Extreme Temperatures
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Eagle

Eagle influx doubles this year at Goldstream Park, BC, Canada

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Eagles abound in Goldstream park now through, hopefully, the new year
The eagles have landed in droves at Goldstream Provincial Park.

"Every year we have the eagles that come after the salmon run but this year there seems to be more than previous years," said park naturalist Bre Robinson.

The flock has more than doubled from the 65 last year to 158 counted today (Dec. 12).

They scan the park with binoculars as a head count, but figure there's even more.

Snowflake

Israel blanketed with heaviest snowfall in 70 years

Snowstorm in Jerusalem
© Uriel Sinai Source: Getty Images Cars sit stuck during a snowstorm on one of the two main highways to Jerusalem.
THE heaviest snowfall in decades has blocked roads across Israel and the West Bank, while torrential rains have flooded areas of the Gaza Strip.

The heavy snow, which stopped falling on Saturday afternoon, prompted Israeli authorities to interrupt the Jewish Sabbath to lay on relief trains.

Nationwide, some 30,000 households were without electricity, nearly 9,000 of them in Jerusalem, the Israel Electric Corp said.

Jerusalem city workers managed to clear most roads of drifting snow but appealed to residents to stay at home as fallen trees posed a persistent traffic hazard.

Few had ventured out, apart from observant Jews walking to synagogues.

Snowflake Cold

Winter storm, frostbite warnings now in effect for Ottawa

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Residents should get out the shovels as more snow will fall overnight in addition to freezing cold temperatures.
A winter storm warning has been issued for Ottawa, Gatineau and areas of eastern Ontario as at least 15 centimetres of snow are expected to fall starting this afternoon.

Environment Canada says there will be significant snowfall and blowing snow overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. Drivers should expect bad road conditions.

This also comes after Ottawa Public Health issued a frostbite warning for Friday and Saturday. Officials expect the temperature to feel like - 35 degrees Celsius or colder due to the wind chill.

Better Earth

Swedish study finds that earth was warmer in ancient Roman times and the Middle Ages than today

medieval temp
If you think the Earth is hot now, try wearing plate armor in the Middle Ages.

A Swedish study found that the planet was warmer in ancient Roman times and the Middle Ages than today, challenging the mainstream idea that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the main drivers of global warming.

The study, by scientist Leif Kullman, analyzed 455 "radiocarbon-dated mega-fossils" in the Scandes mountains and found that tree lines for different species of trees were higher during the Roman and Medieval times than they are today. Not only that, but the temperatures were higher as well.

"Historical tree line positions are viewed in relation to early 21st century equivalents, and indicate that tree line elevations attained during the past century and in association with modern climate warming are highly unusual, but not unique, phenomena from the perspective of the past 4,800 years," Kullman found. "Prior to that, the pine tree line (and summer temperatures) was consistently higher than present, as it was also during the Roman and Medieval periods."

Comment: See also: Tree-rings prove climate was warmer in Roman and Medieval times than it is now - and world has been cooling for 2,000 years


Igloo

Flip-flopping climate science: In 1974 global cooling was called the "new norm" by the National Center for Atmospheric Research who blamed climate disasters on it

This report was originally published in 1974:
Climate Change and its Effect on World Food

by Walter Orr Roberts Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

In February of 1972 earth-orbiting artificial satellites revealed the existence of a greatly increased area of the snow and ice cover of the north polar cap as compared to all previous years of space age observations. Some scientists believe that this may have presaged the onset of the dramatic climate anomalies of 1972 that brought far-reaching adversities to the world's peoples. Moreover, there is mounting evidence that the bad climate of 1972 may be the forerunner of a long series of less favorable agricultural crop years that lie ahead for most world societies. Thus widespread food shortages threaten just at the same time that world populations are growing to new highs. Indeed, less favorable climate may be the new global norm. The Earth may have entered a new "little ice age"

There are strong signs that these recent climate disasters were not random deviations from the usual weather, but instead signals of the emergence of a new normal for world climates.
Read the entire PDF here.

Cloud Precipitation

Jerusalem: Tens of thousands without power as severe storm continues

snow jerusalem
© Ilan Ben Zion / Times of IsraelSnow in Jerusalem just after midnight Friday
Police tell Jerusalemites to stay home; electric corp. declares national state of emergency; IDF and police rescuing hundreds of travelers stranded near capital

The Israel Electric Corporation declared a nationwide state of emergency Friday as tens of thousands of homes in Jerusalem and the surrounding region remained without power amid the severe winter storm currently besieging the area.

