When the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Black Hills of South Dakota region on Thursday afternoon, many of my friends and I shrugged it off. Seeing a bit of October snow in the Black Hills is certainly not unheard of, but no one believed it would be the major weather event that news outlets predicted.

Boy, were we wrong. We woke up Friday to heavy, blowing snowfall in Rapid City. Treacherous road conditions shut down schools, clinics, and part of Interstate 90. Up to 5,000 residents are without power in Rapid City, according to the Rapid City Journal. Widespread power outages are also being reported in Custer, Deadwood, Spearfish and Sturgis. More than a foot of snowfall is predicted in the region before the blizzard warning ends Saturday at 9 a.m.

Luckily, my husband and I have power, although our lights are flickering, and I hear tree branches, weighted from the heavy snow, cracking and crashing down as I write.

We're snuggling in today with a pot of coffee, blankets, and each other -- since I work from home and his office is closed due to the blizzard. We're just hoping that this October blizzard is a fluke -- otherwise, it's going to be a very long winter in South Dakota.

Here are photos from Friday morning:
Additional images

Cows, calves and bulls dead after the snowstorm.

In Bernasconi, General Acha, Ataliva Rock, Quehué, Colonia Santa Maria and Unanue appeared cows, calves and bulls dead after the snowstorm.

The mayor of Bernasconi, Jorge Riera, said about 200 animals were killed in department Hucal while in Utracán department, two thousand cattle were killed. (Journal Textual)

"This came from several months of poor nutrition due to lack of pasture and the cold and snow gave the coup de grace. Government aid was little, almost nothing," said producers.

Includes photo of dead cattle:
http://www.maracodigital.net/?PAG=Vernota&idcontenido=61269

Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link

There's been criticism for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over its latest AR5 report from many quarters for many reasons. But today there's new research focusing on one particular aspect of that criticism.

The particular part of the IPCC's science in question is its accounting for the effects of changes in the Sun on the climate of planet Earth. Many climatologists have long sought to suggest that the effects of solar variability are minor, certainly when compared to those of human-driven CO₂ emissions. Others, however, while admitting that the Sun changes only a very little over human timescales, think that it might be an important factor.

This matters because solar physicists think that the Sun is about to enter a "grand minimum", a prolonged period of low activity.

The current 11-year peak in solar action is the weakest seen for a long time, and it may presage a lengthy quiet period. Previously, historical records suggest that such periods have been accompanied by chilly conditions on Earth - perhaps to the point where a coming minimum might counteract or even render irrelevant humanity's carbon emissions. The "Little Ice Age" seen from the 15th to the 19th centuries is often mentioned in this context.

There are certainly plenty of scientists to say, along with the IPCC, that this isn't so. For instance climate physicist Joanna Haigh has this to say, in tinned quotes offered alongside the AR5 release by the UK's Science Media Centre:

Oregon scientists say thousands of swallows died during recent Willamette Valley rains, likely of starvation because the birds feed on insects while flying and they couldn't get out in the weather to feed.

Veterinarians said four days of steady rain and wind helped make September the wettest on record in the Valley. They came at a time when birds would have been feeding in preparation for winter migration to Central and South America.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife says it got calls about dead and dying birds from residents ranging from the Port of Saint Helens on the Columbia River to Junction City north of Eugene.

Groups of 10 to 200 barn and violet-green swallows were reported dead or dying in barns and other structures where they perch.

Source: Associated Press

"Interesting there was a snowstorm on May 22nd and then Sept 29th," says reader Ralph Fato. "Four months between snowstorms."
"I wonder what the melt gap was?" asks Ralph. "I believe there was still snow there in June which makes it only 3 months being snow free? Something you expect from 10,000 feet up, not 5400′."

See larger image

Some claim it was the coldest Oct 1st ever recorded.

Predeal, Azuga and logs show that this was the coldest October 1st in the last 84 years. Plus yellow code for snow in 5 Counties.

After snowfalls in recent days, dozens of trees were broken under the weight of snow and blocked the lines. With the Brasov to Bucharest train delayed more than 10 hours, all those who had the misfortune to start the trip by rail have cursed the day.

Problems between Brasov and Predeal railway began last night when, under the weight of snow, trees collapsed the power lines. Seven trains remained stuck for hours in stations or on the trail.

In total, 13 trains linking the south of Transylvania froze, to the dismay of travelers .

Five roads also closed by snow.

A storm carried heavy rainfall, lethal winds and drastic temperature swings into Uruguay last weekend. In the course of the three days that it lasted, the storm managed to take the lives of more than 30,000 of the country's sheep.

