The winter blasts that kept Texas and Oklahoma residents
shivering has now spread to mid-Atlantic states and the Carolinas, with a mix of snow,
sleet and freezing rain.
Scattered snow showers were also forecast across parts of the western Great Lakes
and Upper Midwest, while another barrage of storms was set to bring up to 8 inches
of snow to the Plains by late Friday.

Frigid conditions prevailed around the country. The entire state of Maine fell into
the single digits or lower, reaching minus-16F in Caribou.

Snow fell briefly in normally sunny Malibu, snow plows cleared a major road through
the Malibu mountains, and Valencia - 30 miles north of Los Angeles - saw snow for the
first time in more than 20 years.

Source
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14117850/

Thats almost nothing compared to what we have got up here. But I guesse for where it is at, it is a little much.

65 dead over that? Wow.

I think people nowadays are too oblivious of the past. A couple people die due to a weather-related phenomena and the thing is breaking news all over the place. Read newspapers from one hundred years ago and there were always math deaths happening in floods, snow storms, and during heat waves. People need to learn how to put these kinds of things into perspective.

KGS

Hmm, yeah.. Lets. Ahundred years ago.. 1907... Not everyone had electricity... not everyone had cars (wait, cars? in 1907?) People didn't have the super warm coats that's avalible today. Frostbite was very much more an issue.

So uhm yeah, people would be expected to die more in the winter back then then now. You can't even really compair...

Didn't have "super warm coats back then"? (What, incidently, is your definition of a "super warm coat"?) Anyway, my point is that our current ability to deal with climate extremes is anomolous and has made people forget to a considerable degree just how much we are a part of nature. Rather than not comparing, we should always be comparing so that we continue to be reminded about our place in nature.

KGS

If you look at the US death and injury tolls due to the recent storms, most are auto related. Idiots that RARELY get ice and snow get a really good dose of freezing rain and they all think their 4weel drive hillbilly pickups can drive through anything (city-folk with overpriced 4x4's and a lot of chrome). They quickly discover that teh 12AM TacoBell run was a bad idea, 4x4 or not. You wanna beat ice on blacktop, try a tank. Your Dodge isn't gonna cut it at 60 MPH.

Think of it as Nature reminding us all that no matter how civilized we all think we are, She still has the edge.

That was the time of 'Real Men and Women.' Now, they have horns like lambs and roar like lions; while they sit and eat fake food and drink non-alchoholic beer.

About 1886 there was a horrific blizzard that hit the midwest and eastern seaboard of the U.S. This was, of course, long before global warming was proposed.
As I recall, a few hundred died. New York City was buried in snow. Coal, the primary source of heat, could not be delivered.
Some snow drifts were over 20 feet (6 meters) deep, in downtown New York.
I read a fascinating article about it some years back in the Farmer's Almanac. The devastation to crops, cattle, buildings and people was amazing.
It could easily happen again.
Last week, here in the remote Utah desert, it was down to 12 degrees below Zero Fahrenheit (about -25 Celsius). Actually, this is not unusual. The deserts of northern Utah, southern Idaho and northern Nevada can get mighty cold. Plenty of snow, too, though at the moment there's only about 6 inches (10 cm) on the ground.
Hard winters have happened for thousands of years. I don't read anything into it. Now, if I see hard winters every winter, and temperatures plummeting to 25 below zero for weeks on end, then I'll consider that something climactic is afoot.
How many ice ages has the Earth gone through? These all began as decades of uncommonly cold temperatures, with snow piling up and not melting, to form glaciers and ice sheets over thousands of years.
Who knows, we may be entering another ice age? It wouldn't be the first time.

won't be the last. And if it's anything like the one 10 thousand years ago or so... I am deffinatly moving more towards the south... *shivers* Hate cold hate hate hate

non-alcoholic beer is like sugar free rum... just plain wrong =(