“Extremely Rare” (Farside) CME; Historically Cold Winter For Siberia; + Latest Storms Push U.S. Snowpack To All-Time High

Cap Allon

“Extremely Rare” (Farside) CME

Something big just happened on the farside of the sun, writes snow-stranded Dr Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com.

On March 13, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a halo coronal mass ejection (CME) leaving the Sun at over 3000 km/s:


Such extreme speeds makes this CME “extremely rare” — a fast-mover that occurs only once every decade-or-so.

NASA modelling shows it heading almost directly away from Earth.

This is a good thing. We dodged a bullet.


Energetic particles accelerated by shock waves in the CME created luminous speckles when they hit SOHO’s digital camera:


And while not Earth-directed, NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite still detected the particles reaching us–all from the CME’s backside. Imagine what a frontside blast would have been like, continues Dr Phillips.


Earth’s ever-waning magnetic field funneled the particles toward the poles where a type of radio blackout is underway–a polar cap absorption (PCA) event. Note the red areas in the below map. Airplanes flying over these regions will have likely found issues with their shortwave radios not working due to the ionizing effect of in-falling protons.


This PCA could persist for a day or more. You can monitor its progress via NOAA, linked here.


Historically Cold Winter For Siberia

The winter of 2022-23 has been historically cold across Central and Eastern Russia.

The Yakutia and the Far East, for example, suffered seasonal anomalies of -4C below the average.

Record-breaking freezes have swept the majority of Siberia since November last year. And even a milder Western portion of the country (i.e. European Russia) couldn’t stop the vast 17.1 million km² nation from suffering an overall anomaly of -0.5C below the multidecadal norm.

And for all the MSM’s alarmist headlines re. Europe’s mild winter, 1) western Europe has held relatively cool this season (I’ve been living it), and 2) it was only central Europe and a portion of the east that registers anomalously high temperautres — and area that covers a little over 1 million km2. Doing the math: Russia is 17x larger and suffered a winter anomaly of -0.5C = cooling.

Frigid winters were also suffered to the south of Russia, across the likes of Mongolia and Kazakhstan; and similarly in Western Asia, country’s such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan all endured miserable, deadly, energy-sapping cold seasons.

And most recently, Turkey, located a nudge to the west, just posted a very chilly February. Last month finished with an average temperature of 3.35C which is 0.74C below average.

China Suffers -50C (-58F) For First Time In 54 Years; The Russian Towns And Cities Enduring All-Time Record Cold; Kyrgyzstan’s Lake “That Never Freezes Over” Just Froze Over; + Arctic Blasts For Europe And North America
Fierce Freeze Persists In Siberia; All-Time Cold Records Continue To Fall Across Japan; Snow In Mallorca; + South Pole’s Clear Cooling Trend


Latest Storms Push U.S. Snowpack To All-Time High

The snowpack across the Western U.S. is at historic levels thanks to the most-recent deluge of snow.

Starting in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the snow exceeded all-time records this week.

According to data from the CDWR, the Southern Sierras–from San Joaquin and Mono counties to Kern county–have a snowpack 257% greater than the average for the time of year, and 247% larger than the average for the snowpack peak on April 1.

Central Sierra and Northern Sierra also have hugely inflated snowpacks, at 218% and 168% of the average, respectively.

sierra snowpack
In an aerial view, a vehicle and people navigate a snowy roadway lined with snowbanks piled up from new and past storms in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in the wake of an atmospheric river event, on March 12, 2023 in Mammoth Lakes, California. The snowpack has reached record-breaking levels.PHOTO BY MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES


“As of this weekend, the Southern Sierra now appears to have largest snowpack in recorded history. Not just for the calendar date, but for *any* date!” tweeted Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy.

CDWR charts reveal that this year has overtaken the 1982-1983 season — the previous record-holder.


“There is a tremendous amount of snow this year, so that’s very encouraging,” said Donald Bader, the Lake Shasta area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, who is optimistic re. California’s water storage.

However, this is a world of agendas and dogged narratives that we exist in, and record-breaking snowfall is no match for such forces: “All that snow is going to melt eventually … and California has never experienced such a large snowpack in the context of a several-degree F warmer climate that we now have regionally,” tweeted Swain, side-stepping how such a large snowpack could ever occur in the first place amidst a supposedly ‘several-degree F warmer climate’.

The fear-milking establishment is also warning that California’s snowpack won’t help the drought situation very much, claiming that the thaw, rather than see the melting snow soak into the soil and replenish the groundwater, will instead flows over the arid ground, causing flash flooding, before draining into the ocean.

Newsweek claims the drought “will maintain its grip on the state”, despite the all-time record-breaking snow. But as we discussed yesterday, vast regions of California have already gone from extreme drought to no drought (in just four months):


The likes of Sugar Bowl Resort has been experiencing insane totals of late:


Mammoth, too, has been slammed by what seems like a never-ending series of monster storms.

As a result, its seasonal totals have touched 600 inches at the Main Lodge, with additional dumpings on the horizon.

The Main Lodge’s all-time record stands at 668 inches, and breaking this is more than feasibly, perhaps even by the end of March: OpenSnow is tracking multiple storms over the next 10 days alone that could deliver upwards of 50 inches.


Dodge Ridge Mountain Resort, located near Pinecrest, busted its all-time season snowfall record on Monday.

A whopping 654″ of snow has hit so far this season, prompting the resort to release this statement:

“Records are meant to be broken! As of today March 13th we have officially broken our recorded all-time season snowfall record, previously set in the 10/11 season at 643”! Now sitting at 654” on the season this has truly been a winter we’ll all remember for a long time to come! Looks like we’re going to need to rename the T-Bar!”


Of course, this seasons unprecedented totals aren’t just confined to California.

As of March 13, a record 42.4% of the U.S. is covered by snow.

Utah’s statewide mountain snowpack –for example– was at 22.9 inches Monday, according to federal Natural Resources Conservation Service data. That figure is only 0.2 inches shy of the state’s all-time record for mid-March, set in 1997 (solar minimum or cycle 22):

This graph shows mountain snowpack collection as of Monday afternoon (in black) compared to the averages since 1980. The level of 22.9 inches is 0.2 inches below the all-time record for March 13, which was set in 1997. (Photo: Natural Resources Conservation Service)


This season’s snowpack is all-but assure of surpassing the all-time record, particularly given the forecast: Another atmospheric river event arrives in Utah Tuesday, one that prompted the NWS to issue winter storm warnings for mountain ranges in northern and southern Utah with 3 feet of snow accumulating in parts of the Wasatch Mountains by Thursday morning.

facebookShare on Facebook
TwitterRepost on X
Please help keep Electroverse online, consider becoming a Patreon.
Become a patron at Patreon!