Tokyo hit by record snowfall

This past week, Tokyo measured 27cm (10.6 inches) of snow, the most snow in 45 years in the nation's capital, more than double the normal snow of just 4.3 inches for an entire winter season.

At least a dozen people died and nearly a thousand were injured. Tens of thousands lost power. In northern Japan, the blizzard produced the heaviest snowfall in 78 years, more than three feet in places. Train and air travel conditions were 'paralyzed.' Hundreds of roads were closed. Traffic accidents killed 11 people.

Record snows have likewise crippled parts of eastern Europe since mid December. As much as 10 feet of snow in the Dolornites of northern Italy and the Balkans has repeatedly trapped many residents in the smaller villages. People have been feverishly shoveling their roofs in order to keep them from collapsing, much like during similar heavy snowfalls locally in North Idaho back in the 2007-09 harsh winters affected by a chilly 'La Nina' sea-surface temperature event in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. The winter of 2007-08 was the snowiest ever in Coeur d'Alene with an incredible 172.9 inches.

Record snows have likewise fallen in Scotland, northern Ireland and parts of Scandinavia this stormy winter of 2013-14. A crippling icestorm was playing havoc earlier this week in the northern United Kingdom.

As of this writing on Thursday, Feb. 13, Britain's west coast was being battered by wind gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour. The Meteorological Office in London issued its highest ever 'red flag warnings' on Wednesday for damaging hurricane-force winds across western England and Wales. Widespread structural damage and loss of power has affected thousands of homes and businesses.

England, as a whole, observed its wettest January since weather records were first kept on a daily basis almost 250 years ago. December was the third wettest on record in the U.K. The first half of February was the second wettest ever.

Resulting floods have washed away winter grain crops. The low-lying Somerset Levels and the Thames River Valley have seen waters 18 to 20 feet above flood stage in recent days. More heavy rains are predicted for at least the next 10 days, probably longer.

It wasn't just the U.K., Japan and eastern Europe that battled winter storms this week of historic proportions. A second powerful winter storm in less than two weeks clobbered the Deep South of the U.S., encrusting highways, trees and power lines on Wednesday before pushing up the I-95 corridor with upwards of a foot or more of snow in an already-sick of winter Mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast on Thursday.

In Atlanta, which was caught almost totally unprepared by the late January icestorm, when thousands of children were stranded all night in schools by less than 3 inches of snow, the schools this time around were closed for two days. Many Atlanta businesses shut down as well leaving the city almost devoid of traffic.

This time around, commutes that normally take minutes lasted several hours as the winter storm pushed northward through the Carolinas. Hundreds of motorists abandoned their vehicles. South Carolina reported 245,000 power outages. North Carolina had around 100,000 people lose electricity. Hundreds of flights were canceled throughout the Southeast. Approximately 3,300 flights were canceled nationwide.

For the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast this harsh winter of 2013-14 has depleted most city budgets for snow removal and salt supplies. School systems have run out of snow days. As of this Thursday writing, parts of Vermont expected another 16 inches of snow. Boston and New York City were predicting between 8 and 10 inches of the white stuff, the same crippling totals seen earlier in Charlotte, North Carolina, Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C.

Elsewhere across the country, northeastern North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and upper Michigan will finally see an end to an all-time record 75-day span of subzero temperatures by early this Presidents' Day week. This winter ranks with 1935-36 and 1978-79 overall as one of the coldest seasons, and in many cases, one of the snowiest winters in U.S. history all the way south to the Gulf Coastal states.

Since last May, according to researchers at Cambridge University, the planet has cooled by at least 2.5 degrees, one of the sharpest drops in temperatures since the 1600s. Personally, I don't like global cooling. Bring back the warmer than normal weather. I'm praying for another naturally-occurring, solar-enhanced cycle of mild and sunny conditions over North Idaho.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

Light snow was falling early Valentine's morning as I wrote this mid-February North Idaho weather update.

Earlier in the week, on Monday, Feb. 10, we had a record snowfall for the date in town of 5.8 inches, which topped the previous mark of 5 inches set in 1932 during a similar topsy-turvy winter season.

Then came the 'big thaw' with afternoon temperatures on Wednesday soaring to 50 degrees on Player Drive and in Post Falls with upper 40s elsewhere in the region. It was a 'touch of spring' that we desperately needed following an extremely frigid late January and early February with subzero temperatures in the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene areas.

The 6.7 inches of snow this past week pushed our seasonal total up to 40.2 inches by 9 a.m. on Friday. My station on Player Drive only had a puny 16.4 inches of the white stuff all winter as of Tuesday, Jan. 28, just ahead of nearly two feet of additional snowfall in less than three weeks. With another 10 to 15 inches of snow expected to fall in our part of the country in the next six weeks or so, we should top the 50-inch mark in town with frequent snows for the skiers and snowboarders in the nearby mountain ski areas.

Our rainfall total, liquid precipitation, for the year stood at 4.01 inches early Friday. That was above last year's 3.78 inches to date but below the normal of 4.84 inches.

Longer-term, Meteorologist Randy Mann and I are still anticipating an early arrival of this spring season by the end of the current 30-day period in mid March. Temperatures should reach the mid to upper 60s by sometime around the full moon cycle of March 16.

Happy Presidents' Day!

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com