The storm, which was particularly damaging for the country's north and northwest regions, where much of Uruguay's sheep and ewes are raised, was unlike anything most of the country's northern residents had ever experienced. "I have never seen anything like it, and the people who have spent years working in the countryside haven't either - not even their parents or grandparents have told them stories like these," Walter Galliazzi, a farmer in Salto in the country's northwest told local newspaper El País The combination of near-freezing temperatures, some eight inches of daily rainfall and powerful winds was too much for the sheep, many of which had recently been shaven.

The United Nations-sponsored International Panel on Climate Change is about to release its 2013 report, but details already are leaking out. Apparently, there are admissions that the dire global warming predictions from the IPCC 2007 report of rising sea levels, more frequent and severe hurricanes and vanishing sea ice - all caused by human activity - are not happening.

Not allowing facts to get in the way of its agenda, the Obama EPA just released its new power plant regulations, which will effectively end the use of coal in new power plants and force consumers to pay higher electricity rates, predicated on coal's contribution to climate change. But that conclusion is now almost impossible for any honest person to reach.

There is no dispute that CO2 levels are rising in the atmosphere. But science proves that CO2 levels - which make up only 0.04 percent of the atmosphere - are not the cause of warming or of other changes in the climate. Natural cycles driven largely by the sun and complex systems of forcings and feedbacks account for such changes.

But as Dick Armey once said, "Conservatives believe it when they see it; liberals see it when they believe it." Consistent with this axiom, climate change alarmists, who believe that humans are destroying the Earth and its atmosphere, cannot suspend their belief even as the peer-reviewed science to the contrary mounts.

The IPCC released their "approved" Summary for Policymakers for their 5^th Assessment Report early this morning (eastern U.S. time), still in draft form. As far as I can tell, there are two paragraphs that discuss the recent global temperature plateau.

Note: I haven't yet crosschecked between the draft and the approved versions to see if they've made any significant changes, so the following may be old hat.

From page 3:

In addition to robust multi-decadal warming, global mean surface temperature exhibits substantial decadal and interannual variability (see Figure SPM.1). Due to natural variability, trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not in general reflect long-term climate trends. As one example, the rate of warming over the past 15 years (1998 - 2012; 0.05 [ - 0.05 to +0.15] °C per decade), which begins with a strong El Niño, is smaller than the rate calculated since 1951 (1951 - 2012; 0.12 [0.08 to 0.14] °C per decade).

And from page 12:

The observed reduction in surface warming trend over the period 1998 - 2012 as compared to the period 1951 - 2012, is due in roughly equal measure to a reduced trend in radiative forcing and a cooling contribution from internal variability, which includes a possible redistribution of heat within the ocean (medium confidence). The reduced trend in radiative forcing is primarily due to volcanic eruptions and the timing of the downward phase of the 11-year solar cycle. However, there is low confidence in quantifying the role of changes in radiative forcing in causing the reduced warming trend. There is medium confidence that internal decadal variability causes to a substantial degree the difference between observations and the simulations; the latter are not expected to reproduce the timing of internal variability. There may also be a contribution from forcing inadequacies and, in some models, an overestimate of the response to increasing greenhouse gas and other anthropogenic forcing (dominated by the effects of aerosols). {9.4, Box 9.2, 10.3, Box 10.2, 11.3}

Regarding the cause of the warming, still living in fantasy world, they write:

Greenhouse gases contributed a global mean surface warming likely to be in the range of 0.5°C to 1.3°C over the period 1951−2010, with the contributions from other anthropogenic forcings, including the cooling effect of aerosols, likely to be in the range of −0.6°C to 0.1°C. The contribution from natural forcings is likely to be in the range of −0.1°C to 0.1°C, and from internal variability is likely to be in the range of −0.1°C to 0.1°C. Together these assessed contributions are consistent with the observed warming of approximately 0.6°C to 0.7°C over this period. {10.3}

They're still misleading the public. Everyone knows (well, many of us know) their models can't simulate the natural processes that cause surface temperatures to warm over multidecadal timeframes, yet they insist on continuing this myth.

Record cold could also blast Eastern Europe.

In Krasnoyarsk , the temperature dropped to the lowest level in history, -6.5 ° C, according to the Russian Institute for Hydrological and Meteorological. Previous minimum of -6.4 ° C. was established September 27, 1988.

The Institute adds that it is a mean daily , not the minimum temperature , so you can guess that mercury bars at night dropped to below -15 degrees.

Already 60 per cent of the Asian part of Russia is covered with snow several centimeters deep. The snow is heaviest in the mountains of Magadan (40 cm) and the Yamal Peninsula (20 cm).

Coldest September in Moscow this century. And wettest?

All indications are this September in Moscow will be the coldest since the beginning of this century.

According to the Russian Institute in September this year in Moscow the mercury never exceeded 20 ° C, a very unusual phenomenon. Meteorologists estimate that this is the second month of this year, after March, with temperatures well below long-term norms.

September was not only cold, but also very wet - in the capital has fallen three times more rain than usual (up to 282 per cent on September 26).