Rare ‘Ice Windows’ Form On Alaska Lakes; Anchorage’s Historic Snow Totals; + Sahara Expert Says Desert Is Shrinking, Calls Alarmist Claims “Complete Nonsense”
Rare ‘Ice Windows’ Form On Alaska Lakes
Freezing lows have allowed a rare “ice window” to form on Alaska’s Alpine lakes.
Luc Mehl, an Alaskan outdoor educator, said that weather conditions had allowed Rabbit Lake to freeze in a way that the ice became see-through because of an “unusually cold but dry transition into winter”–so the opposite of what we’re told should be occurring.
The lake, located not far from Anchorage, froze so the ice was clear but still thick enough to skate on.
The phenomena is rare.
Luc says he hadn’t seen anything similar in the 12 years he’s been skating there.
As lakes freeze from the surface downwards, impurities and air bubbles can be pushed down allowing the ice to remain clear.
Anchorage’s Historic Snow Totals
Nearby, in Anchorage, a winter storm dropped record snowfall last week, with some areas outside the city copping more than 2 feet in just two days.
The largest city in Alaska broke received 9 inches of snow in 24 hours last Wednesday, breaking the Nov 8 record of 7.3 inches set back in 1982. Another 8.2 inches then piled up Thursday, which also broke the daily record for Nov 9, the 7.1 inches which had stood since 1956.
By late Thursday, Anchorage had a 21-inch snow depth, which is the city’s greatest-ever snow depth so early into a season, according to Alaska-based climate alarmist Brian Brettschneider (who over-eggs the totals slightly in his post on X below).
Already, 26.6 inches of snow has fallen this season which is a whopping 17.5 inches above the average.
East of Anchorage, along Richardson Highway over Thompson Pass, 65 inches fell in less than 24 hours.
Snow totals from Matanuska-Susitna Valley, which lies northwest of Anchorage, ranged from 9.5 inches near Wasilla to 15.5 inches near Butte, the NWS in Anchorage said on X. The community of Eagle River saw more than 18 inches of snow, while more than 25 inches accumulated just south of the Anchorage suburb.
The record snowfall led to power outages across Anchorage, along with school and road closures, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The snow buried sidewalks and downed trees, and led Mayor Dave Bronson to declare a snow emergency Thursday.
“Snow accumulation was greater than what was forecasted, and due to the heavy snow, several fallen trees have been reported,” said the mayor’s office. “Street maintenance operations has responded to 40 downed trees in the last 15 hours.”
Cold-Related Deaths
The early onset of winter has led to four homeless deaths in Anchorage last week. Fatalities have now reached 49 this calendar year, surpassing the 24 people who passed away in the city in 2022.
This week, in Anchorage, numerous tents and vehicles were seen covered in snow — these makeshift camps were established by the homeless population after the closure of the mass shelter in the city’s sports arena due to the pandemic.
Among last week’s dead, on male was discovered in the entrance to a city gift shop in which he habitually used for sleep and shelter; another perished alongside a bustling street near a Walmart; and another in a tent near the city’s central library.
The cold kills 10x more than heat does, and cold-related deaths have been found to be increasing globally–despite the Lancet’s best attempts to distort the data:
Looking ahead, single-digit temperatures (F) will sweep Anchorage this week, bringing fears of further deaths.
More Snow To Come
Another round of heavy snow is being forecast for the Anchorage area on Monday, according to the NWS. The Anchorage School District announced late Sunday that schools will again shift to remote learning.
A winter storm warning is in effect for Anchorage with another 9 inches of snow expected for the city and a foot for the hillside.
The warning calls for blizzards and reduced visibility.
The new snows will extend the historic accumulations already received this season, and will continue to provide headaches for clearing crews who were promised by the climate cabal that the future was one of increasing temperatures and reducing snowpacks.
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These impressive accumulations aren’t just confined to Alaska, either. Across the the Northern Hemisphere (excluding the mountains), total snow mass is riding well above the 1982-2012 average:
Sahara Expert Says Desert Is Shrinking, Calls Alarmist ‘Tipping Point’ Claims “Nonsense”
As pointed out by P Gosselin over at notrickszone.com, AUF 1 has posted a video interview with prominent German geologist and Sahara expert Dr. Stefan Kröpelin.
Dr. Kröpelin is an award-wining geologist and climate researcher at the University of Cologne. He specializes in the eastern Sahara desert, specifically its climatic history, and has been active out in the field for more than 40 years.
In the Auf 1 interview, Dr. Kröpelin confronts the alarmist claim of expanding desertification and looming climate ‘tipping points’.
He states that even back in late-1980s rains had begun spreading into northern Sudan, with the rains increasing ever since leading to a vegetation spread northwards and the emergence of a trend: “The desert is shrinking; it is not growing.”
When the last glacial period ended (some 12,000 years ago), explains Kröpelin, the eastern Sahara turned green with vegetation, it teemed with wildlife, and also had numerous bodies of water even as recently as 5,000 years ago.
