Winter weather

One dead, 900 hurt in heavy Japan snowfall

Heavy snow that blanketed eastern Japan over the holiday weekend left one man dead and 900 others injured, as Tokyo commuters Tuesday took to the slippery streets.

Terra Daily,

15 January, 2013

A low-pressure system, dubbed a "bomb cyclone" by local press, dumped eight centimetres (three inches) of snow in nine hours, the heaviest snowfall in the region since January 2006, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

It left 13 centimetres of snow in neighbouring Yokohama, while mountainous areas around Tokyo saw up to 30 centimetres.

A 71-year-old man in Shiojiri city, Nagano prefecture, died after falling into an open drain as he cleared snow around his house, a fire service spokesman said.

National broadcaster NHK said at least 891 injuries had been recorded in Tokyo and the area around it, many of them elderly people who had slipped on snow-covered streets or motorists involved in accidents.

The operator of the Tokyo Skytree, a 634-metre (2,080-foot) tower in the capital that opened last year, said security guards were patrolling the base to keep people away from possible ice falls.

"We haven't received any reports of damage or injury from falling blocks of snow," said spokeswoman Ayumi Kimura, adding around 60 guards were in the area Tuesday.

"We have confirmed snow has fallen in tiny chunks. But there has been a limited amount of snow that has fallen on the tower."

Major train services resumed operations in Tokyo, although many sections of road remained closed while crews cleared frozen snow.

All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines cancelled a combined total of 37 domestic flights while dozens of other flights experienced delays.

International operations were not severely affected by the snow, the airlines said.

On Monday, Japanese airlines cancelled more than 460 domestic flights, mainly to or from Tokyo's Haneda airport, where runways were temporarily closed as workers removed snow.

Around 3,400 people spent the night at Tokyo's Narita airport on Monday, a spokesman said after train services running to the outlying facility were suspended.

They returned to normal on Tuesday, he added.

Weather Warning: Heavy

Snowfalls All Over UK

After the country experiences its lowest temperatures so far this winter, many areas are warned to expect a lot of snow.

Sky News,

16 January, 2013

Large swathes of England and Wales will see up to six inches of snow by the weekend as forecasters warned of plunging temperatures.

Travel disruption is expected when the severe winter weather hits on Friday.

Sky News weather presenter, Isobel Lang, said: "An active frontal system pushes in from the southwest bringing in rain and snow with strong south to southeast winds.

"Although some southern and western coastal counties are likely to see rain rather than snow, many parts of England and Wales could see around four to six inches of snow."

Patchy fog and ice is expected over the next day or so, when any snow is likely to be confined to either East Anglia and Kent or across the western fringes of Britain.

But many places will see temperatures barely rise above freezing. Parts of Scotland, northern England, Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia will be looking at maximum temperatures of -1C or zero.

It comes after a bitterly cold night for much of the UK, with average temperatures between -3C and -7C, and -3C in London.

The lowest temperature so far this winter was recorded in the early hours of Wednesday in Marham, Norfolk, where -13.1C beat the -12.9C recorded in Braemar on December 16.

The freezing weather has already caused havoc on transport networks, with a six-vehicle pile-up leaving three people injured on Tuesday and the AA reportingabout 1,000 breakdowns an hour.

In Norfolk, 262 schools have closed due to the weather and freezing fog has made conditions hazardous in the Midlands, East Anglia and central and southern England.

A helicopter crashed in central London when it hit a crane on a high building in foggy conditions, killing two people.

Surprise winter storm

 creates travel woes across N.

 Texas

An unexpected winter storm that struck North Texas before daybreak Tuesday put morning commuters on ice, canceled flights and forced some schools to open later than normal.

Star Telegram,

15 January, 2013

Forecasters had predicted a slight chance of light sleet but had said that most of the precipitation should stay southeast of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Oops.

"It's always a challenge to predict winter precipitation in North Texas," said Nick Hampshire, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth. "It's always a fine line. If it had been two or three degrees warmer, we would have been talking about a rain event."

Many parts of Tarrant County received as much as a half-inch of sleet and snow, the most significant icy precipitation since the Christmas Day storm, said Dan Shoemaker, another weather service meteorologist.

But don't expect a repeat this morning. Promise, the weather service said.

The day will dawn chilly, with temperatures in the mid to upper 20s, but the forecast high is about 50 degrees, and there is no chance of precipitation. An upper-level low-pressure system that caused the wintry event still lingered over North Texas Tuesday evening, but it was missing a key ingredient for precipitation, Shoemaker said.

"Now we have dry, cool air pushing in, rather than cool, moist air," he explained.

Temperatures should warm into the upper 50s by the weekend before another cold front arrives in time for Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

But early Tuesday morning, the surprising sounds of thunder and sleet caught residents unaware.

The lift from the upper-level low-pressure system took the moist cool air that was available then and pushed into a layer of instability aloft, "and that's when we had thunder," Shoemaker said.

Streets and overpasses began icing up after 5 a.m. Five hours later, Fort Worth police had reported more than 40 accidents. Dozens of other wrecks were reported throughout the county.

A few overpasses, ramps and bridges, including the Hulen Street bridge in west Fort Worth, were also closed for a time because of ice.

Some businesses and school districts delayed their openings.

At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, 343 American and American Eagle inbound and outbound flights were canceled. American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said operations returned to normal by lunchtime but said some flights were canceled Tuesday afternoon.

A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman said 26 flights at Dallas Love Field were canceled but that operations returned to normal by 10 a.m.

Parts of Denton and Collin counties got more precipitation -- and more serious traffic problems. And in Grayson County along the Texas-Oklahoma border, the office of emergency management reported that bridges and overpasses were "treacherous" Tuesday morning. Portions of I-35 in Denton and Cooke counties also had problems.

Tuesday was actually the second straight day that North Texas commuters got a taste of wintry weather. On Monday, sleet and pellets of snow fell across the region, but it was too light to cause any problems.

Tuesday's high was 39.