Britain’s continued freezing weather is threatening ever greater numbers of wild animals, birds and insects across the country, experts have warned. The current cold spell – one of the longest on record – is particularly affecting creatures that are already struggling to survive the loss of their habitats and changes in climate. Examples include the hedgehog, which has already suffered a devastating loss of numbers over the past three decades and is now badly affected by the cold weather. In addition, threatened reptiles such as the grass snake and slowworm require sunny, warm conditions when they emerge from hibernation. Such a prospect is still remote, say meteorologists.
Rescue teams responded after hundreds of people, including children, became stranded on two ice floes drifting off the coast of Latvia in the Gulf of Riga, according to multiple sources. While initial reports estimated that 500 people were stranded aboard the drifting sheets of ice, State Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele said the number was closer to 220 people, the Associated Press reports. Sembele confirmed that 180 people were rescued from one ice floe near Vakarbulli, while teams saved 41 people from another floating iceberg close to Jurmala. According to the Voice of Russia, people became marooned after the large sections ofice broke away from the mainland.
Britain’s freezing weather looks to set to continue over the Easter weekend, with forecasters warning there may be no end in sight until April. Thousands of people are still without power and transport routes across the UK remain impassable due to deep snow drifts as the dangerous wintry weather showed no signs of abating.
The huge low that spread across New Zealand days ago brought rain and relief to most areas of the country but the North Island’s East Coast is still dry after minimal fall.
The region is in the grips of what is a 70-year drought event, Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills told BusinessDesk.
“There’s a long way to go yet. All the rain did was give us some hope and a bit of a reprieve,” he said.
But even after the rain it’s going to take two or three weeks to grow grass on the dry, parched paddocks.
What a difference a year makes. From record warmth last year, to a colder than normal March this year, our lawns and gardens have seen plenty of extremes.
Last year at this time, the flowers were already blooming and the growing season was in full gear.
This year, the ground is still frozen and the grass is still brown. But it may signal a different tone to the season ahead. And the hope is that we’ll see more moisture.
A pair of storm systems that were moving across the country on Sunday could join forces to bring snow to the Northeast — even as the official start of spring approaches next week. One storm was spreading snow showers from the Cascades and northern Rockies into the northern Plains and was expected to bring snow to the Dakotas, Minnesota and western Wisconsin tonight, the Weather Channel said.
