#north coast snowfall at sea level

[101now]

Substantial (very) low elevation snowfall possible later this week in CA as cold and active weather pattern develops : Weather West

A dramatic (but dry, in some places) cold frontal passage Tue–very windy and much colder The initial cold front late Tue will be very strong but mostly dry, bringing widespread strong winds and colder temperatures. But the main action to follow will be on Wed-Sat, depending on where you are in the state. In unusually dramatic fashion, there will be a sudden shift from mild, dry, and quiescent…

[weather-usa]

Climate of New Jersey

New Jersey experiences a humid subtropical climate in the southern parts of the state and a humid continental climate in the north. This results in four distinct seasons, with hot summers and cold winters. Here's a breakdown of the climate in New Jersey:

See Weather Forecast for New Jersey today: https://weatherusa.app/new-jersey

Summer (June to August):

Summers are typically warm to hot, with average daytime temperatures ranging from the mid-80s to low 90s Fahrenheit (around 29-35°C).

High humidity levels, especially along the coast, can make it feel even hotter, leading to occasional thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

The Atlantic Ocean moderates temperatures along the coast, providing relief from extreme heat.

Autumn (September to November):

Autumn brings cooler temperatures and colorful foliage as the state transitions from summer to winter.

Temperatures gradually decrease, with highs ranging from the 70s Fahrenheit (around 21°C) in September to the 50s Fahrenheit (around 10°C) in November.

Crisp, clear days are common, making it an ideal time for outdoor activities like hiking and apple picking.

Winter (December to February):

Winters in New Jersey are cold, with temperatures often dropping below freezing.

Snowfall is frequent, particularly in the northern and western parts of the state, where accumulations can be significant.

Average temperatures range from the 30s to 40s Fahrenheit (around -1 to 9°C), though colder temperatures can occur during cold snaps.

Spring (March to May):

Spring marks the return of milder temperatures and blooming vegetation.

Highs climb from the 50s and 60s Fahrenheit (around 10-20°C) in March to the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit (around 15-25°C) by May.

Increased rainfall aids in the rejuvenation of plant life after the winter months, leading to lush greenery and vibrant flowers.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07734

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07670

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07650

Overall, New Jersey's climate offers a diverse range of weather conditions throughout the year, making it an appealing destination for outdoor enthusiasts and those who enjoy experiencing distinct seasons.

New Jersey's diverse geography encompasses four distinct physical regions:

Ridge and Valley Section: Located in the northwest, this area is characterized by the folded Appalachian Mountains, which traverse the state. It features picturesque valleys and rugged terrain.

Highlands: Extending from the ancient rocks of New England, the Highlands trend across the state in a northeast-southwest direction. This region is known for its rocky landscapes and elevated terrain.

Central Piedmont: The rolling central Piedmont is where many major cities and suburbs are situated. It offers a mix of urban and suburban environments.

Atlantic Coastal Plain: Divided into inner and outer portions, the relatively level Coastal Plain includes sandy soils. The Outer Coastal Plain is home to the Pine Barrens, known for its unique ecosystem and sandy terrain.

High Point, reaching 1,803 feet (550 meters) above sea level, stands as the state's highest elevation, located in Sussex County just south of the New York border.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07620

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07544

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07524

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07510

The Pine Barrens, situated in the Outer Coastal Plain, feature relatively poor sandy soils. In contrast, the Inner Coastal Plain and Piedmont, as well as valleys in the New England section, boast better-quality soils. Despite suburbanization impacting agricultural land, areas like the Piedmont still host substantial estates and farms. Truck farms are prevalent in the southern Inner Coastal Plain, while prosperous horse farms characterize the northern Inner Coastal Plain. Dairying remains in the Ridge and Valley section.

New Jersey's most notable features include its beaches, the Pine Barrens, The Palisades facing Manhattan, expansive marshes and swamplands in the northeast, and the scenic hills of the northwest, including the iconic Delaware Water Gap.

