Rare 'mother-of-pearl' cloud spotted in Scotland.
They are rarely spotted in the UK because of the very cold conditions needed.
Rare 'mother-of-pearl' cloud spotted in Scotland
Stunning nacreous cloud captured by BBC Weather Watchers in Scotland.www.bbc.com
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Snow turns Australian Alps into winter wonderland in the middle of summer
© Valhalla Perisher
Up to 5cm of snow fell at Perisher and Thredbo.
Parts of Victoria and New South Wales have shivered through the morning with snow falling in alpine areas while their northern counterparts in Queensland continue to endure a heatwave.
The overnight wintry blast left a light dusting of snow across the Victorian Alps including at Mount Hotham.
Chamber of Commerce president Steve Belli said while it was an incredible sight, it was not too unusual for snow to fall in February.
"[The weather] is a little bit unpredictable these days. You never know what's going to happen ... but it's Mother Nature, you've just got to work in with it," he said.
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About two centimetres fell at Falls Creek, where mountain access is limited due to a landslide impacting one of the only roads up.
Mr Belli said the weather conditions were not helping that situation and the impacts were being felt across the board.
"The weather is not on our side at the moment, so we just have to buckle up and do what we can."
'Nice burst is super rare'
Perisher Valley in the NSW Snowy Monaro region has also seen a significant dusting for late summer.
The Bureau of Meteorology said three to five centimetres were recorded there and at Thredbo.
For ski resort Valhalla Perisher, business has been going steadily well despite it being the off-season.
"We woke up this morning and I opened up the blinds to our room to the beautiful surprise of a full white coverage of the mountain," lodge manager Drew Loaring said.
"You couldn't wipe the smile off my face — a nice burst of winter in February is super rare and it was lovely."
While it is unusual for it to snow heavily during the hotter months, snowfall can occur at any time of year in the Snowy Mountains and businesses like Valhalla Perisher are often prepared for tourists outside of winter.
"We're probably one of only a handful of commercial lodges that's open all year around," Mr Loaring said.
The white-capped mountains have been a good omen for Mr Loaring, who says many tourists have been opting for mountain biking in Thredbo instead of Perisher Valley's more relaxed atmosphere in recent years.
"We're trying to build Perisher's popularity again," he said.
Cold few days
BOM senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the temperatures recorded overnight were typical of those seen in late August.
"It's not record-breaking but it is something we only see every few Februaries," he said.
Some locations are expected to experience maximum temperatures up to 15 degrees below the average for this time of year.
The cold weather was here to stay until at least early next week, Mr Narramore added.
© Fire and Rescue Perisher Valley
More snow is expected to fall into the weekend.
weather.com
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Multiple forecasts are calling for a reversing of the stratospheric circulation from westerly to easterly, playing out during the second-half of February (note the green line below):Moreover, this SSW looks strong and threatens to be a record-challenging event.
As well as the GEFS ensembles, as embedded above, the ECMWF is also picking up on it.
The ECMWF shows the zonal wind reversing into negative territory and then holding there for an extended period:
This event is also visible in the monstrous warming wave currently forecast for the mid-stratosphere (see below).
This wave is predicted to engulf the polar regions, combine with a strong emerging polar “anti-vortex” over the North Pacific/western Arctic, and then ‘spit’ the Polar Vortex out and to the south:
Next, the pressure anomalies map highlights this powerful high-pressure system, or “anti-vortex”.
Such strong pressure anomalies will often displace the main Polar Vortex and reverse the circulation.
Tellingly, this warming is also present in the lower Stratosphere (that is, approx. 19km or 12miles).
The lower the warming permeates, the more robust it the event is.
Reaching these levels adds support to this being a very strong event.
Unprecedented snowstorm in Morocco leaves 87 villages isolated and 24,000 people in need of assistance - snow 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) deep
The southeast of Morocco has been experiencing an unprecedented snowstorm since this weekend that has left 24,000 families in need of assistance and 87 isolated villages in the region of Ouarzazate and Zagora, which the authorities hope to access by Monday after having already unblocked most of them.
The Mohamed V Foundation for Solidarity has in recent days provided humanitarian assistance (food and blankets) to 9,000 families affected by the storm in the region of Ouarzazate, where snowfall reached 2.2 metres, 10,000 families in Taroudant and 5,000 in Zagora.
