Earth Changes
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SNOW MASS JUMPS TO 700 GIGATONS ABOVE 1982-2012 AVERAGE
The latest data point from the Finish Meteorology Institute's (FMI's) "Total snow mass for Northern Hemisphere" chart has been plotted, and it reveals pow-pow across the hemisphere as a whole - excluding the mountains - is riding at some 700 Gigatons above the 1982-2012 average:
A 35-year-old man has died as a result of an avalanche near Valemount this week.
RCMP say a Fernie, B.C. resident's body was found Wednesday (Feb. 24) after a 3.5-size avalanche was reported in the Swift Creek Valley around 2:55 p.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 23).
Robson Valley Search and Rescue (RVSAR) were called in as a trio of 'experienced' backcountry skiers got caught in the incident, two of whom survived the incident and didn't sustain any injuries.
In Chelyabinsk, a record-breaking blizzard left 30,000 people without electricity and over 10 districts declared a state of emergency.
In St. Petersburg, the heavy snowfall has prompted over 1,000 workers and cleaning machines to take to the streets to clean up the snow, and in the republic of Dagestan, locals even had to to dig their cows out of snowdrifts.

The dead hermaphrodite baby cow born with two heads in Thailand was worshipped by villagers as lucky.
A villager in Thailand appears to believe the latter as he credits his £480 win on the local lottery from luck inherited after the birth of a malformed calf with two heads.
The poor creature was born with two sets of reproductive organs and an extra ear poking out in the middle of its two heads. Because of its deformities, it couldn't breathe properly and became too weak to eat. It died half an hour after being born.
(Video here)

Half of this 1,500-metre-long train derailed early Thursday morning due to flooding.
The State Emergency Service was inundated with calls about 2:00am, predominantly from Corindi, 36 kilometres north of Coffs Harbour.
"The amount of rainfall just hasn't been able to get away and that entire Corindi floodplain area has come up rapidly and caught a lot of people unawares at that hour of the morning," said SES Coffs Harbour deputy unit commander Martin Wells.
Mr Wells said in one street, there had been eight calls for help.
"We've had families sitting on roofs in Corindi awaiting assistance and it's just been a real challenge to get to everyone."

Heavy rain caused a landslide at an illegal mine in Ampibabo District, Parigi Moutong Regency, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, 24 February 2021.
The landslide at the Ampibabo mine was caused by heavy rain falling on unstable ground, according to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management, BNPB. Five miners are still missing while 15 survived. Local disaster authorities are carrying out full assessments and search operations are ongoing.
According to Indonesia's meteorological agency BMKG, in a 24 hour period to 24 February over 60mm of rain was recorded in Kasiguncu in Poso Regency, situated about 120km south of Ampibabo.
Wildlife photographer David Arbour captured stunning photos of several alligators poking their snouts through the ice to breathe at the Red Slough Wildlife Management Area this week.
While the alligators may appear to be dead, scientists say they're not. It's a survival technique alligators use when the water starts to freeze.
Comment: Back in 2019: American alligators freeze in place to survive arctic blast in North Carolina

From freezing to relatively balmy, Germans have been adjusting to extreme winter temperature swings.
Germany has seen its its biggest temperature swing since records began - with an increase of 41.9 degrees in one week.
Climate researchers at the German Weather Service (DWD) on Tuesday said the country had never before experienced a swing like the one that occurred at the weather station in the central German city of Goettingen.
A low of minus 23.8 degrees Celsius was recorded there on February 14. Seven days later, on February 21, the high was 18.1 degrees Celsius,
The previous record had been set in May 1880, in the early days of weather record-keeping. At that time, a temperature rise of 41 degrees had been measured within seven days, said a DWD spokesperson.
In northern Germany, two regional winter heat records had also been broken on Monday. In the town of Quickborn, the high was 18.9 degrees Celsius, passing the record of 17.8 degrees measured two years earlier.
In the Hamburg area, the Neuwiedenthal weather station hit 21.1 degrees on Monday. The previous record of 18.1 degrees at the same station just more than a year earlier was thus "pulverized," a DWD spokesperson said.
"For the first time since temperature records began, the temperature in Hamburg has thus risen above 20 degrees in winter," he said.
Siberia is suffering one its coldest winters on record, with temperatures in the vast Northern Asian region having regularly dipped below -50C (-58F) since mid-December, 2020.
Much of Central and Western Asia has also been battling brutal and unusual freezes over the past few months, which in turn have lead to food and energy prices soaring to record highs.
Comment: Snowmobiler dies following avalanche southwest of Chetywnd, British Columbia - 3rd such death for province within 9 days