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Snowflake

Valdez in Alaska continued to break November weather records last week.

Lee Revis
Valdez Star
Thu, 28 Nov 2013 14:34 UTC
Weird weather prompted road closures
Richardson Highway was shut Friday between milepost 12-82
Image
© Valdez Star
Freezing rain on top of ice and snow, combined with wind, and well - you name it - prompted DOT to close the Richardson Highway from Mile 12 to 82 Friday, citing adverse weather conditions.
Valdez continued to break November weather records last week.

According to the National Weather Service, Valdez received 14.7 inches of snow Sunday, breaking the old November 24 record of 10.4 inches set in 1993.

But record-breaking events aside, areas of Prince William Sound and the Copper Basin received a heavy dose of brutal weather conditions last week which eventually prompted the closure of the Richardson Highway Friday from Mileposts 12 - 82.

Last Wednesday, after temperatures dipped under 40 degrees below zero in the Glennallen area, the weather service issued a freezing rain advisory for last Thursday night through Friday.

"Warm air aloft will spread over cold air at the surface late Thursday night leading to freezing rain through Friday evening," the weather service said. "Cold air will move back in and allow precipitation to change back to all snow Friday night."

The advisory was well timed, as the weather produced blinding road conditions, with water on top of ice, snow, snow drifts, snow on ice and numerous other safety hazards.

Freezing rain was also reported in the Alpine Woods subdivision Thursday night, with one area resident reporting freezing rain falling with a home weather station thermometer reading 15 degrees above zero.

The week before, Valdez set several daily snow records for November, after experiencing a very warm October that was nearly free of snow.
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Igloo

Arctic winds and heavy snowfall hitting Italy

Robert Felix
Ice Age Now
Thu, 28 Nov 2013 14:05 UTC
Snow on car
© Unknown
One-and-a-half meters of snow in some places.

"We have snow at 100 meters (330 ft) in the southern part of the peninsula, and one dead due to the cold," says geologist Mirco Poletto in Italy.

"Snow in the Marche and Puglia, and a snow alert Romagna. Abruzzo buried under the snow. Schools closed in many municipalities. Whitewashed also Foggiano. Snow falling in L'Aquila."

Arctic cold air invading Italy from the Adriatic regions. Snowfalls are underway at very low elevations (100m) of Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Puglia and Basilicata, and the situation is expected to get worse during the afternoon and evening. At night, all regions of the Adriatic from Rimini to Puglia will be affected by snowfalls at low altitudes , even as rain mixed with snow even along the coast of Abruzzo. Wednesday begins in the north with cold -5 ° C, while snowfall will continue at low altitudes over the entire Adriatic coast and also Umbria .
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Ice Cube

Forget global warming: Heavy ice delays Australian Antarctic icebreaker Aurora Australis for second year in a row


ABC News
Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:09 UTC
Image

Aurora Australis in sea ice
The summer Australian Antarctic Division program will have to be modified because its icebreaker the Aurora Australis has been delayed in heavy ice. The ship was due to return to Hobart more than a week ago after a resupply mission, but it is still navigating through heavy ice about 180 nautical miles off the Davis research station.

Antarctic Division director Tony Fleming says there is no risk of the crew's food or water running low. He says some open water was spotted from the air a couple of days ago but there is heavy ice between the ship and the break in the ice.

Dr Fleming says one ship voyage will have to be dropped because of the delay.
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Cow Skull

Staggering concessions by Austria's national weather service: "Natural factors substantial... models inadequate"!

P. Gosselin
No Tricks Zone
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 12:02 UTC
A November 11, 2013 press release by Austria's national weather service, the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), somehow got by me. And not surprisingly it was completely ignored by the German-language mainstream media. It's titled: "Slower temperature increase: climate models under scrutiny".

In the introduction the ZAMG writes:
If one compares the temperature development of the last 15 years to the simulations from the new climate model generation, then one sees a substantial deviation between reality and model: the so-called temperature hiatus."
Air temperature is the preferred parameter that experts use to gauge climate change. On the hiatus the ZAMG writes, "In the last 15 years there has been a clear weakening in the global temperature rise; only 3 of 114 climate model simulations account for it (Figure 1)."

Global temperature 1986-2010
© IPCC 2013
Figure 1: Change in global near-surface temperature relative to the 1986–2005 period from observation data (black) and model simulations (coloured)
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Snowflake Cold

Volcanic eruptions, rising CO2, boiling oceans, and why man-made global warming is not even wrong

Doug DiPasquale and Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 11:55 UTC
Image

The spectacular eruption of an undersea volcano off the coast of Tonga in the South Pacific in 2009
Perhaps in an effort to ward off yet another long cold winter, officially-sanctioned climate science has been pumping out hot air at exponentially-increasing rates of late. An IPCC report in September told us that global warming "paused" unexpectedly in 1998, and shows no sign of resuming. Actually, the work that went into that report found that warming had stopped altogether, but the wording was altered to describe it as a "pause". You'd think that a pseudo-acknowledgement like this from on-high would dampen the Global Warmists' enthusiasm, but you'd be wrong.