See more: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/24/climate/johannesburg-south-africa-water-shortage-intl/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

The climate of New Jersey varies across its regions:

Northwest: Experiences relatively cold winters, with average January temperatures below 28 °F (−2 °C).

South: Relatively mild conditions prevail in the south, with average winter temperatures above freezing.

Summers: Generally hot throughout the state, with July averages ranging from about 70 °F (21 °C) in the northwest to above 76 °F (24 °C) in the southwest. Moist conditions prevail, with seasonally well-distributed precipitation averaging from 44 inches to more than 52 inches (1,120 to 1,320 mm).

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07481

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07182

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-07195

New Jersey's diverse plant and animal life include:

Plant Life: Virtually all plant species common to the northeastern United States can be found in New Jersey, with many rare species growing in the marshes and Pine Barrens. Dominant vegetation includes oak, pine, and white cedar in the Pine Barrens, while common trees elsewhere include oaks, sugar maples, hemlocks, birches, and sweet gums. Common plants include wild azaleas, rhododendrons, honeysuckles, mountain laurels, wintergreen, and cardinal flowers.

Animal Life: The Meadowlands and the Great Swamp of Morris County are remnants of glacial lakes, with the former dominated by grasses and the latter by trees. Wildlife habitats have been impacted by suburban development, with bears and deer becoming pests. Common animals include raccoons, opossums, mammals, snakes, and birds found in the northeastern United States, including migratory species.

[atlanticcanada]

Atlantic storm adds to Christmas travel woes, as ferry, plane trips cancelled

The weather system hammering Central Canada is also bringing Christmas travel woes to the East Coast, as holiday travel plans are being delayed by flight and ferry cancellations.

Environment Canada is forecasting rain and powerful gusts through to Christmas Eve in the Maritimes, while it says the storm will carry on into Newfoundland and Labrador until Saturday night.

Forecaster Ian Hubbard says the gusts predicted are noteworthy, with expectations they'll reach velocities of 90 kilometres per hour in some areas of Atlantic Canada, including up to 100 km/h in coastal areas.

Electrical utilities are warning residents to prepare for potential power outages, and airline departure boards at the Halifax airport were indicating delays and cancellations of some flights, particularly those headed west.

Meanwhile, the Marine Atlantic ferry Blue Puttees experienced mechanical problems affecting its bow thrusters as it attempted to dock in Port aux Basques, N.L., on Friday morning, and due to the rough seas had to return to North Sydney, N.S., where it was expected to arrive back at 3:30 p.m.

Spokesman Darrell Mercer said the return to North Sydney means the 446 passengers won't be able to travel to Newfoundland until late Saturday night because ferry crossings scheduled for late Friday and early Saturday out of North Sydney have been cancelled due to the stormy weather.

"They'll be rebooked until Saturday night's crossings, but we know there's a significant inconvenience to that as they (passengers) had travel plans to be home for the holiday season," said Mercer.

Mercer said the Blue Puttees couldn't dock in Port aux Basques because without the bow thrusters working, the vessel wouldn't be able to make a safe turn around Vardys Island, which sits in the middle of Newfoundland harbour.

Rainfall and snow levels predicted vary around the region, with 25 to 40 millimetres of rain anticipated in southern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and about 20 millimetres in Prince Edward Island, while in northern New Brunswick the precipitation will start out as snowfall.

Special weather statements are also in effect for parts of the Bay of Chaleur and south-facing shorelines of the Atlantic coast for possible storm surges.

The storm is part of the same system expected to affect most of Eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.

Sean Borden, the Nova Scotia Power executive overseeing the utility's response to the storm, said in a release on Thursday evening that repair crews have been positioned around the province. "Based on the current forecast, we expect this storm to cause power outages across the province. We are taking every precaution to ensure we are ready to respond," he said.

One of the consequences of the wet weather is that much of the Maritimes -- with the exception of northern New Brunswick -- will have a snowless Christmas.

The lack of snow on the East Coast at Christmas has been a trend described by Environment Canada on its website in its analysis of 67 years of weather records for centres across Canada.

