Fatal accidents, floods, roads cut by snow

8 Nov 2016 (Excerpts) - "It is cold, rain and snow have fallen in abundance on several regions of the country. These incidents caused several fatal accidents on the roads .... at least 8 people were killed and 48 others injured in road accidents in several parts of the country.

"Road traffic in the capital has been severely disrupted by inclement weather and interminable traffic jams have formed around the main roads in Algiers.

"In the west of the country, the army had to intervene to reopen roads, blocked by snow, especially in Sidi Bel Abbes."

Thanks to Patrick for this link

A potent storm system will track across eastern Europe, unleashing significant snowfall and strong winds.

Areas expecting accumulating snowfall include northern Romania, northern Moldova, eastern Hungary, eastern Slovakia, southeast Poland and much of northern and western Ukraine.

A mix of rain and snow will begin on Saturday across the region before transitioning to all snow across western Ukraine, southeast Poland and eastern Hungary. Snow will continue into Sunday night for many areas.

Snow will fall heavily at times from the Carpathian Mountains northward to Lviv and Kiev on Sunday. Widespread snowfall of 15-30 cm (6-12 inches) is expected throughout this region with local amounts in excess of 30 cm (12 inches).

The heaviest snowfall in Lviv on Sunday and in Kiev from midday Sunday into Sunday night.

Stockholm hasn't seen this much snow in November since they started snow depth measurement in the capital 1905, 111 years ago!

And it's only 9 November!

On Wednesday morning, SMHI measured 21 cm of snow. At midday there was an unofficial listing of 30 cm (12 inches.

The previous snow depth in Stockholm in November was 29 cm, set in 1985.

Also, record early snowfall

Further, it has not snowed in Stockholm this early in the winter since SMHI statistics started in 1905.

See video:


Thanks to Andreas Forsman and Andy S for these links

Central Sapporo was covered in 23 centimeters of snow at 11 a.m. on Nov. 6, the first time in 21 years a snowfall exceeding 20 cm has been recorded in the city in early November.

A low pressure system passed over Hokkaido on Nov. 6, leading to the snowfalls in many parts of Japan's northernmost main island, according to the Sapporo Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Before sunrise on that day, sweeper vehicles equipped with "sasara" bamboo brooms were dispatched to clear the snow from the municipal tram network. It was the first use of the special snowsweepers this season, and it came 18 days earlier than in the previous year.

Snow expected in the Midlands, north of England and Scotland overnight, and risk of gales in the south-west on Wednesday

Parts of Britain could get up to six inches of snow on Tuesday night as temperatures drop below freezing. The Met Office issued a severe weather warning as temperatures fell to -5C (23F) in England on Monday night.

It said snow was expected in the Midlands, the north and Scotland and that there was a risk of gales of up to 50mph developing in the south-west on Wednesday before moving along the Channel.

Frosty conditions are expected to continue until rush hour on Wednesday morning as a band of wintry weather moves slowly eastwards.

The Met Office forecaster Emma Sillitoe said: "We have had a few wintry showers, but this is the first event where more people are going to be affected. There is a frontal system moving in from the west meeting the quite cold weather we have been having over the last few days.

Check out the map of snow cover.

"I just watched a video about the coming winter and apparently snow cover over Russia into Europe is a record for this time of year," says Andy S.

"The data only goes back to 98 so bear that in mind, however snow cover has penetrated right into NE Europe and all of Scandanavia is already completely covered."

I'd love to see a link verifying that this is a record for this time of year.

The Great Salt Lake is drying up and shrinking. Both nature and man have a hand in the change.

The Great Salt Lake is largest water body in the United States after the Great Lakes. It is a terminal basin, which means the water that pours into the lake from rivers and streams has no outlet other than evaporation. This allows salts and minerals to concentrate in the lake such that it is three to five times saltier than the ocean. And yet this briny lake is a haven for more than 250 species of migratory birds who feast on the brine shrimp and flies that thrive there.

But now the millions of birds and shrimp—and the people who harvest the shrimp and extract salts and recreational fun from the lake—are faced with a problem. For more than 150 years, humans have been taking more water out of the Salt Lake watershed than is flowing into it. They are now diverting about 40 percent of the river water (which would normally fill the lake) and using it for farming, industry, and human consumption. In October 2016, the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest recorded level: 1277.5 meters (4,191.2 feet), averaged between the lake's north and south arms.

Five years of drought in the American West have contributed to the recent drop in the water line, as have higher-than-normal temperatures. But the region has seen dry cycles before, and according to scientists, there has not been a significant long-term change in precipitation in the basin. Nonetheless, the volume of water in Great Salt Lake has shrunk by 48 percent and the lake level has fallen 3.4 meters (11 feet) since 1847.

These two Landsat satellite images show recent changes in the Farmington Bay basin of Great Salt Lake. The Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5 acquired the first image (above) on September 11, 2011; the second image (below) was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on September 20, 2016. According to scientists' estimates, more than three-quarters of the lake bed is now exposed in Farmington Bay. Salt Lake City (lower right) and its northern suburbs stretch around the east side of the lake.

A look at how snow in Siberia affects the U.S. and why it's looking like the eastern and central United States will have a cold, snowy winter.

Siberia is known to be one of the coldest places on the planet, but exactly how cold and snowy it gets each year has big ramifications elsewhere on the globe.

In North America, a more snow-covered Russia means that colder air will have an easier time harvesting in Siberia and departing for our continent's heartland. Early in the calendar year, the air coming from Siberia can be cold enough to bring snow to even more southern reaches of the United States if the pattern sets up correctly.

The Extent of Snow Cover

Snow is covering the ground across most of Russia, including all of Siberia - likely the greatest extent of snow cover since 1998. Below is the current snow cover in northern Asia as of Oct. 31.

Some locations, including Sakha in east-central Russia, are seeing their snowiest winter on record, with most of the snow season yet to come. Nearly 10 feet of snow fell in some places in Siberia in just three days, according to the Government of Sakha.

While the snow that fell on Monday night put a slight damper on Halloween across the Peace Region, it also completed the theme of what ended up being the coldest October on record in Fort St. John.

Environment Canada's Ross MacDonald says that starting at around 7:00 p.m. on Monday, and continuing until midday on November 1st, a total of seven centimetres fell at the North Peace Airport weather station. MacDonald says that though the accumulations were not enough to meet Environment Canada's Snowfall Warning of 10 centimetres of accumulation in a 12 hour timeframe, the snow was heavy enough to cause a number of headaches for motorists yesterday morning.

Signs that polar vortex may be heading south.

It has been an early and quite vicious start to the winter in parts of Eastern Europe. From the Baltic Sea states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the west; to Russia's Siberia in the east; and the Caucuses in the south; the end of October and early November have seen marked changes in weather patterns.

Cold air has been pushing southwards across Eastern Europe and much of northern Asia in recent days. Many climatologists believe this is a sign that changes in the polar vortex are likely to lead to a cold winter ahead.

The polar vortex is an area of low pressure, high up in the atmosphere. It is at its most intense during the winter months. There have been signs in recent years that it is beginning to weaken, and predictions for the coming winter suggest it will weaken significantly.

This weakening is likely to be the result of climate change, being linked to the decrease of Arctic sea ice in recent years.