Record-Breaking September Snow Hits Scandinavia; Northern Utah Forecast 8 Inches This Weekend; + UK’s Net Zero Backpedaling

Cap Allon

Record-Breaking September Snow Hits Scandinavia

Fresh summertime snow has been hitting Scandinavia’s Lapland region this week–which comprises Sweden, Norway, Finland, and a portion of Russia.

Finland’s largest ski resort, Levi, posted pictures of accumulations down to resort level on Wednesday, September 20th:


Levi, as well as fellow Finnish resort, Ruka–which are both due to start their 7-month seasons on October 6th–have successfully stored vast volumes of last year’s snow, stockpiled under cover so to survive the summertime thaw. This effort was helped by some record-low temperatures throughout the summer season, including Finland’s coldest-ever June temperature.

Nature is now providing an added record-breaking hand with some historic September snowfall.

Monthly snow depth records were toppled across Lapland on Wednesday.

Kiruna, Sweden, for example, has set a new record of 38 cm (15 inches); Karesuando, also Sweden, posted a benchmark-busting 15 cm (5.9 inches); while Inari Saariselka, Finland set a new record of 21 cm (8.3 inches) — to name just three.


The Alps

There’s been good news for the European Alps, too.

Heavy snowfall has been clipping the area’s glaciers this week, prematurely book-ending a short, though at times hot, summer after what proved a very cold and snowy late-spring:


Short term forecasts are calling for more cool and snowy weather.

Another four Austrian ski areas are now due to open over the next two weekends: Pitztal being the first, this Saturday, which will join the already open Hintertux which itself is reporting a recent healthy dumping of early-season snow.

Despite mainstream bemoanings of ‘catastrophic heat’ and ‘glacial decline’, Austria’s Hintertux ski area has remained open this summer, as has Switzerland’s Zermatt and Saas-Fee, and also Italy’s Passp Stelvio.

Back in April and May, a snowy end to the season comfortably recouped any winter deficits. Then throughout the summer, despite the odd influx of anomalous southerly warmth (aka ‘global boiling’), rounds of snow proved routine with very heavy poundings noted in late-July, and down to extraordinarily low levels, too, down to well-below 1,500m (4,900ft) in some parts.

Rare <2000m summer snowfall [Feratel]


Northern Utah Forecast 8 Inches This Weekend

The Uintas and upper Cottonwood Canyon areas of Utah are expected to cop another wintry blast this weekend.

While the exact volumes and even timing remain uncertain, NWS Meteorologist, Michael Wessler, has suggested the highest elevations could see as much as eight inches, so long as the cold air arrives on time to meet “the first slug of moisture”.

The state already received a jolt of winter on Labor Day, when resorts in the Cottonwood Canyons received unseasonable snow.

Utah endured a record-smashing snow season last time around.

Alta, for example, registered 900+ inches during the 2022-2023 winter season, totals which tore to shreds the resort’s previous all-time record of 748 inches set back in 1981-82.

This was a familiar story across the Western U.S., where at least 19 resorts broke their all-time snowpack records:


UK’s Net Zero Backpedaling

The UK government isn’t coming to its senses with this one — let’s not get excited.

This climate policy backtracking is, instead, a wretched attempt at forestalling the worst of the uproar when the blackouts inevitably roll in and the frustrated masses take to the streets seeking someone to blame.

With a general election looming, the revisions are likely also aimed at appeasing voters. The government well-knows that the average Brit hasn’t bought the ‘climate crises’ spiel. The honest polling is clear on that. This week’s grand policy flip is also proof.

Rishi Sunak has announced an “overhaul” of the government’s green commitments designed to meet net zero targets the UK has made internationally, reports the BBC.

Here are the top lines:

Cars

New cars with combustion engines were due to be banned from sale by 2030. This has been pushed back to 2035. Sunak said by 2030 he expected “the vast majority” of cars sold would be electric, because they are getting cheaper, and people are buying more, but that people should make that decision themselves — not the government.

Gas

UK gas imports are expected to continue for longer as Sunak watered-down the plan to phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035, instead aiming for only an 80% phase-out. He also said the 2026 ban on off-grid oil boilers would be delayed to 2035, with only an 80% phase-out target at that date.

He said: “We will give people far more time to make the necessary transition to heat pumps.

“We will never force anyone to rip out their existing boiler and replace it with a heat pump. You’ll only ever have to make the switch when you’re replacing your boiler anyway — and even then, not until 2035.”

Insulation

Sunak also announced he would no longer require homeowners and landlords to meet energy efficiency targets. He promised not to force homeowners into what he termed “expensive insulation upgrades”.

There had been plans to fine landlords who failed to upgrade their properties to a certain level of energy efficiency, but these have now been dropped.


Behavior Change

Sunak is not going to tell people not to fly or to eat less meat, and he has confirmed his party will not take forward policies that would encourage more sustainable behavior, such as increasing airline taxes taxing airlines and informing the public of the carbon footprint of meat.

Sunak said: “The proposal for government to interfere in how many passengers you can have in your car — I’ve scrapped it.

“The proposal that we should force you to have seven different bins in your home — I’ve scrapped it.

“The proposal to make you change your diet and harm British farmers by taxing meat, or to create new taxes to discourage flying or going on holiday. I’ve scrapped those too.”


Reaction

The Green Party slammed Sunak’s plans, calling the move a “desperate and dangerous u-turn”. While fantasists at The Guardian are losing their damn minds. And though this collective breakdown is amusing to watch–and long overdue–I remain skeptical.

Net Zero is still the end game here — that society-reshaping, wealth-distributing stratagem remains in place, its deadline has merely been extended. Western economies still uniformly agree that throttling their output is in the best interest of the survival of our species–knowing that everyday citizens will pay the price with their living standards and prosperity–all the while allowing the likes of China to storm full steam ahead: building, prospering and advancing; basically excreting as much CO2 as they see fit:


Western governments have been corrupted.

Open-eyed, change-seeking politicians are never allowed to climb the ladder.

The status quo must be maintained.

–Saying that though, I am having a hard time working out what this guy’s up to:


I can’t help but see Rishi Sunak’s Net Zero backpedaling as nothing but a dirty ploy to hold onto power. And then once reelection is achieved, once another four years are locked in, I expect the ‘climate crisis’ to deliver a conveniently-timed ‘catastrophe’. Perhaps that air-plucked 1.5C threshold will be breached, which will demand a poverty-reintroducing policy u-turn in order ‘to save the planet’.


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Thank you for your continued support,

Cap

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