The World Is A Great Big Snowball by Victoria Graham
The earth was once a giant snowball…twice in the distant past…apparently.
Research from the University of Vienna has uncovered strong evidence supporting this controversial “Snowball Earth” hypothesis which believes that runaway global cooling conditions once enveloped the planet in ice. Some scientists have suggested that vast swathes of ice from glaciers meant that more of the sun’s energy was reflected back into space cooling the planet to freezing point. Only when sufficient carbon dioxide was pumped into the atmosphere from volcanoes did the world warm up by the greenhouse effect, and then the ice began to melt.
Well this theory which has been hotly contested by many critics happened some 635 million years ago, if indeed it did occur at all. More importantly and certainly more immediate is the icy weather of today.
Blizzards have been affecting Northern Scotland all morning. Gale force northerly winds have been keeping temperatures below freezing point. In fact the temperature was -10C (14F) at ten o’ clock this morning, but would have felt more like -30C (-22F) due to the cold northerly gales.
The snow showers by the middle of this morning started cropping up further south. With a sleet shower reported in London and the temperature only registering 4C, an afternoon average high in April of 13C (55F) seems a little out of reach. Snow in London during April is not unheard of in fact this month is typically ‘a mixed bag’, but the last time sleet was recorded was on April 10th 2003.
Snow cover is more of an unusual event during April, here in Britain. However with the forecast for temperatures to climb to highs of 17C (63F) by Monday, this surely seems impossible…
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