Extreme Temperatures
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Snowflake

Unusual snowfall for Table Mountain, South Africa

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Table Mountain reported its first dusting of snow in four years on the morning of Wednesday, August 28. Snow is an unusual occurrence on Table Mountain and it was last spotted on August 29, 2020.

Footage of white snow covered Table Mountain quickly went viral across social media platforms TikTok, X and Instagram.

On Instagram, Table Mountain Cableway said: "It's official! It's snowing on Table Mountain! The mountain is covered in a beautiful layer of snow, turning our stunning landscape into a winter wonderland!

"But that's not all! Table Mountain is in the running for Africa's Leading Tourist Attraction in the World Travel Awards 2024! Your vote can help us bring home this prestigious title and showcase the magic of our iconic landmark to the world."


Snowflake

August snow at higher elevations in Montana

Fresh snowfall is seen on the summit of Big Mountain at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024
Fresh snowfall is seen on the summit of Big Mountain at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024
We're not out of August yet, but Mother Nature isn't letting that stop her from giving us a preview of wintry conditions.

Several higher-elevation areas of Montana currently have a dusting (or more) of snow, thanks to a cold front that cruised through on Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Glacier National Park reports that part of Going-to-the-Sun Road has been closed due to wintry weather.

The road is closed between Avalanche Creek and Jackson Glacier Outlook due to snow and icy conditions.

There is no word at this point on how long the famed road will be closed.


Snowflake

Early snowfall hits Kashmir, India

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While plains of Kashmir witnessed rain, higher reaches in Sonamarg received season's first snowfall, officials said. The snowfall followed several days of overcast skies and rain, bringing a noticeable drop in temperatures in the Ganderbal district.

The season's first snowfall was recorded at Sonamarg's famous trekking spots, including Vishansar and Nichnai.

The fresh snow and rain have provided relief from the recent heat, with temperatures plummeting across Jammu and Kashmir, including Srinagar. The rain began earlier in the week and continued to soak most parts of the region.

Independent weather forecaster Faizan Arif Keng predicts that more snowfall is expected in other higher reaches over the next 24 hours. The Meteorological Department has also forecasted continued cloudy skies with the possibility of more rain, likely to extend through the end of the month.


Question

Large patch of the Atlantic Ocean near the equator has been cooling at record speeds — and scientists can't figure out why

Scientists are trying to decipher what drove the recent dramatic cooling of the tropical Atlantic, but so far few clues have emerged. "We are still scratching our heads as to what's actually happening," the researchers said.

Atlantic Ocean
© NASA / JSCThe Atlantic Ocean, near the Bahamas, as seen from the International Space Station in July 2024.
For a few months this summer, a large strip of Atlantic Ocean along the equator cooled at record speed. Though the cold patch is now warming its way back to normal, scientists are still baffled by what caused the dramatic cooling in the first place.

The anomalous cold patch, which is confined to a stretch of ocean spanning several degrees north and south of the equator, formed in early June following a months-long streak of the warmest surface waters in more than 40 years. While that region is known to swing between cold and warm phases every few years, the rate at which it plunged from record high to low this time is "really unprecedented," Franz Tuchen, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Miami in Florida who is tracking the event, told Live Science.

"We are still scratching our heads as to what's actually happening," Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who oversees an array of buoys in the tropics that have been gathering real-time data of the cold patch, told Live Science. "It could be some transient feature that has developed from processes that we don't quite understand."

Snowflake

August snowfall in North America

Mammoth Mountain on Saturday afternoon.
Mammoth Mountain on Saturday afternoon.
Canada and the US have battled extreme heat and forest fires through the summer, but recent days have brought some relief and even pre-ski-season excitement, with the first snowfall spotted on high slopes in the Canadian Rockies. Unusual weather conditions have also brought snow to peaks in California's Sierra Nevada mountains too.

Mammoth Mountain, which is due to start its 24-25 season in less than three months time on 15th November is pictured above this weekend. Lake Tahoe ski areas to the north also saw a brief snow covering with Northstar, due to open a week after Mammoth on the 22nd pictured below.


Igloo

Chinese Academy Of Sciences: "Antarctic cold spells shattered records" in July-August, 2023

The Chinese Academy of Sciences found that the Antarctic cold spells shattered records amid global heat waves in late winter 2023, something we never heard from the mainstream media.

Antarctica
© NASA (public domain)
In report appearing in the online PhysOrg journal, 2023 "brought an unexpected twist with extreme cold events in Antarctica" - according to a new study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

"Record cold temperatures were observed in our Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) network as well as other locations around the region," said Matthew A. Lazzara of the Antarctic Meteorological Research and Data Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). "These phases were marked by new record low temperatures recorded at both staffed and automatic weather stations, spanning East Antarctica, the Ross Ice Shelf, and West Antarctica to the Antarctic Peninsula."