The department calculates the probability of having a white, snow-covered day on Christmas Day in the Atlantic region has been falling steadily, when the period from 1960 to 1984 is compared to the period between 1997-2021.

In the modern era, Charlottetown has a 40 per cent lower probability of snow than it did in the early timeframe, while in Halifax it is 32 per cent lower and Fredericton is 44 per cent lower.

Mike De Wolf, a cross-country ski enthusiast, said he now has to regularly drive 530 kilometres to the north, from Halifax to Charlo, N.B., to enjoy his sport at this time of year. On Friday, he'd just returned to a snowless Halifax from his latest trip to the region's last remaining snow belt.

The 73-year-old said, "there will be no skiing on mainland Nova Scotia because of global warming." He said the decline in snowfall in Nova Scotia "is very disappointing" for outdoor enthusiasts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2022.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/nvOKDio

[tealin]

Temperatures

As always, when you see one of these posts pop up you can head straight over to twirlynoodle.com/blog to see it properly formatted and with pictures. Tumblr didn't even take the crosspost last time so I don't know what's going on!

It’s all well and good to share photos of Antarctica – after all, it is a beautiful place, and we are predominantly a visual species. The photos can give you a sense of what it looks like, but not what it feels like. If people know anything about Antarctica, it’s that it’s cold. But how cold? And what kind of cold?

I cannot speak to the full range of Antarctic weather.  I was down for exactly a month, in early summer, and aside from the first week, the weather was unusually calm and mild.  To my great disappointment, I didn't see a single blizzard!  But I did get enough to compare the feel of Antarctica with other places I have been, and I hope that by making those comparisons here, I will bring you a little closer to understanding quite literally what it feels like to be there. 

Temperatures are misleading.  A number can only give you an impression of what one might actually feel when one steps out the door.  Humidity, sunshine, and wind are external factors that affect the perception of temperature; this can be further influenced by how much sleep or food you've had, BMI, resting metabolism, your accustomed climate, where you've just come from – so, 6°C can feel different from one day to the next, or to two different people standing side by side.

There are roughly two types of cold: dry and damp. The influential factor is water, because it takes a tremendous amount of energy to make water change temperature – this is why it takes so much power to boil a kettle, and why we bring hot water bottles to bed instead of hot gravel bottles. In dry environments, there is less water vapour in the air to suck up the heat coming off your body, so you get to keep more of it for yourself. It may be well below freezing, but you will feel the cold merely as a sensation on your skin, where it meets the air, and not something that goes right through you. Damp cold, because of the energy-hungry water in the air, feels a lot colder. It’s not enough merely to cover your skin, you need layers of fabrics that have moisture-repelling properties (wool is key; cotton is useless). Your precious body heat will leak out through any weak point in your clothing. Because of their different properties, dry air can be much colder than damp air and yet feel more comfortable. In my experience, damp cold is the worst when it’s above freezing, because below freezing the air can’t hold so much water. Damp climates, however, tend not to get much below freezing, so when people from damp climates imagine very cold temperatures, they imagine the insidious cold they know, only much much worse. It’s not necessarily like that.

Even the objective numerical value of a temperature presents a problem: my historical sources, and the United States of America, report temperatures in Fahrenheit, while the rest of the world operates in Celsius.  Scientists prefer the metric system, but McMurdo is an American base, so it's functionally bilingual.  I tend to think in Celsius, but as the historical record was in °F and I wanted to be able to compare what I was experiencing with what my guys experienced, I paid more attention to °F while I was down there.  In this post, I will report actual temperatures in both, so you can look at whichever one you understand best. 

When I left Britain in mid-October, we had been having a very mild autumn, after a hot summer.  My hopes for hardening up a little on the way to Antarctica were dashed when Vancouver, though objectively colder, felt merely fresh and delightful, I assume because it was unseasonably dry.  LA is always dry in the autumn and usually hot, so that was no surprise; Christchurch however was much warmer than expected, and because it wasn't as dry as LA, felt even hotter.  After several days' delay there, I feared my blood was much too thin to be hurtled into ice and snow. 

