In fact, the weather is absolutely crazy and upside down in Europe! Italy is on the battlefield between cold Siberian air and warm Meditteranean air. Torrential rain south, heavy snow north. Greece: up to a meter of snow. Spain: lots of rain and snow. On the other hand, warm air masses have penetrated into the polar regions. Iceland was above 10 degrees, Jan Mayen (70 degrees North) last Friday 9.3 degrees, then in the night the temperature plummeted to -6 degrees with a cold front. Northwestern Europe is dull, gray and relatively mild. It will be 5 to 7 degrees to-day. All this is being caused by a very strong anticyclone over the British Isles. It causes the outbreak of cold air in southern Europe and warm air that steers around it through the north reaches Scandinavia and Northwestern Europe. However, changes are on the way: snow and cold air are coming and we may have this year what is very rare: a White Christmas! Usually Christmas is warm here because of Atlantic lows which see to it that we get plenty of warm air. This phenomenon is called the Christmans Low and the Germans call it Weihnachts Tauwetter. (Christmas Thaw).
Han ----- Original Message ----- From: kilopascal To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 12:13 AM Subject: [USMA:16704] "Something like this has no equal in history" 2001-12-17 <snip> The Italian News Service must have a different translater for English today. There is no inclusion of FFU. COLD FRONT CONTINUES TO POUND ITALIAN PENINSULA The cold front blowing in from the east that has been inundating Italy with polar-like conditions is expected to last until tomorrow. It is the coldest December recorded for the nation in the past 30 years. Travel conditions remain poor in both Calabria and Basilicata, while a snowstorm in the province of Potenza has closed schools. The A-3 Salerno-Reggio highway was shutdown for several hours, and several ships were unable to dock in Porto Torres due to high winds. Travel to and from the Eolian Islands off the coast of Sicily has been barred for the last 24 hours. Despite a drop in wind velocity, conditions remain icy in Umbria and Trieste. In Tarvisio, near Udine, a low of -15 degrees Celsius was recorded last night.
