Exceptionally Low Temperatures Strike The Antarctic Plateau; SoCal Residents: “Help Us!”; Australia’s Cool Feb; + India, the World’s Third-Biggest Producer, To Start Importing Wheat

Cap Allon

Exceptionally Low Temperatures Strike The Antarctic Plateau

Exceptionally low temperatures continue to strike the Antarctic Plateau.

Vostok recently plunged to -65.2C (-85.4F) — an incredibly very rare reading for early March.

For reference, -65.5C (-85.9F) is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere in February (again at Vostok).


SoCal Residents: “Help Us!”

Snow-stranded residents in the Southern California are pleading for help.

The situation is becoming increasingly desperate for many with supplies exhausted.

ABC7 Los Angeles recently flew over the Lake Gregory area of Crestline and captured a message written out in the snow:


Despite facing treacherous road conditions and bone-chilling temperatures, aerial footage also revealed dozens of residents lined up at a food distribution center outside a Crestline grocery store which earlier last week had suffered a collapsed roof.

“There’s all these promises of snow plows are coming, our help is on the way … and for five days we’ve seen none of that,” frustrated Crestline resident Agina Sedler said.

Brian Guthrie and his wife have been paving a tunnel from their home to their pantry shed in Arrowbear for days: “Even if we could get out of our driveway, it’s impossible for us to drive 10 feet down the road.”


In late-February, a wavy ‘meridional’ jet stream flow funneled Arctic air anomalously-far south.

This setup delivered rare blizzards to the likes of San Bernardino where a state of emergency has now been declared.

Lake Arrowhead, nearly 10 miles from Crestline, suffered a seven-day snowfall total of 109 inches (the community’s yearly average is 22 inches), with neighboring Running Springs receiving a whopping 150 inches.

Along with San Bernardino County, Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared states of emergencies in 12 other CA counties.


Heavy, disruptive and deadly snow is falling elsewhere across the United States.

Late last week, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue unit was dispatched to a report of an avalanche at Black Crater, Oregon.Two experienced skiers were caught up in the avalanche, with one succumbing to his injuries.

While in Canada, three German tourists from Bavaria have died in British Columbia — the latest victims in one of the province’s most dangerous avalanche seasons in recent memory.


As predicted, these recent totals are driving Northern Hemisphere snow mass well-above the 1982-2012 average:

NH Total snow mass could peak later this season, delaying the onset of spring.


And looking ahead, America’s snow is refusing to abate, with heavy falls forecast throughout March–particularly in the Midwest:

GFS Total Snowfall (inches) March 6 – March 22 [tropicaltidbits.com].


Canada also won’t be spared:

GFS Total Snowfall (inches) March 6 – March 22 [tropicaltidbits.com].


Australia’s Cool Feb

Swathes of eastern and central Australia have just posted their coolest summers in decades–following what were also colder-than-average springs and winters.

The temperature data for February 2023 has now been confirmed: A temperature anomaly of -0.20C below the multidecadal average was officially registered, making summer as a whole -0.50C below the norm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Looking ahead, the warm-mongering BoM foresee a hotter than average autumn of 2023 in all areas of Australia–as they seemingly do for every month/season–with the government agency providing this blood-red graphic to support their claim:



“It would be no surprise if next summer was one of the hottest on record for much of Australia,” concludes the BoM’s partner in crime abc.net.au, due to the expected return of El Nino. However, the aforementioned forecast has started off poorly for the BoM with additional widespread COLD expected to grip much of the country into the second week of March:

GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) March 7 March 9 [tropicaltidbits.com].


For more on Australia’s clear and obvious cooling trend –as well as more on Antarctica’s exceptional run of cold– see below:

Past Four Months On Antarctica Were Second Coldest Nov-Feb On Record; Australia’s Colder-Than-Average Summer; Frosty Europe; + Fresh Snows And Record Lows Pound The U.S.


Israel Chills

Just briefly, February 2023 in Israel was cool and wet.

The nation finished with an average temperature of 12.04C (53.7F), which is 0.79C below the multidecadal average.


India, the World’s Third-Biggest Producer, To Start Importing Wheat

India, the third-biggest producer of wheat in the world, is expected to start importing the grain due to persistently poor, weather-related harvests and low stocks.

Lower production and the need to boost stocks will likely prompt the Indian government to buy at least 34 million mt of wheat from the open market, according to trade sources who pegged consumption at around 104 million mt.

To help with spiraling domestic prices, back in January the government released 3 million mt of emergency stocks. This successfully eased prices over the past six weeks, but stocks remained historically low and, unlike in January when estimates for the forthcoming crop were at optimistically-high levels, the weather has since deteriorated, holding drier than expected.

Global food security is already creaking.

The third biggest wheat producer in the world taking grain off the market will hardly help.

Farmers across the planet are warning of looming shortages — ‘red alerts’ have been issued.

Prepare.

My own preparations took a setback yesterday evening.

Two foxes broke into one of our chicken coops and decapitated 13 of our birds. Our guard dog, inside with us at the time –due to it still being dusk, with foxes having only previously come at night– didn’t hear the commotion due to the heavy rains.

It was our new 7-week-old puppy that alerted us to the break-in, and our older dog bounded out and managed to save 10 birds that would have otherwise perished. The foxes were cunning, waiting for the heaviest downpour before scaling the 6ft-high permitted fence – -something I didn’t figure was possible.

If anyone has any tips on how fox-proof a chicken coop, or knows of a good trap (I’m past negotiating with these bastards now) please post a comment below.