"The authorities' interventions in this area are progressing at a good pace despite the bad weather conditions," Sanae Berdikh, the Foundation's communications director, told EFE on Monday. Berdikh explained that during the intervention of the Moroccan troops they managed to evacuate by helicopter on Sunday morning a woman about to give birth who was trapped in a village in the area where the road was cut off. Both are in good condition in the provincial hospital. "An airlift has been set up between the airports of Casablanca, Ouarzazate, Zagora and Agadir with 20 rotations this weekend to bring humanitarian aid teams to the people affected," she said.
During the intervention, the authorities also helped nomadic families in the area who are particularly isolated and are being assisted by air. In addition, volunteer doctors from Rabat and other localities in specialities such as gynaecology, paediatrics and radiology will travel to these areas, and medicines will be distributed to the population in need. And in Taroudant, 259 villages affected by the cold snap, located at an altitude of more than 1,900 metres, have been affected.
Berdikh stressed that the authorities will be able to clear all of the 75 villages trapped by the storm this Monday, for which 88 snow ploughs are being used. She stressed the "effective work" of the Ministry of Interior, local authorities, the Royal Gendarmerie and the Royal Armed Forces on the ground and in the air to facilitate access to the people and villages affected by the storm.
King Mohammed VI gave instructions this weekend to speed up aid to the villages affected by the storm in the three provinces. One of the worst affected is Ouarzazate, where the snow has reached unprecedented heights, with road closures and the suspension of classes. The General Directorate of Meteorology issued a new orange alert for snowfall this Monday of between 10 and 20 centimetres in the highest areas of the provinces of Haouz, Taroudant, Ouarzazate and Tinghir, known tourist destinations for their landscape, gorges, valleys and kasbahs.
www.sott.net
Whilst I do believe that the next (mini) Ice Age cometh, it seems to me that the Earth is sending chaotic, mixed messages to us. There are spots where a glacier or the snowline is retreating, (such as evidenced by the discovery of ancient hunting weapons in the above documentary), but there are other places where record-breaking, early snowfall indicates the opposite; plenty of examples of which appear in SOTT's Earth Changes column.
electroverse.co
Research shows “blocking” persistence increases when solar activity is low, causing weather patterns to become locked in place at high and intermediate latitudes for prolonged periods of time.
During a Solar Minimum, the jet stream’s usual Zonal Flow (a west–east direction) reverts to more of a Meridional Flow (a north-south direction).
This is exaggerated further during a Grand Solar Minimum (GSM) –such as the one we’re likely entering now– and explains why regions become unseasonably hot or cold and others unusually dry or rainy with the extremes often then flipping a dime.
Zonal flow (left) vs Meridional flow (right) — see link below for more:
Mikhaël Schwander, et al, 2017 — “The zonal flow characteristic of westerly types is reduced under low solar activity as the continental flow for easterly and northerly types is enhanced. This is also confirmed by the higher blocking frequency over Scandinavia under low solar activity.”
Schwander’s paper, “Influence of solar variability on the occurrence of central European weather types from 1763 to 2009”, goes further:
“The 247-year-long analysis of the 11-year solar cycle impact on late winter European weather patterns suggests a reduction in the occurrence of westerly flow types linked to a reduced mean zonal flow under low solar activity. Based on this observational evidence, we estimate the probability to have cold conditions in winter over Europe to be higher under low solar activity than under high activity.”
The Sun appears to be slipping into its next Grand Solar Minimum cycle–a multidecadal spell of reduced solar output where the solar disc can be devoid of sunspots for months or even years at a time.
The impact on Earth’s climate will be one of violent swings between extremes: Intense bursts of heat will linger in one area, while a teeth-chattering chill will dominate nearby — and then the regions will “switch”. It’s this unpredictable chopping and changing that will hasten the failure of our modern food production systems; crops will fail, on a large scale, and famine will quickly ensue.
Overall, Earth’s temperature trends colder during a GSM as the Sun’s output sinks lower and lower (increasing cloud nucleation, being one factor); however, not ALL regions experience the chill. As with the previous GSM (the Maunder Minimum 1645-1715), areas such as the Arctic, Alaska, and southern Greenland/the North Atlantic actually warm during bouts of otherwise “global” cooling.
