At least 221 people have died during a cold snap in which temperatures have plummeted to -30C and below across eastern Europe, with Ukraine the hardest hit country.

The cold has killed 101 people in Ukraine, many of whom lived on the streets. Health officials have ordered hospitals to stop discharging homeless patients after they are treated for hypothermia and frostbite, while authorities have set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters to help people survive. The week-long cold snap, eastern Europe's worst in decades, is causing power cuts, frozen water pipes and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries, airports and bus routes.

Officials reported a total of 600 flight cancellations at Denver International Airport, while Southwest Airlines canceled all inbound flights to Denver until 1 p.m. local time. Denver's airport -- which was reporting 5 inches of snow as of 10:45 a.m. -- deals with an average of 1,700 flights daily, according to airport spokeswoman Jenny Schiavone. Light snow started falling in Denver Thursday as residents across the state braced for the storm.

Rescue helicopters evacuated dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia and airlifted in emergency food and medicine as a severe cold spell kept eastern Europe in an icy grip.

The death toll from the cold snap rose to 79 across the region, with emergency crews working overtime as temperatures sank to -32.5C (-26.5F) in some areas. Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and rare snow fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records began 100 years ago.  [guardian]

A new international study may answer contentious questions about the onset and persistence of Earth's Little Ice Age, a period of widespread cooling that lasted for hundreds of years until the late 19th century.

The study, led by the University of Colorado Boulder with co-authors at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and other organizations, suggests that an unusual, 50-year-long episode of four massive tropical volcanic eruptions triggered the Little Ice Age between 1275 and 1300 A.D. The persistence of cold summers following the eruptions is best explained by a subsequent expansion of sea ice and a related weakening of Atlantic currents, according to computer simulations conducted for the study.

Once upon a time inside Death Valley, an ancient volcano exploded in a deadly mixture of steam and rock that sent a towering mushroom cloud aloft and left a crater a half-mile wide and nearly 800 feet deep.

That same volcano, named Ubehebe, could explode again at any time, say scientists who have used new techniques to determine just when that first huge blast sent the region shuddering.

Geologists exploring the crater in the past had found a trove of Indian artifacts amid the volcanic rubble. By dating those relics they estimated that the volcano blew its top about 6,000 years ago - which would have meant there would be no more underground water left to fuel the hot volcanic rocks for another explosion. [sfgate]

Firefighters were working to hold the line on a fast-moving brush fire that forced more than 10,000 people in Nevada to flee and destroyed more than 20 homes. Fire officials said one person was dead.

The blaze started shortly after noon on Thursday, and about 2,000 people remained under evacuation orders late on Thursday, Reno fire chief Michael Hernandez said. About 250 firefighters were battling the blaze.

Hernandez said that 20 homes were destroyed, but a full assessment might reveal even more damage. There was one death in the fire area, Hernandez said, but he declined to provide more details, saying an autopsy would be needed to determine the cause. [guardian]

California, Finland, Canada, Australia Hit By Radiation

The University of California at Berkeley detected cesium levels in San Francisco area milk above over EPA limits … and even higher than they were 6 months ago. Finnish public television says that cesium from Fukushima has been detected in lichens, fungi and elk and reindeer meat in Finland. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency confirmed a radiation cloud over the East Coast of Australia. The West Coast of Canada is getting hit by debris from Japan … and at least some of it is likely radioactive.

Flu pandemics have been linked to fluctuations in climate, and new research connects the world's four most recent pandemics to the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean near the equator.

The connection? Changes in ocean temperature affect migrating birds, which are major contributors to the spread and mixing of flu viruses.

An earlier study had linked flu pandemics to ocean warming, rather than cooling, but public health researchers Jeffrey Shaman of Columbia University and Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University dispute these findings, saying this analysis relies on flawed data, such as records of older pandemics and climate fluctuations, which are less precise and reliable.

La Nina events may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests.

US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.

In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they say that flu-carrying birds may change migratory patterns during La Nina conditions. However, many other La Nina events have not seen novel flu strains spread around the world, they caution. [bbc]

2012 has begun where 2011 left off with weird weather in Europe and the Americas, Arctic ice at almost its lowest extent ever recorded in midwinter, disastrous droughts and searing heat in Africa and Latin America, and one of the world's biggest insurance companies warning that climate change will increase damages.

Thousands of people in Austria, France and Germany were on Thursday still digging themselves out of some of the heaviest snowfalls seen in 30–50 years. After Europe's driest and warmest autumn for nearly 150 years, a massive storm dumped nearly 18ft of snow in two days this week, cutting off ski resorts and villages and leaving people and animals stranded. The summit of the 9,718ft Zugspitze mountain in Germany which had only 7.5 inches of snow a few weeks ago, now has 150 inches. [guardian]

The symptoms mirror colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly disappear. The disorder continues to decimate hives in the U.S. and overseas.

The disease is of great concern, because bees pollinate about a third of the United States' food supply. Its presence is especially alarming in California, the nation's top producer of fruits and vegetables, where bees play an essential role in the $1 billion almond industry and other crops.

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Tens of thousands of dead herring have carpeted a stretch of coast in northern Norway — and then disappeared again.

The fish appeared on New Year's Eve, leading to speculation that predators might have driven a huge school ashore or the fish could have been washed onto the beach by a powerful storm that hit Norway on Christmas Day.

Jens Christian Holst of Norway's Institute of Marine Research says a combination of several factors was the likely explanation.

The crippled nuclear reactors at Japan's Fukushima power plant have finally been stabilised, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has announced.

