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© NOAA
Roughly five years ago, a huge patch of unusually warm ocean water appeared off the coast of North America, stretching from Mexico's Baja California Peninsula all the way up to Alaska.
It was nicknamed the Blob, after a horror film monster that consumes everything in sight. The heatwave, which lasted for several years, was an equally indiscriminate killer.
According to estimates, during this time the southern coast of Alaska lost more than 100 million Pacific cod. Thousands of seabirds were found washed up on the shore, and about half a million were decimated in total. In one year alone, populations of humpback whales dropped by 30 percent. Salmon, sea lions, krill, and other marine animals also vanished in astonishing numbers, as toxic algae bloomed.
The Blob caused ecosystems and industries alike immense losses - so much so that researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are now closely tracking these events.
The current heatwave, they say, has not only popped up in the same area, it's grown in much the same way and is almost the same size.
Side by side, a comparison of both their early stages is ominous. Like the blob, the current marine heat wave emerged only a few months ago, as the winds that cool the ocean's surface began to die down.
"Given the magnitude of what we saw last time, we want to know if this evolves on a similar path," says marine ecologist Chris Harvey from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
© Jackson Hole Mountain Resort WebcamRendezvous Peak
The 2020 Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting that this winter, there'll be s'no escape from shivers, snowflakes, and slush: "Snowy, icy, and icky" conditions, "wet and wild" periods, and "a parade of snowstorms" will transform the landscape.
The snow fell on Bald Mountain in the Uinta Mountains early Tuesday morning.
The area is about 12,000 feet above sea level.
BIG SKY RESORT
As clouds cleared this morning, 11,166 foot Lone Peak revealed a dusting of snow.
For the record - there are just 80 more days until ski season begins.
Winter is just around the corner.
© Spencer RobinsonLight snow fell in Labrador after post-tropical storm Dorian swept through.
After Dorian made landfall as a hurricane-strength post-tropical storm in Nova Scotia Saturday and tracked east, it left behind more than a trail of damage and power outages -- it even dropped some light flurries in parts of New Brunswick and Labrador, later that evening and overnight Sunday, respectively.
What led to the dusting of the white stuff (no accumulations) was a trough merging with Dorian. As it transitioned into a post-tropical storm, the wind field expanded and the storm lost its tropical characteristics, Weather Network meteorologist Matt Grinter explained.
Winter in Livigno, north Italy on September 8
The first flakes began falling on Friday and continued throughout the weekend, leaving the highest slopes covered in several centimetres of snow.
As much as 27 centimetres was measured near Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomites, according to regional authorities.
Deep freeze on Marmolada, the Dolomites, north Italy at 3270 m elevation. September 8th. Report: Carlo Budel pic.twitter.com/Fe8OQ6vdXA
— severe-weather.EU (@severeweatherEU) September 9, 2019
MS MALMO came to a grinding halt on Sep 3 off Longyearbyen, the Svalbard Archipelago.
The MS MALMO is the latest in a long list of ships to have gotten stuck in surprisingly thick Arctic sea ice this year.
The Swedish vessel, built in 1943 and refurbished in 2014, was on an "Arctic tour" with the noble mission of ferrying a team of Climate Change documentary filmmakers to the front line. The teams intention was to capture some of the catastrophic ice melt being reported by the worlds media — ice melt which it would appear still refuses to manifest despite decades of furious willing from the UN & IPCC.
The MS MALMO came to a grinding halt on Sep 3 off Longyearbyen, the Svalbard Archipelago, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, when it encountered impenetrably thick ice.
All 16 icehuggers on-board wound up being evacuated by helicopter in very challenging conditions and at the expense of a carbon-footprint of yeti proportions:
Fortunately, as stated by the provincial Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, Alberto Diomedi, "the Inter-jurisdictional Authority of the Limay, Neuquen, and Negro River Basins (AIC) had announced this extreme weather event five days in advance, which allowed producers to prepare to face it." The government sent water through the irrigation canals so that the producers could spray it as a defense against the frost, the official said.
Comment: Elsewhere recently in the country: Argentine stone fruits expected to suffer serious losses due to harsh late frosts
© Phoebe Davis
Phoebe Davis took to Facebook to share a photo of snow-covered roadways that her kids ran into on their way to Goose Bay.
Environment Canada Meteorologist, Rob Carroll says this is Dorian's doing.
Comment: See also: