Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Southern Ontario vineyards damaged by late brutal cold weather

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Grapes
The 2015 vintages from some southern Ontario wineries may be somewhat rarer than usual.

Vineyard owners in Prince Edward County and the Niagara region are assessing the damage from a record-breaking plunge into cold weather late Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Farmers were sent scrambling to prevent frost from killing their fruit. They rented helicopters, turned on wind machines and set bales of hay on fire in an attempt to save what they could.

Some smaller wineries say their crop was practically gutted in the deep-freeze.

Clark Tyler, manager at Harwood Estate Vineyards in Prince Edward County, estimates that a mere five per cent of grapes at his four-hectare vineyard survived the frost.

Snowflake

Weather chaos: Kashmir receives snowfall when other parts of India reel under severe heat

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Snowfall in Kashmir
While the rest of India continued to simmer under intense heat wave, higher reaches of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir received fresh snowfall. It has been snowing in Rajouri intermittently since Sunday (May 24) causing the mercury to drop considerably.

People have once again pulled out their woolens. Though snowfall in Rajouri is unusual for this time of the year, no one seems to be complaining. Instead people from nearby areas of Shopian and Poonch are thronging the place to enjoy the weather.

The sudden change in weather has reportedly been caused by a prevailing western disturbance over the region. As a result of which, the lower reaches of Rajouri received snowfall. Heat wave in the rest of India has so far claimed many lives.


Ice Cube

Sudden onset of ice loss in Antarctica detected

Antarctic vessel
© Jonathan L. Bamber Research vessel deploying instruments on an Antarctic ice shelf.
A group of scientists, led by a team from the University of Bristol, UK has observed a sudden increase of ice loss in a previously stable region of Antarctica. The research is published today in Science.

Using measurements of the elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet made by a suite of satellites, the researchers found that the Southern Antarctic Peninsula showed no signs of change up to 2009. Around 2009, multiple glaciers along a vast coastal expanse, measuring some 750km in length, suddenly started to shed ice into the ocean at a nearly constant rate of 60 cubic km, or about 55 trillion litres of water, each year.

This makes the region the second largest contributor to sea level rise in Antarctica and the ice loss shows no sign of waning.

Dr Bert Wouters, a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Bristol, who lead the study said: "To date, the glaciers added roughly 300 cubic km of water to the ocean. That's the equivalent of the volume of nearly 350,000 Empire State Buildings combined."

The changes were observed using the CryoSat-2 satellite, a mission of the European Space Agency dedicated to remote-sensing of ice. From an altitude of about 700km, the satellite sends a radar pulse to Earth, which is reflected by the ice and subsequently received back at the satellite. From the time the pulse takes to travel, the elevation of the ice surface can retrieved with incredible accuracy. By analysing roughly 5 years of the data, the researchers found that the ice surface of some of the glaciers is currently going down by as much as 4m each year.

The ice loss in the region is so large that it causes small changes in the gravity field of the Earth, which can be detected by another satellite mission, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE).


"The fact that so many glaciers in such a large region suddenly started to lose ice came as a surprise to us," continued Dr Wouters. "It shows a very fast response of the ice sheet: in just a few years the dynamic regime completely shifted."

Comment: Antarctica, is it melting or not? Man made global warming can't explain this climate paradox


Sun

More weather chaos: Record heat in parts of Alaska

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© Climate Re-analyzer, University of MaineTemperature difference from normal May 22, 2015
Since Wednesday, high temperatures (well into the 70s) in Fairbanks, Alaska have outdone the highs (in the 60s to mid-70s) in Washington, D.C.

The Last Frontier is in the midst of an extended streak of record-challenging warmth that will continue through next week.

Alaska's warmest temperatures, with respect to normal, have actually focused north and east of Fairbanks.

Barrow - Alaska's northernmost city, located above the Arctic circle - has logged record highs four of the past five days, including a toasty 47 on Thursday. That's some 18 degrees above normal.

Eagle, Alaska - located about 200 miles east of Fairbanks - has recorded six straight days with highs in the 80s.

Snowflake

3 feet of snow blocks main road between west and east Norway

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© Espen BraatenStuck trucks in Hardangervidda , Norway
Trucks got stuck for 11 hours on the mountain passage Hardangervidda.

