Extreme Temperatures
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Ice Cube

Wind pushes 8-foot high ice slab ashore on Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Superior damaging property

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© National Weather ServiceStrong winds on Lake Superior pushed a mass of ice against homes and outhouses in the Keweenaw Peninsula along Big Traverse Bay on Monday, April 28.
Strong winds on Lake Superior this week slowly edged an 8-foot mass of ice against outhouses and homes on the Keweenaw Peninsula, an event that meteorologists say is rare for the area.

Dave Petrovich, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Negaunee Township, said outbuildings and other structures along Big Traverse Bay were damaged Monday, April 28, when easterly winds stronger than 27 mph pushed the ice mass to shore.

"It was moving this mass of ice westward, not very fast mind you, but inexorably when it got to the eastern shores," Petrovich said. "The ice itself was not like the thick ice skating rink ice that you would imagine on a lake."

Petrovich said the slow and steady ice formation called ice shelving isn't unheard of - there have been other recent formations in Gladstone that moved into a city park, he said - but it is rare for Lake Superior, which was still about over 60 percent covered when the ice mass formed.

"They happen quite regularly when the conditions are like this," Petrovich said. "In recent history we've not had as much ice."

Ice Cube

Will Lake Superior still be ice-covered in June?

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© NASA photoA photo of Lake Superior taken on April 20 with NASA’s Aqua satellite shows an ice-coverage level of about 67 percent.
Duluth's corner of Lake Superior on Wednesday was a curio cabinet of strange times on the lake this spring.

Seven lakers bore through gloppy ice and passed under the Aerial Lift Bridge during the noon hour. It was a sign of how slow-going things have been on the lake because of lingering ice and, earlier this week, gale warnings. Strong wind blew in ice from the eastern part of the lake, and areas off shorelines 15 miles north and south of Duluth were cluttered with a soup of ice, tree trunks and other detritus.

"It's fun," said a hustling Beth Duncan at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitors Center, near the lift bridge in Canal Park. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers park ranger was on the loudspeakers inside and out, calling out facts about each ship for the few dozen boat watchers braving a pelting rain and the handful inside the museum. The Canadian ship Thunder Bay had just passed through - the third ship in 15 minutes - and she was gathering information on four more ships lined up in the distance, painted with mist and fog.

She said it was unique that seven ships in succession slipped into Duluth. It was more like a Tall Ships festival than everyday shipping business.

Snowflake Cold

Unexpected snowfall kills 2,000 hectares of crops in Adjara, Georgia

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Most of the perennial crops grown on 2000 hectares (5,140 acres) died due to snowfall, said correspondent Levan Bolkvadze.

"As a result of an unexpected snowfall, which hit the mountainous regions of Adjara on April 22 affected 200 hectares of vineyards, 650 hectares of walnut (of which 120 grow large varieties), as well as 600 hectares and 650 hectares of persimmon stone fruits (tkemali,)" said Bolkvadze.

According to Bolkvadze, 70 percent of those vineyards under the snow will not yield this year, walnuts will give only 20 % of the expected yield, and the persimmon do not even ripen - the trees are just green leaves.
Adjara is an autonomous republic in the southwestern corner of Georgia, bordered by Turkey to the south and the eastern end of the Black Sea.
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The hectare is defined as 10,000 square metres (100 m by 100 m). An acre is about 0.4047 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres.
Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link.

Ice Cube

Antarctic sea ice extent 50% above previous record

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© NASA/GRACE team/DLR/Ben Holt Sr.
Have you read about this startling news in the mainstream media?

If Antarctic sea ice had shrunk by even a minuscule .000001 percent, the media would be all over it.

Why is Antarctic sea ice growing at such a rapid rate?

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"Antarctic sea ice has been growing rapidly over the last 30 years, because Antarctica is getting colder," says Steven Goddard website

Antarctic_Sea_Ice-28Apr2014

April 28 Antarctic sea ice area anomaly 50% above the previous record

Thanks to George Martinez for this link.

Source: arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu

Fish

Thousands of dead fish along Wisconsin shorelines after harsh winter

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© AP Photo/Daily Tribune MediaIn this photo taken April 28, 2014, a pair of dead fish lies in the sand along the East shoreline of Lake Petenwell in Rome, Wis. Thousands of dead fish are washing up on the shores of some central Wisconsin lakes.
Thousands of dead fish are washing up on the shores of some central Wisconsin lakes.

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources says the phenomenon is likely the result of thick ice that trapped fish in waters with low oxygen, Daily Tribune Media reported (http://bit.ly/1rB4iJ6 ) Monday.

"They're all over the lake, probably thousands and thousands," said Rome bar owner Tom Koren.

Residents near Lake Petenwell are seeing a second unusual sight - pelicans have come to scoop up the dead carp, walleye and other fish.

"We don't normally have pelicans here," resident Jim Kiehl said. "Then, I saw dead fish lying on the bank."

DNR Fish Team supervisor Justine Hasz says it's likely the pelicans are turning up because their normal staging grounds on Lake Michigan are still frozen.

