Coldest December 16 in 133 years, Boston, USA

A blast of Arctic air grasped the northeastern United States on Friday, bringing Boston the coldest temperatures for this day in more than a century, prompting school closings and officials to warn residents to cover up or stay indoors.

 

An Arctic front will combine with a storm flowing across the Rocky Mountains on Friday, according to a National Weather Service advisory. Extreme conditions in many parts of the country will continue into Saturday, it said, with snowfall but slightly milder temperatures expected in the Northeast.

 

Boston’s morning low of 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 16 Celsius) was the coldest for this date since 1883, when the mercury dipped to 1 Fahrenheit (minus 17 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service.

 

“We definitely have a blast of Arctic air,” said Lenore Correia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. “We have a really strong northern flow of air and it’s pulling cold air down from Canada to New England and much of the country.”

 

Wind chill and winter storm warnings were in effect for much of the northern United States – as far west as Montana and Idaho through the Midwest to New York, Massachusetts and Maine.

 

Schools were closed in Worcester and Lowell, Massachusetts, due to the frigid conditions.

 

Outside Boston’s South Station commuter hub, 47-year-old Keith Donovan was bundled in multiple layers, with much of his face covered by a wrap as he waited for a bus to take him to his office.

 

“This is New England, so we expect cold, but this is a little worse than we usually get at this time of year,” said Donovan, a resident of Bridgeport, Massachusetts.

 

Snowfall of 3 inches to 5 inches (8 to 13 cm) was forecast for Friday in Chicago, with snow due for New England on Saturday.

 

While the northeast was expected to warm over the weekend, forecasters warned Midwesterners to brace for another icy blast.

 

Temperatures in Chicago were expected to plummet below 2F(-17C) on Sunday, possibly breaking the 1983 record for the coldest game ever played in that city’s Soldier Field NFL stadium.

 

Bears players practiced outside for over an hour on Thursday in 1F (-17C) weather.

 

“I’ve told them the macho stuff’s all great, but there comes a point where people might question your intelligence,” coach John Fox told reporters when asked about players not wearing long sleeve shirts under their jerseys on Sunday.

Courtesy of msn.com

http://tinyurl.com/h7ugugj

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Record Snowfall In Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

For at least a few hours, it looked like a winter wonderland on Vancouver Island’s normally temperate South Coast as Greater Victoria got its first significant snowfall in more than a thousand days.

 

The snow started falling overnight and kept on falling in many areas.

 

“We seen it coming down last night so when we got up this morning it was twice as bad,” Langford resident Beatrice Hansen told CHEK News.

 

In Mill Bay, the winter wallop meant ducks were left sitting on ice as ponds froze.

 

In Shawnigan Lake, all the snow piled up on the dock had to be shoveled and across the region, there was a lot of shoveling to do.

 

“We came from Ottawa so doing this is a regular occurrence so it’s not bad doing it once in awhile,” one man joked.

 

But when it comes to driving in it, the lack of snow experience can lead to lots of problems.

 

Emergency crews rushed to several accidents in the Capital Region, including a rollover crash in Saanich just after 9 am.

 

With several centimetres of snow on the ground, cars were sent spinning and some even needed to be pushed down the road.

 

But the storm was exactly what forecasters had warned us about.

 

“We saw the Pacific moisture meeting up with the ridge of cold, Arctic air and we had our snow event,” says Environment & Climate Change Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan.

 

The B.C. Legislature was blanked in snow as seven centimetres fell on Victoria — a new record for December 9th.

 

But in the Capital, it quickly turned to slush and clean-up crews were hard at work clearing away the mushy mess.

 

“It’s actually not too bad,” says snow plow driver Jocha Sousa of Osmia Enterprises as he cleared a parking lot in the Hillside area. “The machine has more traction in the ground so we get to move a lot quicker.” 

 

Crews are trying to get it all cleaned up before temperatures dip again Sunday night.

 

That’s when another cold snap is forecast to set in, making for some more unseasonable winter weather.

Courtesy of cheknews.ca

http://tinyurl.com/gve6fqr

Meteorite Colombia – Villavicencio 16 December 2016 – Venezuela

MEGA UPPER AND LOWER DIP SPIKES ON THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 17:45, 18:30, 19:15, 19:45, 20:30, 20:45 HRS UTC

***VERY URGENT***

MEGA UPPER AND LOWER DIP SPIKES ON THE WEAK MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 17:45, 18:30, 19:15, 19:45, 20:30, 20:45 HRS UTC. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY & ADVERSE WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE
***BE ALERT***

MAGNITUDE 5.5 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us200082ew#executive

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 681 km NW of Honiara, Solomon Islands / pop: 56,300 / local time: 06:57:52.6 2016-12-19
338 km SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea / pop: 26,300 / local time: 05:57:52.6 2016-12-19
83 km W of Panguna, Papua New Guinea / pop: 3,000 / local time: 05:57:52.6 2016-12-19

MAGNITUDE 5.0 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=553580

Subject To Change

Depth: 56 km

Distances: 710 km NW of Honiara, Solomon Islands / pop: 56,300 / local time: 06:49:47.5 2016-12-19
319 km SE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea / pop: 26,300 / local time: 05:49:47.5 2016-12-19
137 km W of Panguna, Papua New Guinea / pop: 3,000 / local time: 05:49:47.5 2016-12-19

MAGNITUDE 5.2 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=553577

Subject To Change

Depth: 60 km

Distances: 495 km NW of Medan, Indonesia / pop: 1,751,000 / local time: 02:24:44.5 2016-12-19
80 km W of Banda Aceh, Indonesia / pop: 251,000 / local time: 02:24:44.5 2016-12-19

MAGNITUDE 5.4 TONGA

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=553575

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 235 km NE of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 08:17:40.8 2016-12-19
115 km E of Pangai, Tonga / pop: 1,800 / local time: 08:17:40.8 2016-12-19

MAGNITUDE 3.0 CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN REGION

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=553566

Subject To Change

Depth: 30 km

Distances: 239 km NW of Laâyoune / El Aaiún, Western Sahara / pop: 189,000 / local time: 18:03:29.5 2016-12-18
149 km NE of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain / pop: 382,000 / local time: 18:03:29.5 2016-12-18
53 km NW of El Cotillo, Spain / pop: 1,200 / local time: 18:03:29.5 2016-12-18

MAGNITUDE 4.5 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=553544

Subject To Change

Depth: 36 km

Distances: 3798 km NE of Majuro, Marshall Islands / pop: 25,400 / local time: 04:30:32.7 2016-12-19
404 km SE of Honolulu, United States / pop: 372,000 / local time: 06:30:32.7 2016-12-18
153 km S of Hilo, United States / pop: 43,300 / local time: 06:30:32.7 2016-12-18
77 km S of Hawaiian Ocean View, United States / pop: 4,500 / local time: 06:30:32.7 2016-12-18