Winter Hits Europe – Stockholm Has Coldest Day in 84 Years! Sweden Coldest Temperature In 20 Years!
By P Gosselin on 3. Juni 2012
Parts of Europe are being gripped by unusual cold, even though the calendar says it’s meteorological summer. Now children in Sweden are finding out what snow is like – in June! Strangest warming I’ve ever seen.
The English language The Local here writes that “Stockholm broke an 84-year-old cold record on Saturday, as the capital’s temperature only reached 6 degrees Celsius, the lowest June maximum daily temperature the city has seen since 1928.”
Indeed, you could be excused for thinking that the current chill is more like winter than summer. It was actually colder in the capital yesterday than on Christmas Eve. ‘The temperature was a degree lower than it was at Christmas in Stockholm, so it is colder. And it’s windier, too,’ said SMHI’s meteorologist Lisa Frost to newspaper Dagens Nyheter.”
Just two days ago The Local here reported that snow blanketed northern parts.
Residents in northern Sweden were forced to grab shovels rather than sun lotion on what was supposed to be the first day of summer, as much of the region was left covered in a thick blanket of snow on Friday. As much as 20 centimetres of thick, wet snow fell in parts of Västerbotten County, giving residents quite a shock when they woke up Friday morning.”
The mercury also dropped to minus 6 degrees Celsius in one town, making it the coldest June Sweden recording in 20 years. The Local adds:
The weather agency forecasts that the first weekend in June will feel more like the start of winter than the start of summer.”
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2012 ... w-zealand/
Coldest Day On Record In Canterbury, New Zealand
Posted on June 9, 2012
Canterbury is finally thawing after a snowstorm which boasted the coldest day on record.
But the homeless are struggling to cope.
Last night in Christchurch, temperatures dropped to -2degC.
It was pitch black, bitterly cold, and “George”, as he wishes to be called, is heading home. He's not driving anywhere. He’s already home – in his van.
“It's not that I want to be like this all the time. It's just sometimes you've got work, and sometimes you don't,” he says.
George is embarrassed because most of his workmates, friends and family don't know he's living in a van.
The 56-year-old welder was forced out of his beloved home in Waitaki St after the earthquake last year.
“The place got really wrecked. There was only one door you could open in the house.”
It was pulled down. He couldn't afford the local rents, which skyrocketed. Suddenly, like so many others in Christchurch, he was homeless.
“I didn't really know where to go.”
So he bought the van.
“Got all the pots in there, plates. I use a little gas cooker from the gas place. But I hardly ever cook. I go to the fast food, fish and chips place – takeaways.”
Every night he parks at New Brighton beach around 8.30pm. He has his coffee, chats to the other homeless people, doing all he can to have a “normal life”.
“It is hard. It's extremely hard. You can't have a shower, and you have to go to the camping grounds. Council used to have showers but they have taken them away.”
This week has been particularly hard. Weather temperatures have dropped to record lows.
“When it was covered in snow I never got up until 12 o'clock. It was cold as.”
He is not the only one struggling. We drove around Christchurch, spotting similar blanketed-up vans and cars parked on the side of the road.
Snow still blankets the ground around them.
At night, George opts for a beanie, a sleeping bag and two duvets. Then it's lights out for another long, cold night.
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Christchurch-hom ... z1xNIQrD5E