Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake

Areas of South Dakota blanketed with late spring snow

T.J. Springer
ktiv.com
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 12:19 UTC
Snow covering up our famous presidents atop Mt. Rushmore.
Snow covering up our famous presidents atop Mt. Rushmore.
After enjoying temperatures in the 70s over the weekend, South Dakota is digging out from under a fresh blanket of snow.

The late spring snow storm even hit some famous presidents.

Mount Rushmore national memorial saw snow accumulations of around half a foot Monday evening.

Icicles could even been seen dripping off the giant presidents noses and eyebrows.

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Snowflake

Snow on mountain roads surrounding Reykjavik, Iceland


Iceland Monitor
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 12:10 UTC
It will snow heavily on mountain roads surrounding Reykjavik this afternoon.
© Iceland Monitor/RaxIt will snow heavily on mountain roads surrounding Reykjavik this afternoon.
Iceland Monitor declared yesterday that spring was just around the corner. Next week in fact, according to Iceland Met Office.

Winter will not let go without a fight and it will be snowing on all the mountain roads surrounding Reykjavik this afternoon. Most mountain roads in South West and West Iceland will be affected.

This means Hellisheiði, Holtavörðuheiði and and Lyngdalsheiði will be affected, along with other roads. What's important about these three is that they are on the nr.1 ring road south of Reykjavik, nr.1 ring road north of Reykjavik and on the Golden Circle. If you are traveling to or from Reykjavik, snow is bound to get in your way so be sure your car has proper tyres for the drive. The roads will likely be passable, if the car is properly equipped.

The snow will keep on for today and tomorrow, it will get warmer over the weekend and spring will hopefully come to Iceland next week.
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Snowflake

26 feet of snow recorded in Japan

Bill Steffen
woodtv.com
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:34 UTC
Huge amounts of snow, up to 8 m, at Mt Gassan, Yamagata prefecture, Japan over the past few days.
© e MeteoHuge amounts of snow, up to 8 m, at Mt Gassan, Yamagata prefecture, Japan over the past few days.
Go to this link to see pics. of up to 26.2 feet of snow on the ground in Japan. This is near Mt. Gassan, which at 6,509 feet above sea level is not a terribly high mountain. Very cold air coming off Siberia can produce incredible ocean-effect snow there. And check out these pictures of gigantic snowcover in N. Japan. I think the pics. at this second link are from 2012. Looks like the sun is fairly high in the sky in these pics.

8.2% of the U.S. has a snow cover - mostly out West, but also in northern Maine and northern N. Dakota.

Most of Canada is still snow covered and the lakes are frozen (except near the U.S. and western British Columbia).

This is Northern Hemisphere snow extent, which been increasing a little over the past couple decades (pic. from Rutgers Snow Lab).

Comment: Interesting 'Spring' around the world:

13 cm of snowfall as late-season storm hits Regina, Saskatchewan
April showers? Southern Manitoba hit with snowfall instead
Hard freeze kills 95 to 100 percent of France's Alsace vineyard buds
Turkey greenhouses collapse due to snowfall
Snow across Wales as Arctic winds sweep across the country

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Snowflake

Mountain snowpack well over average in Northwest Montana

Matt Baldwin
Daily Inter Lake
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 19:25 UTC
A plow clears snow from Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park earlier this month.
A plow clears snow from Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park earlier this month.
The higher elevations of Northwest Montana can expect another round of winter-like weather this week, adding to a mountain snowpack that remains well above average for this time of year.

As of Tuesday, the snowpack in the Flathead River basin was at 120 percent of normal. The Kootenai River basin boasts snow totals 113 percent of average, while the Upper Clark Fork basin is at 108 percent.

"We still have a lot of snow in the high elevations," said Ray Nickless, a hydrologist with the Weather Service in Missoula. "And it continues to build. We certainly have a lot of water still to come down this spring."

Nickless pointed to a weather station at Flattop Mountain at 6,300 feet in Glacier National Park. The site shows more than 10 feet of snow on the ground, holding about 52 inches of water.
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Snowflake

Surprise snowfall in the heart of France

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 17:02 UTC
florence france snow
It snowed Tuesday night in the northern Côte-d'Or! Snowflakes begun falling around 19:30 in the Saulieu area, leaving a light white coat covering the landscape as shown by photographs taken shortly before 20:30.

The snowfall could continue for a few hours since Météo France forecast some flakes for parts of the department (Etalante, Vitteaux, Saulieu, Arnay-le-Duc) early on Wednesday.

See lots of photos
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Igloo

Is the Tahoe Glacier making a comeback?

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:00 UTC
Lake Tahoe
This is not as far-fetched as you may think. In fact, if history is any guide it is inevitable. Not only inevitable, the process may have already begun.

California's Squaw Valley ski resort, just west of Lake Tahoe, has been buried beneath more than 58 feet of snowfall this season. That's enough snow to completely cover a five-story building. With such copious amounts of snow, Squaw Valley CEO Andy Wirth announced last week that some ski trails may stay open all summer and into next season.

In other words, the snow may not entirely melt this summer. I don't know if Mr. Wirth fully understood the import of his words, but readers of this website ( iceagenow.info ) certainly do.

"Isn't this how glaciers are formed?" asked one reader. "Snow in one year still existing the following year?"

"Golly! Wouldn't that start a glacier?" asked another.