NASA reveals the phenomenon in their Maunder Minimum temperature reconstruction map:
Temp change between 1780 (a year of normal solar activity) and 1680 (a year within the depths of the Maunder Minimum) — NASA.
Earth’s climate is cyclic, never linear — and history repeats.
Once again, the Arctic appears to be warming, but in line with the historically low solar activity we’re experiencing and its effect on the jet stream, not due to human prosperity (i.e. Man’s CO2 excretions).
www.cf.org
Storm dumps 4 FEET of snow in parts of Wyoming - Cheyenne sets record low of -19
The latest Arctic front to blast Wyoming put to rest any thoughts of an early spring as multiple feet of snow fell in at least three counties and sub-zero temperatures broke at least one record in the state on Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Carbon County was the gold medal winner for snowfall on Wednesday as 48 inches of snow was recorded at Battle Lake while campgrounds along Jack Creek and Sugar Loaf each received 42 inches.
Locations in Yellowstone National Park and Teton and Lincoln counties all received snow in excess of two feet.
The most snow in Cheyenne was in the northern areas with only 5 inches, but a 129-year record was broken when the temperature hit 19 degrees below zero early Thursday. The old record was set in 1894 at minus 13.
Other snowfall of note include areas around the south entrance of Yellowstone, which received 34 inches; Teton Village recorded 29 inches; followed by Etna and Moose Wyoming both with 25 inches; while Alta, Moran Junction and Turnerville all got 23 inches of snow.
Areas around the Hog Park Reservoir in Carbon County received between 20 and 23 inches of snow.
Other areas in Lincoln County that received an abundance of snow includes: 18 inches in locations near Smoot, 17 inches in areas outside of Cokeville and 17 inches near Thayne.
In Fremont County, snowfall up to 15 inches was recorded 7 miles north-northwest of South Pass City while areas southwest of Lander received between 11-15 inches. Riverton recorded 8.8 inches.
In north-central and northeast Wyoming, Story received the most with 16 inches, followed by 15 inches east of Shell and 13 inches west of Buffalo. Gillette recorded 9 inches of snow while Wright had 6 inches.
On or around Interstate 80, Rawlins and Lyman both received 11.5 inches of snow, Elk Mountain received 10.2 inches while communities near Interstate 25 received anywhere from 12 inches of snow near Casper to 7 inches in Wheatland.
Meanwhile, windy weather brought severe wind chills across the Cowboy State.
In the tiny town of Hiland, Wyoming in Natrona County, wind speeds clocked in at 73 mph. Green River recorded a 69 mph gust while Rock Springs had gusts up to 66 mph.
© WYDOT
Snow drift currently blocking WY28 north of Farson.
www.sott.net
www.sott.net
Snowfall totals surpass 5 FEET in some areas of southern California with nearly 7 FEET at Mountain High
Heavy snowfall in Crestline, California
Over the past few days mountain areas have experienced high snowfall totals and there's more on the way.
A winter storm with an atmospheric river that made its way over the Pacific brought multiple days of unexpected snowfall to some parts of Southern California.
Some areas have already received over 30 inches of snow and there is more coming in the forecast.
The snow came as the National Weather Service issued a rare blizzard warning for the San Bernardino mountains as well as the LA County and Ventura County mountains.
The storm will continue to make appearances throughout the remainder of the weekend and forecasters say another storm is already making its way expected to hit on Tuesday.
The snowfall and ice has caused multiple roadway closures due to dangerous driving conditions.
Here are some of the top snowfall totals across different counties in Southern California through Saturday morning. Measurements are in inches.
Mountain High: 81
Mt Baldy: 38
Lake Arrowhead: 36
Big Bear Lake: 33
Wrightwood: 32
Yucaipa Ridge: 19
Forest Falls: 19
Angelus Oaks: 16
Oak Grove: 2
Apple Valley: 0.25
To see more snowfall totals use this link.
The storm was fueled by a weather phenomenon behind some of California's wettest and most destructive storms. Atmospheric rivers are long plumes of moisture over the Pacific Ocean that tend to move through the atmosphere in streams between 250 and 375 miles wide.
The rivers in the sky move a staggering amount of water. One atmospheric river can move an average of 10.5 trillion gallons of water per day.
The strongest atmospheric rivers can move anywhere between seven and 25 times as much water as the flow of the Mississippi River, which is the second longest river in North America and has a watershed that reaches 32 states, according to the national park service.
