Free Republic

A colossal storm is poised to barrel across the northern Sierra Nevada Wednesday evening, with high winds whipping heavy falling snow and creating blizzard conditions. The National Weather Service advised against all travel in the mountain range straddling California and Nevada through Thursday. "I would call this storm extremely dangerous," said Karleisa Rogacheski, a meteorologist with the NWS Sacramento office. "During whiteout conditions, it's going to be near-impossible to drive." The NWS has issued a winter storm warning for elevations between 5,500 feet and 6,500 and a blizzard warning for elevations above 7,o00 feet, where conditions will be "potentially life-threatening"...

Blizzards and dangerously low temperatures persisted in parts of Europe on Sunday, prompting Pope Francis to draw attention to the homeless suffering in freezing weather. In Serbia, aid workers scrambled to help hundreds of migrants sleeping rough in parks and makeshift shelters. The extreme winter weather that has gripped Europe in the past days has caused more than a dozen deaths, left villages cut off, caused power and water outages, frozen rivers and lakes, grounded flights and led to road accidents. Serbia’s authorities on Sunday banned river traffic on its stretch of the Danube — one of Europe’s main rivers...