It is regulation to wear one's Extreme Cold Weather gear on the plane to McMurdo.  Aware that I'd just had a fortnight of heat to thin my blood, and that they were just coming out of a cold snap down there, I was only too happy to take this precaution.  When the plane landed, everyone piled on their balaclavas and tuques, and when the door opened, an icy-looking fog formed as our pent-up breaths met the cold air from outside.  Here we go, I thought.  As I approached the gangway I braced myself for the smart of cold air on exposed skin and the stiletto keenness as I inhaled, but . . .   

. . . it was fine. 

In fact, it was so fine that when I was allowed to change out of my ECW, I put on my street shoes, not even my cold-weather hiking boots.  I knew dry cold from Utah and Alberta, but I was coming to understand that in an Antarctic context, “well it was -20, but it was a dry cold” isn't a joke, it's just a statement of fact.  +6°C(42°F) would be miserable in damp Cambridge, but -6°C(21°F) was quite comfortable at McMurdo – if it wasn't windy, one could happily go about without a coat.

One always had a coat to hand, though, because the wind could turn up at any time, and it made a big difference.  The first time I went to Cape Evans it was so mild as to be balmy – I was in snow pants because they were required for the snowmobile, but on top I stripped down to just my base layer and a medium-weight sweater, and was even a bit warm in that.  It was -1°C/30°F, but I could happily have sat down to a picnic. 

Before we left, I wanted to make a quick trip up Wind Vane Hill.  I got hot climbing it, but while on top, a breeze kicked up, and before long I was wishing I hadn't left my jacket at the bottom.  The reason I have my hands tucked in my snow pants bib in the above photo is because they were beginning to feel quite nippy.  I always had a jacket with me after that, even if I cursed its dead weight the whole time.  (It was usually my trenchcoat, not the big red parka, for this reason.  I will go into more depth on clothing in a future post.) 

A similar thing happened on my Basler flight.  I'm afraid I don't know the actual temperatures where and when we landed – we were at the inland extremity of the Barrier, though, so everything I'd read told me it ought to be noticeably colder than McMurdo.  It might well have been.  But the only clue that it wasn't a perfectly warm summer day was that the slightest stir in the air breathed ice on my hands.  It felt much the same at the much higher altitude site of CTAM.  The interior of the continent is even drier than the coast: apparently, in the absence of wind and on a bright sunny day, this makes temperature barely perceptible at all. 

A windless day is a vast exception in the case of Antarctic weather, though, and besides chilling a human body, the direction of the wind makes a big difference to the objective air temperature.  A north wind, arriving from over the open sea, was comparatively mild.  Most of the time, however, the wind was from the east to south, coming cold off the icy interior.  This sends it funnelling through The Gap straight at Hut Point. The Hut Point Wind was infamous in the Heroic Age; even now it can be a pleasant day at the station, but one must remember to kit up just to walk around the corner to the Discovery Hut. 

It did make for some great photos, though, because if the conditions were just right – which they were a few times in my month there – the wind would kick up some freshly fallen snow and things would look so very Antarctic.  The funny thing was, on the days when it looked quintessentially polar, it was actually comparatively warm.  The snow was so powdery that a fairly light wind could lift it, so it didn't have to be brutally windy to look brutally windy.  The cold really sets in when a high pressure system stays in place for a while and keeps the air still; if there is turbulence, there is warmth, and if a weather system moves through – such as the kind that delivers snow – the temperature rises considerably.  So in order for there to be fresh snow to blow around, there will have been a recent warm spell, whereas if it's starting to get cold again, the new snow will have compacted enough not to blow around.  The strongest winds I encountered in Antarctica were at Cape Crozier, but you'd never guess it from my photos, which haven't a speck of drift.  I am sure there are exceptions to this, but this was a dependable pattern in my time there. 

