Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Scottish Highland town is coldest and hottest place in the UK - in a single day

Lydia Willgress
Daily Mail
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:37 UTC
scotland temperature extremes
© HEMEDIATemperatures in Aviemore plummeted to just 1C on Tuesday night leaving the mountain village shrouded in mist on Wednesday morning. Above, ducks swim on Loch Morlich
  • Temperatures in Aviemore plummeted to near freezing on Tuesday night
  • Climbed to 21C on Wednesday morning - hotter than Rome and Paris
  • Met Office spokesman said difference was due to high pressure in the air
  • Weekend should stay fine and dry with temperatures dropping next week
The Scottish weather showed its unpredictability yesterday as one Highland village was declared both the hottest and coldest place in the UK. Temperatures in Aviemore plummeted to just 1C on Tuesday night leaving the popular ski resort shrouded in mist on Wednesday morning. But the chill didn't stay for long as by lunchtime the village saw temperatures reach 21C - hotter than Barcelona, Rome and Paris.

The Scottish weather showed its unpredictability yesterday with one Highland town declared both the hottest and coldest place in the UK. Above, Maja Aas relaxes in the warm autumn sunshine on a beach on the shores of Loch Morlich

Claire Smith, 35, the manager of the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore, said it was as if autumn had been skipped altogether.

She said: 'It was incredibly chilly coming in the morning with a coat, scarf and gloves on. You could see the grass glistening and frost appearing on cars.

'But I have to carry all my clothes home later on because it will be far too warm. 'It's been really strange here because we're having a bit of an Indian summer but starting our day with winter - it's as if we've skipped autumn completely.
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Igloo

Massive Global Cooling process discovered as Paris climate deal looms

Lewis Page
The Register, UK
Wed, 30 Sep 2015 11:28 UTC
Ocean
© The Register, UK
As world leaders get ready to head to Paris for the latest pact on cutting CO2 emissions, it has emerged that there isn't as much urgency about the matter as had been thought.

A team of top-level atmospheric chemistry boffins from France and Germany say they have identified a new process by which vast amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted into the atmosphere from the sea - a process which was unknown until now, meaning that existing climate models do not take account of it.

The effect of VOCs in the air is to cool the climate down, and thus climate models used today predict more warming than can actually be expected. Indeed, global temperatures have actually been stable for more than fifteen years, a circumstance which was not predicted by climate models and which climate science is still struggling to assmilate.

In essence, the new research shows that a key VOC, isoprene, is not only produced by living organisms (for instance plants and trees on land and plankton in the sea) as had previously been assumed. It is also produced in the "microlayer" at the top of the ocean by the action of sunlight on floating chemicals - no life being necessary. And it is produced in this way in very large amounts.

According to an announcement just issued by the German government's Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research:
Atmospheric chemists from France and Germany, however, can now show that isoprene can also be formed without biological sources in the surface film of the oceans by sunlight and so explain the large discrepancy between field measurements and models. The new identified photochemical reaction is therefore important to improve the climate models.
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Snowflake

Fairbanks, Alaska hammered by heavy snows and power outages

Chris Klint, Megan Edge
Alaska Dispatch News
Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
fairbanks
© www.adn.comEarly snow in Fairbanks
A disaster declaration was being discussed Wednesday evening by the Fairbanks North Star Borough after snowfall caused thousands of power outages and paralyzed much of the area, borough spokesperson Lanien Livingston said. According to Livingston, a final decision on the declaration won't be made until Thursday or Friday.

At about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, Golden Valley Electric Association reported 7,000 customers didn't have power. A few hours later, the company said it "continued to make headway," although there were still "a lot" of trees down on power lines. GVEA had reported on Wednesday morning that more than 20,000 people had lost power at some point overnight Tuesday as heavy snow fell. "Due to the outages being so widespread, it is impossible to list all the streets or neighborhoods that crews are working (on)," GVEA wrote on Facebook.

