Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake Cold

Extremely rare 'rainbow clouds' light up Arctic skies for 3 days in a row

In and around the Arctic Circle, stunning multicolor clouds have been shining in the sky for days on end. It is very unusual to see so many of these vibrant clouds over such a long period.
polar stratospheric clouds
© Ramunė ŠapailaitėIridescent, rainbow-colored clouds, known as polar stratospheric clouds, have been spotted across the Arctic for days on end.
"Spectacular" rainbow-colored clouds have been shimmering in the skies over and around the Arctic for more than three days thanks to an unusual cold snap in the upper atmosphere. And even more of these technicolor treats could appear during the next few months, experts say.

The colorful clouds, known as polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), were spotted floating high in the sky above parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Alaska, and even as far south as Scotland. They began to emerge on Dec. 18 and continued to appear clearly until Dec. 20, according to Spaceweather.com. Some smaller, less distinct clouds were also spotted on Dec. 21, but in general they seem to be disappearing.

Photographer Ramunė Šapailaitė captured staggering photos of the rare phenomenon above Gran in southern Norway. Her photos revealed the rainbow hues of PSCs and their iridescent shimmer that has inspired the nickname nacreous clouds, due to their similarity with nacre — an iridescent material, also known as mother-of-pearl, that is found in the shells of some mollusks.

"The colors are spectacular," Šapailaitė told Spaceweather.com. "The clouds were visible in the sky all day, but the colors really exploded just before sunset."

The PSCs were caused by a prolonged period of unusually cold temperatures in the sky, according to Spaceweather.com.

Bizarro Earth

Too many would have to admit they had been fooled and should have known better

Twitter Image
© Künstliche Intelligenz at X

The following is a commentary posted by Künstliche Intelligenz at X. I've translated it in English below.


It sums up well what's going on when it comes to corona and climate and what to expect in 2024.
"Corona, climate narrative and opportunity costs

After the first vaccination campaigns in the corona pandemic, it was reasonable to assume that people would ask themselves questions after the third, fourth or, at the latest, after the fifth vaccination. But this rational assumption cannot be applied when we are dealing with a faith-based model.

In fact, the opposite is true.

Anyone who got Covid after the initial double vaccination could have told themselves the vaccination doesn't work, so I can go without it in future. However, after three years, many vaccinations, lockdowns and countless masks, it is now very difficult to 'opt out'. The opportunity costs are high because you would then have to admit that you had been fooled for years."

Snowflake Cold

90 pct of Mongolian territory covered by heavy snow

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Around 90 percent of the Mongolian territory has been covered with snow of up to 38 cm thick, increasing the risk of the extreme wintry weather known as "dzud," the country's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Monday.

Dzud is a Mongolian term to describe a severely cold winter when a large number of livestock die because the ground is frozen or covered with snow.

Currently, at least 41 soums (administrative subdivisions) of 11 provinces of the country are experiencing dzud, NEMA said in a statement, adding that 48 soums of 11 provinces are suffering from near-dzud conditions.

Meanwhile, since the beginning of last week, a strong cold front originated in Siberia, Russia, has been sweeping across extensive areas of Mongolia, causing temperature drops and bringing strong winds and blizzards.

Heavy snow and blizzards are also expected to hit large parts of the country this week, said the weather monitoring agency.

Cloud Precipitation

Powerful storm leaves 4 dead and causes widespread power outages in US Northeast as snow and cold temperatures sweep in

Cars are submerged in flood water in Elmsford, New York, after a powerful storm on Monday.
© Kena Betancur/Getty ImagesCars are submerged in flood water in Elmsford, New York, after a powerful storm on Monday.
At least four people are dead after a powerful storm brought dangerous flooding and travel disruptions across the East Coast and knocked out power to more than 620,000 homes and businesses in the Northeast, which faces cold temperatures and concentrated snowfall on Tuesday.

The storm system carved a chaotic path up the East Coast, leaving a man in Pennsylvania and a woman in South Carolina - both in their 70s - dead after their vehicles were submerged in high water, local officials reported. Two other deaths were reported in Maine and Massachusetts.

As the storm walloped the Northeast Monday, it unleashed 2-4 inches of rainfall across the region within a 24-hour period. The heavy rainfall triggered flooding that engulfed cars, trapped drivers on inundated roadways in New Jersey and Connecticut, and prompted water rescues in New Hampshire and Maine.


Bizarro Earth

More coal burned on Earth in 2023 than ever before in human history

Coal Mine
© witf.org
The best kept secret in the world is that humans are using more coal than ever.

So much for the "stranded dead asset". In 2022 the world set a new all-time record for coal use — reaching 8.4 billion tons. In 2023, despite all the Net Zero billions in spending, despite the boom in windmills and solar panels, global demand for coal will top 8.54 billion tons.

