Alta Ski Area in Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT, has always been known as one of the snowiest resorts in America, but this year has taken things to a new level. 5″ of fresh snow in the last 24 hours has taken the resort to 501″ for the season.

In 1981-1982 Alta set its long-standing record for the most snowfall between October and January with an astounding 442 inches. Without shock to the locals who have experienced a miraculously snowy winter, Alta broke that record on January 25th, 2023, with a total of 445 inches of snowfall between October and January.

Alta joins Mammoth Mountain, CA, as the only two resorts in the world with over 500″ of fresh snow this season.

The resort has a 132″ base, and there are a couple more feet of snow in the forecast.

In the last ten years, Alta has surpassed 500″ in 19/20 (542″), 18/19 (626″), and 16/17 (596.5″).

Two backcountry skiers were caught and killed in an avalanche on an east-facing slope on Potato Peak, approximately 25 miles south of Tatla Lake, British Columbia, on Saturday, 11th February, reports Avalanche Canada.

The skiers had accessed the area using snowmobiles but were skiing at the time of the accident. Both victims were fully buried and did not survive. Search and Rescue was notified when the victims were reported overdue. The victims were located and recovered from the accident location.

The size 2 deep, persistent slab avalanche ran on a layer of facets approximately 10-25″ from the base of the snowpack. The slope was highly wind-affected, containing deeply wind-drifted snow and areas where the snow cover was thin and rocky. The crown depth was reported to be highly variable, between 25 and 50″.

A critically endangered North Atlantic right whale was found dead along Chic's Beach in Virginia Beach Monday — just under a week after a dead humpback was found nearby.

Curious beachgoers with their dogs crowded around the whale near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Monday and Tuesday to take pictures and pay their respects.

A Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response team completed a necropsy on the whale on Tuesday with support from NOAA staff. It will be buried near where it washed ashore. Its cause of death may not be known for weeks.

With the latest weekend storm in Anchorage, the city's snowfall tally since the start of December now totals about 6 feet.

That's almost double what's usual in those two-and-a-half months, according to the National Weather Service. And, it's just the amount recorded at the weather service's official measuring spot at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Some parts of town saw more, including this weekend, said meteorologist Matthew Fazal. The West Anchorage spot got about 7 inches of snow on Sunday, a new record.

"If you're going toward the Hillside, we've been getting reports of 16 to 18 inches of snow," Fazal said.

He said, just this month, more than 23 inches of snow have fallen in Anchorage.

"The normal is six," he said. "So that gets us 17.5 inches above normal."

A shocking incident involving a seal bite has led The Seal Project charity to issue a 'strong' warning for sea swimmers to avoid Fishcombe Cove in Torbay. Signs have been posted around Fishcombe Cove in Brixham following the rare attack, which saw a swimmer treated in the hospital after being bitten by what The Seal Project described as a 'powerful male seal.'

According to Sarah Greenslade of The Seal Project, the swimmer, who remains unidentified, suffered a bite to the leg and 'some scratches' but they are now fine. The charity is urging swimmers to stay out of the water for their own safety, Devon Live reports.

Ms Greenslade told the BBC: "We just wanted to make sure no one else gets injured in the same way. The seal could have been territorial or just having a bad day, we really don't know."

A dead whale was found on a New Jersey beach Monday — the ninth one to wash ashore in the New York-New Jersey area since early December in what activists are calling an alarming uptick.

The massive marine mammal ended up on Whiting Avenue beach in Manasquan after it was tossed around in the surf, according to Point Pleasant Mayor Paul Kanitra.

Clean Ocean Action, an environmental conservation organization, said that the high number of whale deaths in a roughly two-month period has not been seen in the region in about 50 years.

The group said it believes off-shore wind energy projects could be the culprit of the rising fatalities.

"This alarming number of deaths is unprecedented in the last half century, the only unique factor from previous years, is the excessive scope, scale, and magnitude of offshore wind powerplant activity in the region," COA said in a statement.

Severe flooding struck the city of Blantyre and surrounding areas in southern Malawi on 12 February. Authorities report 4 people have lost their lives and 3 are still missing.

Malawi's Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) said in a report on 13 February that flooding caused damage in the city of Blantyre and the neighbouring areas of Blantyre and Chiradzulu District Councils. Damage to roads, bridges, houses and material property was reported. DoDMA said the damage in some locations is so severe some families have been left destitute.

One person died and two are still missing after being swept away by floods in Blantyre City. In Lundi in Blantyre District, a search and rescue team rescued two children who were feared dead after being trapped in flooded water. In Chiradzulu, a search and rescue team recovered the bodies of three of the five victims dragged by fast-flowing water after they tried to cross a flooded river. The team is still searching for the remaining two victims.

Full damage assessments are ongoing. DoDMA and local government authorities have provided relief assistance to 16,607 affected households, including food, tents, housing units, kitchen utensils and plastic sheets for temporary roofing.

