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Subscribe to RSSIce on the Danube River has caused transportation delays in Eastern Europe. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria and Romania are suspending all shipping on the Danube River due to severe frost and the vast amount of ice blocking the heavily traveled waterway, Bulgaria's Transport Ministry said Wednesday.
Authorities say up to 90 percent of the river surface is covered with floating ice, making it extremely difficult to traverse Europe's main commercial waterway, which winds 1,777 miles (2,860 kilometers) from Germany through Austria and Hungary and serves as the natural border between Bulgaria and Romania as it flows out to the Black Sea.
Europeans across the continent have been battling a deep freeze that started in late January and has killed hundreds, trapped thousands behind snow in Balkan mountain villages and prompted worries of flooding as heavy snow melts. In Greece and Bulgaria, flooding on Monday and Tuesday left dozens of homes under water and at least eight dead.
Deadly floods follow in iced-over Europe
Romania and Bulgaria's decision come the day after Serbian emergency officials said the country's army will use explosives to break up ice on the Danube and Ibar rivers to try to prevent the possibility of flooding.
Elsewhere, strong wind knocked over power lines and left tens of thousands without electricity in Bosnia, potentially for the next several days.
In pictures: Europe's big freeze
Half of the town of Mostar, Bosnia's second largest city, is without power and snow piled some 2 1/2 feet (80 centimeters) is preventing teams from dealing with the problem, government spokesman Pero Pavlovic said.
People in Mostar fell into a "shopping hysteria", emptying shelves and in some cases getting into fist fights over flour, he said.
The harsh weather conditions that are being blamed for scores of deaths are expected to continue into next week. NBC's Kier Simmons reports.
The Polish Interior Ministry said Wednesday that six more people died as a result of the freezing weather. It also called on people be careful when using coal heaters, reporting that one person died of asphyxiation. The temperatures in the country fell at times to minus 26 F (minus 32 C).
The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Global warming will make the warming of North America and the freezing of Europe routine, according to oceanography. All Republicans need to do is pass a constitutional amendment to stop it from happening in the future. However, science means nothing to them in the light of their innate wisdom, all gleaned from folklore and wrapped in conspiracy theory.
I would love to see the Thames freeze over and ice skating on the canals in Venice... Then maybe the waste of dollars studying global warming would stop...just like eugenics in the mid 1900's. If it cools off in the next year or two, we should make the scientists and Al Gore that took research dollars and wasted alot of our tax money pay it back... the Met Office and the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit shows average temperatures on planet Earth reverting in 2011 to the same levels seen in 1997. If I have a choice...I choose warm not cool...
teo-359675 If we are talking about paying back for mistakes, how about USA pays back for every innocent lives lost in Iraq and for everything that was destroyed there since there were no WMDs and there was no need to invade that country? Btw, it's not climate change, and it's not like Al Gore said it and everybody is blindly following, it has been proven by independent researchers from all over the world.
Pass a Constitutional Amendment outlawing Global Warming??? Maybe they should pass one outlawing full moons.
Here we go again...the scientists predicted years ago, that due to warming, the fresh water introduced to the NORMAL ocean currents (gulf stream) from the arctic would make things colder in Europe.This is one reason they STOPPED calling it global warming and now call it Climate Change...you global warming deniers need to get a brain.This is the future because we didn't heed the warnings years ago.
big mac-4590839,
They tried the:
1. Global Freezing and FAILED...
2. The Ozone Hole over the USA and FAILED...
3. The AGW with their graphics indicating INCREASES and reality has been DECLINING for over a DECADE...
So the POLITICAL Scientist are AGAIN changing the name to cover their MISTAKES...
BTY - The half-life of CFC's are almost 100+years. So any effect would not show-up for a CENTURY...
And just IGNORE the microbes in the ice-cores, their expelled CO2 would not effect the historical CO2 readings... Ha! Ha!
The term "Global Warming" it's a misnomer and should not be used, it continues to drive ridicule of a real issue. The correct terminology should be "Climate Change".
Affinity,
It is the Jet Stream which has kept the cold out of the US this winter.
Cliff2,
They tried changing the term global warming to climate change when they realized warming had leveled off and their predictions weren't happening.
you are wrong...think a little harder...the warmer than normal temps in the arctic are not caused by the jet stream
Last summer in Texas was the most brutal I have ever seen...climate change is here to stay
There are many variables that effect the climate but when you throw in the human component...all bets are off
big mac-4590839,
Tell that to the people in Alaska who are experiencing 3x the normal snow fall and temperatures 10+degrees BELOW normal...
Research the Pacific Oscillation, El Nino/La Nena, and the effects that the seasonal wind patterns have on the Arctic Sea Ice Coverage...
Or the 1930's Dust Bowel in the USA and the effects on the WHOLE USA. Not just Texas...
The EIA/NASA states that the humans only contribute 3.6% to the Global CO2 Cycle and only produces/converts 1/12,000 of the TOTAL amount of energy that the sun supplies everyday...
Man could NEVER generate enough energy to effect Global CHANGES. Just changes to the LOCAL areas and these are temporary, when measured in a global perspective...
Climate change, what climate change...isn't it winter over there?
economykiller:
Who bent the Jet Stream this time?
Only GOD can bend the jet stream 8^)
Here in Canada, we are enjoying one of the warmest winters ever! All the northern cold seems to have gone to the other side of the world, hahahahahahaha-wait a minute, maybe next winter, it'll all come HERE...
Well, well, well - the Global Warming lies are being frozen to oblivion. I challenge the IPCC to go tell the families of those who have perished in the extreme cold that global warming is alive and well. I noticed there are very few global warming stories in the press. What happened to you green-o-climate liars? Like cowards, y9ou run from any hint of cold. It was only 30 years ago that scientists were predicting a global freeze, then in the early 2000's it was global warming - I gues they will have to switch back to the freeze theory now. It's all theory, based on looking at a few green snowflakes and attaching a political agenda to it - like Big Government control. Get a life and stop this abuse. Do real science work and you will find that our planet and all the planets in the solar system experience fluctuations based on solar active - yes, the sun. That is where all our temperatures are regulated. It has nothing to do with Carbon gas which is only .0004 (or .0006 if you beleive the greenies) of 1 percent of all atmospheric gases. Nitrogen is about 80% and 19% is oxygen. What, you didn't know that? I knew that stuff back in primary school in the 60's.
If this is due to a change in the north atlantic thermo-haline system, Europe's leaders must be sh#tting their pants right about now. It's pretty obvious that they are in no way prepared for changes like this. The worst thing is that people will suffer from the lack of foresight of their leaders, and lack of action.
Weren't some of the scientists Al Gore used later discredited for falsifying information regarding climate change and global warming? Just because a study comes out on something doesn't make it infallible truth. Look at the red wine survey that was just discredited for false information.
Weather patterns are cyclical, the earth goes through changes. Ice ages to Interglacial periods. I realize that we have ruined a lot of things here on earth, but I personally think it's presumptuous of humans to think we could have that much of an impact on global weather patterns in just over a century of pollution. And even if we do end up killing ourselves off, the Earth did fine without us before, and it will be fine without us after we're gone.