In a special weather statement, the National Weather Service said Fairbanks set a new daily snowfall record of 11.2 inches on Tuesday. The previous record had been set in 1972 at 7 inches. NWS said North Pole accumulated 10 inches of snow, Mile 3 of Chena Hot Springs Road reported 15 inches, South Fox reported 15.5 inches and the University of Alaska Fairbanks accumulated 13 inches. Snow was expected to fall in Fairbanks on Wednesday night and continue through the weekend. There were no winter storm warnings in effect late Wednesday evening in any part of the Interior.

GCI reported to the borough that "many cell towers" were down because of the power outage, according to borough spokesperson Amber Courtney. "So that means people can't call 911 from their cellphones; they'll need to find landlines," Courtney said.

Comment: Keep informed on these increasingly chaotic, global events by viewing the monthly SOTT Earth Changes Summary.

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Snowflake

Heavy snowfall thwarts only expedition to top of Mount Everest in 2015

Brian Lada
accuweather.com
Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:54 UTC
Image
© AP/Tashi SherpaIn this Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, photo, Mount Everest, third peak from left, is seen standing behind, from left, Mt. Changtse, Mt. Lho La and Mt. Nuptse, as seen from Kalapatthar near Everest Base Camp, Nepal. Earlier last month Nepal announced the opening of Mount Everest to climbers for the first time since an earthquake-triggered avalanche in April killed 19 mountaineers and ended the popular spring climbing season.
This year's only expedition to the top of Mount Everest fell short of reaching the mountain's peak due to heavy snow, meaning that no one will step foot on top of the world's tallest mountain this year.

Heavy snow has fallen around Mount Everest in Nepal's Himalaya Mountains over the past weeks and has made some parts of the climb too difficult to navigate, forcing many people to abandon their attempts at climbing Everest.

More than 2 feet of snow fell at Everest's base camp around the middle of September, causing the conditions along the climbing routes to deteriorate and Sherpas to work on clearing the routes before climbers could trek up the mountain.

Nobukazu Kuriki was the only person who was attempting to climb to the top of the 29,029-foot (8,848-m) peak this fall following the feet of snow, but he was forced to turn around last weekend due to the abundance of snow.
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Snowflake

Spain registers first snowfall of season high in the Sierra Nevada


thelocal.es
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 19:26 UTC
Image
Sierra Nevada
Just a few days before the start of October, the first snowflakes have fallen in Spain, on Europe's most southerly ski resort.

Summer is well and truly over in Spain, and winter sports fans are getting excited as the first snowflakes fall in one of the country's best ski resorts.

Spanish ski resorts: Eight of the best

The Sierra Nevada ski station in Granada, southern Spain, recorded its first snowfall on Monday and posted a series of videos and photographs, welcoming the wintery weather.
Breve vídeo grabado esta mañana en el corazón de #SierraNevada mientras nevaba #Monodenieve #Winteriscoming pic.twitter.com/Z8TloVbaZa

— Sierra Nevada (@websierranevada) September 28, 2015
The highest points of the ski resort - the most southerly in Europe and Spain's highest with peaks of 3,300m - were sprinkled with a fresh snowfall on Monday (see video above).
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Snowflake

Record breaking September snowstorm hits Northern Alaska

Jon Erdman
Weather Channel
Sat, 26 Sep 2015 07:07 UTC
Snow Fairbanks
© University of Alaska/TwitterThe first measurable snow of the season blanketed the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus on Sep. 25, 2015.
Fall's arrival may have been greeted with a collective warm shrug of the shoulders in the Lower 48 states, but Alaskans have already broken out winter coats.

Officially, 6.7 inches of snow blanketed the city of Fairbanks Friday, turning the city into a winter wonderland just days into fall. Not only was this the city's first measurable snow of the season, but this was the city's third heaviest calendar-day September snow on record, topped only by Sep. 13, 1992 (7.8 inches) and Sep. 29, 1972 (7 inches). This was the city's heaviest September snow event since a four-day, 17.3-inch snow blitz from Sep. 11-14, 1992.