Above: two images of light snow blowing off just after a snowfall, when it was comparatively warm. Below: 30-knot winds at Cape Crozier, but you'd never guess.

One of my oddest temperature memories was in one of those balmy drifty situations.  I had been asked to give my history lecture over at Scott Base, and I was to wait for the Kiwi truck at a designated pickup point on the road coming over from The Gap.  There are three official categories for weather in Antarctica: Condition 3 is when everything can operate as normal: it can be cold, it can be windy, but visibility is fine and the ordinary precautions will see you through.  Condition 2 is when things are starting to get serious: drift and/or winds are reaching dangerous levels, extra precaution is necessary, and venturing outside is discouraged.  Condition 1 is when everyone is required to stay indoors except on vital business as merely venturing outside is a life-threatening risk.  During my month there it was always Condition 3, but within the hour of my pickup a Condition 2 had been declared on the Scott Base side of The Gap.  My ride said she would be coming anyway, as she would be overwintering and needed the practice of driving in Condition 2, so I went up to meet her.  I was hoping I would finally get a blast of Antarctica, but it gave me a surprise.  For one, it was warm.  And, yes, it was windy, but not desperately so, and the wind had a damp sweetness that, weirdly, made me think of swelling streams and crocuses.  The Condition 2 had been called purely because of the drift, which was obscuring the road and therefore made driving more hazardous than usual.  It was surreal to hear my driver checking in with her radio operator as if she were chasing tornadoes when it was really quite pleasant out.

My first few days at McMurdo were by far the coldest of my whole visit.  When I first visited the Discovery Hut it was -18°C, or just below 0°F, and rather windy on the way back.  That was when I learned that one can be feeling really quite cosy all over but one's outermost extremities can still suffer the cold – I distinctly remember wondering why my fingertips were tingling when I felt so warm, and a little while later my toes went numb and I had to stamp them back to life.  The dryness, not sapping your core heat, can lure you into a false sense of security, and nab your digits while you're not looking. 

After that, daily highs mostly hovered around the freezing point, and lows rarely dipped as low as -10°C/+14°F.  This was really very mild – indeed, the people who'd been down since September could often be seen flitting about in t-shirts – and was an amusing irony for me personally.  Twice in the past I'd visited Calgary in search of 'Antarctic' cold and hit, instead, a relatively mild spell; it turned out that in Antarctica I was getting exactly the same weather that I had thought un-Antarctic in Calgary.  Not only was it the same weather on paper, but it felt exactly the same as well – the light, fresh kiss of frosty air on one's cheeks, surprising warmth in the sunshine but a breeze to keep you honest, and even the same granular texture to old snow.  Altitude can give you the same feeling, as the thinner air cannot hold as much moisture as it can at lower levels, so if you've not been to the Prairies but have been on a ski holiday, you can use that as a reference point as well. 

It is much harder to draw parallels with damper climates.  At home in Cambridge, I have a sort of 'misery zone' between 4°-10°C (40°-50°F) where it's too cold to be warm, but not cold enough to be crisp, and the damp seems to seep through every layer to reach in and chill. As the thermometer plunges towards freezing and below, it is, ironically, more comfortable weather, because the colder the air is, the less moisture it can hold.  In Britain I have sometimes found myself taking off layers as the mercury falls.  When imagining Antarctica, people often extrapolate from their own experience of cold temperatures: If your base measure of cold is the 'misery zone' in a damp climate, such as Europe or the Eastern US, then you may think 'If 6°C feels like this, then -6° must feel that much worse' when in fact all the other factors at play can make it preferable.  Even the cold days on my arrival at McMurdo were nicer, experientially, than a misty morning in deepest February back home.  At one point, Cherry describes Antarctic summer weather as resembling a crisp sunny morning in September, and indeed from a British perspective Antarctica often felt more like a bright and breezy 13°C (55°F) than anything closer to freezing.

