Extreme Temperatures
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Snow Globe

Enduring winter tough on migratory birds in Great Plains

A rare sequence of spring snowstorms across the northern Great Plains is causing difficulties and even starvation for some migratory birds.

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© Eric Landwehr, South Dakota State UniversityBirds that normally winter in the Dakotas, like this Junco hyemalis, are having a tough time scavenging for food as winter refuses to end, even in April.
While it's not unusual to get a single snowstorm in April, the weekly storms during late March and the first half of April are taking their toll on wildlife, according to bird expert Kent Jensen of South Dakota State University.

He and others beneath North America's Central and Mississippi migratory "flyways" have found dead robins in their backyards, with the birds emaciated and even having burned up their breast muscles for nutrition in a last-ditch effort to survive.

"The ground to the north in North Dakota and Canada is still frozen, and we're only getting occasional thaws that allow the birds to feed from the ground here in eastern South Dakota," Jensen tells Earthweek.

He said many species are holding back far to the south, but the early-arriving robins have been forced to eat the wax coating of cedar berries to keep their fat supplies up.

Frozen lakes are also holding back migratory waterfowl, which could mean they are using up energy during their unplanned layover that they need for successful breeding this summer, Jensen says.

The fat supplies those birds need for laying eggs high in the Arctic is also being depleted as the birds hold back to the south, waiting for spring to finally arrive.

Snow Globe

Snow storm: Sheep death toll reaches 20,000 in Northern Ireland

More than 20,000 sheep were lost in the recent snow blizzard, and it may be next month before all the dead animals are found and counted.

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Many farmers faced serious dangers as they tried to reach their animals
The news emerged at a meeting of the agriculture committee at Stormont.

It is estimated that almost 800 farms were affected by the severe snow storm.

With snow still lying in some high parts of Northern Ireland, dead animals are still being recovered, but the committee heard that one sheep was found alive 25 days after the blizzard.

An official from the Department of Agriculture told the committee that as of 14: BST on Tuesday, the number of dead animals collected was:

20,179 sheep (including 15,195 lambs)
603 cattle

Sun

Ice Age cometh: Sun halo appears over Cuba

Those having a beer at Sloppy Joe's Bar in Havana Cuba today, will be hoping they wake up tomorrow remembering their time there.

For above the newly-refurbished and somewhat iconic bar, high in the sky occurred an atmospheric phenomenon known as a 'sun dog'.

The sun was surrounded by a bright ring, caused by a refraction of sunlight by small ice crystal in the atmosphere.
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Bright spark: An atmospheric phenomenon known as a 'sun dog' is seen in the sky over Sloppy Joe's Bar, Havana, Cuba
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Put down your pint: The rare halo around the sun is caused by the refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals in the atmosphere

Comment: It's actually a sun halo; a sun dog is something like this.

So sun halos around the sun are appearing in Cuba now? Well that rules out the earlier 'explanation' that they were the result of ice crystals forming in cold environments such as the Arctic Circle.

In fact, they have appeared in the UK and Russia recently.

This is more evidence that the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere have rapidly cooled in recent years.


Ice Cube

Is the UK heading for ANOTHER Arctic winter? Met Office calls emergency meeting to discuss if melting ice is causing Britain to freeze

Britain's winters are getting colder because of melting Artic ice changing global weather patterns, the Met Office has claimed.

Forecasters are concerned that high levels of ice melt in the Arctic in recent years could be behind Britain's increasingly bitter and longer winters.

The organisation's leading climate change expert, Dr Julia Slingo, is to convene experts from around the world to establish whether this explains why Britain has been experiencing the coldest temperatures for almost 100 years.
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Springtime in London: April snow showers in Kensington Gardens come amid Met Office claims that high levels of ice melt in the Arctic in recent years could be responsible for Britain's bitter winters

Ice Cube

Ice Age cometh: Global cooling consensus is heating up - cooling over the next one to three decades

Blizzard
© NOAACooling seems to be the trend
As winters get harsher and the snow piles up, more and more scientists are now warning of global cooling. Reader Matt Vooro has compiled a list (see below) of 31 prominent scientists and researchers who have words that governments ought to start heeding.