An earthquake and tsunami in March knocked out vital cooling systems, triggering radiation leaks and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

Mr Noda's declaration of a "cold shutdown" condition marked the stabilization of the plant. The government says it will take decades to dismantle it completely. [bbc]

• "Methane fields on a scale not seen before" - researcher

• More than 100 fountains, but could be 'thousands'

• Could cause rapid climate change 

The Russian research vessel Academician Lavrentiev conducted a survey of 10,000 square miles of sea off the coast of eastern Siberia. They made a terrifying discovery - huge plumes of methane bubbles rising to the surface from the seabed.

'We found more than 100 fountains, some more than a kilometre across,' said Dr Igor Semiletov, 'These are methane fields on a scale not seen before. The emissions went directly into the atmosphere.' [dm]

Climate change, caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases humans have emitted, is expected to increase certain types of extreme weather, leading to more disasters, according to a report being assembled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"The report that was released by the IPCC on extreme events suggests that what we are seeing this year is not just an anomalous year, but a harbinger of things to come for at least a subset of the extreme events we are tallying,"said Jane Lubchenco, NOAA's administrator, during a press conference held here this week at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting. [LS]

Oil giant BP has accused oilfields services firm Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence relating to last year's oil well blast in the Gulf of Mexico in which 11 people were killed.

At a hearing in a New Orleans' court, BP said Halliburton had "intentionally" destroyed test results on its cement product used at the Macondo well.

Halliburton denied this, saying the claims were "without merit".

Cement was a key factor in causing America's worst offshore oil spill. The blast that followed at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April led to the release of 780m litres (206m gallons) of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. [bbc]

Nearly 18 million British people will experience more water shortages and 160,000 will be affected by coastal flooding by the end of the century if temperatures are left unchecked, according to new Met Office analysis.

But new projections of likely rainfall, soil moisture and evaporation suggest that farmers from Cornwall to the north of Scotland should benefit from warmer temperatures, longer growing seasons and fewer frosts that can be expected with climate change, says the report.

The data, which was launched at the UN climate talks in Durban, shows all 24 countries included in the report have warmed since the 1960s and the frequency of extremely warm temperatures has increased, while very cold temperatures have become less frequent. [guardian]

Nearly 10,000 people were evacuated and a state-wide emergency declared Friday as a wildfire ripped through parts of Reno, Nevada, officials and reports said.

Residents who did not immediately have to evacuate were told to stay indoors after smoke engulfed the area, and as some 450 firefighters battled to contain the 2,000-acre (810-hectare) Caughlin Fire in southwest Reno.

"Crews from multiple fire response agencies are working diligently to fight the fire," the city fire department said, adding: "Air quality readings throughout the valley are elevated regionwide."

Heavier rainfall, fiercer storms and intensifying droughts are likely to strike the world in the coming decades as climate change takes effect, the world's leading climate scientists said on Friday.

Rising sea levels will increase the vulnerability of coastal areas, and the increase in "extreme weather events" will wipe billions off national economies and destroy lives, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body of the world's leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations.

Scientists have warned of these effects for years, but yesterday's report – the "special report on extreme weather" compiled over two years by 220 scientists – is the first comprehensive examination of scientific knowledge on the subject, in an attempt to produce a definitive judgment. The report contained stark warnings for developing countries in particular, which are likely to be worst afflicted in part because of their geography, but also because they are less well prepared for extreme weather in their infrastructure and have less economic resilience than developed nations. But the developed world will not be unscathed – heavier bursts of rainfall, heatwaves and droughts are all likely to take their toll.

Increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons, while increasing rain, snowfall and the intensity of severe storms in wet regions or seasons, says a new study by a University of Maryland-led team of researchers.

The research provides the first clear evidence of how aerosols -- soot, dust and other small particles in the atmosphere -- can affect weather and climate; and the findings have important implications for the availability, management and use of water resources in regions across the United States and around the world, say the researchers and other scientists.

"Using a 10-year dataset of extensive atmosphere measurements from the U.S. Southern Great Plains research facility in Oklahoma [run by the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program] -- we have uncovered, for the first time, the long-term, net impact of aerosols on cloud height and thickness, and the resultant changes in precipitation frequency and intensity," says Zhanqing Li, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic science at Maryland and lead author of the study.

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The most striking feature at this crippled plant on Saturday was not the blasted-out reactor buildings, or the makeshift tsunami walls, but the chaotic mess.

The ground around the hulking reactor buildings was littered with mangled trucks, twisted metal beams and broken building frames, left mostly as they were after one of the world’s largest recorded earthquakes started a chain reaction that devastated the region and, to some extent, Japan. The damage reached the second story, a testament to the size of the tsunami that slammed into the reactor buildings, which sit 33 feet above the sea. 

In a country as orderly as Japan, the fact that the scene has changed so little since the early days of the disaster eight months ago is as telling a sign as any of the daunting tasks workers have faced as they struggled to regain control of the plant’s three badly damaged reactors. 

In Nome, the largest town with 3,600 residents, the main street was closed due to rock and log debris. Residents were told to stay off streets due to live wires from downed power lines, and a highway was feared cut by beach erosion.

Roofs were also blown away overnight, when the height of snow and hurricane-force winds hit at about 2 a.m.

"Waves were hitting Front Street since after 1 a.m.," Nome resident Penny Frieda Olanna posted on Facebook. "We could see the waves flying and our window is covered in sleet, the waves are splashing high."

Alaska is facing a life threatening winter storm with near hurricane force winds, more than a foot of snow and severe coastal flooding, the National Weather Service says.

"This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening storm which will be one of the worst on record over the Bering Sea and the west coast," NWS forecasters said in a bulletin Monday afternoon.

The storm was about 600 miles southwest of Shemya in the far western Aleutian Islands on Monday afternoon and was expected to move over the Bering Sea toward Alaska's west coast on Tuesday.