Winter takes its toll in Turkey's eastern regions which are usually the coldest parts of the country during the season. Yet, temperatures broke another record in 2020: Residents of Göle, a small town in the northeastern Ardahan province saw temperatures drop to minus 40 degrees on Sunday night. Göle had the unenviable record last year as well, at minus 32.5 degrees.

Freezing temperatures, accompanied by snowfall and blizzards, also cut off access to critical locations like an area in Van province's Çaldıran district where 13 migrants are believed missing. Search and rescue crews are already blocked by piles of snow in Van's Bahçesaray where 41 people were killed last week while one person is still missing due to two avalanches.


Van Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez says crews can only work in the area once the weather improves, noting another road connecting Van to its Çatak district was already closed due to avalanche risk. Bilmez told İhlas News Agency (İHA) on Monday that they received a tip-off that 13 illegal migrants died in a remote area of Çaldıran, near the border with Iran, but the area was inaccessible. "We had phone calls (from relatives of migrants) from Iran, Germany and (the Turkish city of) Diyarbakır, and these people are believed to have been frozen to death while crossing the border. Even if crews can reach the area, they cannot recover anyone because of storms and blizzards. The visibility is zero now," he said.

Bilmez said the only way to clear the roads and reach any stranded persons was for the blizzards to end. "Unfortunately, such cases of migrant deaths happen in the region. Last year, we found about 100 bodies and only after the snow thawed," he said. The governor says that although they were able to clear the snowed road, blizzards led to their closure almost as soon as the road was cleared. He also warns against the risk of avalanche, especially in Çatak district and urged the public in rural areas not to leave for towns or central Van.

Crop losses and supply chain bottlenecks have driven up food prices in both China and Australia. China experiencing the highest food prices on record, and surprise summer snow hits Tasmania. Vegetable prices were surging in Australia because of the earlier bush fires. What appears to be a dragon head appears out of the cyclone blasting Iceland.

There have been some huge snowfalls in Colorado and Utah over the past four days.

Accumulations of up to 1.5 metres (five feet) have been reported with Alta (pictured) and Snowbird in Utah big winners. Breckenridge and Loveland in Colorado also reported over 1.2 metre (four foot) powder accumulations. Most other resorts in the two states have had at least 50cm/20 inches of snowfall and many a lot more.

Residents of Baghdad rushed to have snowball fights or take photographs Tuesday as the Iraqi capital woke carpeted in white by only its second snowfall in a century.

The last recorded snowfall in the city was in 2008, but it was a quick and mostly slushy affair -- and prior to that, it had been a century since Baghdad saw any flakes. Iraqis young and old said it was the first time they had ever seen snow falling in Baghdad.

The city''s iconic palm trees were daintily outlined in white, and the tarpaulins of the long-running anti-government protest camp in Tahrir Square in the city centre were sprinkled with snow.

People on their way to work stopped their cars to snap pictures or break out into impromptu snowball fights.

Maunakea and Mauna Loa got a fresh dusting of snow and ice overnight, and webcams show the frozen precipitation reached as far down as the mid-level area.

A light layer of snow could be seen at the "MK Visitor Center" cam at Halepohaku, commonly referred to as the Mid-Level area. The spot, located at the 9,300 ft elevation of the 13,800 ft. mountain, is usually without snow even when the summit gets covered.

Maunakea could not be seen from the Mauna Loa Observatory webcam at 1 p.m., but the lava in the foreground had a scattered dusting of snow as well. The observatory is located at just over 11,000 ft.

Supply chains and container goods moving across the world's oceans are beginning to stall. 80% of goods delivered globally are delivered by sea, and of that Asia has 80% of the globe's largest container ports. Container traffic is down 23% in just three weeks. So ask yourself what is delivered via Asian routes to your stores. Record cloudiest days in Russia, Record cold San Diego and Record snow Newfoundland, Canada.

There has been no snow month like January — at least for 150 years.

Ian Hubbard, an Environment Canada meteorologist, said 179.8 cm of snow was registered at the Sydney airport in January, which is an all-time record.

"Records go back to 1870," he said. "It broke the previous record which was 163.03 cm in 1965."

Five January days registered at least 15 cm of snow and last year only five days registered that amount all winter.

In terms of snow accumulation, records at the Sydney airport from December, January and February, the most snowfall recorded was in 1965 — 426.1 cm. So far this year through December and January there has been 217 cm of snow.

A town southwest of Mankato reported more than 15 inches!

It snowed hard for a solid eight hours or so across southern Minnesota and the result is as much of a foot of powder accumulating in some locations. But there's one clear-cut winner with Lake Crystal - just southwest of Mankato - reporting a massive 15.5 inches.

As of 12 p.m., most of the snow has ended outside of some flurries or light snow. Generally, it appears that the Mankato and Rochester areas picked up 7-10 inches while slightly higher totals accumulated in southwest Minnesota, near Marshall.

The metro area (leaderboard for the metro further down in the story) had varying totals, with lower amounts on the north side and higher totals in the southern suburbs.

Heavy snow closed roads across the county Friday, with some parts of Grand seeing more than 30 inches of accumulation.

The National Weather Service recorded 32.5 inches of snow at Berthoud Pass in the last 24 hours. Winter Park saw 30 inches and Grand Lake got 18 inches.

Rabbits Ear Pass has accumulated over 50 inches in the past day.

Meteorologist Joel Gratz of OpenSnow.com is reporting 30 inches at Winter Park Resort from the storm. He predicted a dry day Saturday, with another storm coming in Saturday night through Monday.

No friends on powder days, they say. But there are plenty of strangers.

As of 5 a.m. Friday, Vail Mountain had seen 17 inches in 24 hours. By the end of the day, that number was up to 31 inches, according to Greg Johnson, vice president of mountain operations at Vail Mountain. Some parts of the mountain saw up to 36 inches.

"This is a truly historic storm," Johnson said. "The snow hasn't let up all day, so we're expecting great conditions throughout the weekend and into next week."