Extreme Temperatures

Coldest December day in 42 years recorded in Beijing

Fan Anqi
Global Times
Wed, 30 Dec 2020 13:56 UTC

© Xinhua/Ju Huanzong
China's meteorological authority on Tuesday renewed an orange alert, the second highest in a four-tier warning system, for a cold wave as a strong cold front has been sweeping across most parts of central and east China from Monday.

Apart from the resurgence of the coronavirus that has confined many Beijingers at home, local residents now have another reason to stay indoors - the bitter wind and extreme cold as the city saw its coldest recorded December day in 42 years at -26 C, with residents astonished at the sudden temperature drop.

"The forecast for Beijing is even colder than the North Pole," a netizen on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo said early on Wednesday, posting screenshots of weather-tracking apps which read -13 C in Beijing and -3 C at the North Pole.

As a cold air mass swept across northern China and Beijing since Tuesday, temperatures plunged from an average daily high of 2 C to maximum highs of -6 C and lows of -13 C, some of the coldest December days in a decade. As high winds accompanied the cold snap, with gusts of between 30-50 kilometers an hour, the wind chill has seen real feel temperatures of -22 C, with residents scurrying to get inside as they hold onto their hats.

Unique and rare phenomenon reported in river in Scotland

David G Scott
The Northern Times
Wed, 30 Dec 2020 21:56 UTC

It may not be on anyone's festive menu but plummeting temperatures around Dunbeath Strath have whipped up the recipe for a very unique and strange phenomenon - ice pancakes.

Cath Whittles from Roseleigh House in Latheronwheel was taking a stroll along the Strath on Monday when she observed strange circular formations of ice at the side of the river.
She sent across images she took of the frozen discs, resembling pancakes or lily pads, and wrote: "We were delighted to see these on the Dunbeath river yesterday while out for a walk and believe that they are quite unusual - needing the exactly right conditions in order to form. Thought you and your readers might be interested."

The weather warnings from the Met Office of snow and ice across the Highlands have helped concoct the ice pancake recipe.

Heavy snowfall kills 4 children in Afghanistan

Shadi Khan Saif
Anadolu Agency
Tue, 29 Dec 2020 19:16 UTC

At least 15 people, including women, children, also injured in snowstorm, landslide in central Bamyan province

Heavy snow and avalanches killed at least four children in Afghanistan's central Daikundi province, officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Officials told Anadolu Agency that the incident took place in the Keti district in the central highlands when religious school students got trapped in a pile of snow.

According to Assadullah Sarwari, the provincial head of disasters management authority, the children were heading to their winter class in the Islamic seminary. A rescue and relief team was sent to the area, Sarwari told Anadolu Agency.

Record-breaking storm with 135 km/h winds blasts Nunavut, Canada

Emma Tranter
National Observer
Wed, 30 Dec 2020 14:02 UTC

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Sky Panipak
The aftermath of a blizzard in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, is shown in this recent handout photo. A Dec. 27 blizzard that saw winds reach 135 kilometres per hour tore apart cabins and ripped windshields from snowmobiles in Pangnirtung. One person was flown to a southern hospital with injuries.

Pangnirtung mayor Eric Lawlor couldn't see out his windows on Sunday.

That's when a record-breaking blizzard hit the Baffin Island community of about 1,500, shaking houses and crushing cabins.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says Sunday's storm brought record wind gusts and heavy snow to communities across Nunavut. In Pangnirtung, winds reached 135 km/h that day.

"It was like an all day thing. The wind was so strong," Lawlor said.

Sky Panipak, who also lives in Pangnirtung, posted a photo to Twitter of one resident's home where the front steps were torn clean from the door.

Record cold hits the Russian Arctic coast

Cap Allon
Electroverse.net
Tue, 29 Dec 2020 18:26 UTC

Mainstream media outlets are quick to report record Arctic heat but they tend to fall silent when record cold descends, meaning the folks that lap up MSM content are only-ever privy to one side of the story (no wonder they think the world is ending).

Not only do record cold temperatures go largely unreported by western news sources, but the record heat isn't even properly explained.

Much was made of the 38C reported on June 20 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, with WMO spokesperson, Clare Nullis, quick to leap on the reading: "[it] comes amid a prolonged Siberian heat wave and an increase in wildfire activity" and that "climate change isn't taking a break because of COVID-19." However, after conferring with Roshydromet, the Russian agency responsible for reporting Eastern Siberia's weather, to see exactly how unusual this event was, Nullis was told that this region "has very, very cold extremes in winter but is also known for its extremes in summer."

Cold-temperature record smashed in Utsjoki, Finnish Lapland

Aleksi Teivainen
Helsinki Times
Mon, 28 Dec 2020 15:26 UTC

THE MERCURY in thermometers dropped to its lowest level this winter late on Sunday in Utsjoki, the northernmost municipality in Finland.

The roughly 1,200-resident municipality saw the temperature plunge to -41.1°C at around 11pm on Boxing Day, a reading that broke the previous cold-temperature record of the winter by 10 degrees, according to YLE.

The mercury dropped below -35°C also at several other weather stations in Finnish Lapland.

The cold weather, however, is forecast to give way to higher temperatures in the coming days due to a warm-weather front arriving from the south. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is forecasting that temperatures will hover five to 10 degrees below the freezing point in eastern and northern parts and on both sides of the freezing point in central and southern parts of the country between Monday and Wednesday.

Record snowfall in New York State - many towns had over 20 inches of snowfall in a day

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Mon, 28 Dec 2020 12:17 UTC

"Western New York's Christmas present this year was a White Christmas, and then some," according to wgrz.com.

As of 10 p.m. Saturday, December 26 ( with two more hours left in the day), many towns had reported more than 20 inches(50.8 centimeters) snowfall in one day.

Those towns included Elma Center, Eden, Cheektowaga, Clarence, Lackawanna and Hamburg, to name a few.

Also, 18.4 inches of snow fell at the Buffalo Airport on Saturday, making for a new one-day snowfall record for December 26.

Thanks to Clay Olson for this link.

Comment: 24 hours earlier on Christmas Day: Hamburg in Western New York hit with 18 inches of snow in roughly 24 hours, several places over 10 inches

Icy roads wreak havoc as cars skid out of control in Ankara, Turkey

VOA News
YouTube
Thu, 24 Dec 2020 18:55 UTC

Icy road conditions caused havoc in Turkey's capital of Ankara Thursday, December 24, with many drivers losing control of their vehicles and skidding down the roads.

Video filmed by a 13-year-old student Defne Menekse, showed at least several vehicles skidding off an icy downhill and colliding with each other.

At least seven cars were damaged, but no injuries have been reported.

Source: Reuters

Dump of summer snow on Mount Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand

Leighton Keith
Stuff
Sun, 27 Dec 2020 14:32 UTC

Mt Taranaki received a summer dump of snow overnight on Saturday.

Whoever asked Santa for a white Christmas got their wish, with Mt Taranaki receiving a good dump of snow overnight on Saturday.

The maunga was donned in a fresh coat of white, down to about 1400m, as the sun rose on Sunday after temperatures dropped to an unseasonably chilly level.

Rob Needs, of Taranaki Mountain Shuttles, said he dropped a group off at North Egmont about 7.45am.

"I didn't even get out of the car because I thought it was going to be cold," Needs said.

The snow had reached as low as Tahurangi Lodge at 1500 metres and was the result of the southerly weather system moving up the country, he said.

Comment: Summer snow in parts of South Island, New Zealand

Surprise! Surprise! Any Greenland melting is....volcanic

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Sun, 27 Dec 2020 11:50 UTC

© Tohoku University
A map view of P wave velocity tomography at 5 km depth beneath Greenland and surrounding regions (left). Blue and red colors denote high and low velocity perturbations, respectively, whose scale (in %) is shown beside the map. The white dotted lines are the thermal tracks of Iceland and Jan Mayen plumes that are affected by the Greenland plume. The area surrounded by the black dotted lines is where the flow, caused by melting at the bottom of the ice sheets, exists (Northeast Greenland Ice Stream); its water source is located at the intersection of the two heat tracks. A vertical cross-section of whole-mantle tomography passing through central Greenland and Jan Mayen (right). We can see that the Greenland plume is the heat source for the Jan Mayen volcano.

No, it is not a surprise. This is what I've been saying for years. The Greenland ice is melting from below.

"Newly Discovered Greenland Hot Rock Mantle Plume Drives Thermal Activities in the Arctic," reads the title.

"A team of researchers discovered a flow of hot rocks, known as a mantle plume, rising from the core-mantle boundary beneath central Greenland that melts the ice from below (emphasis added).

"The results of their two-part study were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Comment: Also relevant: Earth's hot core, not global warming, responsible for Greenland's melting ice sheet