Mid-East suffers rare cold snap (Paging Al Gore)

bbc ^ | 1/18/2008 | Crispin Thorold

[milwguy]

There have been a number of deaths and considerable damage to crops in the Middle East as temperatures in the region have fallen to exceptional lows.

Local reports say that 10 people died in Saudi Arabia after snowfalls.

In Syria, temperatures have dropped to minus 16 degrees Celsius. There has been widespread damage to crops in Syria, Jordan and Israel.

There has also been snow in the Iraqi capital Baghdad for the first time in living memory.

The Middle East is a region used to extremes of temperature - but not ones like these.

Kuwaiti meteorologists are eagerly watching thermometers to see if the previous low recorded in the open desert, minus four degrees Celsius in 1964, could be broken in the coming days.

[milwguy]

If the BBC says its cold, you know it must be true! BARF

[milwguy]

But meteorologists in the region cannot agree whether it is the result of climate change; the director of Baghdad’s Meteorology Department reportedly said it could be, his counterpart in Amman disagrees.................. Just like the BBC to throw in some Global Warming garbage in at the last, only now they call it ‘Climate Change’

[Dooderbutt]

minus 16 degrees Celsius

Daaaa-mmm that's cold! That's -60.8 F. Eek.

[Dooderbutt]

Nah, it isn’t I’m a dumbass - it’s -4...sigh. Please ignore my ignorance.

[misharu]

I think you were right the first time, but remove the minus sign. It would be 60.80 degrees Fahrenheit.

[rdl6989]

But it did get to -67*F in Siberia today. That’s cold even by Siberia’s standards. All of this brutal cold around the world has me convinced that the Goracle is right about the ice caps melting and the human race drowning. /sarc

[Hoffer Rand]

I agree. Page Gore. Maybe he could give a speech in the area and warm things up!

[Allegra]

The Middle East is cold.

I hate cold. I'm from the Gulf Coast. I wouldn't live anywhere that gets cold. It is not supposed to be cold here. Chilly occasionally, but not cold like this.

I want to know who's in charge here. I've been ripped off. ;-)

[ml/nj]

"In Syria, temperatures have dropped to minus 16 degrees Celsius. There has been widespread damage to crops in Syria, Jordan and Israel. "

If the BBC says its cold, you know it must be true!

I'm not so sure about this. It seems to me that things are pretty normal in Israel for January.

ML/NJ

[Zhang Fei]

Just like the BBC to throw in some Global Warming garbage in at the last, only now they call it ‘Climate Change’

Climate Change means whether it gets colder or warmer, it's still Global Warming. Heads they win, tails we lose.

[OB1kNOb]

[Old Professer]

3.2F.

Go here and add it to favorites - http://www.onlineconversion.com/temperature.htm

[griswold3]

I call ‘volcanic activity’

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/01/02/chile.volcano/

The volcano sent a plume of smoke nearly 12,500 meters (41,000 feet) into the air after erupting around 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060804-global-warming_2.html
Extreme Global Warming Fix Proposed: Fill the Skies With Sulfur
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist has proposed a controversial method for protecting Earth from global warming: seeding the atmosphere with sulfur to reflect the sun’s rays.

In the current issue of the journal Climate Change, Paul Crutzen of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry suggests injecting particles of sulfur into the stratosphere—the upper layer of the atmosphere—to cool the planet and buy time for humans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

You make the connection??? LOL

[misharu]

Well damnit! Look who’s the dumbass. I did it as 16 celsius not minus 16. Thanks. From now on I am staying out of the celsius - fahrenhiet thingie. I never get it right!

[susannah59]

It’s Bush’s fault. Of course.

He just came back from that part of the world, didn’t he??

[yorkie]

Allegra, I am so sorry you are cold. Should I send an electric blanket?

[Allegra]

LOL - actually, it warmed up into the 50s today, but the last ten days or so have been VERY cold! And we've had almost no rain at all this winter. (I don't miss the mud!)

You and your dad are in my daily prayers.

[Dooderbutt]

LOL!!! I actually remembered the conversion formula from school - multiply by five, divide by nine and add thirty-two, but that doesn’t seem to work on negatives!!! ;-)

[popdonnelly]

If I give lectures on Global Cooling, can I win a Nobel Peace Prize?

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The scales are the same at - 40. If it’s really cold — like the -67 F in Siberia, it’s easy to estimate. E.g. -67 F is 27 F below - 40 — or about 15 C lower — ergo - 55 C.

I lived in the sub arctic for decades, and worked in the high arctic several times — I could make these conversions with a frozen brain. Global warming? Bring it on!