Fairbanks only averages 1.9 inches of snow during the month of September. Two observers in College Hills north of downtown Fairbanks measured 9 inches of snow as of Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

The Alaska DOT reported about 10 inches of snow in the hills near Nenana west-southwest of Fairbanks along the Parks Highway, the primary link between Fairbanks, Denali National Park and Anchorage.

Comment: Winter is coming!

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Snowflake

Winter snowfall makes early visit to Salzburg, Austria


thelocal.at
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 14:36 UTC
Image
© APA/GindlThe Böcksteinstrasse in Gasteiner Tal.
After a summer of record high temperatures winter has already arrived in some parts of Austria - with the Grossglockner alpine road in the state of Salzburg closed on Thursday for safety reasons after snowfall.

"We've had 50 centimetres of snow. Between the Fuscher Törl and the Hochtor, there are snow drifts of up to two meters," deputy police superintendent Peter Embacher said. "We have three snowploughs and two snow blowers on the go. We hope that today we can clear all the snow and reopen the road by Friday," he added.

The spa town of Bad Gastein also saw snow, and the road to Sportgastein had to be closed on Wednesday, after 40 centimetres of fresh snow. On Thursday morning drivers were told to use snow chains on the B99 road.
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Arrow Up

A step closer to the end? Syria war prompts pull from doomsday seed vault


Sputnik News
Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:45 UTC
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
© Associated Press Photo/John McConnicoSnow blows off the Svalbard Global Seed Vault before being inaugurated at sunrise.
A seed storage vault built into the side of an Arctic mountain to protect global food supplies in case of global cataclysm is being tapped by researchers in the Middle East who say the Syrian war has devastated their crops.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built in 2008 by the Norwegian government as the world's largest secure seed storage, is intended to protect thousands of varieties of essential food crops against things like nuclear disaster, disease and climate change.

Now, the devastation brought on by the war in Syria, which has raged on for four years and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, has prompted researchers to request some of the samples they gave to the vault, as their collection of crops in Aleppo was destroyed in the fighting.

Among the samples requested by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) crops resistant to drought that could help scientists develop and secure food supplies in the face of climate change in dry areas worldwide.

Protecting the world's biodiversity in this manner is precisely the purpose of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault," said Brian Lainoff, spokesman for the Crop Trust, which runs the underground store, located on a Norwegian island 1,300 km (800 miles) from the North Pole.
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Snowflake Cold

Blizzard-like conditions strike Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand


The New Zealand Herald
Sun, 20 Sep 2015 15:06 UTC
Image
Mt Ruapehu , Whakapapa ski area.
A dose of severe spring weather has snowed in skiers on Mt Ruapehu.

The blizzard-conditions have dumped more than 20 centimetres of snow on the mountain side but has confined a number of skiers to their digs high on the Whakapapa ski fields.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts commercial executive manager Simon Dickson said about 20 or 30 people were this morning taken in two convoys of snow grooming trucks back to their cars at the ski field's main car park. Many of these had to get back home for work or school tomorrow.

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Snowflake

Early-season snowfall for Hatcher Pass, Alaska


Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
Sun, 20 Sep 2015 14:55 UTC
Image
© Matt TunsethIndependence Mine State Park in Hatcher Pass.
The snow line crept down to about 3,000 feet last week, as heavy rains in the Valley made for wintry conditions in the mountains.

Hikers and berry pickers have been flocking to Hatcher Pass to check out the early-season snowfall, which dumped a couple inches at the Independence Mine State Historical Park. Although the area is still a ways off from being skiable, the park access road is now closed. However, the parking lot below the park is open year-round, and hikers need only walk about a half-mile to access the park, which contains mine ruins and abandoned out-buildings that remain from the 20th century gold mining operations.
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