Read This, Brian Williams and NBC: Deadly, Record-Breaking Cold Winter in Eastern Europe

On Wednesday, Kyle Drennen at NewsBusters noted how NBC news anchor Brian Williams, chief environmental correspondent Anne Thompson, and old reliable global warming proponent Dr. Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research took advantage of this year's mild winter in the lower 48 U.S. states as an excuse to argue that "our warming world is shifting the odds against a traditional winter, winters as we have known them."

Well folks, winterize this report about Eastern Europe's deadly serious cold spell carried at a German web site (HT Expatica; bolds are mine):

Eastern Europe's weeklong cold spell continued on Friday with at least 164 people reported to have fallen victim to freezing weather conditions.

Temperatures plunged to minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions, prompting power outages, traffic chaos and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries and airports.

Worst hit was Ukraine which recorded an additional 38 deaths on Friday, bringing the total number of weather-related fatalities in the country to 101. Thousands of people sought shelter in government centers and more than 1,200 were hospitalized as temperatures plunged to around minus 32 degrees Celsius.

There were eight newly reported cold-related deaths in Poland, bringing the overall death toll to 37. In Romania, there have been 22 deaths. Serbia has also reported causalities while at least 11,000 villagers remained trapped by heavy show in the country's remote mountain villages.

... In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records began. Deaths have been reported there as well as in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania, where a homeless man was found in the ruins of an abandoned house.

Europe's homeless population has been worst hit by what experts say is Europe's harshest winter in decades.

... European weather forecasters have warned the severe cold is likely to persist in many parts of continental Europe into next week.

Despite the high death toll, Eastern Europe's awful cold spell hasn't made the news in the U.S. Hmmm.

Unlike the shameless opportunists at NBC, I'm not going to use the above to argue that the world is cooling. I will say that in any given year, it's not that unusual for certain parts of the world to be having remarkably mild winters while others experience record or near-record lows. Neither are in and of themselves relevant to whether or not global temperatures are in some kind of permanent upward or downward movement.

Someone needs to tell Brian Williams, everyone at NBC, and Dr. Meehl that there has been no global warming since 1997.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.