Extreme Temperatures
Temperatures inland fell over 20ºC in 24 hours, resulting in snowfall in parts of Alicante region. Alcoi recorded temperatures just above freezing.
l'Alcoià and El Comtat reported snowfall, with a dusting of the white stuff across the area as well as in the regions mountains.
In an update issued by meteorological agency Aemet, they went on to say that the last time temperatures fell so fast was back in 1939.
Footage shared by Amarillo-based meteorologist Corbin A Voges shows the snowy conditions on Wednesday morning.
"Crazy weather! We made it to 76° yesterday afternoon and we are accumulating snow just 15 hours later!" Voges wrote in a tweet.
The NWS reported downed power lines and stranded cars on highways as near-whiteout conditions struck some areas.
Matt Eichelberger, who captured the footage, told Storyful that his encounter with the meteorological phenomenon occurred on March 16 during a trip to Big Sky, Montana.
Credit: Matt Eichelberger via Storyful
The avalanche happened in the Flassin area, in the Gran San Bernardo Valley, about 1,800 metres up.
The victim was going down a gully with a companion who witnessed the accident.
There was another group of three skiers in the vicinity who were not hit by the avalanche.
© Ulf Buntgen
Example of a polished cross-section of an oak from the Czech Republic
Example of a polished cross-section of an oak from the Czech Republic
This anomaly is likely the result of human-caused climate change and associated shifts in the jet stream. The results are reported in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Comment: The multitude of unexpected events and changes that we're witnessing on earth and throughout our solar system clearly shows these climate extremes are part of a much bigger shift, and that the drivers are much greater than CO2: Cosmic climate change: Is the cause of all this extreme weather to be found in outer space?
Recent summer droughts and heatwaves in Europe have had devastating ecological and economic consequences, which will worsen as the global climate continues to warm.
Comment: Except the climate, overall, is cooling: Global cooling to replace warming trend that started 4,000 years ago - Chinese scientists
The weekend storm officially brought 27.1 inches of snow to Denver as measured at the airport (DIA). It was a rare storm where DIA got more snow than virtually anywhere else in the Denver metro area.
Afghanistan
"Twenty five Taliban fighters, some of them Pakistani nationals, died in an avalanche last night in a mountainous area of Zazi-Aryob district last night on their way to Afghanistan," Mohammad Lal Amiri, police spokesperson for the Paktia province - where the incident took place - told EFE.
Amiri said that the accident occurred when the insurgents were trying to cross the border from Pakistan amid snow-covered mountains through a risky route which is not under the control of the Afghan security forces.
Most of the bodies of the deceased had been recovered from the area and transfered back to the other side of the Durand Line, the long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan established through a 19th century agreement between the British and Kabul, which is not recognized by the current Afghan authorities.
Lech in Austria is pictured above this morning
"The return of winter" comes with less than a week until the start of springtime and after several months when fresh snowfall has been quite rare, although most areas report good cover on their runs.
The snowfall is widespread but has so far been heaviest in the French and Swiss Alps where many resorts have posted >30-60cm (1-2 feet) of snowfall so far, some as much as 1.2 metres (4 feet) already, and the snowfall is expected to continue through this week.
Comment: Note that our planet is not only suffering extreme droughts, extreme flooding is also on the rise, and research shows that both of these patterns have occurred before, and it would appear that they're part of a cycle that is linked to ice ages; however, as revealed in the article, it would appear that, this time, it may be even more severe:
- Cyclical climate change: Major drought in the Middle Ages and its parallels with today
- Highest flooding in Europe for 500 years, historical records show correlation with abnormal cold
- Melting icebergs key feature of an ice age, scientists find
- Gulf Stream System at its weakest in over a millennium, last significant decline recorded during the little ice age
- NASA: Recent "Greening Earth" has had strong cooling effect on land
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