March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and it is living up to its name. Wild winter storms have dropped huge snowfalls on the northeastern US, Canada, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Scotland — and there is more to come.
A powerful storm stunned New England and eastern areas of Canada, burying parts of the region in more than 60cm (2ft) of snow — Burlington, Vermont, had its biggest March snowfall on record, 65.5cm (25.8in). But this is great for skiing in North America, with many eastern resorts getting more than half a metre (20in) of snow last week.
The snowstorm was driven by sub-tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico smashing into freezing cold polar air trying to push south from the Arctic. The same battle between warm and cold air masses spawned thunderstorms that tore across the South and unleashed tornados, hitting New Orleans shortly after the Mardi Gras celebrations.
Greece and Turkey were pummelled by a severe snowstorm, closing schools and paralysing travel. High winds, snow and bitter cold froze Athens, Istanbul and Ankara, and many of the Greek islands were battered by ferocious winds. The storm was generated by cold air from Russia and Ukraine sweeping down into the eastern Mediterranean.
Over the past three months Australia has been hit by a wave of weather disasters, and last week brought a fresh outbreak of flooding from heavy rains in Queensland, still recovering from the onslaught of Cyclone Yaris in February. Normally dry riverbeds in the Australian outback are now in flood, and some parts of the desert have had more than twice their year’s rainfall in the past few days alone. For Queensland, 2010 was the wettest year on record, and it was the second wettest on record in Australia as a whole.
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The greatest disaster of the week, though, was the devastating earthquake in Japan that unleashed a powerful tsunami across the Pacific. Seismic events such as these are produced by movements of the Earth’s crust.