Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Wheat kill-off in the U.S. heartland from extreme cold during November

2015-2035 Mini Ice Age - Extreme cold in the U.S. heartland where farming takes place
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With 130-year cold sweeping across the USA, temperatures -50F below normal are bound to have an effect on winter wheat seedlings that are just a few inches tall.

Temperatures dropped to -26F/-32C, which caused an 8% increase in wheat futures.

Thanks to David DuByne, who created this video.
"I think the cold will not be the regular interval of Dalton or Maunder Minimum type cold," says David. "I think we may be heading into a 5125-year cold cycle."

Comment: SOTT has been talking about this for quite some time: Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow


Ice Cube

Rare ice storm strikes Waldviertel in Austria

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© APA/FF Ottenschlag/FichtingerFirefighters preventing a tree from damaging a power line.
The fire service was called out more than 200 times over the weekend in the district of Zwettl (Lower Austria) as a rare ice storm hit the region, bringing chaos with layers of frozen ice in trees.

Firefighters have been busy clearing away hundreds of trees from the vicinity of homes and power lines. The trees' branches had been bent almost double by the weight of the ice. The area near Ottenschlag has particularly been hit hard. A combination of very low temperatures and high humidity caused many layers of thick frost to form into heavy ice.

Motorists in the region have been asked to exercise extreme caution due to icy conditions on the roads. Northeast Fire Department spokesman Franz Resperger described on Sunday how many trees were destroyed by the ice, including some with trunks more than a meter in diameter.


Binoculars

Arctic snowy owls may be preparing for another irruption into the U.S.

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© Sean SimmersA snowy owl sits in the grass in a courtyard at Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill.
Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill was visited Tuesday by a snowy owl, one of several of the Arctic birds that have shown up in Pennsylvania in recent days. The large, mostly white birds may be the precursors of a repeat of last winter's mass invasion into Pennsylvania and several other states.

Scott Weidensaul, one of the owl researchers who organized the Project SNOWStorm banding and radio-tracking effort in response to last winter's record-setting irruption by snowies, said already this year owls have been spotted in the Gratz Valley of northern Dauphin County, near Morgantown in Berks County, on Presque Isle in Lake Erie and "a bunch on the coast."

Dozens of additional snowy owls have been reported throughout the Northeast, around the Great Lakes, and as far south as Illinois and Maryland.

Snowflake Cold

30 Kemp's ridley sea turtles suffering from hypothermia taken from Cape Cod to the Florida Keys

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© Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HOBette Zirkelbach checks a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle’s heart rate Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014, at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla.
The Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital is caring and warming up 30 Kemp's ridley sea turtles suffering from hypothermia just days after they were rescued from a frigid beach on Cape Cod Bay, Mass. On Wednesday, each cold-stunned turtle had a full physical examination, X-rays, a swimming test and was administered intravenous fluids and Vitamin D, according to Bette Zirkelbach, the hospital's manager

"We're trying to slowly raise their body temperatures," Zirkelbach said. "We're hoping they will get healthy enough so they can be released."Zirkelbach said some of the turtles have secondary issues including head trauma and pneumonia.

The 30 are a portion of 193 flown to Orlando in banana boxes by the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday evening with the balance going to four other Florida-based marine animal rehabilitation centers.


Attention

Texas releases over 50 sea turtles treated for cold-stunning

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More than 50 green sea turtles were released into the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Friday after recovering from cold-stunning, or hypothermia, brought on by a drastic drop in water temperature.

The release has taken place in phases, with Friday being the last major release for sea turtles rescued after a mid-November cold snap in Texas sent temperatures below freezing in large parts of the state.

Snowflake Cold

U.S. Polar blast to chill millions from Minnesota to Texas

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A fresh blast of frigid air and bone-chilling winds will continue to expand across the Plains and Midwest through Monday, hitting cities from Minneapolis to Chicago and Oklahoma City.

The frigid blast has already dropped temperatures nearly 60 degrees in a 24-hour period across parts of Montana Friday into Saturday. Some locales went from the mid-50s on Friday to nearly 10 below zero F.

The arctic chill will dive south and east through Monday, hitting Minneapolis, Chicago and Oklahoma City with sharply colder air and drastically plummeting temperatures.
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Highs near 40 F in Minneapolis Saturday afternoon will be replaced by teens and single digits Sunday and Monday.

Bone-chilling winds will accompany the cold blast on Sunday, forcing afternoon AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures into the single digits below zero. Chicago's RealFeels will sit in the single digits above zero throughout the day on Monday.

