Extreme Temperatures
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Igloo

Resembling a scene from 'The Day After Tomorrow': Chilly winter turns Michigan lighthouse into frozen castle

Icy lighthouse in Michigan
© Via YouTube/Great Lakes Drone Company
It's been really, really cold in some parts of the country this week (don't say we didn't warn you) but one side effect has been some incredible images like this lighthouse in St. Joseph, Michigan, along the southwest shores of Lake Michigan.


Another terrific video, captured by photographer Joshua Nowicki gives you an even closer look at the frozen castle that looks straight out of a fairy tale.


Comment: From January 2014:


Snowflake Cold

Average U.S. temperatures 16°F colder than any time last winter and winter hasn't started yet...

If you think it is colder than you remember last year, your'e right. Winter hasn't officially started yet, it begins on Wednesday, December 21st. But the numbers tell a cold hard fact: as of 7 a.m. EST this morning, Sunday, Dec. 18, the average temperature across the Lower 48 states of the U.S. is colder than any time all last winter.

As this plot of hourly temperatures shows, the average temperature is 16 degrees. F, which is 4 degrees colder than any time last winter. What's worse, the coldest part of winter is still six weeks away.
Average US temperature
© Weatherbell
I can't wait for Monday, March 20th, 2017, when spring starts.

Igloo

Spinning ice disc filmed on river near Houghton Lake, Michigan

ice disk
A Michigan woman on a snowmobiling trip captured video of a bizarre phenomenon: a disc of ice slowly rotating on the surface of a river.

Karla S. Dahms posted a video to Facebook showing the strange rotating ice circle she spotted in the Muskegon River, near the city of Houghton Lake.

Dahms said she had never seen anything like the ice disc in the river before.

Researchers determined the ice discs occur when cold air comes in contact with an eddy in the river and the ice forms into a circle, which rotates due to the current it creates by slowly melting.


Ice Cube

2 below zero: 99-year cold record broken in Syracuse, New York

Man snowplowing sidewalk
© Glenn CoinFrank Marra, of Kinne Road in DeWitt, bundles up as he clears his driveway of snow. Syracuse set a record low for Dec. 16 this morning, when temperatures fell to 2 below zero.
Syracuse just broke a 99-year record for the coldest Dec. 16.

The temperature at Hancock International Airport, the official weather station for Syracuse, hit 2 below zero over the last hour.

The record for Dec. 16 had been minus 1, set in 1917.

If this makes you feel any warmer, today's record low isn't even close to the coldest December day on record. That belongs to Dec. 20, 1942, when Syracuse hit 26 below zero.

Snowflake Cold

'Ridiculously heavy': Huge winter storm makes way for already suffering Midwest

 Cold weather blankets 200 million Americans as winter storm gains strength
Cold weather blankets 200 million Americans as winter storm gains strength
The winter storm that has coated the Pacific Northwest with a thick blanket of ice was sweeping east on Friday, threatening more heavy snow across a huge part of the country from the Rocky Mountains through the Great Lakes region.

The storm was expected to race across the upper Plains overnight into Friday and wallop the Midwest and the Great Lakes region by Saturday morning, forecasters said.

The storm could leave behind 2 feet of snow in Yosemite National Park in Nevada and parts of Wyoming and Utah.
That's what you call a coast to coast storm. Advisories all over the place! #decima pic.twitter.com/o8xCYQSAPU

— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) December 16, 2016
One person was dead in Oregon — a man in his late 50s who was found covered in a layer of ice and snow in his driveway Wednesday night in Albany, the Linn County Sheriff's Office said.

And the bombardment won't let up on its way east. Green Bay and Madison could both get more than a foot of snow by the weekend, forecasters said.



Snowflake Cold

Arctic blast: 100 million Americans brace themselves for sub zero wind chills

Snow on road
Tracking 24 states on alert from California to Maine with some of the lowest temperatures in a decade.


Snowflake

'Mass death' threatens deer population in Altai and eastern Russia due to freak snow falls

Deer in deep snow
Deer in deep snow
Rescue effort underway to provide emergency feeding sites for the helpless animals, with the wild boar population also in trouble.

High snow drifts in the Altai Mountains and further east in Russia are causing huge problems this winter for herbivores - roes, deer and boars. Even larger animals as moose - elk - are finding it hard to cope with the deep snow.

Boar that are not full grown are dying in snowdrifts if there are no adults to break through the trails. The biggest threat is to roe deer, say wildlife experts.

Special feeding sites have been set up to allow them to find food. The last winter in Altai with similar heavy snow falls was in 2001-2002, when the number of roe deer was reduced from 27,000 to 17,000.

At the beginning of 2016, an estimated 25,000 roe deer were in the Altai region, but there is a threat of a new wipe out.
© AltaiprirodaAt the beginning of 2016, an estimated 25,000 roe deer were in the Altai region, but there is a threat of a new wipe out.

Snowflake

Heavy snowfall blankets Gangwon Province, South Korea

Snow
Heavy snow has blanketed Gangwon Province as snow advisories were issued for 16 cities and counties of the province.

The Gangwon Regional Office of Meteorology said on Wednesday that the Misiryeong Pass along the northern part of Mount Seorak received 38 centimeters of snowfall as of 3 p.m., while Sokcho got 32 centimeters.

A blizzard in Daegwallyeong has also caused drivers to exercise caution.

Heavy snow resulted in severe traffic congestion in downtown Sokcho, while a road on the Misiryeong Pass linking Sokcho and Inje was temporarily closed to traffic.

Snow Korea

Snowflake Cold

Winter storm to create dangerous travel conditions along 1,200-mile swath of central US

Winter storm
A storm will create dangerous travel conditions across a 1,200-mile swath of the central United States into the weekend.

Blizzard conditions could develop in major hubs such as Denver and Chicago.

People from the Rockies to the northern Plains and Upper Midwest are bracing for a new round of snow and travel disruptions on the highways and at airports.

Storm map
"Motorists and airline passengers may want to explore an alternate or more southern route as confidence is high that there will be widespread, major travel disruptions with this storm," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.

Mostly snow will fall from central and northern Colorado to northern Nebraska, South Dakota, northern Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and central Michigan. Motorists venturing along Interstate 90 should be prepared for snow covering roads, as well as blowing and drifting snow.

The storm also has the potential to spread accumulating snow to parts of the central Plains and the middle Mississippi Valley.

Snowflake Cold

Heavy snowfall leaves thousands of families without power in west Georgia; nearly 40 inches of snow

Snow
Georgia's western part is covered with a thick layer of snow as it has been heavily snowing in that area for the past several days.

Most massive snowfall was detected in the Adjara and Imereti regions, where its depth reached 100 centimeters.

A thick snow layer meant half of families in these two regions left without electricity.

Thousands of families in Adjara's Khulo and Shuakhevi municipalities and Imereti's Chiatura and Sachkhere municipalities remained without power until now. The electricity distribution company said it was unclear when the supply would restore as snow was continuing to fall and some of rural roads were blocked.