Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake

Summer snow turns Wyoming mountains into a winter wonderland

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© Peter Landsman/Jackson Hole Mountain ResortThis Monday, July 27, 2015 photo provided by Jackson Hole Mountain Resort shows high-elevation snowfall during a cold front at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton County, Wyo.
The middle of summer looked like the middle of winter in the mountains of western Wyoming.

A cold front that moved through Monday afternoon dumped heavy rain on the valleys and snow above 9,000 feet.

Officials at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort say they saw the storm coming and shut down their tram before it hit. Resort spokeswoman Anna Olson she didn't hear of any problems from the snowy weather.

She says an inch accumulated at most, but some stuck around until Tuesday.

Photos of the snow posted by the resort on Facebook triggered excitement among skiers — with four months to go yet until ski season.

Olson says snow in July isn't unheard of but she hasn't seen it for several years.

Source: AP

Question

Out of the abyssal depths: Divers find mysterious giant blob near Turkish coast (VIDEO)

blob  off Turkey coast
© Lutfu Tanrıover / Vimeo
An enigmatic and gigantic translucent sphere floating near the Turkey's coast recently found by a group of divers, baffling the experts around the world.

A car-sized almost invisible underwater object was discovered by a pair of divers as they were swimming near the coast of a small town in Turkey on July 9. The sphere was drifting 22 meters below the sea level and was about 4 meters wide.

The blob looked gelatinous and felt "very soft," according to one of the divers, named Lutfu Tanriover, who also took footage of the strange phenomenon.

The Istanbul-based diver investigated it with an underwater torch. Although the mass was looking totally transparent, upon a closer view the group spotted small white dots filling the underwater "cloud."

The divers described their finding as a mixture of a miracle and a nightmare and admitted they felt "both excitement and fear" as they neared the otherworldly object, as they told the Deep Sea News.

Lutfu Tanriover recorded the entire encounter with the mysterious sphere on camera and posted it in the internet in hope to find an explanation for the "thing" that appeared to be a total mystery.

Comment: If this blob actually is a huge squid egg mass, could the fact that it has been found in such shallow waters, be yet another indicator of unseen, deep underwater activity?

As the number of volcanoes erupting right now is greater than the 20th century's YEARLY average, a comparable escalation in activity of their underwater counterparts seems logical.

It is estimated there are up to one million submarine volcanoes on our planet. Effects from this volcanic activity, combined with increased methane outgassing and radiation from the Fukushima disaster are probably causing the ongoing devastation of marine life, mass fish die offs and strange migratory behaviour we are currently witnessing.


Sheeple

Extreme cold weather conditions culminate in abnormal livestock losses in New South Wales, Australia

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© ABCLambs abound on Bindi Murray's property at Woodanilling
Extreme cold weather conditions in southern New South Wales last week created a perfect storm of unfortunate events for some sheep producers, culminating in some significant livestock losses.

The Department of Primary Industries, at the Cowra Research Station, is conducting autopsies on an abnormally high number of lambs from its commercial lambing flock.

The national average for lambing mortality is 10 per cent in ewes with single lambs and 20 per cent for twins.

But researcher, Dr Gordon Refshauge, said the mortality rate in this instance is almost 40 per cent.

He said he had never seen a situation like it.

Snowflake

Summer snow forecast for Scotland; gritter spotted on road

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The gritter was spotted this morning
Snow has been forecast for parts of Scotland tomorrow - as commuters spotted a gritter on the roads in East Scotland.

The Mountain Weather Information Service has forecast showers and hail for parts of the Southeastern Highlands, with the possibility of snow on the highest peaks.

The weather service also predicts that temperatures will drop as low as 3C, with a "slight frost" expected in areas around Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch and the southern Cairngorms.

Meanwhile drivers on the east coast A90 have spotted a gritter on the roads - as councils prepare for the onset of winter after summer appears to have passed Scotland by.

