Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Large, anomalous area of colder-than-normal sea-surface temperatures to be wild card in 2016 Atlantic hurricane season

Jillian MacMath
Accuweather
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 17:37 UTC
Potential ocean cooling
The potential movement of a 'cold blob' of water in the North Atlantic Ocean may be the wild card in the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, experts say.

The cold blob refers to a large, anomalous area of colder-than-normal sea-surface temperatures, located east of Newfoundland and south of Greenland.

"This area of colder water started to show up a few years ago and has become larger and more persistent during the past couple of years," AccuWeather Atlantic Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.

Whether or not ocean currents draw cold water from this blob southward into tropical regions of the Atlantic could determine how active the season becomes. With all potential factors in mind, forecasters are predicting that tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic will total 14 this season, two more than what is considered normal.

If the cooler water migrates southward across the eastern Atlantic, then westward into tropical breeding grounds, it will lower sea-surface temperatures over the region where 85 percent of Atlantic tropical systems develop.Another possibility is that the water from the cold blob could alter the makeup of deep ocean currents and affect the salinity of the water. If this happens, the pattern of warming waters that has been occurring since 1995 will reverse, leading to a period of cooling.

Comment: See also:

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Sun

Unusually harsh summer heat kills 66 in India's Telangana state

Mohammad Siddique
Gulf News India
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 17:28 UTC
Heatwave in India
© India Today
The unusually harsh summer heat in Telangana has already started taking a huge toll of human life.

With heatwave conditions prevailing across the state, 66 people have died due to sun stroke and other related problems, officials said.

The highest number of deaths — 28 — were reported from Mahbubnagar, followed by 11 in Medak and five each from Karimnagar and Khammam.

Other deaths were reported in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal and Nalgonda.

According to the Meteorological Department Nizamabad, north Telangana continues to be the hottest area in the state with maximum temperatures of 43.4C followed by Medak and Karimnagar with 43C. Hyderabad recorded 41C.

In an indication of the unbearable hot conditions in the state nowhere was the temperature below 40C.

The severe heatwave was forcing the people to stay indoors during the peak hours of the day and the roads and bazaars in Hyderabad and other major cities were wearing deserted look.

The state administration has advised the people to avoid going out into the open from 12 noon.

Telangana normally witnesses heatwave condition only in the month of May but this year the temperatures have been unusually high and harsh right from the beginning of summer.

Last year more than 2,000 people lost their lives in heatwave in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Officials were fearing worst this year as the Meteorological department has warned of even worse days ahead. Officials have warned that the highest temperature this year may reach 46 to 47 degrees at some places.
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Snowflake Cold

Continuing waves of cold in northeast US damaging fruit trees with threat of significant crop losses

Alex Sosnowski
Accuweather.com
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 08:30 UTC
snow syracuse ny April 2016
© Grayson JonesIn this photo taken in Syracuse, New York, on April 3, 2016, a female cardinal takes in the wintry scene with snow on blossoming trees.
Ongoing waves of cold during early April are taking a toll on fruit tree blossoms in parts of the northeastern United States.

Farmers are holding their breath as they wait out the cold to inspect the impact on trees and vines.

The combination of a very mild winter, above-average temperatures during March and the most recent bout of below-freezing temperatures have caused damage to some fruit crops.

"The amount of damage varies from orchard to orchard and from tree to tree," according to Jason Coopey, co-owner of Way Fruit Farm in Stormstown, Pennsylvania.

Coopey stated that thus far apricots and plums have sustained the most damage, but overall his orchards, which are on the tops of hills have fared better than some locations farther south and east and those located in valleys, where the cold air tends to settle.
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Snowflake

April snowstorm shattered record in Syracuse, New York

Glenn Coin
syracuse.com
Mon, 04 Apr 2016 13:47 UTC
Runners walk past Firemen's Park to the start of the race. The Syracuse Half Marathon 2016, Sunday April 3, 2016.
© Michael Greenlar Runners walk past Firemen's Park to the start of the race. The Syracuse Half Marathon 2016, Sunday April 3, 2016.
The snowstorm that swept through Central New York was a record-smasher.

In Syracuse, 6.6 inches of snow fell Sunday. That sets a new record for the snowiest April 3; the previous record was 2.5 inches, set in 1937.

Sunday also ranks as the fourth-snowiest April day on record in Syracuse. The most was 10.5 inches, on April 2, 2013.

Normal snowfall for the month of April in Syracuse is 3.8 inches.

Sunday's snow puts Syracuse ahead in the national Golden Snow Globe race. Syracuse edged past Lakewood, Colorado. Through Sunday, Syracuse has had 79 inches. The normal for the entire season is about 124 inches.
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Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: Signs of Change: Earth changes, extreme weather and meteor fireballs in March 2016

HawkkeyDavis
Youtube
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 05:59 UTC
signs of change March 2016
© Youtube/HawkkeyDavis (screen capture)
Sea life washing up dead - Earth opening up to swallow rivers and vehicles - Record rainfall in Peru, flooding in Rio de Janeiro - Loud booms of unknown origin shaking homes - Strongest earthquake so far in 2016 hits Indonesia - Meteors lighting up the night sky - Yet another '1-in-1,000-years' rain event flooding central and southern US - Heavy snow in Mexico - A year's worth of rain in one day flooding Persian Gulf states...