Their driven need to 'fit the facts around the policy' is illustrated by a couple of recent articles that caught our eye. Here USA Today reports on the findings of a study that claims:
"The middle depths of a part of the Pacific Ocean have warmed 15 times faster in the past 60 years than they did during the previous 10,000 years."
Then this BBC article cites "the world's leading experts on ocean acidification", who claim that:
"The world's oceans are becoming acidic at an unprecedented rate and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years, [...] causing a 30% loss of species in some ocean ecosystems."
And, as you can probably guess, these experts are certain that it's all your fault.

By now you know the drill:

You produce too much CO2 ---> this contributes to the 'greenhouse effect' --> planet heats up --> ice caps melt --> sea levels rise, etc...
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Bizarro Earth

How Australian aborigines coped with the last Ice Age

Wes Judd
Australian Geographic
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 22:44 UTC
Image
© Peter Veth
This map estimates the areas in which Aboriginal groups congregated during the last Ice Age
A new study has revealed how indigenous Australians coped with the last Ice Age, roughly 20,000 years ago.

Researchers say that when the climate cooled dramatically, Aboriginal groups sought refuge in well-watered areas, such as along rivers, and populations were condensed into small habitable areas.

Professor Sean Ulm, lead author of the research at James Cook University in Townsville, says the vast majority of Australia was simply uninhabitable at this time. "Forests disappeared, animals went extinct; major areas of Australia would have been deprived of surface water."
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Igloo

Heavy snowfall in the Balkans


WorldBulletin.net
Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:54 UTC
Balkans Snowfall
© WorldBulletin
Heavy snowfall Monday night as a result of a low pressure front from Italy covers the Balkans.

After the Balkans, the low pressure front will move in the direction of the south-east Balkan peninsula, said meteorologist Ibrahim Hadzismajlovic.

"Snow will fall Tuesday and Wednesday. We can also expect it on Friday. Average temperature will range from -6 to 0 Celsius degrees, daily temperatures from -3 to 2 C. In the south we can expect temperatures reaching 8 Celsius degrees. On Thursday and Friday we expect lower temperatures. On weekend, daily temperatures will be above 0, while morning will remain low," said Hadzismajlovic.

The snow caused difficult and slow traffic flow. There is about 5 centimeters of snow on mountain roads in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some mountain passes required the use of chains for cars.
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Snowflake

Record November snow in China leaves 9 dead after blizzard collapses factory roof


Xinhua
Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:47 UTC
Harbin -- Nine people buried following the collapse of a factory building's roof in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have been confirmed dead, local authorities said.

Officials with the emergency response office of Mudanjiang City said the accident, which happened at 1:10 p.m. in the city's Aiming District, was probably caused by blizzards.

The rescue work wrapped up early Tuesday with the bodies of all nine people found. Local authorities are now gearing up post-accident management as well as a safety check across the city amid heavy snowfall.

A new round of snow pelted the northeastern Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin from Sunday, closing highways and canceling flights in many places.
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Snowflake

London, Ontario, hammered by snowstorm

Dale Carruthers
Toronto Sun
Sun, 24 Nov 2013 14:20 UTC
London, Ont. - London is digging out after a snowstorm dumped more than 30 cm of snow on the city.

The heavy snowfall continued Sunday, with another 10 cm expected and winds reaching 50 km/h, as Environment Canada extended a snow squall warning for London and parts of southwestern Ontario.

Officials were asking drivers to stay at home while the roads are cleared.

Fall storms often pack more punch than their winter counterparts, Environment Canada meteorologist Mark Seifert said.

"These early season snow squalls are usually the worst because the lakes are still fairly warm," he said. "And the warmer the water is, combined with the colder air, the worse the snow squalls are."

Many London roads were impassable Sunday as city crews worked frantically through the night to clear the main streets.

"We've had crews running through the night. They running now, they'll be running through tonight," Dave O'Brien, the city's manager of emergency management, said Sunday.

The city brought in contractors, called in additional staff and rented extra equipment to help clear the streets, O'Brien said.

Two people were killed in separate crashes, OPP said, and some flights were delayed at the city's international airport.

Source: The Free London Press
      Read More...
Ice Cube

Shock 'snow avalanche' crushes car driving down street in China's 'Ice City', as country experiences 'worst blizzard in 50 years'


The Mirror, UK
Tue, 26 Nov 2013 13:11 UTC
The giant sheet of ice crashed down on top of the 4x4 completely caving in the roof and showering onlookers with snow


This terrifying clip shows a Range Rover driving down a street when it is smashed by an AVALANCHE that appears to come out of nowhere.

Winter driving conditions are never easy to negotiate, but this shocking video shows what this Chinese driver in Harbin in the northeast of the country, had to go through.

Harbin is known as Ice City and true to form the huge sheet of ice apparently slid off a nearby roof and crashed on to the 4x4 causing a giant snow cloud which showered onlookers.

The force of the impact was so severe that the snow actually caved in the roof of the famously sturdy vehicle setting off the airbag.

From the after pictures it appears that no one was seriously hurt in the incident but the sheer scale of the damage is there for all to see.

Harbin is nicknamed the 'Ice City' for its extreme low temperatures, but it is currently in the midst of the worst blizzard in 50 years, a storm which has claimed four lives.
      Read More...
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