This gave me some perspective on the early explorers.  If they had spent their lives on this chilly island, and then travelled to Antarctica over a chilly sea, they would be coming at it with all the assumptions one acquires from experience with humid cold.  Finding not an amplification of your worst experiences, but instead a wonderland where the thermometer seemed to exist in a different reality – certainly the case when they arrived in midsummer – would encourage some overconfidence that we might consider reckless.  Some, like Scott, had been down before and knew how deceptive the weather could be; his journals are full of chiding his team for not taking Antarctica seriously.  But there were many who were new to it, and even after an Antarctic winter, sheltered as they were in an insulated hut by the sea, they did not fully grasp how dangerous things could get inland and how narrow the margins were.  A breeze may be thrilling when it brings the truth of -10 to exposed skin warmed by the sun; when the truth is -40 it's instant frostbite.  While I didn't get temperatures that low, my experience with higher ones can, I hope, help me imagine how that would go. 

The dryness that made the cold so bearable granted me a reprieve from an opposing worry.  Outside of Britain I generally find buildings overheated in the winter – I have to remind myself to pack light 'inside clothes' or else I suffocate.  This is especially the case in the States, and McMurdo being an American base I foresaw having to strip five layers off and put them back on again every time I entered or exited a building.  They may have been overheated, but I don't know – dry air saps the potency of heat as well as cold, so it was as comfortable to wear three layers as one, and that saved me a lot of time in the cloakroom.  Thanks, Antarctica! 

I had got so used to the nip in the air that I thought I'd be inured to cold for the rest of the winter, but once I was back on this cold damp North Atlantic island, the misery zone was as potent as ever.  I may not have picked up thermoregulation superpowers in Antarctica, but I did come back with two secret weapons: merino wool base layers, and an utter disregard for my appearance so long as I was warm.  I highly recommend both to anyone in a disagreeable climate. 

[spaceexp]

What’s happening to Greenland’s ice?

ESA - European Space Agency patch. 6 July 2019 Heatwave conditions catapulted Greenland into an early Arctic summer in June, prompting widespread melting across its icesheet surface, according to researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute. Although unusually early, this weather-related event is not unprecedented, according to climate scientist Dr Ruth Mottram, who has published a comprehensive assessment that details major longer-term changes occurring across the planet’s second largest icesheet, in the journal Remote Sensing.

Meltwater lake

The research, involving scientists from DMI, the Technical University of Denmark and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, combined 30 years of satellite observations of the icesheet’s surface height, mass and movement with climate model output. Collectively this work provides a ‘health check on the icesheets current status and helps to establish the extent of ice loss due to surface melt or from other ocean processes, such as iceberg calving. An average 255 gigatonnes of ice was lost each year from 2003 to 2016, according to the research team’s findings. Worringly, the loss of ice shows a marked three-fold acceleration (83 Gt) compared to the preceding decade and consistent with similar studies at the North and South poles, and a potential concern for the international community. Loss of land ice is a potential indicator of climate change and contributes directly to sea level rise, posing a risk to people living near the coast across the world. “The Greenland losses have raised sea level by around half a millimeter each year over the observed period,” explains Dr Mottram. She also emphasises the importance of continuing monitoring as scientists are still yet to fully understand the reasons for interannual variability that they observe.

Changing Greenland icesheet height 1995-2017

Almost all of the ice loss was due to changes in surface mass budget, with thinning found virtually everywhere. At some locations, the icesheet surface decreased by over two and a half metres per year between 1995 and 2017 based on measurements using space-borne radar altimeters. The researchers point to increased melting and changes in snowfall rates for the decrease. “If an icesheet is to maintain its mass balance, or volume, we would expect to see the height increase at its centre due to snow accumulation. It is striking how this pattern has changed when comparing the early 1990s to the last few years,” explains Dr Mottram. The rate of ice flow and iceberg calving of glaciers can also be measured from Space, with the study finding that all but one from a representative sample of 28 Greenland glaciers had substantially retreated since the 1990s. Such changes were found in areas around Jakobshavn Isbrae in western Greenland and Helheim glacier in south east Greenland with the increase in ice flow pulling more ice out of the interior, contributing to a thinning of the icesheet. The observational datasets used in this study have been developed through the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative. Covering 21 key components of the Earth climate system, including information on the cryosphere and the Greenland icesheet, the continuous and long-term time series are generated by merging historic satellite missions with today’s current satellites, including the Copernicus Sentinels. Referred to as Essential Climate Variables, they provide the empirical evidence of a changing climate and support policy and decision-makers to address the consequences.

