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Snowflake

Snow depth passes 5 meter mark at ski resorts on 3 continents with 11 meters at Niseko in Japan

Patrick Thorne
Inthesnow.com
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:18 UTC
Niseko

Niseko, Japan
The 2017-18 season snow depth total has now passed the 5 metres mark at ski areas in Asia, Europe and North America according to their official statistics.

Engelberg in Switzerland was the first to pass the 5m mark in the northern hemisphere, several months ago, and peaked at a 655cm base after the exceptional January snowfall in the Alps. Its total dropped back below six metres earlier this months but recent snowfalls have taken it back up to 645cm at present.

North America had a slow start to the season in its famously snowy west, particularly in more southerly states but Mt Baker in Washington State has a reputation for getting the most snow of any ski area in the world most years and it is clocking up the inches, reporting nearly 90cm of snow in the past 72 hours alone and a base depth now up to 597cm.
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Tornado2

Waterspout filmed off Palm Beach, Florida (VIDEO)


Palm Beach Daily News
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:01 UTC
Waterspout off Palm Beach

Waterspout off Palm Beach
A waterspout off Palm Beach this afternoon was caught on camera just as the National Weather Service sent out an alert about gusty showers offshore.

Greg Travers said he was on the west side of the Intracoastal waterway in West Palm Beach when he spotted the waterspout near The Breakers Hotel on the island.

At 2:07 p.m. Doppler radar indicated showers offshore that were capable of producing winds to 34 mph, according to the NWS in Miami.

Meteorologists said mariners should expect locally higher wave with the possibility of more waterspouts forming.
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Tornado2

Waterspout filmed near Gozo, Malta

David Grech Urpani
Lovin Malta
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:52 UTC
A video of a 'tornado' forming over Ramla l-Ħamra bay in Gozo earlier today has been uploaded onto YouTube as a partly cloudy Tuesday makes way for a surprisingly fresh night. The clip was uploaded by Mike Fox Photography.

It turns out that the formation in question, which can be seen increasing in height over the short, 23-second clip, is actually a waterspout. A relatively common occurrence especially over Northern Malta, waterspouts are non-supercell tornados which form over water.

Waterspouts can be formed by severe thunderstorms, but are even more commonly associated with developing storm systems. The clouds from which they descend are rarely fast-moving, and that makes waterspouts very easy to spot and film since they are often static.

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Tornado2

4 tornadoes confirmed as daylight reveals swath of damage in southern US


WKRN
Sun, 25 Feb 2018 19:45 UTC
tornado kentucky 2018
© WHOP
Logan County, Ky.
National Weather Service survey teams confirmed 'at least' EF-2 tornado damage with max winds of 120 mph on the east side of Clarksville near I-24 and Rossview Road and in Logan County, Kentucky an EF-2 touchdown with max winds of 135 mph.

The NWS also confirmed another 'high end' EF-1 tornado in southwestern Clarksville near the Dotsonville community.

This powerful line of storms is blamed for at least two deaths, including an elderly woman trapped when her Logan County home was hit by a tornado.

An EF-2 tornado was confirmed in Hopkinsville, Ky. with winds of up to 135 mph.

79-year-old Dallas Jane Combs was inside the home when it collapsed on her. Combs was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities say Combs' husband was outside and was not seriously injured.
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Bug

Insect population decline reported across Australia

Mark Rigby
ABC (Australia)
Sat, 24 Feb 2018 19:25 UTC
Entomologists are concerned Australia's insect populations are in decline. (ABC News: Penny McLintock)
© Penny McLintock
Entomologists are concerned Australia's insect populations are in decline.
A global crash in insect populations has found its way to Australia, with entomologists across the country reporting lower than average numbers of wild insects.

University of Sydney entomologist Dr Cameron Webb said researchers around the world widely acknowledge that insect populations are in decline, but are at a loss to determine the cause.

"On one hand it might be the widespread use of insecticides, on the other hand it might be urbanisation and the fact that we're eliminating some of the plants where it's really critical that these insects complete their development," Dr Webb said.

