February 2007 North American blizzard Due to the three-dimensional nature of the atmosphere, warm air was poised to overtake the cold air closer to the ground, causing precipitation to melt, then refreeze as either sleet or freezing rain. As temperatures hovered around freezing on the southern edge of the storm track, light snow accompanied freezing rain and sleet. The freezing rain coated all surfaces with thick layers of ice, including power lines and tree limbs which break under the additional weight. Some locations in the Mid-Atlantic received several inches of sleet. Four inches (100 mm) of sleet caused travel difficulties and hampered cleanup efforts in
Hail Creek coal mine a result of severe monsoon rain force majeure was declared and not lifted at Hail Creek until May 2011. In February 2013, the operators of the mine were fined $2,200 for a breach of environmental guidelines when it released water from the mine. The relatively low penalty was criticised as a slap on the wrist. Hail Creek coal mine The Hail Creek Coal Mine is a coal mine located within the Bowen Basin at Hail Creek in Central Queensland, Australia. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 970 million tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in