Great Russian Freeze Spreads West 

BBC News 21jan2006

(Many articles below)

Severe cold weather gripping large parts of Russia has now spread west, causing chaos in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and Scandinavia. Officials in those countries say there is growing pressure on energy supplies, with power shortages as Russia cuts deliveries to fight the freeze at home.

Dozens have died of the cold, with temperatures as low as -33C recorded.

Forecasters have said that the freeze will last several more days, and could intensify in places.

Strained grid

In eastern Ukraine, 10 people have died as a result of the cold.

Miners in the area have been told not to work as conditions underground have become treacherous.

The weather has strained Ukraine's national grid, with power cuts reported in hundreds of towns.

The BBC's Helen Fawkes in the capital Kiev, where it is several degrees warmer, says some people are complaining that their homes feel chilly, saying that their heating, which is run on gas, has been reduced.

Demand is believed to have risen by 20%.

		       °C   °F 
Verkhoyansk, Siberia  -68   -90
Fairbanks, Alaska US  -54   -65
Winnipeg, Canada      -44   -47
Moscow 		      -32   -26
Vladivostok 	      -30   -22
Narvik, north Norway  -20    -4
Punta Arenas, Chile   -12   -10
Calcutta, India         7    45
Mombasa, Kenya 	       16    61
Recife, Brazil 	       18    64

In other developments:

• Six people died in Latvia, where temperatures of -27C were recorded, the lowest in 100 years, AFP news agency reports
• Heavy snowfalls, high winds and cold cause problems across northern Europe, causing major disruptions to transport and power supplies
• Flights from Copenhagen airport in Denmark were suspended for two hours on Friday evening as aircraft were de-iced. Traffic is not due to return to normal until Sunday
• Thousands of motorists are stranded as the Store Baelt bridge connecting Copenhagen with the central island of Fyn is closed
• In the Norwegian Arctic city of Tromso more than 20,000 people are left without power after heavy snow brings down electricity cables.

New cold

Five more people died overnight in Russia's capital, Moscow, bringing the total number of dead across the country since Tuesday to more than 70.

Temperatures are expected to ease slightly over the weekend, but forecasters say more cold air will arrive from the east next week bringing a further drop.

The weather is the coldest to affect the country in more than 25 years.

Energy consumption has hit new highs as Russia struggled to keep warm in the severe winter conditions.

Many schools and businesses remained shut, electrical billboards turned off, cars were unable to start and trolley buses put out of action by snapped cables.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4634086.stm 25jan2006

53 Die of Cold in Ukraine

Agence France-Presse 25jan2006

Kiev — Fifty-three people have died in Ukraine during the past 24 hours as a result of extreme cold, the health ministry said on Wednesday, bringing to at least 130 the number of deaths since temperatures plunged last week.

At least 538 people have been hospitalised as a result of the cold, most of them suffering from frostbite and various stages of hypothermia, said the ministry.

It was the largest number of people who had died during a single day since the current extreme cold snap began last week.

The largest number of deaths was registered in the eastern region of Donetsk on the border with Russia, where temperatures began plunging early last week and where 16 people died during the past 24 hours.

Like neighbouring Russia, Ukraine was gripped by severe temperatures starting last week, with the mercury dipping to minus 35°C in some parts of the country.

The Arctic temperatures have closed schools and mines and have strained the nation's heating and electricity system.

They have also sent energy consumption in Ukraine, the main transit route of Russian gas to Europe, to record levels, leading to a drop of supplies for several European countries that buy gas from Moscow.

On Wednesday temperatures rose slightly across Ukraine and forecasters expect the thaw to continue into the weekend.

source: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1869371,00.html 25jan2006

100 Freeze to Death in Europe 

Agence France-Presse 23jan2005

Warsaw — The freezing Arctic weather sweeping across northern and eastern Europe claimed nearly 100 lives over the weekend, with unusually low temperatures predicted to continue for the next few days.

Twenty-seven people have perished from exposure in Poland since Friday in temperatures hovering below -5°C, bringing to 150 the number who have died this winter, police said on Monday.