Bizarro Earth

Earth's water is substantially and rapidly losing oxygen, new study reveals

Gulf Stream
© NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization StudioNASA visualization showing the Gulf Stream
Supplies of dissolved oxygen in bodies of water across the globe are dwindling rapidly, and scientists say it's one of the greatest risks to Earth's life support system.

Just as atmospheric oxygen is vital for animals like ourselves, dissolved oxygen (DO) in water is essential for healthy aquatic ecosystems, whether freshwater or marine. With billions of people relying on marine and freshwater habitats for food and income, it's concerning these ecosystems' oxygen has been substantially and rapidly declining.

A team of scientists is proposing that aquatic deoxygenation be added to the list of 'planetary boundaries', which in its latest form describes nine domains that impose thresholds "within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come."

So far, the planetary boundaries are climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, interference with the global phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, rate of biodiversity loss, global freshwater use, land-system change, aerosol loading, and chemical pollution.

Comment: What's particularly notable is that Earth's history shows that deoxygenation events, also known as anoxia, have occurred numerous times in the past, and it often seems to coincide with a variety of other phenomena, including climate change - more specifically global cooling - and mass extinction events (none of which occurred as the result of CO2): See also: Volcanoes, Earthquakes And The 3,600 Year Comet Cycle


Arrow Down

French government fines TV news for allowing a skeptic to speak without being challenged

Octupus News
© joannenova.com.au
We know what secrets they fear the most, by how they overreact

In France, the second largest news network let an economist go on air and declare he thought global warming was a lie and a scam used to justify State intervention. He even went on to say it is a form of totalitarianism. Shockingly (to the regulators Arcom), the CNEWS TV hosts did not contest this, and nor did anyone else in the studio. For this, 11 months later, the TV channel is being fined €20,000.

Too close to the truth then?
A popular French rolling news channel has been fined for broadcasting climate scepticism unchallenged

By Saskia O'Donoghue, EuroNews

During the programme, prominent economist Philippe Herlin shared personal climate scepticism - but was not contradicted by anybody else in the TV studio, including the hosts.

"Anthropogenic global warming is a lie, a scam... Explaining to us that it is because of Man, no, that is a conspiracy, and why does that have so much weight?", Herlin said. "Because it justifies the intervention of the State in our lives, and it absolves the State from having to reduce its public spending... It is a form of totalitarianism."
Apparently, the real crime here is not that he said the unthinkable, but that the TV crew didn't correct him:
After investigation, Arcom found that CNews' lack of reaction was a "failure" to meet the obligations of the channel ...
Perhaps if they'd laughed at him, called him petty names, and treated him like a leper it would have been OK? (No, seriously, there is a razor point here. There are bound to be past examples where the only response to a skeptic was to call them a climate denier, and Arcom was apparently happy with that, since they've never used this fine before.) Does Arcom approve of namecalling or social approbation as a "balanced response"? Oh. Yes. They. Do.

The regulators go on to explain that the channel:
"...is required to ensure an honest presentation of controversial issues, in particular by ensuring the expression of different points of view".
Which must be a new requirement since French TV has relentlessly hammered the establishment line in a one sided way for thirty years without needing any balance at all. And Arcom didn't fine them for shamelessly promoting government propaganda. Perhaps a French skeptic could ask Arcon if controversial government opinions need to be balanced "in an honest presentation" or whether it's only critics of the government who need to be held to account?
Arcom found that the views shared "contradicted or minimised" the scientific consensus on climate change "through a treatment lacking rigour and without contradiction".
Since when was it the job of journalists to promote government approved "science"?

Snowflake

Snow in the Kalahari desert, Namibia

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The Kalahari, notorious for its high summer temperatures, is currently experiencing a snowy winter.

The area recently saw a significant drop in temperature, resulting in frost and snow.

A video shared with Informanté captured the snowfall at the Kalahari border between Namibia and South Africa.

This is among several areas that recently encountered a notable temperature decline, with the Kalahari being particularly affected.

The Namibia Meteorological Services predict that several other interior areas will experience extreme cold weather and potentially frost this week.



Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: Extreme weather in Europe taking toll on food supply chains - 48% increase in extreme weather events in 2 years

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© Inverto
The frequency of extreme weather events in Europe has risen by 48% over the past two years. This has caused a spike in food supply disruptions, according to research from Inverto, a subsidiary of Boston Consulting Group.

From 2021 to 2023, the number of extreme weather events in Europe increased from 11,442 to 16,956 recorded events. Those include things like large hailstorms, heavy rain or snowfall, damaging lightning strikes, droughts caused by hot weather, and even tornadoes.

This damaging weather has had a dramatic negative effect on food crops in Europe, leading to shortages and higher prices for certain products. Just one hailstorm last year caused an estimated €40 million in damages to crops, to give one example.