© Denis BalibouseSnipers hold their position on the roof of a hotel during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in the Swiss Alps resort of Davos, Switzerland January 22, 2018
There's been a lot of cold gripping all over the northern hemisphere this winter - much more than many of us expected. Europe has also joined in on the freeze-fest as the harsh winter spreads across the old continent and even into Africa:
Cold is forecast to keep Europe shivering this week. Image cropped from wetter.online.de.
Cooling globe
One reason for this could be due to the rapidly falling global surface temperatures as recorded by satellite data. In January the global mean temperature anomaly dropped to +0.26°C, with the tropics (where most of the heat is found) posting a nippy -0.12°C anomaly, according to Dr. Roy Spencer.
Other cooling factors include the current La Nina and possibly the low solar activity playing a role. IceAgeNow here reported last July that solar activity was at its most rapid decline in 9300 years.
Europe
In Northern Europe cold winter are normal, but the recent forecast for the Finnish region of Lapland warned of temperatures down to -40°C. This Finnish website here writes:
Temperatures have been low all winter in Finnish Lapland, but the cold dip expected this week could see record-breaking extremes."Snow and cold are also forecast across UK as the Express here reports: "Britain set for FOOT of heavy snow NEXT WEEK in COLDEST freeze for decade."
Spain, North Africa get frostbitten and snowed on
The wintry conditions will likely impact agriculture and the European food markets. Fruitnet.com here writes: " The cold snap gripping much of the Spanish peninsula is likely to reduce the availability of vegetables and salads on the European market during the coming weeks."
The extreme cold has even extended beyond southern Europe and into Africa! For example Southern Morocco saw snow for the first time. And so has the Canary island of Tenerife seen its landscape get blanketed with the white stuff.
Stunning Sahara snow
Also The Mail here reports snowfall in the Algeria - the Sahara Desert. Up to December 2016 it had not snowed there in 37 years. Now according to The Mail it has snowed 4 times since, and it's the second time this year already. "Locals were stunned to see snow on the sand dunes in the Sahara Desert yesterday."
Records in Japan
Japanese blogger Kirye here tweeted that minimum temperature dropped to -17.2 ℃ on February 2, 2018, in Ikarigaseki, Aomori Prefecture. "It is the coldest daily minimum temperature since records began on November 24, 1976! The previous record low was -16.6 ℃, set on January 18, 2014."
Kirye also tweeted: "The minimum temperature in Fuchu, Tokyo dropped to minus 8.4 ℃ on January 25, 2018. It is the lowest daily minimum temperature since records began on December 15, 1976. The previous record low was minus 8.2 ℃, set on February 8, 1984."
Moreover, Japan's mean temperature anomaly for January 2018 was a chilly -0.22 ℃. Kirye writes that there's been no warming trend for January from 1986 to 2018.
The English language NTV of Japan writes: "This winter's harshest cold wave continues in Japan with freezing temperatures in central Tokyo recorded two days in a row for the first time in 55 years."
Kirye adds: "The minimum temperature dropped to -3.1℃ on January 26 in Tokyo. It is the coldest daily minimum temperature for January 26 since 1965."
Russian Snowmageddon...minus 67°C
As I already highlighted here earlier, a number of locations across the northern hemisphere are seeing surprising brutal winter conditions. Another example: media outlets have reported widely that Moscow just saw a record snowfall. Also read here.
And in the Siberian region of Yakutia, the temperature fell as low as minus 67 Celsius.
Australia and New Zealand
Even the southern hemisphere has not been spared. The weatherzone.com.au here reports "many towns in south-east Queensland have experienced their coldest February day on record" and that "Archerfield managed only 21°C and Coolangatta on the Gold Coast 21.6°C".
According to a local meteorologist: "These are the coldest February days that we've ever experienced in those places and some of those records date back quite some time."
Finally Ice Age Now here writes that Tasmania even recorded a "summer blizzard."
That's a lot of winter, snow and cold for a planet that is supposedly warming rapidly.
Wait till next week or the week after that to have a split in the polar vortex. One split could come over western Europe and make it COLD.
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