A Meter Of Early-Season Snow Hits The Alps; 90% Of Russia Under Snow; China’s Record-Breaking Blizzards; + Flakes Return To North America

Cap Allon

A Meter Of Early-Season Snow Hits The Alps

This week has seen tremendous snow pound the European Alps. “It is looking good,” reports of planetski.eu.

Totals have comfortably exceeded a meter (3.3 feet) in some parts, with the ‘freezing level’ dropping down to 1,500m.

The northern French Alps copped healthy totals, such as the resorts of Tgnes, Le Arcs, La Rosiere and Chamonix; while over the western Swiss Alps, Glacier 3000 and Verbier posted incredible early-season numbers, as did Courmayeur and La Thuile in northwest Italy.

“It is looking good at altitude and the snow on the upper slopes will help to form a base for the approaching season, continues planetski.eu. “Many resorts are now moving the snow around the slopes and packing it down.”


Here’s Arc 195o in France:

The resort of Les Arcs, Arc 1950, which doesn’t usually open until December.


A host of European resorts have already opened their slopes: 2 in Finland, 1 in Norway, 7 in Austria, 3 in Italy, and 3 in Switzerland. Additional ski areas are due to open this weekend, including Switzerland’s Verbier (on Fri, Nov 10).

Operators in France are also preparing for early openings on the back a rise in inquiries following the heavy snow.

“I’m very excited to see this much snow already, and more to come in the forecast,” said Zac Brown of Ski France.

“Sales last week were the best of the year so far, so it certainly seems as if the talk of snow has got our customers excited too.

“Let’s hope it’s the start of a fantastic season to come.”

The french resorts of Val Thorens and Tignes are now preparing to open ASAP.

Looking ahead, weathertoski.co.uk‘s Fraser Wilkin said new Atlantic storms will bring additional rounds of snow to the Alps starting Thursday. These incoming storms really look quite potent, potentially delivering an extra 2 meters (6.6 feet) to the peaks.

GFS Total Snowfall (cm) Nov 8 – Nov 24 [tropicaltidbits.com].


“It’s absolutely chucking it down with snow in the Alps at the moment and let’s hope it signals a great winter ahead,” said Cathy Rankin from the French accommodation provider, Pierre et Vacances.


90% Of Russia Under Snow

According to the scientific director of Russia’s Hydrometeorological Center, Roman Vilfand, snow is blanketing 90% of Russia.

All of Siberia and the south of the Urals are covered in snow, including Transbaikalia; in the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye, and average of 20cm (8 inches) has settled there; while cover of up to 8 cm lies in Sakhalin.

The majority of Karelia is covered in snow; the northern half of the Arkhangelsk region, including Arkhangelsk, is blanketed; early snow has been settling in the Komi Republic for a long time now; while cover remains in the north of the Perm Territory.

On the European side, the border of snow cover runs north of Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to a hmn.ru report.

“Now we can say that 90% of the territory is covered with snow,” said Vilfand, to some things up.

A reality visualized by NOAA’s ‘Northern Hemisphere Snow & Ice Chart’:


Also note the ‘white’ also encroaching into vast areas of northeast China and Mongolia…

Snowstorms Kill Herders In Mongolia; Heavy, Record-Breaking Snow Hits China; Anchorage Blanketed By Record Snow; + New Study: Antarctica Has Cooled More Than 1C Since 1999


China’s Record-Breaking Blizzards

Record-breaking early snowfall has pummeled northeastern China this week, cancelling flights, closing roads, halting trains and shutting schools.

As per a chief weather forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, northeast China’s first snowfall usually takes place between late November and early December, making this week’s pounding exceptionally early.

In Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, the railway operator halted 51 passenger trains on Tuesday alone due to the fierce snowstorms. Harbin, the provincial capital, canceled more than 400 flights at its international airport on Monday, and the 10 million-strong city was put on effective lockdown to allow 89,000 of its workers to expedite the snow-clearing process.

Harbin issued a very rare ‘red’ blizzard alert — the highest in China’s four-tier warning system.