A column of eight trucks were stuck in the middle of Hardangervidda for eleven hours. Plowing crews worked on getting them off the mountain.

There has been very bad weather in the mountains in the last day.

Plowing crews report there is now up to a meter (more than 3 feet) of snow on the roadway.

See photo. There is a lot of snow.

Thanks to Alf Inge Fagerheim for this link

Sun

Intense heatwave bakes Telangana, India; 67-year-old heat record broken

Situation was equally alarming in Andhra Pradesh where commercial capital Vijayawada recorded 47 degrees Celsius on Saturday

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© Times of India
As Telangana and Andhra Pradesh continue to reel from intensifying heatwave, Khammam recorded an unprecedented 48 degrees Celsius on Saturday breaking almost 67 year old record. The highest ever temperature 47.2 was recorded there in 1947. Nalgonda, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts followed at second place with 47 degrees Celsius temperature today breaking past records.

Situation was equally alarming in Andhra Pradesh where commercial capital Vijayawada recorded 47 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

With the situation worsening with each passing day, the Indian Meteorological Centre at Hyderabad upgraded the situation to severe heatwave and warned of higher temperatures for another 48 hours as hot winds were sweeping in from the North-West and northern India. The temperature in Khammam was a whopping ten degrees above normal.

Khammam which has the reputation of being the hottest place in Telangana, had recorded 47 degrees on Friday along with Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Ramagundam in Karimnagar district. The updated figure for Hyderabad on Friday evening was 44 degrees Celsius, but the situation was slightly better on Saturday.

Snowflake

Snow in New England for Memorial Day weekend

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© Via twitter@KeithCarsonPortage Lake, Maine
The start to the Memorial Day weekend, which is the traditional start to summer, was greeted with a reminder of winter in some areas of northern New England.

Snow came down heavy at times Saturday morning in northern New England. Visibility dropped to a quarter mile at times due to the heavy snow.

The snow was due to a cold upper-level low that moved through the region. Light rain changed to snow in spots early Saturday morning as temperatures continued to plummet. High temperatures on Friday afternoon reached the 50s and 60s but dropped to the 30s and 40s by sunrise on Saturday.

Below is a picture from Portage Lake, in northern Maine, from Saturday morning.

One inch of snow accumulated in Presque Isle, Maine and 5.2 inches was reported near Portage, Maine.

The snow this morning is the second latest measurable snow on record in Caribou, Maine. The latest measurable snowfall in Caribou is 0.2 inches on May 25, 1974.
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Snowflake

Snow covers Arxan City in north China

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Snowfall in Arxan, China
A heavy snowfall falling with northern cold front on Monday brought winter back to the Arxan City of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region while much of China bracing bright summer days.

The snow started to fall early Monday morning and stopped at around 11:00 am. Streets in downtown Arxan were covered by 10 centimeter thick snow and residents going outdoors were seen dressing in layers to keep themselves warm after a sharp drop in temperatures.

Number of cars hit on road apparently decreased due to the snowy weather. Those who hit on road slowed down their speed and drove cautiously.

Local border police division dispatched soldiers to help pull the cars stranded in snow to safety.

Municipal authorities have organized personnel to clear the tough heavy snow from streets since morning. Flights at the local airport were not affected as the snowfall continued only a short time.


Snowflake

Snowfall in Italy in late May

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Snow in Italy
While the center and south of the peninsula is very sunny and warm, in the north it snows. Even for our latitude snow in late May is not common.

Spring snow in Alto Adige. On the A22 motorway on the Austrian border movement of vehicles partially restricted. Huge traffic jams and many accidents.

Snows from early in the morning at the Brenner Pass: as shown in the photo taken by the webcam Site A22 snow is creating heavy traffic disruption in both carriageways between Sterzing and the state border. Especially heavy vehicles proceeding slowly slowing down the entire flow of vehicles.

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Snow in Italy

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Snow settles in Italy

Snowflake

Winter returns in late May with 18 inches of snow in German Alps

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© Jรถrg Heisig Winter return to the Alps
Heavy Snow on May 21!!

Up to half a meter (18 inches) of snow hit higher elevations yesterday Snow covers the landscape around the Herzogstand in the Bavarian Alps at around 1730 meters altitude.

Not far away is the Walchensee, a popular destination for the residents of Munich.

Thanks to Loher for this link
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Winter returns
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Winter returns