"Add in to the mix climate change and sea level rise and it's incredibly difficult to predict exactly what it is."
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Ice Cube

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Record sized hail - Sun halos planet wide - Shrimp & fish cold kill (VIDEO)


Adapt 2030
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:51 UTC
Hail larger than softballs pummeled an Argentina city Thursday

Huge hail hit Cordoba, Argentina earlier this month
As galactic cosmic rays increase in Earth's atmosphere we are beginning to see record sized hail, intense sun halos across the globe which used to be a rare event. Now winter temperatures are responsible for fisheries collapses of white shrimp in the SE USA and lake fish stocks. This is now affecting terrestrial crops along with aquatic species, its global and we do have a problem that needs to be addressed.


Comment: For related articles see also:

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Attention

Some of the world's largest lakes are drying up

Kenneth R. Weiss
National Geographic
Sun, 25 Feb 2018 11:02 UTC
LAKE POOPÓ The dry, salt-crusted Bolivian lake bed unfurls into the distance. Boats are stranded; the fish and waterfowl are gone. Fishermen who depended on the lake are moving else - where. It’s a diaspora born of drought.
© MAURICIO LIMA
LAKE POOPÓ The dry, salt-crusted Bolivian lake bed unfurls into the distance. Boats are stranded; the fish and waterfowl are gone. Fishermen who depended on the lake are moving else - where. It’s a diaspora born of drought.
Warming climates, drought, and overuse are draining crucial water sources, threatening habitats and cultures.

Tire tracks stretched across the flat lake bed to the horizon. We followed them in a Suzuki 4x4, looking for clues about what's happened to Poopó, once Bolivia's second largest lake, which has vanished into the thin air of the Andean highlands.

We were driving on the lake bottom, yet we were more than 12,000 feet above sea level. The spring air was lip-chapping dry. Many of the fishing villages that have relied on Lake Poopó for thousands of years have emptied too, and we drove past clusters of abandoned adobe homes. Dust devils danced around them, spinning in warm winds. In the distance we spotted several small aluminum boats that seemed to be floating on water. As we drove closer, the mirage receded, and we found the boats sitting abandoned in the silt. I stepped out of the vehicle. My shoes cracked the salty crust that had formed jagged lumps, like ice cream in a freezer that has melted and recrystallized.

Comment: Our climate is changing and it's symptomatic of Earth entering an ice age, bringing with it drought and deluge, but we're also seeing the earth beneath our very feet shifting:

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Binoculars

An extremely rare gyrfalcon from the tundra visits Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

Arlene Koch
Lehigh Valley Live
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 15:02 UTC
A gyrfalcon. (File photo)

A gyrfalcon. (File photo)
It was raining and so warm the morning I wrote this column that I went out on the deck without a coat to refill a peanut feeder. We only put out peanuts in the mornings because they're costly, but at that time, blue jays put on a good show as they come in to grab them. I've seen a jay take three peanuts at the same time.

It was so unusually warm that mid-February day that snowdrops, small white flowers produced by bulbs, were blooming in the front yard. But, as often happens in the winter, the weather was going to turn on a dime. Dropping temperatures and snow were predicted for the next night.

As the day wore on I debated with myself about going for a second look at an extremely rare raptor that's been frequenting several places in the area. A dark-phase gyrfalcon, a tundra breeder and the largest and most powerful falcon in North America, has been drawing birders from miles around and surrounding states.

Comment: See also this report from 2 months ago: Rarely seen white morph gyrfalcon from the high Arctic spotted in New Brunswick, Canada

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Snowflake

Naples in Italy is 'whitewashed' by its heaviest snowfall in 50 years

Tariq Tahir
Daily Mail
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 14:03 UTC
Snow covers the area around Maschio Angioino during cold weather in Naples

Snow covers the area around Maschio Angioino during cold weather in Naples
Naples has seen its heaviest snow in half a century as a blast of Siberian weather continued to send temperatures plunging across Europe.

The snowfall led to the closure of the city's airport and transport in the city was severely disrupted while schools were forced to close.

An inaccurate forecast meant that the city's civil emergency department had not initially ordered the closure of its schools.

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Snowflake Cold

Rare snowfall hits Croatian islands and Dalmatian coast (PHOTOS)


Croatia Week
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:33 UTC
SNOW
Snow, strong winds, and freezing temperatures have gripped Croatia over the past couple of days.

Tuesday dawned another extremely cold day across the country as temperatures plummeted below zero in most cities and towns. The weather has closed schools in some areas and restricted traffic on many roads this week.

There was rare snowfall for towns and islands on the Dalmatian coast as temperatures fell below zero.
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