Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake

Early snowfall causes chaos in western Austria

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© APA/GindlA lorry on the A10 near the Tauern tunnel.
Winter has come early to western Austria, leaving hundreds of homes without electricity on Wednesday night. Snow and rainfall also caused numerous problems on roads, and is expected to continue until Thursday evening.

The Tauern tunnel and A10 motorway had to be closed on Thursday morning in the direction of Salzburg because of a fallen tree.

Fallen trees also caused power outages in the Tyrolean regions of Brandenberg, Hochfilzen, Zillertall in Zell and Gerlostal.

The Arlberg railway line had to be closed between Wald am Arlberg and Dalaas. Travellers were warned of delays and cancellations on the train service between Tyrol and Vorarlberg until noon. A rail replacement bus service has been set up.

Experts are also warning of an increased danger of avalanches in Tyrol.

Snowflake

Heavy autumn snow covers Mohe City, China

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The heaviest autumn snow in three years blanketed Mohe City, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, affecting local residents' daily lives and traffic flow.


Snowflake

Siberian snow cover far ahead of schedule - near record pace

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The difference is massive.
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Compare snow mapping for October 2013 and October 2014

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NSIDC Snow Cover showing Siberian Snow Extent 2004-2014

Quoting WxRisk, "not only is the SAI way ahead of schedule and at a near record pace BUT the SCE - snow cover extent - is also going Gang busters.."

Thanks to Caroline Snyder in West Virginia for these links
"And we know that Siberian Ice Extent influences the severity of North American winters," says Caroline.

Snowflake

Snowfall predicted for Moscow this weekend

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© RIA Novosti. Artyom JitenevThe warm season seems to be over in Moscow, as the Russian capital is expecting a snowfall this weekend, a weather center Fobos reports.
The warm season seems to be over in Moscow, as the Russian capital is expecting a snowfall this weekend, a weather center Fobos reports.

Meteorologists are diligently observing a powerful cyclone intensifying in South-Eastern Europe, which eventually will move north. The cyclone will bring rain to Europe, however since Moscow is located further north, Russians would have to deal with a series of snowfalls, reported newspaper Gazeta.

"On October 17, cold air will flow into the capital region with north-east winds, reducing the thermometer: up to four degrees in the capital and minus four in the Moscow region. North and north-east of the region might see some wet snow", said news agency Moskva.

After the weekend, temperatures will continue to drop.

Snowflake

Early winter falls on Oslo, Norway

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© Via Twitter@TrekEarth Snow in Oslo, Norway, on Oct. 16, 2014.
Oslo, Norway, had an early taste of winter on Thursday as snow returned.

Snow began mixing with rain early Thursday morning in Oslo and continued to do so through early Friday morning.

With temperatures at or slightly above freezing, it was a wet snow that fell.

Views and News from Norway reported that snow covered the ground in the hills around Oslo Thursday morning, while the four-lane E6 highway between Oslo and Moss turned white.

Thursday marked Oslo's first occurrence of snow since early May and the city's coldest day since early April. Temperatures were held to only 2.3 C (36 F).

"The combination of a slow-moving storm system and cold air pulled in on the backside of another storm that brought snow to Moscow on Thursday led to the snow in Oslo," stated AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Tyler Roys.

Children and residents should not get ready to spend the weekend making snowmen or shoveling driveways.

Snowflake

Early October snowfall on the Big Island of Hawaii

Here is something you don't see every day, a satellite image showing a sizable amount of snow cover on the big island of Hawaii. While snowfall on the big island is nothing new, commonly seen on the mountains on Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, (top and bottom arrows respectively in the photo) seeing snow this early in the season on the mounatins is somewhat rare.
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© McIDAS
McIDAS images of GOES-15 (GOES-West) 6.5 µm water vapor channel data showed an upper-level low that moved from east to west over the Hawaiian Islands during the 13 October - 14 October 2014 period. This low forced the development of widespread showers and thunderstorms, especially over the Big Island of Hawai'i - and even produced some snowfall in the highest elevations around the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

Ice Cube

Another polar vortex looks 'set to hit the U.S. Northeast from January and not let up for months...' with higher than normal snow levels predicted

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Get ready: Winter will arrive without delay, according to Accuweather.com, with frigid air from another polar vortex seeping down into the country's midsection and Northeast as early as November
The Polar Vortex Part II is getting ready to roll back into town. Leading meteorologists are warning the Mid-Atlantic is in for a repeat of last winter, which was noted as the 34th coldest such period for the contiguous 48 states as a whole since modern records began in 1895, according to weather.com.

