August was a frigid month across the bottom of the world, particularly at Russia's research station Vostok.

The preliminary monthly average for August 2023 at Vostok Station has come in at -71.2C (-96.2F).

This makes for the coldest August since 2002, -71.5C (-96.7F), and also the coldest month since July 2016, -71.8C (-97.2F).

Vostok's chill has now spilled into September, too.

On Friday, Sept 1 an anomalous minimum of -77.9C (108.2F) was reached.

Note, this reading likely won't represent the true daily minimum. At 12Z the temperature was -77.8C (chart below). It was almost certainly colder earlier but due to a quirk of the Russian algorithm, extremes are only documented during the second half of the day.

A town in the Italian Alps woke up to unusual summer snowfall on Monday, as storms, flooding, and even tornadoes hit the north of the country.

Snow has come exceptionally early to one part of the Alps this year after temperatures in the area reportedly plunged by around 20 degrees within just 48 hours.

A cold air front moving in from northern Europe brought the heatwave to an abrupt end in northern Italy over the weekend, and authorities issued weather warnings as the sudden change in temperature brought with it heavy rainfall, storms, flash floods, and even mini tornadoes.

In the Alpine resort town of Sestriere, residents and holidaymakers woke up to several centimetres of snow on Monday morning - just days after the area had recorded normal summer temperatures.

The iconic Matterhorn mountain and surrounding ski area awoke to a beautiful dump of snow this morning, as fresh snow coated the area.

The dumped snow fell overnight across the Matterhorn Ski Paradise area, a unique cross-border ski resort encompassing Zermatt in Switzerland and Cervinia in Italy. Webcam footage showed accumulations of 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) of snow at the summit and ski area base, turning the whole area into a beautiful white.

While summer snowfalls do occasionally happen in the Alps, it's still unusual in August and exciting to get snow at that time of year.

In the latest SnowBrains Forecast, we knew it was going to be a busy week for South America. A powerful storm was coming in with the possibility of many resorts seeing 3-6 feet of snow with some seeing as much as 9-12 feet or more.

The forecast may have materialized the most at Las Leñas Resort in Argentina when it reported over 11 feet of new snow at mid-mountain over the last four days. You can tell they were excited when they posted on their Instagram page earlier this week with the caption "This is how we are today August 22. It's the moment!"

Bolivia is facing weather extremes on both ends. the eastern part of the South American nation is battling with raging wildfires. While the western part is under a cold spell, experiencing unexpected snowfall.

Snow in August? Ja!

Yesterday evening, Zugspitze ski area, a German resort located on the flanks of the nation's highest mountain -- also called Zugspitze -- shared on Facebook that it'd received roughly four inches at its summit area.

While I wouldn't count on Zugspitze opening to skiers any time soon, the photos the resort posted are worth checking out and indicate that ski season, with a bit of luck, is just around the corner.

Bad weather continues to hit Italy with force and a rather atypical phenomenon is taking place in the North in these hours.

The abrupt drop in temperatures, aided by the abundant rainfall, brought snow to the Dolomites.

This morning, Saturday 5 August, the completely whitewashed peak of the Civetta is clearly visible from the Val di Zoldo. An intense snowfall that has led many to think: "Are we on August 5th or December 5th?".

Last week, a senior member of Parliament for the UK's Labour Party went on television demanding the UK - maybe even the entire world - be on a "war-like footing" to combat climate change.

Speaking on the BBC's flagship political magazine Newsnight, Barry Gardiner MP argued for unity of purpose against climate change's "existential threat":

"...if this were a war we wouldn't be arguing about whether the Labour strategy or the Tory strategy were better, we would be working together to try and win [...] Well, it is a war. It is a war for survival and climate change threatens everything [...] So actually instead of playing party political games about who is up, who is down, what we need to be doing is saying let's get together, let's mobilise on a war footing and that is what is needed..."

Two days later, the exact same thoughts were expressed in a Financial Times column by Camilla Cavendish, former head of David Cameron's Downing Street policy unit and Kennedy School of Government alumnus:

The answer is surely to invoke a wartime spirit, and make the fight against climate change a joint endeavour against a common enemy. If the public and political will is there, human ingenuity can prevail, with remarkable speed. In the second world war, America transformed its manufacturing base to produce tanks and ammunition. The Covid pandemic resulted in the discovery and development of vaccines at scale, saving millions of lives.

It's interesting to note the comparison to Covid, but we'll come back that.

The campaign isn't isolated to the UK, in fact it kicked off on the other side of the Atlantic, with the Inquirer running an article headlined "President Biden should address the nation and declare war...on climate change" on July 16th, which argued:

Biden and his aides need to grab that metaphorical bullhorn and call the TV networks to announce a prime-time address from the Oval Office that will declare a national emergency — in essence, a state of war — to fight climate change.

Joe Biden himself called climate change an "existential threat" on July 27th.

The invocation of metaphorical war is of course nothing new.

"War" is a very important word in the world of politics and propaganda. It has - or is assumed to have - an immediate effect on the collective public mind; an instant connection to generations of shared memories, that promotes feelings of conformity and solidarity.

Some psychological study or focus group clearly figured this out decades ago, and as such the word "war" is frequently used to control narratives.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are currently holding a staggering 1,000% of normal snow water equivalents as of July 21, 2023, following a historic winter season.

The last time the Sierra Nevada saw such a significant late summer snowpack was over a decade ago, in 2011, when late spring storms combined with intense snowfall throughout the season contributed to a similar late-summer snow accumulation. Since then, there have been only two other years, 2017 and 2019, when any snowpack was documented in July.

Horrific for cell phones, worse for electric vehicles, calamitous under Net Zero.
Global cobalt demand soared with the advent of cell phones and laptop computers. It exploded with the arrival of electric vehicles and now is skyrocketing in tandem with government EV mandates and subsidies. Cobalt improves battery performance, extends driving range and reduces fire risks.

Demand will reach stratospheric heights if governments remain obsessed with climate change and Net Zero. States and nations would have to switch to electric cars, trucks, buses and tractors; end coal and gas electricity generation; convert gas furnaces, water heaters and stoves to electricity; and provide alternative power for windless, sunless periods. Electricity generation would triple or quadruple.

Weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels would require billions of battery modules, to stabilize power grids and avoid blackouts every time wind and sunshine don't cooperate.

All that Net Zero transformation equipment - plus transmission lines, substations and transformers - will require billions of tons of cobalt, lithium, copper, nickel, graphite, iron, aluminum, rare earths and other raw materials at scales unprecedented in human history. That will necessitate mining, ore processing, manufacturing, land disruption and pollution at equally unprecedented levels.

Just President Biden's first tranche of US offshore wind turbines (30,000 megawatts by 2030) will require some 110,000 tons of copper, for the turbines alone. Transmission lines, transformers and batteries are extra. Based on average global ore concentrations, getting that copper would require extracting 40,000,000 tons of surface rock (overburden) and 25,000,000 tons of copper ore.

But those 2,500 12-megawatt 800-foot-tall turbines would provide barely enough electricity to power New York state on a hot summer day, if the wind is blowing, and before its Net Zero mandates kick in.