Ice velocity maps of Greenland

This latest study used these observations to validate and identify improvements to the existing climate and icesheet computer models, used to simulate the icesheet’s current state and predict how it may change into the future. Despite huge strides being made in understanding the icesheet, the models and observations did not fully agree in certain areas, such as Southern Greenland, nor were the simulations able to fully capture the variability in year to year ice loss. The authors emphasise the importance of continuing accurate monitoring of the icesheet to help investigate and model its dynamic processes and point to the Copernicus Sentinel satellites as game-changers. “With Copernicus Sentinel-1 and -3, we are moving from only being able to take a short snapshot of icesheet flow speeds or calving front changes beginning to be able to monitor the Greenland icesheet remotely, in almost real time. “We now get consistent, weekly repeat, and with such a richness of data we can more accurately understand how Greenland is responding to a changing environment.” Related links: Remote Sensing: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/12/1407 Observing the Earth: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth Space for our climate: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Space_for_our_climate Climate Change Initiative: http://cci.esa.int/ Sentinel-1: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1 Sentinel-3: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-3 Copernicus: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus Images, Text, Credits: ESA/Nasa/Jim Yungel/Mottram et al. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[majestyrising]

This is literally two pages long so it’s going under a cut but worldbuilding for Hythveard, the secondary base for Thanatos!

So Hythveard is on an just off the coast of the Southern Icefield, about here:

Here is a very rough map drawn by yours truly:

Pink is population density! Can you tell I’m better at writing than, you know, maps.

Warm water from the north mixes with cold water from the south, creating dense fog and fertile plankton for fish; doubly so thanks to hardy plague plankton. (Possibly an invasive species.) Very cloudy due to moisture in the air. The moisture freezes and falls as snow. The strongest snowfall is just past the eastern mountains, as the wind blows the snow from the peaks.

Lots of fish due to abundance of food and shelter in the natural harbour; including mussels, coldwater crab, jumbo shrimp, octopus, oyster, and trout.

Hardy plants grow but they tend to be tasteless and tough; these include arctic willow, grasses, winterbelle (purple saxifrage), ice variation of aether cherries, seagrass (underwater), amaranth (instead of wheat), ice variation of honeycrisp apples, hearty spinach, broadleaf plantain, cinnamon, roses, and lume/midnight daffoldil. Vodka can be made from amaranth! How fortunate.

There are mostly smaller land locked mammals due to less food, and general low populace of these due to it being an island. These include snowshoe rabbits, arctic foxes, stoat, various domesticated chicken, bats, songbirds, and swan. Some larger animals include snowfall elk, wolves, caribou, and moose. As for aquatic mammals, there’s beluga, narwhal, porpoise, seals, and the odd orca.

Domesticated wolves are used to hunt, guard, guide, transport, and patrol. Magpies/Eagles are used to hunt, guide, and patrol. Cattle are used for meat, milk, leather, and horns. Sheep are used for meat, milk, wool, and horns. Chickens are used for meat, eggs, feathers, and pest control. Horses can be used for transportation (maybe semi aquatic? I’ll work on it.)

Plentiful resources are therefore are seafood, traditional ice plant based dishes, and vodka (usually sweet flavoured.)

The cliffs are, in places, made of granite, which contains quartz (usable in glass/optics/jewellery), labradorite (usable in jewellery), gypsum (for chalk/fertiliser), and microcline (glass/ceramics). There are also a few veins of copper (tools) in the area.

