Extreme Temperatures
S


Igloo

Pashmina withers on roof of the world

Changra goats
© GreatKashmir.com
Changthang, India - The famed pashmina shawl that keeps the cold away - in style and at a price - could itself have become the victim of winter. Thousands of goats whose fine wool is woven into pashmina have perished in extreme cold being associated with climate change.

Pashmina is drawn from Changra goats found in Ladakh region of Kashmir state and a part of the Tibetan peninsula, more than 14,000 feet (4,267 meters) above sea level. The peninsula is often called the Roof of the World.

Little grows in these areas where the temperature can drop to minus 35 degrees Celsius. The local Changpa nomads live off their herds of sheep, yak and goats.

The Changthang region of the larger Tibetan Peninsula does not normally see heavy snowfall. That may be changing, given the heavy snowfall earlier this year that deprived the Changpas of fodder for their animals.

"In the past five years this is the second time I have seen such heavy snowfall," Bihkit Angmo, 53, who rears goats, told IPS outside her tent in Kharnak, a nomadic settlement 173 kilometers east of Leh, capital of Ladakh. "This new trend of snowfall several feet high has left us quite worried."

Summer last year brought its own problems, leaving areas parched and barren. "It was terrible. We had to go long distances to find suitable pasture for our livestock," said Angmo.

Igloo

3 rescued after helicopter ices up on Alaska volcano

John
© Taryn LopezJohn Paskievitch aboard the stranded iced-over helicopter.
Two researchers and their pilot were rescued Friday from a remote Alaska volcano after freezing rain left thick ice on their helicopter's blades.

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said the rescue came at about 5 p.m. Friday. The three were caught in a freezing rainstorm Wednesday evening. Pilot Sam Egli, United States Geological Survey geophysicist John Paskievitch, and University of Alaska-Fairbanks researcher Taryn Lopez were not injured.

They were attempting to monitor volcano equipment when "the weather moved in," Egli said. The work is part of an assignment to also repair permanent monitoring equipment on volcanoes in the area known as the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. Freezing fog enveloped the research area and iced over the helicopter's rotator blades.

"We were unable to produce enough lift to take off at that point," Egli said. "The weather didn't clear up after that."

Without any means to heat the helicopter blades, the trio was stuck. On Friday afternoon, a rescue helicopter lifted Egli and the researchers to safety. Peters said the helicopter remains on Mount Mageik about 280 miles southwest of Anchorage at Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Asked how they passed the time for more than two days, Egli said "we just yakked."

"There wasn't anything to do," he said. "We work together, we've got things in common, so we just talked about that."

The three were well-equipped with survival gear and food. They remained in the helicopter until they were rescued.

Igloo

Mystery from above in Brooklyn as chunks of ice fall from the sky


Falling Ice
© CBS New York

New York - Chunks of ice apparently fell from the sky on an 80-degree day in Brooklyn. The question is, where did they come from?

Terry Blasi and Louie Vitale said they were sitting on Blasi's porch on Wednesday when something the size of a softball crashed through the trees.

"All of a sudden something had come down through the trees really loud and then a loud thump on the ground," Vitale told TV 10/55′s Dick Brennan on Friday.

The pair raced to the street and found a chunk of ice.

"It must have come through really fast and then thud. It sounded like a bowling ball went through," Blasi said.

Cloud Lightning

Freak hail storm brings winter scenes to Falmouth, UK

A freak hail storm has left part of Falmouth in Cornwall looking like a winter's scene.


PE teacher Tommy Matthews, 52, of The Gluyas arrived home from work to find an inch of hail covering the street.

Neighbours' garages were flooded and manholes burst as the hail turned into a stream of water.

The hail storm, which left cars sliding on roads, occurred at about 17:00 BST after a Met Office warning of heavy rain in the South West overnight.

Snowflake Cold

South America's big freeze causes misery across Peru, Bolivia and Chile

snow south america
© AFPTens of thousands of people have been cut off by the snow and several deaths have been reported
An outbreak of exceptionally cold and snowy weather has hit parts of South America, resulting in at least a dozen deaths.

The arrival of the snow on an Antarctic cold front last week was accompanied by extremely cold conditions, with temperatures as low as Minus 19C, which have persisted ever since. Even Chile's Atacama desert, one of the world's driest, did not escape, receiving its heaviest snowfall in 30 years.

Peru seems to have been worst hit, with the heaviest snow in a decade resulting in the deaths of up to 30,000 farm animals, including llamas, alpacas, cattle and sheep.