But residents still found time for ‘snow fighting’:


The border city of Hulin, also hit by blizzards, called on residents to join efforts in clearing the roads for traffic safety, with sanitation workers, Party cadres and volunteers all working together on the front line.

A gymnasium collapse in Jiamusi tragically killed three, reports state news agency Xinhua. Seven middle school students were playing basketball at the sports club when the roof collapsed on them. Three escaped while four others were trapped, the report said.


Heavy snowfall has hit a host of Chinese provinces this week, causing widespread disruption.

China’s national weather forecaster issued an orange blizzard alert across the likes of Jilin, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia.

Lingering cold is the next problem, and workers are now striving to restore power and clear snow-laden streets.

Jilin alone suffered a power outage that impacted 1.36 million households. The local electricity company promptly dispatched 418 teams, including 3,463 repair workers and 989 vehicles, to restore the supply.

The power had since been restored to some 847,000 households.

The provincial capital Changchun had formulated a plan to clear the roads two days before the snowfall, mobilizing nearly 1,700 sanitation workers with snow removal vehicles to ensure road safety for traffic.

“We began our work early in the morning and have been continuing for eight hours,” said Liu Shu, a local worker.

Six oriental white storks –a migratory bird species which is under first-class national protection– were rescued from an industrial park in Changchun amid the heavy snowfall. These birds normally gather in and around Changchun in early November before migrating south. However, this year, their journey was impeded by the influx of brutal Arctic air.

Meteorological authorities said Tuesday that the cold wave will continue across North China for the remainder of the week, with gales and snowfall expected in provinces including Heilongjiang and Jilin, as well as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

This is a ‘proper’ early-season Arctic blast — no wonder the western corporate media ain’t touching it.


Flakes Return To North America

A pair of winter storms will bring snow to two separate portions the U.S. Wednesday and into Thursday — the Northeast and the Colordao Rockies, with Alaska and Canada also copping healthy totals.

The likes of upstate New York and northern New England will be hit late Wednesday and lasting into early Thursday, with cities such as Burlington, Manchester and Portland among the locations to receive potentially disruptive totals.

Another snow event is on the way for Colorado, including the Denver metro area which, just last week, suffered one of its biggest October snow storms in recent memory after a foot settled in some parts.

Though less intense than last week’s record-breaker, AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Wimer said the storm is likely to bring as much as 6 inches over the foothills and perhaps 12 inches along the Front Range.

With regards to temperatures, it’s Texas that looks set to cop the coldest anomalies:

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


America’s solid start to the snow season is seeing a host of resorts opening up their slopes.

Mount Rose, Lake Tahoe will be the latest, which opens Friday, November 10 — a day earlier than last year.

Crossing the northern border, Environment Canada has issued a weather warning for Southern Ontario, specifically for cities such Guelph as well as the Waterloo Region, where today (Nov 8) a buildup of ice is on the cards.

“An approaching low-pressure system is expected to bring snow, rain and freezing rain to the area,” said ECCC.

While in Alaska, the record-breaking start to the snow season across the likes of Anchorage is forecast to continue.

Following the 6+ inches that fell on Sunday, which made for the city’s highest-ever snowfall Nov 5 total, breaking the previous record of 3.8 inches set in 1964, another major storm is set to bring heavy accumulating snow to much of Alaska starting Wednesday (Nov 8), with the totals really forecast to pick up as of next week:

GFS Total Snowfall (cm) Nov 8 – Nov 24 [tropicaltidbits.com].


All of this snow –across Russia, China, Europe and North America— is firing the Northern Hemisphere snow mass chart well-above the 1982-2012 average (see below), some 200 gigatons above, in fact — and there appears no letup in sight.

[FMI]


Greenland is also doing exceptionally well this season — another real world reality the media won’t touch.

[DMI]


For more:

Historic Snow/Ice Gains On Greenland; + Researchers “Surprised” To Find “Re-Glaciating Snow Field” In California’s Sierra Nevada
How The Greenland Ice Sheet ‘REALLY’ Fared Last Season (2022-2023)
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