As much of the UK, away from northern hills, continues its almost snowless winter, eastern parts of the USA and Canada have been hit by yet another round of blizzards. At the end of last week, heavy snow blanketed the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to New England with New York State particularly hard-hit as over two feet of level snow was recorded. The winter storm then pushed northwards into eastern Canada, bringing further deep snow and disrupting transport and power supplies to many thousands.
Record-breaking snowfalls have also been causing problems in Japan where level snow depths of between two and five feet have paralysed transport infrastructures, caused the collapse of roofs and directly led to the death of over a dozen people. Last weekend's snowstorm, giving almost a foot of snow in Tokyo, came hot on the heels of another major snowfall a week earlier. The extreme snowfalls resulted from intense areas of low pressure, tracking rain north-eastwards into very cold air, rapidly turning to snow.
As the Winter Olympics are in full flow in Sochi, Russia, on the other side of the Black Sea in Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro and surrounding countries, it has been unseasonably warm over the past few days and, indeed, for much of the winter. Cities such as Sofia, Beograd and Bucharest would normally expect daytime maximum temperatures of between 5C and 8C in mid-February. However, southerly winds have brought temperatures in excess of 20C in many areas, with Pleven in Bulgaria reporting 25C last Monday. Whilst these are record-breaking temperatures, extreme temperature variation is not unusual in this part of the world. The continental climate of the region causes large swings from very warm to bitterly cold with a simple switch in wind direction.