Snowflake Cold

Hundreds of skiers trapped at New Zealand's Mt Hutt

Hundreds of skiers are stuck on New Zealand's Mt Hutt after freak weather forced its closure.

Image
© Georgie BoydHundreds are stuck at Mt Hutt
A combination of drifting snow and poor visibility has been blamed. While ski area management were aware of an approaching front and poor forecast, the situation deteriorated quickly, Mt Hutt ski area manager James McKenzie said.

There are 316 people trapped on the mountain.

"We made a decision to close the mountain at 11.30 this morning and a number of people made it safely down the road," he said.

"However at midday a combination of new snow blowing around everywhere and wind gusts of up to 45km/h, especially around the Saddles, meant visibility along the upper section of the access road deteriorated to the extent we closed the road completely.

"Guest safety is of paramount concern and we're continually assessing the conditions. We won't rush to get people down until visibility improves.

He said the skiers were doing well.

"We've got plenty of food, hot drinks and space up here in the base building, so if we do have to hunker down into the hours of darkness our guests will be warm, dry and well looked after."

Snow Globe

Ice delays supply barge for Western Arctic communities

Sea Ice in the Arctic Ocean
© Canadian PressAs much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in ice
Several communities must wait a few more days for fuel resupplies. Ice buildup in the Amundsen Gulf is responsible for barge delays that have many Northern coastal communities running short on supplies.

Normally, a supply barge arrives in the area in early summer to replenish stocks of fuel and other necessities in those communities. But this year, that trip is being held up by ice. As much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in ice.

"We have not seen ice with this type of coverage in quite a few years and I really don't know how far back we might've seen it," says Bill Smith, a spokesman with Northern Transportation Company Ltd., which services the communities.

"It's the opposite of what we've been seeing for the last few years where, generally, ice conditions have been improving from a transportation perspective."

Snowflake Cold

Record cold in parts of Alaska

Most notably, Bettles recorded a low of 15ºF Saturday morning, by far the lowest temperature of record at Bettles in August. The previous record at the Bettles in August was 22ºF on August 30, 1969. At old Bettles, about four miles downriver from the current townsite, a low of 20ºF was measured on August 24, 1948.

Other low temperatures included 17ºF at both Chandalar DOT and Coldfoot DOT and a chilly 13F at the Norutak Lake RAWS west of Bettles. These are close to, but not at the record low temperature for the month of August in the state.

http://ak-wx.blogspot.de/2013/08/record-cold-in-northern-interior.html

Thanks to F. Guimaraes for this link

"The winter could be starting earlier!" says Guimaraes.


Snowflake Cold

More than 25, 000 animals killed in southern Peru

Snow expected to continue for about 60 days. Humanitarian catastrophe unfolding.

1 Sep 13 - Snowfall in parts of the southern highlands of Peru has killed more than 25,000 animals and destroyed 137 homes, according to the National Institute of Civil Defense (Indeci).
(These are government numbers. I earlier reported that 250,000 alpacas had been killed in Peru. This is on top of the 70,000 animals killed in Bolivia.
The national government on Saturday declared a state of emergency in 250 localities of the country since the snow is expected to continue for about 60 days.

Until Saturday, there were a total of 5,247 people injured and 739 homes declared uninhabitable in Apurimac (south), Cusco (southeast), Ayacucho (South Central), Huancavelica (center), Puno (southeast) and Junin (center) .

The deputy director of humanitarian assistance and mobilization of the National Institute of Civil Defense (Indeci), Eric Cortijo, reported that this phenomenon affected more than 67,000 people. (I don't know what he meant by "affected.")

Fireball 5

Did ancient Earth-chilling meteor crash near Canada?

Impact Event
© Mukul SharmaThe high temperatures of the meteorite impact 12,900 years ago produced mm-sized spherules of melted glass with the mullite and corundum crystal structure shown here.
A meteor or comet impact near Quebec heaved a rain of hot melted rock along North America's Atlantic Coast about 12,900 years ago, a new study claims.

Scientists have traced the geochemical signature of the BB-sized spherules that rained down back to their source, the 1.5-billion-year-old Quebecia terrane in northeastern Canada near the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

At the time of the impact, the region was covered by a continental ice sheet, like Antarctica and Greenland are today.

"We have provided evidence for an impact on top of the ice sheet," said study co-author Mukul Sharma, a geochemist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. The results were published today (Sept. 2) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.