The DNR expects the cold winter will result in more dead fish in lakes throughout the state. The department expects winter kill to be worst in shallower, backwater areas. Castle Rock Lake also may have been hit hard, Hasz said.

Hasz said the DNR planned to investigate the issue further on Tuesday.

Source: Associated Press

Igloo

Amusing tales of the warmist fantasy and other Smithsonian climate scare stories

Too Warm for Golf!
© Breitbart
The Smithsonian Institution - established in 1846 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge" - has weighed into the debate on climate change. And the news is grim.

Soon golfers in hotter parts of the world - such as Arizona - may find themselves unable to play a round. Indeed, according to one expert, quoted in the Smithsonian's online journal, that moment has already arrived.
"When I worked in Atlanta it was hot and humid, but there was never a day I couldn't go outside and hit a tennis ball," says Royal Norman, a meteorologist for station KTVK. "But there are days here where I'm never outside except to get in and out of my car."
But this is only the beginning of the horror of the burning hell we can expect to experience as a result of climate change, according to The Smithsonian - a world-renowned science institution which no way would prostitute its reputation by running some half-baked article in its house magazine based on little more than a few desperate quotes and some dodgy, parti-pris research from politicised university departments cherry-picked by an author to support his tendentious thesis.

Here are a few more of the tragedies that lie ahead.

Igloo

Polar bears face threats to survival because of too little global warming

Polar Bears
© Townhall.com
When the polar bear was put on the endangered species list back in 2008, it became the first species to be put on the list based on what might happen with the environment and their habitat. Environmental groups argued that global warming served as a major threat to the polar bear and therefore it must be added to the endangered list just in case someday it actually becomes endangered due to climate change.

Now just a few short years later, polar bears in Alaska are facing a major problem: too much ice. CNSNews has the details:
Five meters of ice - about 16 feet thick - is threatening the survival of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea region along Alaska's Arctic coast, according to Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia who has studied polar bears for most of her 35-year career.

That's because the thick ice ridges could prevent ringed seals, the bears' major prey, from creating breathing holes they need to survive in the frigid waters, Crockford told CNSNews.com.

Snowflake

Army rescues 2,000 tourists stranded by sudden snowfall in East Sikkim, India

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Around 2,000 tourists stranded at Thegu in East Sikkim due to sudden snowfall were rescued and evacuated by the Army personnel.
Around 2,000 tourists stranded at Thegu in East Sikkim due to sudden snowfall were rescued and evacuated by the Army personnel of Black Cat Division, Army said today.

250 tourist vehicles with around 2,000 tourists were stranded at Thegu, below Nathu La, due to unexpected and sudden snowfall on Saturday, an Army press release said.

Troops stationed nearby, quickly rose to the occasion and helped to push the tourist vehicles across the steep slopes and rescued the tourists.

The weather deteriorated further in the evening and despite heavy snowfall and hailstorm, the troops cleared all the tourist vehicles by 7 PM on Saturday, the release said, adding all the tourists safely returned to Gangtok by nightfall.

Source: Press Trust of India

Snowflake Cold

Flagstaff hit by late spring snow in Arizona

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© Kathryn C. BolingerFrom Hidden Meadow Ranch in the White Mountains.

Flagstaff is blanketed in white after the National Weather Service confirms at least five inches of snow fell on Saturday.

Flagstaff hasn't seen this much snow since Christmas.

Conditions were most dangerous on the highways in the afternoon, with low visibility and blowing snow and winds up to 50 miles an hour in some spots.

In downtown Flagstaff, the aftermath left parked cars covered in snow, and locals breaking out the winter wardrobe again.

The huge temperature drop caught some people off-guard.

"It's snowing here, it's crazy!" said Sherry Neimier, who just moved to Arizona two weeks ago from Florida. "I didn't think I'd see snow, but I love it. It's cold as can be but it's awesome."

But some locals say they'll see snow on the mountains sometimes as late as July, so they're prepared for a storm anytime during the year in Flagstaff.

Igloo

Oh! The Irony! "Too much spring ice threatens Alaskan polar bears"

Five meters of ice - about 16 feet thick - is threatening the survival of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea region along Alaska's Arctic coast, according to Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia who has studied polar bears for most of her 35-year career.

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Female polar bear with cubs.
That's because the thick ice ridges could prevent ringed seals, the bears' major prey, from creating breathing holes they need to survive in the frigid waters, Crockford told CNSNews.com.

"Prompted by reports of the heaviest sea ice conditions on the East Coast 'in decades' and news that ice on the Great Lakes is, for mid-April, the worst it's been since records began, I took a close look at the ice thickness charts for the Arctic," Crockford noted in her Polar Bear Science blog on April 18th.

"Sea ice charts aren't a guarantee that this heavy spring ice phenomenon is developing in the Beaufort, but they could be a warning," she wrote, noting that they "don't bode well" for the Beaufort bears.

"What happens is that really thick ice moves in because currents and winds from Greenland and the Canadian islands push it against the shore," Crockford told CNSNews.com.