The first significant storm of November arrived in the northern Sierra Wednesday and battered the region through Thursday morning, covering roadways and piling up fresh powder.
Ski resorts, which opened only a week ago, were blanketed in snow with Kirkwood reporting 11 inches, Squaw 9, Northstar 7 and Heavenly 5.
Chain control was in effect on Highways 80 and 50 and other main thoroughfares in the mountains in the early morning, but by 11 a.m. a break in the storm made travel easier.
An unseasonable snowstorm hit Falls Creek, Victoria, overnight, leaving the alpine resort in a blanket of fluffy snow on the morning of Thursday, November 22.
A Falls Creek representative told Storyful it was abnormal to see heavy snow in November. "We do sometimes get January snow, however this snowstorm has seen around 10 cm which is massive!" they said. The ski season ended in early October, according to the Falls Creek website.
Social media users were delighted to see footage of the snow. "Nearly a white christmas in Australia! Wow now I've seen everything," one Facebook user wrote. Snow was still falling in Falls Creek at time of writing.
Five feet of snow Greece, Blizzard in Croatia, Slovenia with record snowfall, EF2 water spouts and 200K lighting strikes along new jet streams forming in our atmosphere. This is why the ancient cultures followed cycles in the stars, Sabians of Haran, Sumerians, Daoists and ancient cultures of the Adriatic.
From the Prairies to Prince Edward Island, a harsh fall harvest means Canada could be facing a serious potato shortage, one that may cause millions of dollars worth of Canadian potatoes to rot in the ground this year.
Record breaking snowfall, record setting low temperatures, -50 wind chills, impossible driving conditions amid freezing rain and ice. Sounds like the heart of the winter season doesn't it?
In reality, ALL of these harsh winter conditions have plagued different parts of the country this fall, leaving little to no areas untouched.
Will this be a sign of what's to come this winter or will Mother Nature start to loosen its frosty grip? More on what's happened (keep in mind we had to limit this to just a few main events because the wintry scenes have been endless) and what lies ahead this winter, below.
Continuous snow has swept Qinghai Province in northwest China since the start of November, accumulating record high precipitation in the region's 57 years of history of meteorological records.
Snow accumulation between Nov. 2 and 7 has reached 18 cm on the ground in Dulan County, Haixi Mongolian Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, where the height above mean sea level averages 3,180 meters.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the "roof of the world," is an important region to monitor climate changes with the weather and the glaciers as indicators.
A few weather systems with Michigan on the cold side of the storms and some lake effect snow have made most of Michigan have above normal snowfall so far in the early part of this cold season.
The eastern Upper Peninsula has the most deviation from normal snowfall amounts. Sault Ste. Marie has already shoveled 26.7 inches of snow. This is 17.7 inches more than normal to this date.
Marquette is on the fast track to 100 inches of snow, with 34 inches of snow already falling in this early part of the cold season. Marquette is 15 inches above snowfall normal today.
Here's a rundown of how much snow has fallen as of November 19, 2018 and the departure from normal.
After multiple sightings last winter, including some in Hancock County, snowy owls are again being seen in Indiana, according to the Indiana Audubon Society.
The all-white arctic owl only visits Indiana during cyclical "irruptions" occurring every four to five years, but often the year following an invasion, such as occurred last winter, can produce an "echo effect," bringing another smaller invasion of owls southward, the organization says in a news release.
Comment: This standard explanation of cyclical irruptions has broken down for the last 7 winters, when exceptional numbers appeared every year. See the links below covering the time period which amply demonstrate this point. Some other environmental and/or climate factors seem to be involved.
Snowy owl numbers fluctuate year to year based on their primary prey — lemmings, giant mouse-like rodents — whose population also oscillates based on food supplies and weather conditions in the arctic. When populations spike, the owls respond with higher than normal breeding, with some nests containing ten or more eggs. The subsequent invasions later that fall result in not so much a food scarcity, but because of the abundance of food earlier that summer. Young owls tend to leave the arctic each winter, resulting in the larger-than-normal invasions.
Comment: A sample of the many reports for the last 7 seasons:
More articles out about our planet cooling for a decade or two before the global warming march continues in 2030's. NASA saying look out for global cooling, beer prices doubling, 40 foot waves rip apart apartments Canary Islands, 30F below normal record breaking temperatures on tap for Canada and USA plus ice storms and crop destroying fronts in Asia.
Snow has fallen to 400 metres in lower parts of the South Island and thunderstorms could be on the cards for the top half.
MetService duty forecaster Bill Singh said an unstable southerly flow is the culprit behind the snow.
"As we move towards the day, the snow level is expected to rise to about 600 metres," he said.
"There has been a warning out for central Otago, inland Clutha and Southland for snow ... to [fall] to 800 metres where between 30 to 40 centimetres of snow is expected to accumulate."
The course of life and labour reminds me of a long journey I once took on the railway. Suddenly, there was a breakdown ahead, and passengers took the event in various ways. Some of them sat still resignedly, and never said a word. Others again, went to sleep. But some of us leaped out of that train, and ran on ahead to clear the road of all obstructions.
- Michael Collins
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So true, and now the UK has compounded this by taking direct action against Iran's drones and missiles What we're witnessing is a display of...
Comment: A few days ago elsewhere in the southern hemisphere: Spring snow blankets lower South Island, New Zealand with more on the way