Wintry 'polar plunge' wallops much of US

An "unprecedented" winter storm system will sweep the United States this week, the National Weather Service warned Monday, with Arctic air driving a "polar plunge" that is expected to break record-low temperatures.

The coast-to-coast cold front has already pushed its way across Canada and into parts of northern Mexico, and much of the continental United States has been shivering under chilly temperatures for days, with about half of all Americans now under some sort of winter weather warning.

Temperatures have dropped across the country, with only parts of the southeast and southwest dodging it.

The cold snap has led to heavy snowfalls and ice storms that have caused a spike in electricity demand and power outages. 

Ice on the roads was blamed for several deadly accidents including a 100-car pile-up in Texas last week that left at least six people dead. 

"Over 150 million Americans are currently under winter storm warnings, ice storm warnings, winter storm watches, or winter weather advisories as impactful winter weather continues from coast to coast," the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

"This impressive onslaught of wicked wintry weather across much of the Lower 48 (states) is due to the combination of strong Arctic high pressure supplying sub-freezing temperatures and an active storm track escorting waves of precipitation."

At least seven states -- Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas -- have declared weather-related emergencies, CNN reported. 

The NWS described conditions as an "unprecedented and expansive area of hazardous winter weather" that will set record lows.

"Hundreds of daily low maximum and minimum temperatures have been/will be broken during this prolonged 'polar plunge', with some February and even all-time low temperature records in jeopardy," the NWS said.

In a large area known as the Southern Plains that spans parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, temperatures are expected to fall as much as 45 degrees Fahrenheit (25 Celsius) below typical readings for the time of year. 

Florida will remain the warmest spot in the continental United States, with highs above normal and temperatures generally around 80 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius).

Agence France-Presse

Global coronavirus cases surpass 40 million milestone

Worldwide coronavirus cases crossed 40 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, as the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere fueled a resurgence in the spread of the disease.

The Reuters tally is based on official reporting by individual countries. Experts believe the true numbers of both cases and deaths are likely much higher, given deficiencies in testing and potential under-reporting by some countries.

The Reuters data shows the pace of the pandemic continues to pick up. It took just 32 days to go from 30 million global cases to 40 million, compared with the 38 days it took to get from 20 to 30 million, the 44 days between 10 and 20 million, and the three months it took to reach 10 million cases from when the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China, in early January. Record one-day increases in new infections were seen at the end of last week, with global coronavirus cases rising above 400,000 for the first time.

There were an average of around 347,000 cases each day over the past week, compared with 292,000 in the first week of October.

The United States, India, and Brazil remain the worst affected countries in the world. COVID-19 cases in North, Central, and South America represent about 47.27 percent or nearly half of global cases.

Around 247 cases are seen per 10,000 people in the United States. For India and Brazil, those numbers stand at 55 cases and 248 cases per 10,000 people respectively.

New cases are growing at over 150,000 a day in Europe, as many countries including Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic have reported record daily increases in the number of coronavirus infections.

Europe currently accounts for over 17 percent of the global cases and nearly 22 percent of the deaths related to the virus worldwide.

Parts of the UK were put into lockdown as Prime Minister Boris Johnson bid to contain a second wave of infections through local measures.

France imposed curfews while other European nations are closing schools, canceling surgeries, and enlisting student medics.

President Donald Trump called for a big economic stimulus as US infections surpassed eight million, with record spikes in several states.

States across the Midwest are seeing a rise in coronavirus cases, with new infections and hospitalizations rising to record levels.

India's cumulative tally of coronavirus infections stood at 7.43 million on Saturday, with the number of active infections slipping below 800,000 for the first time in 1.5 months.

Iran, the Middle Eastern country hardest-hit by the coronavirus, extended restrictions and closures in the capital Tehran into a third week on Saturday as its death toll rose above 30,000.

Since the pandemic started, over 1.1 million people have died due to COVID-19, with the global fatality rate hovering around 2.8 percent of the total cases.

An official at the World Health Organization has said the global death toll from COVID-19 could double to 2 million before a successful vaccine is widely used and could be even higher without concerted action to curb the pandemic.

-reuters-

Monster snowstorm to blanket more than half of United States

NEW YORK - A massive winter storm hit the US Rockies and Plains on Friday then punched east, with snow set to assault a 1,609-kilometer corridor through the weekend, creating transportation "havoc" in the middle of the country.

The system started as rain from Mexico and turned to snow as it met icy air. Up to 45 centimeters of snow were expected in the Sangre de Cristo mountains south of Denver, according to the National Weather Service.

As the storm heads east, up to 41 cm of snow were likely in western Missouri and St. Louis. Areas to the east could get about 15 cm with ice developing in Kansas, and Arkansas, and up to 10 cm of snow in Washington, DC, before the system heads out to sea late on Sunday, AccuWeather said.

"The storm is expected to create havoc over the central part of the country, then extend eastward into the Mid-Atlantic states," said Randy Adkins, an AccuWeather meteorologist.

The FlightAware.com flight tracking website reported 1,431 flight cancellations on Friday and 12,465 delays, with problems at snow-hit airports like Denver causing knock-on effects around the country.

While the storm will spare the heavily populated Northeast, it likely will disrupt air and auto travel from Kansas City to Indianapolis, and will bring the heaviest snowfall so far this winter to Cincinnati and the Ohio River Valley, said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Walker.

Although the Kansas City area is expected to get up to 6 inches of snow, it should be over by the time the Kansas City Chiefs begin their National Football League playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday afternoon. 

St. Louis emergency management officials are bracing for auto travel disruptions and possible power outages, but based on current forecasts, are not expecting to be overwhelmed, spokesperson Tracy Panus said.

"This is not the first storm we’ve had in the St. Louis area," Panus, who is with the St. Louis County Police Department of Emergency Management, said by telephone.

As the system moves eastward, it will hand off to a second coastal storm on Sunday that will bring 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) of snow to the Washington, DC, area before it moves off the coast that night, Walker said.

"There could be a period of ice that we’re concerned about across portions of central North Carolina and back into the mountains," he added.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

In blizzard's icy wake, intense cold grips U.S. Northeast

BOSTON/NEW YORK - Street crews dug out snow-clogged roads across the U.S. Northeast on Friday after a powerful blizzard, with temperatures set to plunge further during a brutal cold spell that has already killed at least 18 people.

From Baltimore to Caribou, Maine, workers battled to clear snow and ice as wind chills were forecast to fall as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in some areas after sundown, according to the National Weather Service.

In the latest fatality blamed on the harsh conditions, a driver slid off an icy road, killing a pedestrian, early on Friday in North Charleston, South Carolina, city officials said.

"THE DANGERS ARE REAL," the officials warned in a Twitter message. "Huge patches of ice all over the city. Stay at home."

The fierce cold will reach from New England to the Midwest and down to the Carolinas, forecasters warned, adding that low-temperature records could be broken across the region over the coming days.

In much of New England on Friday, the highs reached only into the single digits or teens Fahrenheit, with intense wind chills, said Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist with private forecasting service AccuWeather.

"It can be very dangerous," Pydynowski said. "Any kind of exposed skin can freeze in a couple of minutes." Wind chill describes the combined effect of wind and low temperatures on bare skin.

There were noticeably fewer tourists on Friday afternoon in New York City's Times Square, which is usually thronged with visitors from countries around the world.

Arjun Shah, a 22-year-old Briton, studies in Indiana but had never visited the U.S. East Coast before. He flew in to New York City, where temperatures have been below freezing since Christmas Day, just 24 hours before the blizzard whipped in.

"Oh it's so bad! It's not this bad in London," Shah said, shivering while taking a break from snapping photos of the square. "It's my first time experiencing minus 10 degrees C." (14F).

MULTIPLE FATALITIES 

The storm that swept in on Thursday with gusts of more than 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour), dumped a foot (30 cm) or more of snow throughout the region, including Boston and parts of New Jersey and Maine, before ending early Friday.

The harsh conditions were powered by a rapid plunge in barometric pressure that some weather forecasters called a bombogenesis, or a "bomb cyclone."

