 in Minneapolis.  It could be 20 below in January.

Sorry 10-15 degrees higher than usual. We've had an unseasonably warm winter. The beginning was off and on. Week of cold weather, week of hot weather. Lately it's been quite warm.

Quoted: My winter was outsourced to India.

Now that was the funniest damn thing I heard today!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming. +1

why are you guys laughing, captainpooby, while I am sure he was trying to be sarcastic, is actually correct. "Global warming" does not mean that the temperature around the world is supposed to totally increase all the time and in all places, it means that there will be greater extremes of temperature in relation to local areas and climate patterns.

Thus, whether it is you seeing Mexico in a blizzard, or Siberia becoming a desert, neither of those disproves the theories of "Global Warming".

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming. +1 why are you guys laughing,

Because it was funny........

"Uh, you know that $5.3 million you gave us to study global warming?  Well, uh, nevermind."

Quoted: It's been unusually warm all winter here in Utah.

And here in Texas. Way too warm.

Quoted: Quoted: It's been unusually warm all winter here in Utah. And here in Texas. Way too warm.

Do I believe in global warming? Sure the earth has periodic warming and cooling shifts, we are coming out of a cooling shift.

Am I so stupid to believe that we have such an affect on our earth? Puh-lease! We are pissants when it comes to the earth and our effect on it.

THE END IS NIGH!!!!!!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Global cooling. It's a little known side effect of global warming. +1 why are you guys laughing, captainpooby, while I am sure he was trying to be sarcastic, is actually correct. "Global warming" does not mean that the temperature around the world is supposed to totally increase all the time and in all places, it means that there will be greater extremes of temperature in relation to local areas and climate patterns. Thus, whether it is you seeing Mexico in a blizzard, or Siberia becoming a desert, neither of those disproves the theories of "Global Warming".

"Gobal Warming" means different things at different times to different envionmental con men  shake down artists  scientists, depending on how much money they want, and who they are trying to con get it from.  

And that's the truth.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: It's been unusually warm all winter here in Utah. And here in Texas. Way too warm. Do I believe in global warming? Sure the earth has periodic warming and cooling shifts, we are coming out of a cooling shift. Am I so stupid to believe that we have such an affect on our earth? Puh-lease! We are pissants when it comes to the earth and our effect on it.

Just because we didn't cause it doesn't mean there may not be catastrophic changes on the way. what killed the dinosaurs? Many believe a global climate shift. Woolly mammoths found frozen with food still in their mouths, froze to death while they were eating green vegetation. What kind of climactic catastrophe could cause that to happen so rapidly?  Well, it may be all thawing out now and heading the other way.

Impact for us? Primarily would be rise in ocean levels. Say goodby to Florida and anything under 50 feet above sea level. End of the world? No. But there could be big changes if it happens.