Nice, France A young person runs in front of a giant wave on December 25, 2013 in Nice, southeastern France. (VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images) LONDON — A severe winter storm caused major travel problems in parts of western Europe Tuesday, stranding passengers travelling for Christmas at Paris and London airports and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power. The storm caused four deaths in Britain, including a man who jumped into a fast-flowing river to try and rescue his dog....

6 Inches in 1 Hour Heavy lake-effect snow in the Tug Hill plateau near the town of Lorraine. Image credit: iWitness Weather/tughill When meteorologists are analyzing winter storms, snowfall rates are one of the most talked about details. Generally, an inch or 2 of snow per hour is regarded as significant. When you start talking about 3-, 4- or 5-inch per hour rates, it becomes a fascinating topic. Occasionally, we can even see snowfall rates of 6 inches an hour...

Jim Ridley uses a flashlight to get his mail Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013, in Litchfield, Maine, where he has been without electricity since Monday's ice storm. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Lights are finally coming back on in Michigan, Vermont and Maine more than a week after Winter Storm Gemini left thousands without power. Here's the latest on remaining power outages in the three states. Michigan Florida: 4 inches Milton, Florida, located just to the northeast of Pensacola, recorded 4 inches...

Winter Storm Hercules began hit the Northeast on Thursday and Friday, forcing the New York Racing Association to alter its schedule and prompting the New York Islanders to offer fans a nice option. NYRA canceled live racing at Aqueduct Racetrack for Friday, and post times at the track were moved up Thursday so the last race could go off a half-hour early, around 3:45 p.m., though no snow had yet hit the area. "Given the poor weather forecast, we made...

Volunteers use a pontoon to move a car that has been cut off by floodwaters at Burrowbridge on the Somerset Levels on February 27, 2014 in Somerset, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) LONDON -- High winds, waves and tides lashed the western coasts of Britain and France on Friday, flooding seaside towns and low-lying areas. Wales, southwest England and Northern Ireland were the worst-hit U.K. regions by the latest in a recent series of extreme winter storms. Parts of northwestern France...

Hercules Satellite Image This image taken on January 3, 2014 by the Suomi NPP satellite shows the blanket of snow that stretches from the Midwest across to New England after a massive winter storm moved over the region on January 1-3, 2014. (Source: NASA/NOAA) ST. PAUL, Minn. — Gov. Mark Dayton moved Friday to cancel all public school classes statewide on Monday because of dangerous weather, the first such closing in 17 years. "The safety of Minnesota's schoolchildren must be...

This image taken on January 3, 2014 by the Suomi NPP satellite shows the blanket of snow that stretches from the Midwest across to New England after a massive winter storm moved over the region on January 1-3, 2014. (Source: NASA/NOAA) Winter Storm Hercules (in Greek mythology, Hercules is the son of Zeus and famous for his strength) brought heavy snow and bitterly cold air to the Midwest and northeastern portion of the U.S. just in time to ring in...

Hercules Satellite Image This image taken on January 3, 2014 by the Suomi NPP satellite shows the blanket of snow that stretches from the Midwest across to New England after a massive winter storm moved over the region on January 1-3, 2014. (Source: NASA/NOAA) Homeowners and motorists dug out across the white-blanketed Northeast on Friday as extreme cold ushered in by Winter Storm Hercules threatened fingers and toes but kept the snow powdery and mercifully easy to shovel. At least...

Winter Storm Hercules unleashed heavy snow and ferocious winds on the Midwest and Northeast this week, before exiting the East Coast of New England late Friday. Freezing temperatures with below-zero wind chills in some places complicated life for residents from Minnesota to Maine. At least 15 people have died and thousands have lost power to their homes and businesses. Several states also recorded significant snowfall totals. The National Weather Service said 21 inches of snow had fallen in Boxford, just...

Screen capture of The Weather Channel broadcast, featuring Charlie Welsh, showing wind chill temperatures valid at 8 a.m. EST Jan. 20, 1985. Nashville's wind chill of -56 would be -37 using the post-2001 wind chill formula, while St. Louis would be -48 instead of the -69 calculated in 1985. Does it seem like wind chills aren’t what they used to be when you grew up? There’s a reason. It’s not global warming – well, mostly not global warming. True, it’s...

After pounding the Midwest and Great Lakes during the weekend, snow fromWinter Storm Ionstarted to move intothe East. But the snow is just part one.The coldest air in nearly two decadesfiltered in from the Upper Midwest all the way to the Southeast. "The streets tonight are like ice skating rinks," said The Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel, reporting live from Indianapolis Monday evening. Parts of Indiana had seen 15 inches of snow before temperatures bottomed out Monday. More than 3,700...

Volunteers use a pontoon to move a car that has been cut off by floodwaters at Burrowbridge on the Somerset Levels on February 27, 2014 in Somerset, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) LONDON -- What used to be has moved across the Atlantic and is now hammering the United Kingdom with high winds and winter weather.. Britain's western coast is being lashed by high winds and strong rains following a month of unusually frequent winter storms. A steady procession of storms...

CHICAGO -- More than 500 Amtrak passengers who spent the night onboard three trains stranded in snow in northern Illinois are finally heading to Chicago. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari says Tuesday that buses are transporting about 300 passengers from two trains near Mendota, about 80 miles from Chicago. (MORE: ) A third train loaded with 217 people spent the night at a rail yard in Galesburg, about 150 miles from Chicago. Magliari says Amtrak is still deciding whether to let...