Are we headed for global warming or cooling?

For many years now a good number of non-AGW scientists, meteorologists, engineers, researchers and the like have looked at the possibilities of a cooling planet. I enclose some of the ones that I have noted in my research. Indeed there is a significant number of scientists, academics, meteorologists and researchers who disagree with IPCC's belief that the globe is very likely headed for unprecedented global warming due to man-made greenhouse gases.

The climate of this planet oscillates between periods of approximately 30 years of warming followed by approximately 30 years of cooling. Rather than 100 years of unprecedented global warming as predicted by IPCC, the global temperatures have leveled off and we seem to be heading for cooler weather.

Igloo

Ice Age Cometh: Russian Academy of Sciences experts warn of imminent cold period: "Global warming is a marketing trick"

Earth
© NASA (public domain)
The European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) here links to an article published by Stimme Russlands (Voice of Russia). The article is titled: Die Welt vor einer Eiszeit, in English: The World On The Verge Of An Ice Age.

Reports of global cooling are becoming more frequent. FLASHBACK: 30 experts predict cooling.

You'll notice that this Voice of Russia report is more than a month old, and so one wonders why it was never picked up by the western mainstream media.

The article writes that Russian scientists are predicting that "a little ice age will begin in 2014". The article adds:
They reject the claim of global warming and call it a marketing trick."
Wow! That's heavy.

Snowflake Cold

3,000 dead farm animals found after Northern Ireland Blizzard

Sheep
© UnknownMore than 3,000 farm animals died when a blizzard engulfed Northern Ireland
The carcasses of more than 3,000 farm animals which died when a blizzard engulfed Northern Ireland have so far been collected in a state funded disposal scheme.

The Stormont Executive agreed to pay for the recovery operation as part of a multimillion-pound aid package for the farmers worst hit by last month's snow storm.

While 3,120 dead livestock have been disposed of thus far, officials expect many more collections will be needed. The animals, mostly sheep, were entombed when snowdrifts up to 20 feet high blanketed many high-lying fields.

Snowflake Cold

New Winter Storm 'Walda' to hit U.S. this week: Say it ain't (April) snow!

Needless to say, it's been a long, snowy winter for many Americans.


Recent weeks have brought signs of spring to parts of the northern and central Rockies with highs in the 70s as far north as Montana. That taste of spring is about to come to a crashing halt as Winter Storm Walda brings heavy snow, high winds, and a drastic drop in temperatures as the new workweek begins.

The ingredients that will be in place this week for heavy snow in the Front Range of the Rockies.

Snowman

Pub owner trapped in snow for five days in Derbyshire, U.K.

The Bull i' th' Thorn
© Mick ColemanThe front of The Bull i' th' Thorn was entirely blocked by a snow drift
Two landlords trapped in their pubs by snow - one of them for five days - are among Derbyshire traders counting the cost of the Easter blizzard.

Areas of the Peak District suffered snow drifts of up to 20ft (6m), blocking roads and buildings.

One pub and caravan site estimates it lost £10,000 over Easter because of the weather while another owner had to use a coal shovel to dig himself out.

Snowflake

Record April snow: 10.5 inches falls in Syracuse, New York State

New York snow
© Tami Galesky via WKTVLake effect snow fell across central New York on Tuesday, including here in the Town of Grant, NY.
According to the National Weather Service office in Binghamton, New York, a record daily maximum snowfall was set in Syracuse, New York on Tuesday. Measurements indicate that a record snowfall of 10.5 inches fell at Syracuse Hancock Field yesterday. This crushes the old record for April 2nd of 1.4 inches, set in 1991.

In addition, the 10.5 inches also breaks the one-day calendar day record for the entire month of April in Syracuse. The previous record was 7.1 inches on April 4, 1975.