Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Ice Age Farmer Report: "Death Sentence" for food production: Grand Solar Minimum

frost crop
2019 starts with a cold bang: farmers in Sonora, Mexico are lighting tires on fire to keep their crops warm. Massive cold, frosts, and snows have descended also in Europe and Asia, bringing a "death sentence" to modern agriculture.

Christian explores the Grand Solar Minimum's influence on a weak jet stream, triggering these temperature and precipitation extremes, as well as shares resources on how to start germinating seeds for this coming growing season.


Sources

Comment: Related article: Frost across India ups risk to rabi (spring) crops


Snowflake Cold

Frost across India ups risk to rabi (spring) crops

snow
In the wake of cold waves affecting large parts of India, reports of frost are emerging from multiple states. The frost may pose an additional risk to rabi crops, which already face an uncertain future due to the deficient northeast monsoon and feeble Western Disturbances (critical precipitation-bearing systems) in December.

Air frost occurs when ground-level air temperature is below zero degrees Celsius. Ground frost, meanwhile, refers to icy deposits on the ground formed when soil moisture freezes. Recently, in Kerala's Munnar, minimum (night-time) temperatures plunged to -4°C, blanketing the hills in white frost. Pretty though the sight was, it was bad news for tea plantation owners in the hill station, who say frost has resulted in huge losses for a second consecutive year.


Comment: See also: Unusually low temperatures hit India's southern state of Kerala


Snowflake

Heavy snowfall in Japan - 40 inches dumped on Yamagata overnight

snow
Parts of Japan had their heaviest snow of the season along the Sea of Japan coast last night.

Some parts had 25-40 inches of snow.

As you can imagine travel was disrupted across the entire area.

Shinjo in the northern prefecture of Yamagata got 40″ of snow.

Tokyo has not seen any snow yet this season. That may change this weekend with a chance of snow in the forecast.


Ice Cube

Both Arctic & Antarctic sea ice at historically high levels

icebergs towed Antarctica to South Africa
© ReutersHuge icebergs could be towed from Antarctica to Cape Town to solve South Africa's worst drought in a century.

Contrary to claims that modern day sea ice changes are "unprecedented", alarming, and well outside the range of natural variability, biomarker proxies used to reconstruct both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice conditions since the Early Holocene increasingly reveal that there is more extensive Arctic and Antarctic sea ice during recent decades than for nearly all of the last 10,000 years.

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent

According to Comiso Et Al., 2017, "Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Has Been Slowly Increasing Contrary To Expected Trends Due To Global Warming And Results From Coupled Climate Models."

'After A Record High Extent In 2012 The Extent Was Even Higher In 2014. ... [T]He Trend In Sea Ice Cover Is Strongly Influenced By The Trend In Surface Temperature [Cooling]."

Comment: Results like these further support the overall trend, measured all over the globe, that our planet is undergoing serious cooling: And for an idea as to why this may be occurring check out: Professor Valentina Zharkova explains and confirms why a "Super" Grand Solar Minimum is upon us as well as SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?


Snowflake

Massive snowstorms continue in Austria and the Northern Alps - 10 feet of snow in 7 days for one resort

snow Austria
There has been a huge amount of snow falling across the northern European Alps over the past couple of weeks with resorts in Austria bearing the brunt of the storm. While there have been a few epic powder days in some resorts, there is literally too much snow in other areas with roads and train lines cut.

We've been talking about big snowfalls in Whistler, California and Japan, but the seven-day totals in parts of Austria are really impressive - the resort of Tauplitz reporting over three metres (10 feet), while Solden's upper slopes now have a base of over four metres after 70cms fell in the past few days.




Snowflake

Storm packing snow and rain paralyzes parts of Lebanon

flood
Among those affected are tens of thousands of Syrian refugees

A winter storm packing heavy rain and snow has turned streets in Lebanon into rivers of water and mud and paralyzed parts of the country.

Among those affected Tuesday are tens of thousands of Syrian refugees many of whom live in tent settlements.

In the eastern Bekaa Valley, Syrian refugees stayed indoors next to diesel or wood heaters as snow covered their flimsy tents.

Authorities closed the highway linking Beirut with the Syrian capital Damascus after parts of it that cut through high mountains became covered with snow.


Snowflake Cold

Unusually low temperatures hit India's southern state of Kerala

Kerala frost
© Kerala Tourism/Twitter
As the snow blanketed north India's Uttrakhand, Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on Monday, Delhi woke up to a chilly morning with the fog impacting visibility, hitting transport services. While such developments are relatively mundane when it comes to Delhi and northern part of India at this time of the year, what is happening in an otherwise tropical Kerala has left many baffled.

The usually pleasant Kerala hill station of Munnar has been experiencing sub-zero temperatures since the New Year arrived. As per reports, Munnar experienced a dip as low as -3 degrees Celsius the previous Wednesday, which severely affected acres of tea plantations in the region.

Kerala Tourism tweeted frost covered pictures of Munnar with a tweet, "We woke up to a chilly surprise this morning. Take a guess where; it's perhaps our most popular hill station."

Snowflake Cold

Rare snowfall blankets Athens as temperatures across Greece hit record lows

Snow covers a tree in front of the ancient Acropolis hill with the 500BC Parthenon temple, after snow fell in Athens, on Tuesday,
© AP /Petros GiannakourisSnow covers a tree in front of the ancient Acropolis hill with the 500BC Parthenon temple, after snow fell in Athens, on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019.

The ancient monuments in Athens got a rare dusting of snow on Tuesday as temperatures across Greece hit record lows, bringing transport to a standstill in some areas.

While early morning tourists at the Acropolis were treated to a snow-globe scene, locals had to contend with roads made impassable by ice and many schools were closed in the Athens region.

In northern Greece, where an all-time low of -23 C was recorded in the city of Florina, highways, rail and bus services were disrupted.

Heavy rain and snow was reported on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which is more used to protracted periods of drought.


Source: Reuters

Snowflake

Weekend storms deliver 3 feet of snow to Lake Tahoe ski resorts

Diamond Peak Ski Resort
Diamond Peak Ski Resort
Tahoe area ski resorts got a big boost from several weekend storms that moved through the region over the weekend.

After reporting 6 inches of new snow following the first storm, Diamond Peak Ski Resort received an additional 30 inches of new snow from Sunday's storm for a weekend total of 36 inches.

Similarly, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe reports 32-36 inches of new snow following the weekend storms.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort, which has received an impressive 140 inches of snow so far this season, is reporting 32 new inches of snow.

Comment: See also: Heavy snowfall, avalanche warnings in the Sierra, California - receives up to 2 feet of snow in 24 hours


Snowflake

Five dead, two missing in snow-struck Austria - up to 3 metres accumulating in the mountains

Roads, rail services and schools have been forced to close in Austria, villages have been cut off and the forecast is for more snow
Roads, rail services and schools have been forced to close in Austria, villages have been cut off and the forecast is for more snow
Three skiers and two snowshoe hikers have died as heavy snow and avalanches hit Austria, isolating several areas of the mountainous country, authorities said Monday.

Two German skiers lost their lives in avalanches in the western region of Vorarlberg on Sunday, and a Slovenian died in the region of Salzburg, rescue services said.

The bodies of two missing snowshoe hikers were discovered Monday as snow caused chaos in parts of the country, blocking roads and shuttering schools.

Two other hikers are still missing in the country's northeast.

Comment: See in addition: High avalanche risk in Alps amid heavy snow - 2 dead

Up to 7 feet of snow in 7 days hits Austria and the eastern Alps