The IEA is the "International Energy Agency" — supposedly, the impartial servant of 31 nations worth of taxpayers. Yet they decided to ignore the world record and instead tell us how coal is set to decline. It's what they think the taxpayers need to hear. Their press release:

IEA Image
© joannenova.com.au
It's almost as if the IEA works for the renewables industry and their banker investors? Mr Vestas himself could hardly have written a more successful headline to hide the truth and gaslight the taxpayers.

Snowflake

Rare snowfall in southern China as deep freeze grips the north

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FILE: A new round of cold air has arrived in the south, and it will snow again in the central and eastern parts of the country.
The cold weather sweeping China brought rare snowfall on Monday as far south as the province of Guangdong, while temperatures in the chilly north plunged to near historic lows for the month.

In a week of unexpectedly frigid weather, temperatures have fallen to lows below zero in northern areas, disrupting road, rail and air transport and even causing a brake failure in a commuter train in Beijing, the capital.

Forecasters early in November had predicted a warmer winter this year due to the El Nino phenomenon, while warning that temperatures could fluctuate after one of the warmest Octobers in decades.

On Monday in Guangdong, where snow is generally limited to the northernmost areas, snowfall blanketed the top of a mountain in a city just 80 km (50 miles) north of the provincial capital Guangzhou by the coast.


Snowflake

New Mexico ski resorts buried by 2+ feet of snow in 48 hours

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The snow gods delivered.

Angel Fire Resort, New Mexico, has picked up 26 inches of snow in the past 48 hours.

The Resort recently shared an Instagram video depicting its hardworking ops team shoveling the fresh snow.


Better Earth

Best of the Web: 'Unprecedented' ice mass gain over Antarctic sheet between 2021 & 2022, outpaced mass loss

Antarctic ice gain

Comment: The information below is the abstract from a scientific paper published November 4th 2023 that has yet to receive much, if any, mainstream coverage - unsurprisingly - however the conclusion of their findings are stated fairly clearly.


Abstract and Figures

The Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) is susceptible to global climate change, and its mass loss has been 92 ± 18 Gt/yr between 1992 and 2020. Given the current intensive global warming, we investigate the AIS mass changes from January 2003 to December 2022, using the newly released satellite gravimetry and atmospheric datasets.

The results show that the continuous mass loss in the AIS between 2003 and 2020 was 141.8 ± 55.6 Gt/yr. However, the AIS showed a record-breaking mass gain of 129.7 ± 69.6 Gt/yr between 2021 and 2022. During this period, the mass gain over the East AIS and Antarctic Peninsula was unprecedented within the past two decades, and it outpaced the mass loss in the Amundsen sector of the West AIS from 2003 to 2022. Basin-scale analysis shows that the mass gain mainly occurred over Wilhelm II Land, Queen Mary Land, Wilkes Land, and the Antarctic Peninsula due to anomalously enhanced precipitation.

Comment: This seems to be further evidence showing that the apparent brief period of warming that our planet underwent in recent decades is fast being replaced with significant global cooling.

It also seems to support research showing that, whilst increased undersea volcanic and geothermal activity has led to a reduction of ice in some regions, it's being countered by the increasingly extreme cold temperatures from above: And check out SOTT radio's:


Attention

NOT satire: 'Human breathing contributes to global warming' - British scientists


Comment: "...therefore our solution is to..."


Methane and nitrous oxide found in human exhalations are worse for the environment than carbon dioxide, scientists say.
Breathing
© Getty Images / Peter Dazelly
Human breathing contributes to global warming, according to a study published Wednesday in PLoS One. The authors argued that human respiration's contribution to climate change has been underestimated and merits further study.

After measuring the gas composition in the exhaled breaths of 328 study participants, the researchers concluded human breath comprises 0.05% of the UK's methane emissions and 0.1% of its nitrous oxide. Both of those gasses "have a much higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide," the study notes.

"Exhaled human breath can contain small, elevated concentrations of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both of which contribute to global warming," the researchers, led by atmospheric physicist Nicholas Cowan of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, wrote. "We would urge caution in the assumption that emissions from humans are negligible."

While Cowan explained that "CO2 contribution in human breath to climate change is essentially zero" because plants absorb nearly all the carbon dioxide humans breathe out, the other two gasses are left in the atmosphere. Methane traps 80 times the amount of heat as carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere, though this potency decreases over time.

Snowflake Cold

Blizzards sweep across Russia bringing massive snow falls

A man walks past cars covered with snow after
© REUTERS/Maxim ShemetovA man walks past cars covered with snow after heavy snowfall in Moscow, Russia December 15, 2023.
Blizzards swept across swathes of Russia on Friday, carpeting Moscow in one of the biggest snow falls in decades and sowing chaos on major roads where truck drivers battled with more than 20 centimetres of snow and strong winds.

A cyclone brought more than a day of constant blizzards to the Russian capital in what could be one of the strongest snow storms to hit Moscow in 60 years, according to meteorologists.

More than one fifth of the average snow fall for December was recorded over just 24 hours at metrological stations across Moscow where streets were blanketed in snow and motorists struggled to get their cars out of parking spaces.