"This latest cold blast will not be nearly as wide-reaching or long lasting as the one that hit the country in the middle of November," said AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Mark Paquette. "The Plains and Midwest will be hit the hardest, while the Southeast will avoid much of the chill."

Oklahoma City will be near record highs in the 70s Sunday before highs plummet into the 30s for Monday. Winds will place RealFeel temperatures in the single digits around daybreak Monday.

Snowflake

Record snowfall in Pennsylvania; 11.2 inches recorded

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© Review/Eric Hrin
The only thing area motorists could be thankful for Wednesday was safely reaching their destinations.

And for some, that didn't happen.

A pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm made roads a treacherous mess, sending vehicles slipping, sliding and some even overturning. The snow set a record.

As of 7:30 p.m. in Towanda, Wayne Vanderpool, National Weather Service Co-Op Observer, reported that he measured 11.2 inches of snow, "with it still snowing lightly."

He said it was "the most snow ever measured in Towanda on any November day, since records began back in 1895."

Also, Vanderpool said Wednesday's total set a 24-hour snowfall record for Nov. 26. The old record was 2.5 inches, which he said was set back in 1898.

The snow kept emergency responders busy with calls.

"It's all over the county," said Alan Painter, an assistant chief with the Troy Volunteer Fire Department. "The departments are getting called everywhere." Painter said that with all the snow, there was "no traction" on the roads.

On Wednesday night, Painter stood beside a truck that lay on its side, following a crash, with no injuries, that occurred on Route 14 in Troy Township. He said it was caused by the bad road conditions. A man, who was the only person in the truck, refused treatment.

"It's pretty slippery, a slippery snow," Painter said. "It's one of the early ones. People aren't used to it yet."

Comment: Winter is coming - Ice age fever


Snowflake Cold

Minnesota reports subzero temperatures; coldest Thanksgiving since 1930

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© CBS
Minnesotans woke up to subzero temperatures on Thanksgiving Day, and if the mercury doesn't make it up into the double digits, the day could be one for the record books.

As of 8 a.m., it was 2 below in the Twin Cities, and 20 below in Bemidji, in northern Minnesota.

Meteorologist Matt Brickman is forecasting a high Thursday afternoon of 10 degrees. And if temperatures don't rise higher than that, it will be the coldest Thanksgiving since Herbert Hoover was president, in 1930.

Snow will fall during the night in some areas, followed on Friday by the possibility of freezing rain.

Comment: Think the past winter was bad? Get ready for mini Ice Age


Ice Cube

Surprise! Submarine drone finds Antarctic ice a lot thicker than previously thought

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© Still from YouTube video/AntarcticSurvey
A new type of 3D mapping revealed Antarctic sea ice could be much thicker than previously estimated, shows a study done with the help of a yellow robotic submarine named SeaBed.

The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, showed that average ice thickness in Antarctica is between 1.4 meters and 5.5 meters. The maximum thickness recorded was 17 meters.

Also, 76 percent of the mapped ice has been tagged as 'deformed,' the study stated, which means that ice crashed together, forming a thicker layers of ice.

"Our surveys indicate that the floes are much thicker and more deformed than reported by most drilling and ship-based measurements of Antarctic sea ice," states the study. "We suggest that thick ice in the near-coastal and interior pack may be under-represented in existing in situ assessments of Antarctic sea ice and hence, on average, Antarctic sea ice may be thicker than previously thought."

SeaBed robot has been involved in two expeditions in Antarctica with scientists from the UK, the US and Australia. The yellow robot is an autonomous underwater vehicle (or AUV) equipped with upward-looking sonar to measure and map the underwater sea ice.

The two-meter robot moved in a "lawnmower" pattern so as not to miss any areas and bounced sound waves off the under-surface of the ice to make its estimates.

Two expeditions took place in 2010 and 2012 and included regions of Weddell, Bellingshausen, and Wilkes Land.

Comment: A dose of COLD reality: The ironic saga of the eco-campaigners trying to highlight global warming and melting ice caps trapped in the freezing Antarctic


Attention

Manatee from Florida makes rare visit to Texas waters

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The manatee is expected to be taken to Sea World San Antonio or a Marine Mammal facility in Galveston.

Authorities in Texas said they are working on a plan to assist an unusual visitor -- the first manatee to visit the Houston area in 19 years.

The Chambers County Sheriff's Office said a deputy spotted the male manatee swimming up a channel Sunday near Baytown and barriers were put in place once the sea mammal settled in a spot next to a warm water outlet.

Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said waters in the area are too cold for manatees this time of year.

"The cold water makes them stressed, it makes them really tired, just like if you or I were out in a snowstorm," he told the Houston Chronicle.