The start of 2023 has been marked by heavy snow, unseasonably cold temperatures, and wetter-than-expected weather for the season. All this while the manufactured food and energy crisis continues to deepen in the West, thanks to the deluded globalist psychopaths.

Extreme weather hit California pretty hard this month: A bomb cyclone, severe flooding, mudslides, power outages, walls of snow in Soda Spring, and a magnitude 4.2 earthquake with an epicenter in offshore Malibu.

Denver, Colorado, saw 13 inches of snow this month, making it the 15th snowiest January on record. Jackson County registered -5°C, and the Purgatory ski resort recorded 23 inches of snow in 24 hours.

Northern Arizona got more than two feet of snow in 48 hours. It was the 25th largest snow event and broke the single-day snowfall record on Sunday.

Nevada was hit by winter storms that brought heavy rain, high winds, and significant snowfall at higher elevations. Las Vegas desert was also covered in white, a strange sight for the area.

More than 41 inches of snow fell at Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah, forcing a closure due to extreme weather conditions. The resort also recorded nearly 8 inches of rain.

Heavy snow also disrupted normal life in Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Mallorca. Mallorca was covered by its largest snowfall in more than five years.

China's northernmost city, Mohe, was hit by an all-time record of -53°C, the lowest ever recorded. The local officials worked overtime to ensure heating and water services. This comes days after temperatures plunged to -50°C in Russia's Yakutsk.

Central Asia also suffered a harsh January. In Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan recorded unusual levels of snow, that collapsed power poles and trees, blocked main roads, and burst water pipes. The temperatures in Kazakhstan reached a chilling -30°C.

The Middle East was also caught off guard by colder-than-usual temperatures and snow. Tens of thousands of Iranians were left without gas amid snow and freezing conditions, and Afghanistan temperatures plummeted as low as -33°C, combined with widespread snowfall, freezing gusts, and regular power outages. At least 166 people died due to the cold wave.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie continued to batter northern Australia this month. Heavy rain turned roads into rivers, thousands of cattle got lost or died, and boats were the only form of transportation in some counties. Western Australia was also hit hard by heavy rain and floods. 38 homes and 37 businesses were destroyed, with an additional 121 homes damaged. In some cases, the damage is so severe that will require long-term rebuilding efforts. The floods have also caused significant damage to infrastructure and transportation routes.

New Zealand's largest city declared a state of emergency after torrential rains caused widespread flooding and evacuations. Heavy floods washed away houses, blocked roads, and knocked out power. The city received 75% of its usual summer rainfall in just 15 hours.

Latvia experienced its worst flooding since 1981, forcing residents of central areas to evacuate their homes. Meanwhile, large chunks of ice that drifted from Belkarus caused the water level to rise, while also putting pressure on a new dam.

Other noteworthy events this month:

• Sumatra, Indonesia: Heavy flooding leaves 3 dead and 15,000 homes damaged
• Johor and Pahang, Malaysia: More than 4,000 were displaced by flooding caused by 17 inches of rain in 24 hours
• North Sulawesi, Indonesia: Nearly 18 inches of rain in 48 hours left 3-meter floods in some areas.
• Zambia - Non-stop rains caused catastrophic flooding in southern and central provinces.

And things start to get rocky! A 5.9 Mag earthquake struck northwestern Iran, killing at least seven people and injuring 440.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for January 2023:

A recent debate in The Nation claimed Miami should either make plans to evacuate from the Florida coast or become the model of adaptation in response to rapidly rising sea levels from climate change and the refugees that will result from it. The story is not just false, it is laughably inept. There is no evidence the United States faces the loss of any major coastal city due to climate change or that climate change has or will create climate refugees.

The Nation published an exchange between by Daniel Aldana Cohen and Samantha Schuyler titled "Should We Start Preparing for the Evacuation of Miami?"

Cohen, an assistant professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, premises his whole argument for abandoning Miami on the claim that, like residents, refugees arriving there will soon have no place to live, with evacuation setting a good example for other cities, writing:

It's urgent for governments and social movements to start planning for millions of people to land in new places. Prepping Miami's evacuation is a perfect starting point. Its residents are a multiracial, multinational, and multigenerational assemblage that spans the class spectrum. Tragically, many of them are already climate migrants — like Puerto Ricans displaced by recent hurricanes.

Wildfires that have been raging across Chile for more than a week have now killed at least 26 people and left more than 2,000 injured.

Over 1,500 homes have also been completely destroyed by the fires, leaving thousands more homeless as a heatwave has enveloped the region with temperatures reaching upwards of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chile's Interior Ministry confirmed to ABC News that, so far, more than 889,000 acres of forests have been destroyed so far in the Andean nation.

Over 6,000 firefighters — many of them mainly volunteers — are currently on the ground trying to control more than 323 active fires, including 90 that are raging out of control, according to officials.