World of two halves! Map shows most of Northern Hemisphere is covered in snow and ice
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:37 AM on 3rd February 2011
Last updated at 9:37 AM on 3rd February 2011
It looks like a graphic from a Discovery Channel programme about a distant ice age. But this astonishing picture shows the world as it is today - with half the Northern Hemisphere covered with snow and ice.
The image was released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on the day half of North America suffered in the grip of a severe winter storm.
The map was created using multiple satellites from government agencies and the US Air Force.
A new satellite map by the government agency NOAA shows the extent of the snow blanketing a vast area from the west coast of Canada to eastern China
Stretching from the west coast of Canada to the eastern shores of China, the white stuff has rarely been shown covering this much ground.
The startling image was released on the same day Al Gore stepped up to defend his claim that global warming causes more snow. Thirty states in America were affected by a two-day blizzard.
'As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming,' Gore wrote on his blog Al's Journal.
Hundreds of drivers on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, which was blasted by 20 inches of snow, abandoned their cars in an almost apocalyptic scene as authorities closed the road
His response came after Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly challenged the former Vice President to give his thoughts on 'why southern New York has turned into the tundra.'
Mother Nature's wrath is not confined to the top half of the world, of course.
Cyclone Yasi, with a destructive core of more than 20 miles wide, is walloping Queensland in north east Australian with 186mph winds. Authorities are calling it the worst storm to hit the country for generations. Tens of thousands of people are tucked away in evacuation shelters or their homes and the country is braced for many casualties.
A scene from sci-fi film The Day After Tomorrow? No, these are cars stuck in the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, after accidents and drifting snow stranded the drivers during last night's blizzard. As of late morning more than 20in of snow had fallen, making this snowstorm the third largest recorded in the city
Enlarge 
Eileen Black takes pictures inside of a Chicago Transit bus that was stranded overnight. The blizzard caused havoc in a city well used to dealing with big snowfalls
You waiting? I'm walking! While one man waits for a bus in Chicago, another decides to make his way on foot through a snowstorm. A woman, right, wades through a snow drift in the city that comes up to her waist
By foot is the sure way to get to where you want to as this woman (left) and these men found
Coming through: A snowplough clears a street in a suburban area of Chicago
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353073/Winter-storm-Map-shows-Northern-Hemisphere-covered-snow-ice.html#ixzz1Ct8zjc8z
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