This series does not mean the world is ending! These are videos showing a series of extreme weather events that are leading to bigger Earth Changes. If you're following the series, you're seeing the signs. It's much more than one video...

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Snowflake

Snow falls in Damascus, Syria

Robert Felix
Ice Age Now
Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:24 UTC
Snow in Damascus, Syria
© النشرة الجوية في الساحل السوري برؤيةإحسان أمين via Facebook
28 Mar 2016 - Image taken in heights of Damascus area (Zabadani) 1150 meters.

Snow in Damascus, Syria
© النشرة الجوية في الساحل السوري برؤيةإحسان أمين via Facebook
See image of coastal area of the highlands (Cadmus) 1,100 meters.
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Snowflake Cold

Early April to bring blasts of arctic air and snow in midwestern, northeastern US

Alex Sosnowski
Accuweather.com
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 12:17 UTC
Cold air Map
A southward plunge of the polar vortex will direct a couple of blasts of arctic air and potential snow toward portions of the midwestern and northeastern United States during the first week of April.

The main thrusts of the cold air will aim at the Great Lakes, New England and the northern part of the mid-Atlantic at a time when many people are looking forward to increased outdoor spring activities.

Arctic air to deliver shocking cold, hard freezes to the Upper Midwest and Northeast

The first and most dramatic of the two blasts will roll southeastward from Canada this weekend.

The approach and passage of the leading edge of the cold air will be accompanied by gusty winds. Sunday could bring high winds to much of the Northeast, in addition to plunging temperatures.

Cold air Map
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Snowflake

"Easter miracle" drops record snow in Kansas

Angela Smith
kwch.com
Sun, 27 Mar 2016 09:22 UTC
Snow Kansas
© Tim Helus
This sun was out and shining Easter morning, but if you looked around you saw something that doesn't look reminiscent of the season - snow.

The spring snow left more than three inches in Wichita, more than we had all winter, which was less than an inch.

As for snow on Easter, Wichita set the record with 3.5 inches. The old record was set in 1920 at 1.5 inches. Just remember Easter falls on a different day each year.

Kingman received the most snow with 6 inches. Shawnee County received the least with a little under an inch and a half.

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Snowflake

Ft. Collins, Colorado shatters snowfall record, more snow on the way

Jacy Marmaduke
The Coloradoan
Fri, 25 Mar 2016 12:45 UTC
Snowfall in Ft. Collins
© Valerie Mosley/The Coloradoan
Just days after Fort Collins received a record-setting snow of more than a foot of powder and slush, more snow might on the way for Easter weekend.

The National Weather Service predicts a 40 percent chance of snow and rain Friday night and a 30 percent chance of snow Saturday morning.

If the snow does come, it won't be much. Less than an inch is forecast between 9 p.m. and midnight, and about half-inch is on the forecast for Saturday before noon.

Still, that's another 1.5 inches atop a mounting snow total for March, historically the snowiest month of the year for Fort Collins. Wednesday's snowfall of 13.4 inches put us at 21.1 inches for the month. The 1981-2010 average for March is 12.6 inches, so Fort Collins has collected 168 percent of the monthly average with a week remaining until April.

And that snow was wet. Between the rain and snow from the storm, Fort Collins received 1.44 inches of moisture, which puts the city nearly 2 inches over average for this time of year, and boosted the snow total for the season to 67 inches, which is 19 inches above average.

This bodes well for snowpack. In the South Platte River Basin, snowpack was 102 percent of average for this time of year before Wednesday's storm. It's now 106 percent of average, according to data from the National Water and Climate Center.

Wednesday's storm set a record, too. The previous record snowfall for March 23 was 6.7 inches in 2013, according to records from the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University.
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Snowflake Cold

350,000 farm animals die due to extreme cold in Mongolia


Seed Daily
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 12:44 UTC
A pile of animal carcasses in Uvs province, Mongolia
A pile of animal carcasses in Uvs province, Mongolia
Hundreds of thousands of farm animals have perished in a slow-moving natural disaster in Mongolia and the international aid response has been insufficient, the Red Cross said Friday.

Mongolia has been hit by a devastating natural phenomenon known as a "dzud", said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) -- a hot summer drought followed by a severe winter.

The combination spells doom for livestock in a country where IFRC said a third of the thinly-spread population rely on animal husbandry for their livelihoods.

Goats, sheep and cows die en masse, unable to graze sufficiently in the warmer months to build up the reserves necessary to withstand later temperatures that regularly drop to -50 degrees Celsius.

More than 350,000 animals have already died, but more than a million deaths are expected, according to the latest available data from the UN mission in the country, IFRC said.
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