Avalanche kills 186 in Afghanistan

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/afghanistan-avalanches-180-feared-dead


The death toll in some of the worst avalanches in Afghanistan for 30 years has risen to more than 180 people, with heavy snow set to last for two more days.
Officials warned of an imminent humanitarian emergency in areas most severely hit by the bad weather, with snow sweeping through villages and blocking off roads.
“We haven’t seen this much snow, or this many avalanches, for 30 years,” said Abdul Rahman Kabiri, acting governor of the mountainous province of Panjshir, north of Kabul, where 186 people were killed and more than 100 injured in avalanches.
Despite bringing misery to so many people, the snow is vital for Afghanistan, where much of the rural population dependent on agriculture relies on snow melting in the mountains to sustain crops in the spring and summer. An unusually dry winter had led to fears of drought.
Farming drives the troubled Afghan economy, with about three quarters of the people living in rural areas, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated in 2004.

Tree kills child because of thunderstorm

 http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/01/two-year-old-boy-killed-after-tree-falls-on-family-home-in-melbourne





The tree fell during a severe thunderstorm that hit Victoria on Saturday evening, landing on a two-story house at around 9pm in the outer Melbourne suburb The Patch in the Dandenong Ranges and causing substantial damage.
When emergency services arrived, they found two adults and two children trapped in the house – and were able to remove the adults and the girl, who suffered head, chest and leg injuries and was taken to the Royal Children’s hospital, but could not revive the boy.
Two other adults and a 13-year-old boy escaped unharmed.
The tragedy was one of three storm-related incidents to involve trees in Melbourne on Saturday, with a middle-aged woman suffering a broken leg from a tree fall in South Yarra, while a man aged in his 40s was hospitalised when a tree fell on his leg at The Basin.
Victoria’s State Emergency Service (SES) logged more than 1,400 calls for help during the storm and continuing into early Sunday morning.
“The peak was during the storm, so about 8pm until 11pm, but people are still finding things and calls are still coming through,” SES spokesperson Frances

Thor In The West and Southwest

Recap So Far: Winter Storm Thor

Here are some select snow totals from Winter Storm Thor as of Monday morning:

California:

- 32 inches snow at Squaw Valley
- 24 inches snow at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort
- 13 inches snow at Donner Peak
- Hail was reported in Grass Valley (0.5"), San Jose (0.25"), and Fresno (0.25")

Nevada:

- 24 inches snow at Diamond Peak Ski Resort
- 16 inches snow at Mount Rose Ski Area
- 7.5 inches snow at Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort at 9200 feet elevation

Arizona:

- 12 inches snow near Parks
- 11 inches at the Arizona Snowbowl
- 8.6 inches snow in Flagstaff

New Mexico:

- 21 inches snow at Taos Ski Area (partially snow from Winter Storm Sparta)
- 14 inches snow near Gallina
- 9.6 inches snow in Albuquerque (partially snow from Winter Storm Sparta)

http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/winter-storm-thor-southwest-rockies-midwest-northeast

Sahara Dust Fertilizing The Rainforest

Dust from the hot Saharan Desert of northern Africa has a connection to a much different climate in South America, according to a study by NASA scientists.

Using satellite data, the study has found that the dust is acting as fertilizer for South America's Amazon rainforest about 1,600 miles away to the west over the Atlantic Ocean. Specifically, it's providing some much needed phosphorous to the soils of the Amazon. NASA says that nutrients such as phosphorous are limited in the Amazon since rainfall sends it from the forest floor into nearby streams or rivers.

An estimated 22,000 tons of phosphorous reach the Amazon each year from the Saharan dust, according to Hongbin Yu, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Yu says that this is equivalent to the amount of phosphorous lost due to rainfall runoff in the Amazon

Why does the Saharan dust contain so much phosphorous? It comes from lake beds of northern Africa's past, particularly the Bodélé Depression in Chad which is rich in the nutrient, NASA says.

The plumes of dust can sometimes be seen on satellite images like the one below when they first emerge from Africa. From there, the dust particles are transported westward into parts of the Caribbean, northern South America and even Florida.

http://www.weather.com/science/environment/news/saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-fertilizer-nasa

Glaciers In Retreat

A dazzling sight of blinding ice runs forever along this extreme northern part of Antarctica, hiding an unseen battle below that fights to reshape Earth.

Ice sheets are slowly thawing as water eats away at their core, eroding them where they graze the oceans. Slowly thawing ice is pouring water into the sea, at 130 billions tons of ice per year for the past decade, NASA satellite calculations reveal. This is enough to fill more than 1.3 million Olympic swimming pools, and the rate of thawing is only accelerating. 

Ice melt in the region could push sea levels up 10 feet in the worst-case scenario, causing recurving of heavily populated coastlines worldwide in a century or two.

http://www.weather.com/science/environment/news/antarctica-glaciers-melting-climate-change

Siberian Express Causing Hypothermia In US

Hypothermia has been blamed for the deaths of at least 22 people as an arctic blast, known as the Siberian Express, continues to push through the central and eastern parts of the U.S.

The toll includes 11 people in Tennessee, six in Pennsylvania, two in Illinois and one each in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Several other deaths suspected of being related to the cold are still being investigated.

In addition, Canadians are mourning the death of a three-year-old boy who wandered out into extreme cold in Toronto this week and was later found dead of exposure according to The Weather Network, Canada's equivalent of The Weather Channel.

"This week ranks among the most intense arctic outbreaks so far in the 21st century for the eastern U.S., and it is certainly one of the most impressively cold air masses we've seen this late in the winter season, coming only a month before the spring equinox," says weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. 

At least 500 daily record lows have been broken since Sunday, according to figures from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and the National Weather Service. More record lows are expected Saturday morning in the Northeast.

http://www.weather.com/safety/winter/news/siberian-express-arctic-blast-cold-record-impacts

Snow in California

San Jose, California ( CNN ) - It's been a wild winter for much of the United States, and this weekend saw more unusual weather.

San Jose, California saw hail and snow on Saturday. It brought families into the streets to enjoy the rare experience. Families in south San Jose couldn't believe their eyes when they looked out and saw snow.

Toto...i don't think we're in San Jose anymore. The meadowlands looked like a neighborhood from the Midwest.

South San Jose Resident - "And I said what happened? Some miracle?"

Twitter video from Steve Baker shows the hail as it fell... At one point he joked about the need for a snow plow.
These kids focused on snowballs ...or should we call them hailballs instead.

Malyna Gomez Trujillo, /South San Jose Resident - "Usually we have to go all the way to Lake Tahoe or Senora or way up in the mountains to find snow. Now we just need to go in our front yard."

http://www.kmvt.com/news/latest/Hail-Storm-Covers-California-Community--294580781.html