"Ski all Summer thru Fall? That's called a glacier," exclaimed yet another reader. "Glaciation of the Sierras."

Those readers are correct. That is indeed how glaciers form. That is also how ice ages begin - not because some huge ice sheet starts grinding southward (or northward if coming from the bottom of the globe), but because the more the snow accumulates, the less chance it has to melt.
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Ice Cube

"Extraordinary" cold in Spain - Snow at 600 meters

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:56 UTC
spain cold
© EFE/Chema Moya
An "extraordinary" collapse in temperatures, up to 15 degrees C in northern areas.

25 Apr 2017 - Galicia will be this cold and, during the next 48 hours in the province of Lugo, the low will vary between 0 and 3 degrees.

At night, Vitoria and almost all the provinces of Castilla y León will ​​range from 2 below zero to 2 degrees.

On Thursday night there will be frosts in the northern highlands. Leon will fall to 4 degrees below zero.

The cold ​​will cause significant snowfall in the north, especially in the Cantabrian mountain range and the Pyrenees, and will occasionally affect flat northern areas above 600 / 1,000 meters on Wednesday and Thursday.

Yellow alert: In Asturias there is yellow alert for snow in the Cantabrian mountain range and the Picos de Europa at 900 meters, which is expected to fall to 600 meters tomorrow.

From tomorrow, the snow will affect Huesca, Barcelona, ​​Girona, Lérida and Asturias. On Thursday the snow will remain in Teruel, Barcelona, ​​Gerona and Lleida. Efeverde

Thanks to Argiis Diamantis for this link

Comment: Interesting 'Spring' around the world:

13 cm of snowfall as late-season storm hits Regina, Saskatchewan
April showers? Southern Manitoba hit with snowfall instead
Hard freeze kills 95 to 100 percent of France's Alsace vineyard buds
Turkey greenhouses collapse due to snowfall
Snow across Wales as Arctic winds sweep across the country

Read More...
Ice Cube

Föhn winds: New insight into what weakens Antarctic ice shelves

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That?
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 21:15 UTC
katabatic winds
New research describes for the first time the role that warm, dry winds (katabatic winds) play in influencing the behaviour of Antarctic ice shelves. Presenting this week at a European conference scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) explain how spring and summer winds, known as föhn winds, are prevalent on the Larsen C Ice Shelf, West Antarctica and creating melt pools. The Larsen C Ice Shelf is of particular interest to scientists because it of the collapse of Larsen A in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002.

The researchers observed the föhn winds, which blow around 65% of the spring and summer period, extend further south and are more frequent than previously thought, and are likely to be a contributing factor that weakens ice shelves before a collapse. The results are presented this week (Tuesday 25 April) at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU) in Vienna.

In 1995 and 2002, the Larsen A and B ice shelves collapsed, depositing an area the size of Shropshire into the Weddell Sea. Whilst ice shelf collapse doesn't directly contribute to sea level rise, the glaciers which fed into the ice shelves accelerated, leading to the loss of land ice, and subsequently indirect sea level rise. The processes responsible for the collapse of these ice shelves were largely debated, and it is now thought that crevasses on the ice shelf were widened and deepened by water draining into the cracks. Föhn winds are thought to be responsible for melting the ice shelf surface and supplying the water.
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Better Earth

Researchers solve the century-old mystery of Blood Falls

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That?
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:56 UTC
Blood Falls
© Erin PettitBlood Falls is a famous iron-rich outflow of water that scientists suspected was connected to a water source that may have been trapped under an Antarctic glacier for more than a million years.

From the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the "at least they didn't blame climate change" department:

A research team led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado College has solved a century-old mystery involving a famous red waterfall in Antarctica. New evidence links Blood Falls to a large source of salty water that may have been trapped under Taylor Glacier for more than 1 million years.

The team's study, published in the Journal of Glaciology, describes the brine's 300-foot path from beneath Taylor Glacier to the waterfall. This path has been a mystery since geoscientist Griffith Taylor discovered Blood Falls in 1911.

Lead author Jessica Badgeley, then an undergraduate student at Colorado College, worked with University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist Erin Pettit and her research team to understand this unique feature. They used a type of radar to detect the brine feeding Blood Falls.

"The salts in the brine made this discovery possible by amplifying contrast with the fresh glacier ice," Badgeley said. Blood Falls is famous for its sporadic releases of iron-rich salty water. The brine turns red when the iron contacts air.
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Ice Cube

Hard freeze kills 95 to 100 percent of France's Alsace vineyard buds

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 15:03 UTC
Alsace Grand Cru
© Alsace Grand Cru stock photo
Temperatures dropped to -7 ° C, reports a reader in France. "About the frosts in different places around Europe in the last days, there have been severe frosts in France in fruit and vine too," writes Philippe in Alsace. "Severe losses in vine in Champagne and Chablis (despite fighting with burning fuel or paraffine in the fields ), Alsace and even in south of France in Languedoc and Provence.

"The crops had 2 weeks advance and the clear sky in the last days allowed these spring frosts. Main frost in Alsace on the early morning of 20th of april, and then on the 21st too. 5°C to 7 °C under zero on the 20th depending on the places.

Here are words from an article that Philippe sent.
Frost and negative (below-zero) temperatures have caused great damage in the vineyards of Alsace, France.

"In many places, there are 95 to 100% loss of buds," says Gérard Schaffar, president of the Turckheim cellar in Haut-Rhin.
Here's the article in French
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