The Coming Meltdown

[Silat]

Deleted.

15- Threads started or, posts made, with the intent to inflame, incite will be considered trolling and not allowed.

[Sundowner]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/01/20/russia.cold.ap/index.html

Russian freeze 'until February'
Reported death toll close to 40

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Arctic temperatures gripping most of Russia pushed the reported death toll close to 40 on Friday as weather forecasters warned that no major thaw is expected in Moscow before February.

Five people died overnight in the capital, city ambulance service chief Igor Elkis said. The toll in Moscow, locked in a deep freeze since late Monday, is now at least 16 while the nationwide toll is at least 38.

The true figure, however, is likely higher because many regions have not reported cold deaths.

The arctic temperatures have severely taxed parts of the nation's infrastructure, with electricity use surging to record levels as towns and cities struggle to keep indoor temperatures up and Russians turning to supplemental heating sources including electric radiators to keep warm.

Heat to more than two dozen homes and buildings in the center of Moscow was interrupted for nearly three hours Friday after a problem with a major hot water pipe.

Dozens of homes in Tomilino, a town outside Moscow that has been plagued by heating problems this week, were without heat overnight because of problems at a plant, but supplies to most were restored by midday, Russian media quoted officials as saying. Supplies of natural gas to homes for heating and cooking have been reported diminished in some regions.

The cold wave was even affecting Russia's southern regions which typically see more temperate winter conditions. In the town of Apsheronsk, some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Moscow, three people were killed when a gas canister exploded after it was improperly hooked to the heating system in a private home. And in the Caucasus region of Adeigei, a wood stove fire killed two people who were trying to heat their home.

Overnight temperatures in the region near the Black Sea dropped to as low as minus 27 degrees Celsius (minus 17 Fahrenheit)

Moscow temperatures were slightly warmer than Thursday, when the minus 31 C (minus 24 F) recorded in the early hours was the lowest on that date since 1927. Friday's low was minus 29 C (minus 20 F) and by Monday the daytime temperature could reach minus 20 C (minus 4 F), Moscow weather service spokeswoman Natalya Yershova said.

A weather service official, however, told Ekho Moskvy radio that temperatures in the capital were unlikely to rise above that mark before February.

This winter is the coldest in the capital since 1978-1979, when temperatures reached minus 38 C (minus 36.4 F)......

[Boroda]

Well, it's pretty warm now, was -22C on the thermometer at my subway station 30min ago.

As usual - media screams about "natural disaster" when in fact nothing extraordinary happens. Several houses in Tomilino without heating? So what? They had a problem with central heating pipes going through the security-guarded factory area, some idiot forgot to close or open some valve, this could happen at any temperature below freezing.

In my flat I wear trunks only, it's too hot for a shirt and trousers. Heating radiators are so hot that you almost can light a cigarette with them.

In the street it's a little uncomfortable when it's below -27C - if it's that cold I don't smoke in the street. I had to put on warm underwear under jeans and now the only problem is icicles on my moustache and beard, but OTOH it's funny - I look like a walrus So far it didn't get cold enough for me to put on a wool sweater under my coat.

At least first time in several years we can feel that we live in Russia, not in warm Europe. This Autumn we had temperatures over +10C up to the mid-October, that was a surprise, not this cold weather.

My Mother called me frightened by Australian media telling horror stories about freezing Russia, it took me some time to explain that everything is OK and we had no problems with such weather in 1970s and 80s, only clothes are lighter and warmer now, so I don't have to dress like an onion.

A most severe impact on my habits is that instead of usual evening beer I take 100-150ml of vodka. Many people have a flask of brandy now to add it to tea, almost noone drinks beer in the subway - people switched to canned cocktails, and it's definetly too cold to drink beer in the street.

[AWMac]

*hands over head a running frantically* "The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling..."

*Sitting as a young shepard boy on a hill...*  "WOLF, WOLF!!!!!"

[bj229r]

1930's was hotter

[beet1e]

Don't worry - Rotax tells me there's a grand plan to put 8 million rolls of seran wrap in space.

Yes, I'm just reading various books about global warming now. With the Chinese and Indian economies accelerating, more coal fired power plants are going to be built. And as their wealth increases, they're going to want cars just as the western world has had. It happened in South Korea, where the number of cars quadrupled in the ten years 1987-1997.

[AWMac]

Were you ever in South Korea Beet1e?

Or is this something that you read in a book?

And how many cars were produced in America between the same years?

I have 11 years there.  Tell me more.

Mac

[2bighorn]

Originally posted by AWMac
I have 11 years there.  Tell me more.

No, you tell more. Did you count cars for 11 long years? If not leave the numbers to those who did.

[*NDM*JohnnyX]

It was way hotter when the dinosaurs lived.....I've yet to see a velociraptor fossil found inside a Jurrasic-era Volkswagen.

[Masherbrum]

Originally posted by beet1e
Don't worry - Rotax tells me there's a grand plan to put 8 million rolls of seran wrap in space.

Yes, I'm just reading various books about global warming now. With the Chinese and Indian economies accelerating, more coal fired power plants are going to be built. And as their wealth increases, they're going to want cars just as the western world has had. It happened in South Korea, where the number of cars quadrupled in the ten years 1987-1997.

South Korea is known NOT for the "quantity of cars".  But rather Shipbuilding, must be all that "escaping Argon gas from the welders"!

Karaya

[lazs2]

"environmental writer Bill McKibben"

LOL... now we got environmental writers...  "emminent" too..

The guy is a fraud.  He is trying to sell books.   silat is probly one of the few people who has ever heard of him.

lazs

[rshubert]

Originally posted by Silat
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18616
By the eminent environmental writer Bill McKibben


—In the tundra of Siberia, other researchers report that permafrost has begun to melt rapidly, and, as it does, formerly frozen methane—which, like the more prevalent carbon dioxide, acts as a heat-trapping "greenhouse gas"—is escaping into the atmosphere. In some places last winter, the methane bubbled up so steadily that puddles of standing water couldn't freeze even in the depths of the Russian winter.


more at the site...................

I looked up the "chemical of the week" at scifun/chem/wisc.edu and found this:

Methane is a colorless, odorless gas with a wide distribution in nature. It is the principal component of natural gas, a mixture containing about 75% CH4, 15% ethane (C2H6), and 5% other hydrocarbons, such as propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10). The "firedamp" of coal mines is chiefly methane. Anaerobic bacterial decomposition of plant and animal matter, such as occurs under water, produces marsh gas, which is also methane.

At room temperature, methane is a gas less dense than air. It melts at –183°C and boils at –164°C.

I guess my point is that the author obviously has NO FREEKING CLUE about scientific fact, since any idiot knows that methane has a very, very VERY low boiling point and freezing point.  If he quoted that information from some "scientific publication", they are completely clueless, too.

link to more methane information:

 
www.scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/methane/methane.html

[AWMac]

Originally posted by 2bighorn
No, you tell more. Did you count cars for 11 long years? If not leave the numbers to those who did.

Dammm Beet1e how do you do that?  I didn't even see yer lips move.

Bugger off 2LilHorn, back under the porch n til you can run with the Big Dawgs Noob.

Mac

Google Me.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Regardless of its boiling point methane can be trapped inside gas bubbles contained in permanent ice of the tundra. So they're not so clueless as you may think.

[Maverick]

All those who don't like Earth and the conditions here are cordially invited to leave at their earliest convenience.

Seriously, you'd think the Earth had NEVER gone through a warming or cooling cycle before.

I suppose silat will be stocking up his hideaway shelter with gold bulion, perrier and designer mre's to sit out the comming newest and best disaster.