Our land has always been ready to share with us all that it has, but man has turned out to be a bad master. He wanted complet control over everything: the land, the climate, the seas and oceans, the near-earth space. And it seems that the planet is no longer able to tolerate us, importunate and insatiable people, who cut down forests, pollute the surface, the sky and orbit. And nature strikes back.
As the solar minimum continued, subfreezing temperatures and snowfalls were still breaking records in February. Canada and the US experienced another arctic blast from the now split 'polar vortex', pushing wind chill temperatures in Canada to -62°C and covering much of the northern, central and eastern U.S. with heavy snow. The cold blast also descended to Europe and parts of Asia. This 'Beast from the East' brought heavy snow to much of Europe with some parts colder than the Arctic!
China was hit by heavy snow, disrupting transportation and flights, while Japan had one of its worst winters in decades. Snow also blanketed unusual places like the UAE and Morocco.
Heavy rain caused destructive floods in Indonesia, New Zealand, Cyprus and deadly mudslides in South America, while seventy rivers overflowed from the Great Lakes to Texas. Record-breaking size hail pounded Argentina, while California and Saudi Arabia were pounded by hailstorms that caused damage and disrupted traffic for hours.
The Ring of Fire continued with increased activity, volcanoes and mud volcanoes that had been dormant for decades awoke with a vengeance, triggering evacuations and disrupting the flights of thousands of travelers. Taiwan, Papua New Guinea and Mexico were also shaken this past month by significant earthquakes as the cosmic ray grand maximum approaches.
Dry tides are becoming more common all around the world, while mass fish deaths and strandings continue to baffle scientists.
Meteor fireballs put on quite a show again this month, while the reports of unexplained loud ''booms'' increased all over the world.
Extreme cold is becoming the new normal around the world with multiple snowfall records being broken each winter. atahis phenomena is already causing significant worldwide impact on crops, basic infrastructure and daily life.
Most of the US continued to experience one of the worst winters in its history this year. As temperatures got a little less cold, snow and ice melt has been causing destructive ice-laden flooding in the Mid and Northwest.
Meanwhile China, Japan, Taiwan and Japan also saw record snowfalls and freezing temperatures, and extreme cold was also present in unusual places like Morocco, Tanzania, Turkey, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. And of course, Europe got its fair share as usual.
This month, hurricane like winds wreaked havoc in Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America, and in some cases was accompanied by unprecedented tornados.
The Ring on Fire showed increased activity, with volcanoes erupting around the globe along with several earthquakes of significant magnitude. Some researchers link these phenomena to the increased incidence of cosmic rays.