The weather has been blamed for at least 18 deaths in the past few days, including four in North Carolina traffic accidents and three in Texas.

The frigid spell also had some unusual effects: Shocked iguanas fell out of trees in Florida, while wildlife officials in the state said they had rescued more than 200 cold-stunned sea turtles from freezing waters.

Children in Boston and Baltimore enjoyed a second day of canceled classes, while New York schools stayed open. Schools in Newark, New Jersey, opened two hours later than normal.

Commuters riding the railways serving New York and Boston's suburbs endured extensive delays as crews worked to repair frozen equipment and clear snow-covered tracks.

Thursday's storm caused a 3-foot (0.9-meter) tidal surge that flooded the area around Boston's historic Long Wharf with icy seawater. Firefighters used an inflatable raft to rescue one motorist from a partially submerged car, authorities said.

Communities outside Boston, including Scituate, also experienced extensive flooding.

New York's John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports resumed flights on Friday after closing during whiteout conditions the day before. More than 1,300 U.S. flights were canceled by Friday afternoon, most of them at the New York area's three major airports and Boston Logan International Airport.

Nearly 500 members of the National Guard were activated to assist with the emergency response along the East Coast, including 200 in New York state, authorities said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Brutal winter leaves at least 14 dead in U.S.

BOSTON/NEW YORK - Street crews in the U.S. Northeast raced through the night into Friday to clear snow-clogged streets after a powerful blizzard and restore power to homes ahead of a brutal cold spell that has killed more than a dozen people in the United States.


From Baltimore to Caribou, Maine efforts were underway to clear roadways of ice and snow as wind chill temperatures were to plunge during the day, reaching -40 F (-40 C) in some parts after sundown, according to the National Weather Service.

Utility companies across the East worked to repair downed power lines early on Friday as about 21,000 customers remained without electricity, down from almost 80,000 the day before, and issued warnings that temperatures may become dangerously low.

“If the temperature in your home begins to fall, we recommend taking shelter elsewhere until service can be restored. You can find warming centers by contacting local authorities,” National Grid power company, which serves Massachusetts, said on Twitter.

The storm, packing winds gusts of more than 70 miles per hour (113 kph), dumped a foot or more of snow throughout the region, including Boston and parts New Jersey and Maine, where heavy snow continued to fall early on Friday.

Many East Coast communities ordered drivers to stay off the roads and closed schools on Friday. Schools in Boston and Baltimore canceled classes while Newark, New Jersey schools were opening two hours later than usual on Friday.

The storm on Thursday caused a 3-foot (0.9-meter) tidal surge which flooded the area around Boston’s historic Long Wharf with icy seawater. Firefighters used an inflatable raft to rescue one motorist from a car submerged in water up to its door handles, Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn told reporters.

The storm forced thousands of flights to be canceled and New York City’s two main airports halted flights because of whiteout conditions.

“Fliers are urged to contact their airlines for information on resumption of specific flights before going to the airport,” said JFK on Twitter as the airport announced that flights would resume at 7 a.m. Friday.

Passenger train operator Amtrak said it reduced service on several routes in the Northeast on Friday, including its train between Washington D.C. and Boston. Transit systems including New York’s Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter lines reduced service and told passengers to expect delays on Friday.

The storm was powered by a rapid plunge in barometric pressure that some weather forecasters called a bombogenesis, or a “bomb cyclone.” It brought high winds and swift, heavy snowfall.

The wintry weather has been blamed for at least 14 deaths in the past few days, including three in North Carolina traffic accidents and three in Texas because of the cold.

Nearly 500 members of the National Guard were activated along the East Coast to assist with emergency response, including 200 in New York state, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement.

Officials reported traffic accidents throughout the Northeast and the storm’s reach extended to eastern Canada.

On Wednesday, the same storm brought historic cities in the Southeastern United States their heaviest snowfall in three decades.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Islamabad's Christian slum dwellers pray for Christmas miracle

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - As the winter sun sets on Pakistan's leafy capital Islamabad, residents of the city's largest Christian slum use bicycles, donkey carts and their backs to haul jerry cans filled with water to their homes.

