They're talking about 6 to 16 feet of snow and temps in the -26 to -30 F area. These are small villages, in impoverished previous war torn areas of Serbia and Croatia and areas along the Black Sea (Romania,Ukraine etc). These areas usually don't see temps below 0F and roads are blocked by snow, so helicopters are the only way to get supplies and medicine in. They are now saying that some of these areas won't be accessible again until spring as temps are expected to remain at 0F for the next 10 days. Large areas are without power and Russia is diverting or limiting a lot of the natural gas supplies from western Europe and sending it into Eastern Europe instead.
OSU,
Yes, that was the country that I heard mentioned in the report... Serbia. I can recall that now.
I hadn't seen a follow-up on that specific news story and I didn't know where to track it down (which news outlet to reflect back on) to get back to the original story I read. Maybe I caught it on Al Jazeera? I don't know now.
6-16 feet of snow and -26 to -30 F temps could certainly wreak havoc on villages that are "impoverished" or backwoods areas far outside the major cities. That type of weather would be far beyond the reach of the imagination for most. Six or eight feet of snow, maybe not so much, but 16 feet or 20 feet of snow like some areas are getting would certainly be unfathomable to most. Then again, so is 70 degrees in January, twice. And no snow on the ground except a light dusting when we have rarely if ever witnessed that in our lifetimes.
I don't really know what to say. You absolutely cannot blame it on global warming, nor can you blame it on the theories backing a mini ice age nor volcanoes. Maybe on the solar cycles, but they aren't really all that unique just right now from historical patterns that have been previously recorded and studied and researched. So what is it, then? I have read some books long ago regarding drought cycles. One research scientist came up with a theory for droughts (or wet years).
He developed a theory that there were multiple cycles in the weather. That every so many weeks or months or years, decades, centuries and eons that these cycles occur naturally on their own. There were dozens if not hundreds or thousands of these individual cycles. All being natural cycles. But, if two or three or more happen to converge at the same period in time, we get droughts here and floods there.
What would happen if this fellow was right? That these cycles existed, truly in nature? And, what if he just wasn't quite as thorough about it as he thought he was? Maybe this happens more often that we realize? As a pattern. Something that happens in nature that you cannot predict as a meteorologist? Do you really believe that anyone could predict the absolute weather for next Wednesday based upon 50 or 150 or 250 years of precise weather recording? I mean, would it truly help to predict the weather tomorrow if you knew the weather patterns from the same day of the year that occurred in 1675? Or how about in 475 BC?
I personally don't believe so. Far too many variables are involved. Mankind has only been recording these variables for a very short time in geologic history. More appropriately, we have only been here for a nanosecond in time!. Actually, it is better to state that the time frame is even much less than that. But, no one really understands the time involved here. The history of the universe and it's age is so incomprehensible to us as mortal humans. We simply do not have the capacity to even imagine the concept of the universe or it's life time compared to our own duration, a single person's life span is simply too short to understand it.
I certainly don't believe in the end of the world scenarios, I think that those who do are a bit nutty. Everyone believes what they desire. I ain't arguing. I believe in the end of the world, too. But, it ain't happening today. Far from it. We don't have to worry until Yellowstone blows her top. After that, no one in the US will care.
Well, I am just rambling about my thoughts. Everyone should live like there is no tomorrow.
Gordy
