The big freeze. over 24 dead and rising

At least twenty-four people froze to death in western Russia and many dozens more suffering from hypothermia were hospitalised as overnight temperatures plunged below minus 30 degrees Celsius. City officials said they had begun efforts to conserve energy by limiting power supplies to enterprises whose activities were not deemed a priority. More than 200 factories in the Moscow area were informed on Tuesday they would have their power cut to conserve energy, and the business daily Vedomosti said that from Wednesday Moscow "is switching to a strict energy-conservation regime". This means cutting the power to selected businesses and essentials such as billboard advertisements, casinos and gaming halls.

Prior to announcement of the latest two deaths in Moscow, officials said that eight people died on Tuesday throughout Russia as a result of Arctic air from Siberia sweeping down over western Russia where most of the country's population lives.

The state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, which holds approximately one third of the world's total gas reserves, warned power companies in Europe that would have to reduce gas deliveries by up to 50% because of the cold. Gazprom supplies about 25 percent of the European Union's gas needs and insists that is will fulfilling all existing contracts with foreign clients, however the company admitted that it can not meet their demands.

Gas shortfalls were reported by several EU countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Finland, Hungary and Italy, as Moscow worked to meet the needs of its own consumers. Italy's industry minister, Claudio Scajola, held a crisis meeting with leading energy providers after Italy experienced a shortfall of 4.0 million cubic metres in deliveries from Russia.

Analysts have cautioned that reducing dependence on Russian gas will prove a formidable task for Europe, particularly given an expected depletion of Norwegian reserves, a key source for Britain since the depletion of the North Sea reserves.

Temperatures in Russia were forecast to fall even lower towards week's end, while for several weeks parts of Siberia have been in the grip of extremely low temperatures, below minus 58F (-5c).

Japan has also been suffering a tougher than usual winter. Five people died in snow-related accidents in Japan at the weeked, making 90 people in total killed as a direct result of the record snowfall to 90, the worst in over 20 years. Warnings of avalanches, flooding and landslides remained in place in the western, eastern and northeastern parts of the country, which have all been submerged under heavy snow. In places there were drifts over 12ft (4m) deep and some buildings had collapsed under the weight.

In Niigata northwest of Tokyo, a man was killed when his two-storey house collapsed under the weight of snow, a police spokesman said. The government says it is sending 11.3 billion yen ($99 million / 50 million pounds) to local authorities to help them clear snow from roads.


Meanwhile the USA has been given perhaps an undeserved break by the weather since the end of the hurricane season. Fears of energy shortages during a tough winter have so far proved unfounded. Apart from a deadly ice storm in the South and blizzards in the Plains, the worse they have had to deal with is the unseasonably warm weather spoiling their winter recreation events.