Situated on the capital's periphery, the neighborhood that is home to around 10,000 people is now at the heart of a debate over the rights of Christians in this predominantly Muslim country of 200 million, with city authorities claiming such settlements threaten "the beauty of Islam".

Local authorities, determined to put an end to what they call "illegal" settlements, have recently sealed the area's three tube wells in what residents say is an effort to drive them out -- despite a Supreme Court injunction temporarily barring their eviction.

With the matter now resting before Pakistan's top judges, the slum-dwellers' sense of insecurity remains and many say all they want for Christmas is for their neighborhood to become legalized -- and the taps turned back on.

"We are worried, we are under a lot of stress but what we can do? We are helpless," sighed 33-year-old housewife Nargis Masih, who has been living in the neighborhood since it was built two years ago.

Like many others, she said her main concern is a lack of water.

Masih said she would like her family to be able to celebrate Christmas Day without being forced to gather more water from the nearest tap, three kilometers (two miles) away at a bus station.

VULNERABLE MINORITY

Christians make up around 1.6 percent of Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population, with large settlements across major cities and around 60,000 in Islamabad.

They often face discrimination at work and routinely fall victim to the country's blasphemy laws, which rights groups say are often used to carry out personal vendettas.

Indeed, the Islamabad slum is named Rimsha Colony after Pakistani Christian teenager Rimsha Masih, not related to Nargis, who was arrested in 2012 for allegedly desecrating pages of the Koran.

Though the charges were ultimately proven false, Rimsha and her family moved to Canada in the face of ongoing threats from neighbors.

Christians in her neighborhood of Mehrabadi on the outskirts of Islamabad were also forced to leave their homes, and the government gave them the Rimsha plot of land closer to the city to rebuild their lives.

Despite lofty promises made by the former government to safeguard their rights, Rimsha Colony remains unconnected to the electric and sewage grids, though it was supplied with water by three wells until a few weeks ago.

In 2014, the Capital Development Authority (CDA), a government agency tasked with managing the city of around two million, vowed to demolish 32 slums it had deemed illegal saying they placed an undue burden on resources and were ruining Islamabad's pristine image.

ISLAM THREATENED

Their efforts began in earnest in August this year, when they demolished a slum, or "katchi abadi", inhabited mainly by ethnic Pashtuns who fled unrest in the country's Islamist-insurgency wracked northwest and whom authorities have said pose a security risk.

A Supreme Court injunction placed a temporary halt to the evictions in all of Pakistan's slums, and asked the CDA to provide a written justification before its next demolition, noting that the right to shelter was enshrined in Pakistan's constitution.

"Most of these katchi abadies are under the occupation of the Christian community," read the agency's reply.

"It seems this pace of occupation of land by Christian community may increase. Removal of katchi abadies is very urgent to provide (a) better environment to the citizens of Islamabad and to protect the beauty of Islam," it added.

While the ultimate fate of Rimsha Colony is yet to be decided by the court and with no timeline for a ruling set out, left-wing political activist Ammar Rashid said the CDA was now resorting to strong-arm tactics.

"Water is a fundamental right but the city administration is distributing it on the basis of socio-economic class," he told AFP.

"This is a violation of the court order and an attempt to force people to leave the slums."

Arif Jan, who was going door-to-door in Rimsha to collect funds for Christmas celebrations, cited a popular Islamic saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammad.

Mohammed, the story goes, said that God forgave a prostitute's sins for the act of giving water to a thirsty dog.

"But in this country," the 32-year-old labourer said, "it seems we aren't even considered on par with dogs, let alone humans."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Winter Car Maintenance Tips

Perhaps the first flakes have already coated your windshield, forcing you to dig out the scraper. As you adjust to the chill, give a thought to your ride, and check out these nine tips that will keep your car rolling smoothly through winter’s challenges.

We’re assuming you've covered the basics (such as the scraper!) and are up-to-date on your car’s regular scheduled service. Don't postpone that—an annoyance in summer can become a hazard that strands you in the winter, putting your life at risk.

source: kiplinger.com