The electric company said it was manning a situation room to receive reports of outages and was calling in emergency workers to help restore power to those affected in certain parts of Jerusalem, Mevasseret Zion, Har Adar, Abu Gosh and Tzur Hadassah where many power lines were hit by fallen trees.

Ice Cube

Winter Storm 'Alexa' Chills Middle East

syrian children
Syrian refugees children play near a snowman in a camp for Syrians who fled their countryโ€™s civil war, in the Bekaa valley, eastern Lebanon, Dec. 12, 2013.
A powerful winter storm sweeping the eastern Mediterranean this week is causing mayhem across the region and inflicting extra misery on Syrians convulsed in civil war and refugees who have fled the fighting.

The storm, named Alexa, is expected to last until Saturday, bringing more snow, rain and freezing temperatures to large swaths of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The bad weather, which began on Wednesday, is taking a disproportionate toll on the 2.2 million refugees living outside Syria and the 6.5 million people displaced within the country.

Igloo

Heaviest snowstorm since 1953 hits Israel

Snow in Israel
© European Jewsih PressThe snow at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem --- The heaviest winter snowstorm in December since 1953 hit Israel, including Jerusalem, Wednesday night and Thursday, prompting school closures and blocking access routes to the Israeli capital.

The stormy weather was expected to persist into the weekend, with snow reaching elevated areas as far south as the Negev Desert on Friday.

Snow began falling on Mount Hermon in the north. Snow is expected later in the week in areas of northern Israel and the Galilee, as well as in high elevations in central Israel.

The Jerusalem municipality sent out an alert that school studies in the capital were canceled. Courses at the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus were also called off for the day.

Igloo

Sun's current solar activity cycle is weakest in a century

Solar Cycle 24
© NASA/SDO/GSFCThis still from a video taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the Aug. 8, 2011 solar flare as it appeared in the ultraviolet range of the light spectrum. The flare registered as an X6.9 class sun storm, the largest of the Solar Cycle 24.

San Francisco - The sun's current space-weather cycle is the most anemic in 100 years, scientists say.

Our star is now at "solar maximum," the peak phase of its 11-year activity cycle. But this solar max is weak, and the overall current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, conjures up comparisons to the famously feeble Solar Cycle 14 in the early 1900s, researchers said.

"None of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle. So we will learn something," Leif Svalgaard of Stanford University told reporters here today (Dec. 11) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

The learning has already begun. For example, scientists think they know why the solar storms that have erupted during Solar Cycle 24 have caused relatively few problems here on Earth.

The sun often blasts huge clouds of superheated particles into space, in explosions known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Powerful CMEs that hit Earth squarely can trigger geomagnetic storms, which in turn can disrupt radio communications, GPS signals and power grids.

But such effects have rarely been seen during Solar Cycle 24, even though the total number of CMEs hasn't dropped off much, if at all. The explanation, researchers said, lies in the reduced pressure currently present in the heliosphere, the enormous bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields that the sun puffs out around itself.

Snowflake Cold

Rare snowstorm near Syria-Lebanon border brings havoc, disrupts aid

lebanon snow storm
© AFP Photo / STRA Syrian refugee shovels snow outside her tent in the makeshift refugee camp of Terbol near the Bekaa Valley town of Zahleh in eastern Lebanon on December 11, 2013.
At least two people were killed and 14 injured as the first snowfall of the season hit Syria and Lebanon. High winds and freezing temperatures affected refugee camps and disrupted international aid. More severe weather is expected this winter.

The storm, named 'Alexa,' took the lives of two people and injured 14 others in Lebanon, Ya Libnan reported, citing Red Cross Secretary General George Kettaneh.

The winter storm caused transportation chaos in the region and grounded the UN humanitarian airlift, which was scheduled to bring food and supplies from Iraq to the northeastern Kurdish areas of Syria. Tens of thousands of people are isolated in those areas, waiting for the aid to arrive.

"Qamishli airport (in Syria) has suspended all flights due to weather conditions, snow and poor visibility," UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHR) spokesman Dan McNorton told Reuters. "We're not going to be able to make those flights happen until the weather improves."

The storm is estimated to last until Saturday, with temperatures plummeting below seven degrees Celsius in mountainous regions of Lebanon.

"I don't know if this tent will hold up, it's just a few flimsy pieces of metal holding it up," refugee Abu Suleiman told AP. He resides in the Lebanese town of Marj, located near the border with Syria.

In the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal, temperatures hovered just above zero degrees Celsius. A member of the town's municipal council, Wafiq Khalaf, said that refugees were "shivering with cold, especially the ones in tents."

"At the moment there is more than 10 centimeters of snow on the ground, but more is expected," he told AFP.