Now, with a month-and-a-half left of fall, the forecasts are in, and another polar vortex looks set to hit the Northeast from January and not let up for months.

Accuweather are reporting that New York will again experience above-average snow and freezing temperatures, however neither is expect to hold out as long as the brutal winter of 2013/14.

'I think, primarily, we'll see that happening in mid-January into February but again, it's not going to be the same type of situation as we saw last year, not as persistent,' AccuWeather.com Expert Long-Range Forecaster Paul Pastelok said.

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Snowflake

Update: Blizzard conditions kill 27 in Nepal with another 70 missing

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Members of the army pulling dead bodies of trekkers from the Thorung La mountain pass on the Annapurna Circuit, near Muktinath, in Mustang district
Dozens of stranded foreign trekkers have been rescued and more bodies have been found following a blizzard and avalanches in northern Nepal, taking the death toll to 27. About 70 people are still missing along or near the popular Annapurna trail, according to the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal, and the death toll is expected to rise.

The route, 100 miles north-west of the capital, Kathmandu, was filled with international hikers during the peak October trekking season, when the air is generally clear and cool. Government administrator Yama Bahadur Chokhyal said rescuers recovered 10 more bodies from the Thorong La pass area - which lies at over 17,000 feet - where they had been caught in a sudden blizzard on Tuesday.

The bodies were not yet identified. Rescuers recovered the bodies of four other hikers - two Poles, an Israeli and a Nepalese - from the area on Wednesday.

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Ice Cube

Hmm...Water temperature of the Great Lakes is over 6 degrees colder than normal - threatening earlier and colder winter in Midwest

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Michigan residents may see a cold and icy winter arrive sooner this year, reportedly due to lower temperatures in the Great Lakes. Average surface temperatures for both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan have dropped: Superior's went from from 53.7 degrees on October 11, 2013 to 47.6 degrees Saturday, while Michigan's went from 62.1 degrees to 56.0 degrees, MLive.com reported. That means both lakes experienced temperature drops of 6.1 degrees, the news site explained.

Michigan residents may need to bundle up sooner to brace both November and December chilly weather as a result of cooler lakes, MLive.com reported. Lakes may also ice up sooner because of the extra chilly water temperatures, the news site reported. Despite these potential effects, there may be less lake effect snow, the website explained.

'Lake effect snow is heaviest when the lake waters are warm, and the air above is very cold,' MLive.com said. 'The bigger the difference in lake to air temperature, the more intense the snow can fall. Colder lake waters would mean lake effect snow could be not as intense. That is not to say we won't still have what some would call heavy snow. It means the 24 to 36 inch lake effect snows in one to two days would be harder to achieve.'

Igloo

Austrian daily reports: "Huge ice growth surprises climate scientists" ... "Like one not seen in decades"!

Iceage
© Kronen Zeitung/EPA
The Austrian online Kronen Zeitung here has an article about something most German-language media outlets have been too red-faced to report on: The sudden growth in polar sea ice.

The Kronen Zeitung opens with:
A huge growth in ice at the poles has surprised scientists and is casting questions. Is global warming taking a break? [...] For the prophets of climate change the new figures pose questions: At the poles of Mother Earth, in complete contradiction to prognoses of a complete polar melt, there is an ice growth like one not seen in decades."
Almost the entire mainstream media has been quiet about this development. So it is refreshing to see that some media are reporting the "good" news that the planet is not warming alarmingly.