Australia Suffers Record Lows And Early Snows; Rare May Flurries Hit Pakistan; Cold And Wet Kenya; + Eastern Europe’s Freezing April Spills Into May
Australia Sees Record Lows And Early-Season Snows
Anomalous cold and snow hit areas of New South Wales and Victoria over the weekend –below 500m (1640ft)– as winter arrived early across swathes of Australia.
Following a string of colder-than-average seasons, autumn 2023 looks set to extend Australia’s chilly and snowy trend.
From the snowfields to the Southern Highlands of NSW, the combination of brutally cold polar air and significant moisture resulted in widespread early-season snowfall.
Already, even in early May, the first sub-alpine snow of the year has hit, delivering substantial totals to the likes of Brown Mountain, Nimmitabel and Perisher Valley.
“It was the first one, and it was a big one,” Nimmitabel resident Rod Coleman said. “It just didn’t stop … it snowed all day,” something Coleman called incredibly rare for the time of year.
Accumulations of as much as 20cm (8 inches) settled across the likes of Falls Creek, Hotham, and Robertson where snow and ice warnings are now commonplace — a full five weeks before the beginning of the official snow season, no less.
The Great Alpine Road between Harrietville and Hotham Heights was closed yesterday after several snow-related crashes.
A car, which was towing a camper trailer, slid off the road and rolled several meters down the mountain: “The caravan slipped off first and that resulted in dragging the four-wheel drive and the two occupants over the edge with it,” said SES deputy unit controller Mark Warner. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, something Warner puts down to sheer luck.
Below are recent shots of Namadgi National Park, NSW:
As well as the snow, monthly temperature records also fell on Sunday, such as Cooma’s maximum of 1.7C (35F). Omeo, Bombala, and Canberra were among the others to set coldest-ever May days yesterday, with Canberra struggling to just 7.8C (46F).
While elsewhere, official thermometers in Sydney sank to 7.1C (44.8F) late Sunday evening (at 10:36 pm), making for the city’s coldest temperature this early into autumn for 85 years, since 1938.
Despite the agenda-driving BoM calling for a “hotter-than-average” autumn of 2023, the exact opposite continues to play out.
Even Guardian reporters are noticing the trend:
Latest GFS runs are calling for much of the same to start the new week:
While looking further ahead, another polar outbreak is threatening to ascend later in the month:
Rare May Flurries Hit Pakistan
Rare snowfall blanketed Pakistan’s higher reaches over the weekend, including the Hindukush mountain range.
Both the upper and lower parts of Chitral city received a dusting on Sunday.
While snowfall in the Swat district, specifically Kalam, was observed for the first time in 30-years.
Cold And Wet Kenya
Joining the Western U.S. and Australia, Kenya is the latest nation to exit its “catastrophic CO2-induced mega-drought”.
The East Africa country has enjoyed two wet months in a row, and is exiting “the worst drought in its history”.
And in further blow to the catastrophists, April 2023 in Kenya finished with an average temperature of 22.9C (73.2F) which is 0.8C below the multidecadal average.
Again, Mother Nature and found balance without the need for human intervention.
Eastern Europe’s Freezing April Spills Into May
Overall, the month of April was cold across Europe. Late-season snows have also driven the continent’s pack to–and in many cases beyond–seasonal averages — a theme which is now continuing into May.
April in Poland closed with a temperature anomaly of 0.85C below the norm:
April in Slovenia was also colder-than-average, posting an anomaly of 1.4C below the norm:
Slovakia also saw an exceptionally chilly month, with with anomalies of as much as -2.8C below the normal:
Likewise, April 2023 in Serbia was very cold, with anomalies between -2.5C to -1.3C versus the multideacadl norm.
Also worth noting here, an April record for snow depth was set in the capital Belgrade (17cm/6.7 inches).