“The most important studies that we conducted all show that after the ice age, when global temperatures rose, the Sahara greened … the monsoon rains increased, the ground water rose.” This all led to vegetation and wildlife thriving, but then over the past few thousands of years, the region dried out. It didn’t happen all of a sudden like climate models suggest, Kröpelin stresses.
When asked about dramatic tipping points (minute 8 in the video), such as those claimed by the Potsdam Institute (PIK), Kröpelin says he is very skeptical when it come to ‘crisis scenarios’ ‘such as those proposed by former PIK head, Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, saying people making such claims “never did any studies themselves in any climate zone on the earth and they don’t understand how complex climate change is.”
Barring catastrophic geological events, “it’s not how nature works,” says Kröpelin. “Things change gradually.”
The claims that “we have to be careful that things don’t get half a degree warmer, otherwise everything will collapse, is of course complete nonsense … I would say this concept [tipping points] is baseless.”
As they say in Alaska, Yep, it looks like winter is coming.
Excellent article! I agree with things changing gradually, like David Dilley says, it’s going to get colder globally progressively, step by step we’re going to find ourselves in global cooling. I’m vacationing with my brother in Marina di Massa, Tuscany, Italy. And thin November things are already different than previous Novembers, global cloudiness is also on the increase, and it will continue to do so for years, causing global cooling, but this is just a variant, many factors are at play here, and human activities, CO2 etcetera have nothing to do with this, the earth has been doing these changes for billions of years. The problem is that most people don’t study the climatic history of our planet, and never question what TV and newspapers claim. It’s the Sun the ruler of our climate.
“The problem is that most people don’t study the climatic history of our planet, and never question what TV and newspapers claim. It’s the Sun the ruler of our climate.”
People “believe” everything due to the dumbing down of the average person — inadequate teaching/learning in schools and the instantaneous allure of and gratification from the internet.
Silly me thought the internet would usher in an era of everyone adsorbing accurate knowledge and information — it’s been just the opposite!
Just like you “believe” everything Electroverse puts out without a second thought? Almost everything Electroverse claims about Australian climate records, are completely fabricated and very easy to fact check (as the Bureau of Meteorology has a very easy-to-use website to check climate data). Your beloved Cap is telling you porkies… and I’m afraid you are falling for it hook line and sinker
;^ D
Using Australia’s BOM for validation is the best joke I have read for ages.
I’m talking about the raw data, doofus… or is that ‘fake’ too ?? Geez you denialists are reaching new lows each day.
S America very hot,108F today. Hurricane mid Atlantic Wed headed for Ireland Thursday night. Electrons above threshold for three days following spike last week:
http://www.solen.info/solar/images/electronfluence.png
https://www.windy.com/-Show—add-more-layers/overlays?temp,-8.711,-51.724,5,i:pressure,m:c2OaeuF
https://www.windy.com/-Show—add-more-layers/overlays?solarpower,-12.039,-34.277,3,i:pressure,m:c3KaeiE
https://www.windy.com/-Show—add-more-layers/overlays?gust,2023111606,37.440,-42.188,4,i:pressure,m:eKraeOW
I like your new attitude – – – or your new style, where instead of fighting you present the facts in a way that makes the competition look like foolish little boys.
100s die so 1000s may live?
Sadly the shrinking of the Sahara is likely to be part of a long term cyclical change between shrinking, growth then back to shrinking. Whether this is driven by global temperature change or another factor such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation or cyclical changes in the Indian ocean isn’t clear. My prediction is that the Sahara will start growing again and droughts in the Sahel will become more common just as they were in the 1970’s and early 80’s. People of my generation will remember the Ethiopian famine in 1983-5 and Live Aid. It’s estimated that up to 1 million people died, although the death toll was much higher than it needed to be as the Marxist government initially refused to admit there was a problem and accept western aid. Imagine the field day climate alarmists would have if even 100,000 or as few as 10,000 people died due to drought and famine.
No- it’s because Global Boiling is leading to a wetter world. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and that is a law of science in much the same manner as gravity, and cannot be contested. The science is absolutely settled on this fact.
As current scientific data shows that more moisture/clouds equals overall cooling then your globull boiling will immediately lead to global cooling.
Hot in Africa, no cooling there:
https://www.windy.com/-Show—add-more-layers/overlays?temp,0.879,34.014,4,i:pressure,m:d3mag6R
https://www.windy.com/-Show—add-more-layers/overlays?solarpower,15.961,39.727,3,i:pressure,m:cU5agEb
You do realise that the Sahara shrinking is actually an effect of climate change, right? Climate change has made the world warmer and wetter, with extreme flooding being commonplace. You denialists can’t seem to grasp that.
Literally nobody thinks that the climate doesn’t change. we dispute the amount of current warming attributable to CO2.
Extreme flooding is no more commonplace than it has ever been.
The IPCC accepts that there is no connection between inrceased CO2 and extreme flooding.
Why don’t you?
just finished Alex Epstein’s book Fossil Future and would highly recommend it for those who would like to understand how science came to be corrupted in the age of climate catastrophism starting with the Carl Sagan and up to the Hansen/Mann. Long live Judith Curry. Thank God for geologists!