In the Arctic today, there's a warm wind howling over Siberia. It's a wind blowing from the northwest. A wind originating from the Arctic Ocean. Siberia is warming up today because warm air blew in from the direction of the North Pole. This should strike everyone as ridiculously, insanely odd.
From Japan Today:
A cold air mass gripped the Japanese archipelago, bringing heavy snow and gusty winds to a wide area of western and central Japan on Sunday, forcing airlines to cancel many flights and West Japan Railway Co to reduce the speed of bullet trains on sections of the Sanyo Shinkansen lines.
The blanket of snow reached as far as southwestern Japanese cities such as Nagasaki and Kagoshima and the temperature in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa, dropped to 8.9 C on Sunday morning, far below the average low for January.
Amami Island, a subtropical island located some 380 kilometers southwest of Kagoshima City, also observed snowfall for the first time in 115 years, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Mother Ship reports from Hong Kong.
An unusual meteorological occurrence is happening and is proving weather forecasts wrong: A polar vortex stretching from Siberia is pushing south and is pummelling Hong Kong with a bitter cold and biting winds the territory is unfamiliar with this time of the year.
As of 2.20pm (Hong Kong time) today (Jan. 23), the temperature at Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, where the Big Buddha is located, stood at 1.1 degrees Celsius.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Unusually cold weather in eastern Asia has been blamed for more than 65 deaths, disrupted transportation and brought the first snow to a subtropical city in southern China in almost 50 years. Here is a look at the worst cold weather to hit the region in years: TAIWAN Temperatures in Taiwan's capital of Taipei plunged to a 16-year low of 4 degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit), killing 57 mostly elderly people, according to government officials. The semi-official Focus Taiwan news website reported that 85 people had died.