Croatia also shivered last month:
As did Moldova:
Suffice it to say, April was a very cold month across northern and eastern Europe–cold that more than offset the Iberian Peninsula’s anomalous heat. And now into May, Europe’s anomalies are lingering, intensifying even, particularly across Baltic countries where a myriad of national monthly low temperature records are being neared, such as Estonia’s -7.6C (18.3F), posted in Koodu; Latvia’s -6.8C (19.8F), set in Zosēni; and Lithuania’s -6C (21.2F), from Skuodas.
And looking ahead, there’s much more where that came from, with the chill forecast ti shift west as the month progresses:
SW Florida here reporting in ……….
Latitude: 26.9616667 Longitude: -82.3527778
18 Degrees F cooler than same day last year!
After a three day cooling trend I woke up to 60 F.
When the humidity rolls in the temps warm up then it rains & cools.
4 days ago it only rained inland, not where I am a mile from the beach.
Last year a storm came in this same day with a 78F temp.
Between the first 8 days of this year and last year we are 8.5 Degrees colder
on Average!!!
2022 it rained every few days a bit, this year looks cool & dry.
Dallas
While SW Florida was cool, my brother from the center of the Omega Block
in San Angelo Texas reported 78 F Sat night 6 May 2023. Even though it was warm he stated the weather forecast predicted rain daily for the next week.
As they normally have extreme low humidity 5-30% this is now a wet heat for them,
rather than the dry heat which allows for rapid desert like cooling at night due to the clear sky. Therefore it seems this extra humidity is keeping the night time temp up
as he reported.
Meanwhile in SW Florida we did have the cool dry air with a Sky temp of 16 F, Air temp 60 F as reported in the earlier post.
Dallas
Still have a fire in on 8th may West Somerset, not freezing but definitely cool in south west England.
The end of the drought in East Africa could be good for the region’s elephant populations – provided they’re not in any further danger from poachers, which I’m sure they are.
Orkney Islands. Just experienced 10 full days of north winds with mist and low cloud absolutely no sun, temperature in single figures. Swallows latest they have every arrived and fewer than norma.l. Spring gets later each year. Today we have 11C but still no sun. Due to volcanoes no doubt
I have yet to see any swifts in London. They are really late. I am surprised you get swallows in the Orkney Islands.
Very cold here in the Lockyer valley between Toowoomba and Brisbane, Sunday had a storm front come through and we had very large rain drops than small hai followed by very gusty west to South westerlies, temps overnight dropped to 4 degrees Celsius and then subtract maybe 5 to 10 for the windchill
This morning predicted 2degrees Celsius minimum minus the windchill, just after 3am and getting ready to drive into Brisbane about 120km drive, westerlies and weather like this is normally July August
I will have to check records, but off to a chilly start for autumn
I sit in Norway and use to monitor The World temperature by https://weathermap.netatmo.com/
Then i found Electroverse and have been reading for the last year or so.
As far as i understand the cold times is returning and it is faster than expected
Keep up the work
I am headed for spain in 2030
I watch Meteoblue a lot. You will even find climate trends for every place on earth that you want to touch. Or the sea ice cover, eg the ice in the Bering Strait in May.
https://www.meteoblue.com/nl/weer/historyclimate/change/50.769N4.278E
https://www.meteoblue.com/nl/weer/maps/belgie_zuid-afrika_1020331#coords=3.08/68.52/-162.16&map=seaIceCover~3hourly~auto~sfc~none
Antarctic jet stream is split and moving through Australia.
Thats why its so cold.
Mixed weather with winds from the North into NSW, which shouldnt be happening this time of year.
Got my Ugg boots out last week along with the winter-weight duvet. Not supposed to be like this at the beginning of May in Sydney. Gonna be expensive as I’m using the heater already, not planning on taking the advice of Herr Sholz and his party of little Green men to freeze like a German all winter.
Whatever happened to our glorious Indian summers, wearing shorts & t-shirt in June? I’d quite enjoy a spot of global warming now, we Aussies can take a bit of heat. The Warmist’s predictions have all the credibility of a politician’s election pledge.