Nearly half of the dead were homeless, of whom 90% died while drunk.

Last winter, around 180 people died in Poland from the cold.

The government said Russian gas deliveries were 34% below their contracted level and Polish energy group PGNiG said on Sunday it would reduce supplies to heavy industry to make up for increased demand from households and public institutions.

Not enough gas

Last week, Russian gas behemoth Gazprom acknowledged it could not satisfy the gas needs of western Europe because the extreme cold had caused Russian domestic demand to soar.

In Moscow seven people succumbed to the sub-zero temperatures over the weekend, bringing the death toll this winter to nearly 90. Another 31 people were hospitalised for hypothermia.

The freeze was particularly painful for the numerous street children sleeping rough in the Russian capital, where the temperature averaged -20°C over Saturday and Sunday.

In Germany two people froze to death after the mercury dropped to -24°C.

A 74-year-old woman slipped outside her house in the eastern town of Wolfen. She was unable to get up and died on her doorstep, said police. In nearby Salzwedel, joggers found the frozen body of a 48-year-old man in a field.

Could get colder

Weather forecasters said the temperature could fall to -30°C in the southern state of Bavaria Monday, while northern and eastern Germany would clock minus -20°C.

Six died and dozens were hospitalised in Romania, where temperatures plunged to minus -28°C, said local authorities.

Temperatures plummeted to -30.3°C, a near-record low, in the north of the Czech Republic on Sunday night and claimed the lives of two homeless people in Prague.

The last time the country saw such cold weather was 66 years ago, in 1940, when the temperature dropped to a record 31.5°C below zero, said the meteorological office.

At least 41 people froze to death in the Baltic states where the cold froze heating, water and sewerage pipes. About 20 died in Latvia, 14 in Lithuania and at least seven in Estonia.

Snow and icy conditions caused a severe accident in Turkey and disrupted Polish road and rail traffic. In Ankara at least eight people died and 12 were injured, four seriously, when a bus skidded on ice and veered off the road.

Italy also braced for a sharp fall in temperatures as the cold front began to move south. The national civil protection service forecast persistent ice across the country.

source: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1867950,00.html 25jan2006

Russian Cold Kills 7 More Over Weekend

MosNews (Russia) 23jan2006

Seven more people died of hypothermia in Moscow over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 135 since the end of October, a source in the city’s ambulance service told Interfax on Monday.

Thirty-one more people were hospitalized as a result of exposure to severe frost.

Moscow temperatures warmed Saturday, but the city’s weather service said temperatures were unlikely to rise above minus 4 before February, making it the coldest winter since 1978-1979, when temperatures plummeted to minus 36.4.

The cold has severely strained the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, with electricity use surging to record levels as towns and cities struggled to keep indoor temperatures up and Russians turned to supplementary heating sources, including electric radiators to keep warm.

The use of gas heaters has resulted in several explosions. A gas canister exploded late Friday in an apartment building in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, injuring nine residents, the local branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

source: http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/01/23/sevendie.shtml 25jan2006

Burst Heating Pipe Leaves 12,000 Shivering Near Moscow

UPI 23jan2006

PODOLSK, Russia — About 12,000 residents of a city south of Moscow were left without heat Monday while the outside temperature was minus 20 Celsius, or minus 4 Fahrenheit.

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that a water pipeline in the Moscow region city of Podolsk burst at around 9:45 a.m., leaving 26 nine-story apartment buildings, a kindergarten and a school without heat, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Also Monday, in the village of Tomilino near Moscow, two apartment buildings and an administrative building were still without heat, five days after a malfunction at the local boiler plant cut heat to 43 buildings. Local residents complained that the temperature in their apartments was about 8 degrees Celsius, or 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

The day after the heat went out, a failure at the local power plant left Tomilino residents without electricity -- a problem that was repaired that night for only nine of the buildings.

Seven more people died of hypothermia in Moscow during the weekend, bringing the death toll to 135 since the end of October, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.

In addition, 31 people were hospitalized during the weekend as a result of exposure to the cold.

source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20060123-06034500-bc-russia-moscowcold.xml 25jan2006