The forecasts come as figures show that some areas in Scotland have had more than double the average expected rainfall for July.

Snowflake

Webcam shows summer snow on Lone Peak, Montana

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© bigskyresort.com
Big Sky resort's web camera near the top of Lone Peak shows a winter-like scene in July.

First Alert Chief Meteorologist Mark Heyka says snow can be expected above 8,000 feet Monday in western and southwestern Montana.

The Interactive Tram Cam faces down from the top of the Lone Peak Tram at 11,166 feet and faces the Mountain Village.

Snowflake

Rare July snowfall for the Northern Rockies

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A freak July cold front brought snow to the Northern Rockies on Monday in a rare weather event that set record-low daytime temperatures across Idaho and could see overnight readings at or near freezing in parts of the region, meteorologists said.

The combination of moisture and cold air from Alaska and Canada was expected to settle over Idaho, Montana and Wyoming through Tuesday in a pattern rarely seen in those states before late August or September, forecasters with the National Weather Service said.

More than an inch of snow was reported on Monday at the renowned ski resort of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and in the mountains of western Montana and central Idaho near Salmon, where local farmers scrambled to cover crops and potentially run sprinklers to prevent frost damage.

Ice Cube

Look at how much ice remains over Hudson Bay!

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A picture is worth a thousand words.

That looks like enough ice to cover all of the state of Illinois.

Not sure I'd want to go kayaking there quite yet.

Thanks to J Philip Peterson for this link

Ice Cube

Arctic global warming research expedition delayed - too much ice

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© Canadian Dept. of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO)The CCGS Pierre Radisson escorts the oil tanker Havelstern to Iqaluit July 17. Tough ice conditions in area have delayed this summer's annual resupply.
A carefully planned, 115-day scientific expedition on the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has been put on hold as the vessel was called to help resupply ships navigate heavy ice on the eastern side of Hudson Bay.

"Obviously it has a large impact on us," says Martin Fortier, executive director of ArcticNet, which coordinates research on the vessel. "It's a frustrating situation."

During the summer, ArcticNet utilizes the Amundsen as a floating research center, running experiments 24 hours a day.

Comment: All of which is more than a little reminiscent of a similar fiasco in the Antarctic last year: Ship of fools: Icebound expeditioners apologise for Antarctic rescue mission

'Stuck in our own experiment': Leader of trapped team insists polar ice is melting against evidence of his own experience


Snowflake

Summer snowfall in the highlands of Iceland

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© Ferðafélag Akureyrar/Haukur Björnsson. Sunday morning, July 19 2015, at Drekagil near Askja and Holuhraun in the North-East region of Vatnajökull National Park
The past weekend was exceptionally cold throughout all of Iceland. Sharp winds ravaged the Western coast, while snowfall and hail hit the East and South.

On Sunday, the ground was white with snow all around the highlands in Central Iceland.

"Everything was white. When we got up at 9AM the snowfall was mostly over, but by the time we left, around noon, it had started up again," Þorgerður Eva Þórhallsdóttir, a member of the Search and Rescue team in Skagafjörður, North Iceland, told Morgunblaðið.

"I think this is rather abnormal weather for the middle of the summer. It wasn't like this last year."

Fire

Best of the Web: Signs of Change: Extreme weather and environmental upheaval in June and July 2015 (VIDEO)

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© HawkkeyDavisChannel/YouTubeA first? Wildfire torches moving vehicles on highway near Los Angeles, California
Video compilation of extreme weather events (and general environmental chaos) from the past month or so.

Record high temperatures in Germany were immediately followed by unusually strong storms and hail. Record rainfall in China was followed by a record heatwave there. In the US, there's been a record heatwave in the West, and record rainfall in the South. There's been record cold in Australia, and record heat in Pakistan. Volcanoes erupted in Indonesia, Japan and Mexico, while there was a strong earthquake in China and an earthquake swarm in Iceland... And in between all that; powerful storms and record rainfall.

Things be intensifying!