200 cold deaths in Europe; Temperatures to drop in India next week

A Jet stream anomaly caused a deadly cold snap in Europe, described the worst in several decades has taken nearly 200 lives leaving thousands trapped.  Many of the dead from one of the harshest European winter in decades are homeless. Meanwhile, the same Jet stream anomaly caused temperatures further north near the Arctic Circle and the US to be much warmer than normal. Countries from Italy to Ukraine on one hand and on the other hand, upto to Greece and Turkey on the East struggled to cope with temperatures that reached record lows in some places.

So why this cold burst in February?

In general, the La Niña causes radical Jetstream changes and you can click the arrow in the video to watch Accuweather’s explanation. The Arctic Oscillation (AO) which was strongly positive till mid January overwhelmed the La Niña’s cooling effect by keeping the winds spinning fast in the Arctic, not allowing the cold southwards. But for last two weeks, the AO has flipped to its strongly negative mode as shown below which unleashed the arctic blast into Europe.  

Read more: http://devconsultancygroup.blogspot.in/2012/02/200-cold-deaths-in-europe-temperatures.html