Extreme Temperatures
It wasn't just Facebook giving Australia the cold shoulder this southern hemisphere summer — according to data from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), the eastern Aussie state of New South Wales (NWS) has just suffered its coldest summer season since 2011.
March 1 is the start of autumn down under. December 1 to February 28 is summer, and those 3-months delivered lower than average temperatures across the majority of Australia — NOAA reveals that 823 new low temperature records were set during that time-period in Australia, while the latest data from the BoM (released today, March 1) shows us that the southeastern Aussie state of NSW, distinguished by its coastal cities, national parks, and capital city Sydney, just endured its coldest summer since the end of the previous solar minimum (late 2010/early 2011).
As reported by the dailytelegraph.com.au, the average NSW temperature for the summer of 2020-21 was the coldest on record since 2011 when the average temperature reached a relatively cool 23.2C (73.8F).
According to the BoM -even with their UHI-ignoring bias- "mean maximum temperatures were cooler than average for much of the Aussie mainland," with mean minimum temperatures "below average for the northern interior of Western Australia and adjacent Northern Territory, areas of southern inland New South Wales, north-west Victoria, and south-east and northern South Australia."
It resulted in disruptions in the city, particularly in train services and even the water supply in the neighboring Bibai city, where more than 39 000 households have been affected.
Heavy snow has been piling up in Hokkaido, especially in the Sorachi region, since Tuesday. Iwamizawa city was blanketed by 2.05 m (6.7 feet) of snow as of Friday morning, the second-highest snowfall in the area since the start of statistics. The figures were just 3 cm (1.2 inches) shy of the record 2.08 m (6.8 feet).
More sea cows deaths have been documented through the first two months of the year than were recorded during those same two months in 2019 and 2020 combined, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records.
Through Feb. 12, the state recorded 317 manatee deaths, though former FWC commissioner Ron Bergeron said he thought the number was closer to 350 sea cows.
Manatee advocates said the die-off is another example of poor water quality.
The avalanches occurred in the village of Akaigawa and in the town of Kamikawa. In Akaigawa, Remi Otsuka, an office worker from Tokyo's Setagaya Ward who was part of a group of six backcountry skiers, was caught in the avalanche at about 12:35 p.m. on Feb. 28. Police said she was later rescued but was confirmed dead at a hospital.

People walk past stranded vehicles on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway during heavy snowfall, at Qazigund in Anantnag district of South Kashmir.
Fresh snowfall in Kashmir on Saturday brought back cold wave- like conditions in the valley where the day temperature for the past week was several degrees higher than normal for this time of the year, officials said.
Fresh snowfall was reported from most parts of Kashmir, including Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said.
Macchil and Z-Gali areas in remote Kupwara district recorded snow between one foot to 18 inches, while places like Gulmarg, Baramulla and Sonamarg recorded up to seven inches of snow, they said.

The circulation of the Atlantic Ocean plays a key role in regulating global climate. The constantly moving system of deep-water circulation, sometimes referred to as the Global Ocean Conveyor Belt, sends warm, salty Gulf Stream water to the North Atlantic where it releases heat to the atmosphere and warms Western Europe. The cooler water then sinks to great depths and travels all the way to Antarctica and eventually circulates back up to the Gulf Stream
Comment: For more information about cyclical climate change on our planet, see:
- Cyclical climate change: Major drought in the Middle Ages and its parallels with today
- Global cooling to replace warming trend that started 4,000 years ago - Chinese scientists
- Gulf Stream is 15% weaker, region south of Greenland coldest in 1,000 years
- Massive flooding in Europe during the Little Ice Age
- Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?
- MindMatters: The Holy Grail, Comets, Earth Changes and Randall Carlson
- Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Interview with Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Pierre Lescaudron

Paradise Ranger Station near the Jackson Visitors Center sits under nearly 19 feet of snow.
Paradise Ranger Station, at about 5,400 feet, typically sits under a massive snow blanket at this time of winter, but this La Nina winter, that blanket is especially thick.
Latest measurements show a snowpack up there of 225 inches (nearly 19 feet!) through mid-Friday morning with snow continuing to fall. That is over 4 FEET ahead of the average snowpack at the peak of the entire winter snow season -- usually around April 1.
In fact, if it holds close to that amount through the weekend -- which it should -- it will become the 6th highest snowpack on March 1 since records began there in 1927 and second-most since 1991, only behind the epic snow season of 1998-99.

A Denver motorist works to clear more than a foot of snow left by a late winter storm that swept over the region. The storm moved away from Colorado's Front Range communities and on to the eastern plains overnight.
Winter weather advisories advertising a run-of-the-mill snow event were quickly converted into warnings overnight as snow fell at rates topping two inches per hour.
Original forecasts called for an upslope snow event, which means air forced up the Front Range of the Rockies would deposit considerable snowfall at the base of the foothills. But that band ended up 20 miles farther east than expected, parking right over the heart of downtown Denver.
Between 10 inches and a foot fell in the city proper, with 15 inches reported in southeast Denver near Colorado Boulevard. Englewood, a suburb just south of downtown, tallied 16 inches of snow.
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:
Comment: Texas 'deep freeze': Urgent climate warning - but not how you think