There are several freshwater springs and streams and a small, emergency desalination plant if those resources fail.

The buildings are made from bleached white granite, imported obsidian, self-made glass, imported steel, and wood imported from the Tundra to the south.

The main industry is fishing. Then trading, farmers, artisans, academics, travellers, entertainers. Thanatos forces out any mercenary competition back onto the mainland- depending on if you’re good or bad and how much of a fuss you’re kicking up, either they’ll charm you to have you on their side, dump you onto the mainland, or kill you in a back alley.

The inner city is more multicultural, but fiercely protective of their identity as Ice. Any reference to how close they are to Arcane is met with open hostility. They are often call ‘pink snow’ by those who live deeper in Ice territory. Calling someone ‘pink’ means they’re weak, wimpy, or away with the fairies. The trade with fire is begrudging but required. Fire ships are not particularly welcome in harbour. The relationship with arcanite traders is far better, although they are stereotyped as superior intellectuals and the locals don’t appreciate being looked down on. The trade with wind is medium level and are categorised as hagglers. Ice flighters hate haggling.

Hyth locals are more adaptive to change than their deeper brethren, have a close relationship with the sea, stars, and weather. They view themselves as the outer bastion of Ice, a bulwark against invasion. They do not welcome change, but they believe that by giving themselves the best position, their future is more secure. They are seen as principled and determined people by themselves, whom embrace their climate. Here, Ice tradition is upheld by ritual and the calender. Meals, festivals, feasts, entertainment, and the careful recording of everything. To outsiders, they are stoic, stringent people who eat too much fish.

There is no university on the island, but there are a few professors from the academies from the Icefields. Therefore, academics are rare and valued. There are a lot of fishermen, but they are greatly respected as without them the whole city would die. There are several pubs, several bars, boarding houses, residential houses, tailors, tanners, metalworkers, artisans, a few clubs, breweries, coffee shops, training dojos, magical guilds, bookshops, animal suppliers, butchers, produce makers. Primary education is a communal city affair; the people have a rotor of teaching literacy, maths, language, history, war, and magic. The aforementioned academics teach speciality subjects for those who show an interest in them.

The Icewarden is worshipped. Food in the Icefields isn’t plentiful enough for it to be offered wholesale, so food is made to be his in a prayer, and then consumed. Bookbinders and historians are seen as especially religious, as well as any in the justice system/those who punish evildoers. Hence, Thanatos fulfils a semi-religious role in Hyth.

The legal system is codified in a very dense but surprisingly easy to read text, which is enshrined with Thanatos. The laws on drugs and prostitution mean they are legal in certified establishments, and Thanatos holds the reigns on what gets certified. Meaning they get the profits. But, these establishments are well kept, the workers are safe and paid well, so the citizens agree with the law.

Conflicts are primarily dealt with by the individuals in question; if they aren’t, Thanatos steps in to handle it.

Most goods can be obtained in Hyth due to the trade routes in the harbour, however luxury goods include anything from deep inside the Labyrinth (as this is a world away), pelts from animals which are hard to take down, and anything easily damaged by the cold.

Common goods in Hyth include pearls (from local oysters), feathers from the local bird population, furs/hides from local animals, labradorite jewellery, spruce furniture.

The Kingdom of Thanatos is the ruling legal and governmental body in Hythverd. They contribute towards the cities’ welfare, negotiating the trade routes and monitoring the ships which come in, and what their goods are. The citizens are free to do as they wish without restriction- all but try to challenge this rule. They are seen as benevolent overlords. Everyone is aware that they are mercenaries, but the relationship with the non-members is good, as half the mercenaries live in town and are good, honest people.

The city is called Hythveard, often shortened to Hyth. The northern quarter is Chelyu, where the people live, and the southern quarter is Ostr-Zubi. Chelyu is from челюстная кость, meaning jawbone. Ostr-Zubi is from острые зубы, meaning sharp teeth. The island itself is called краеугольный камень замороженных народов, aka keystone of frozen peoples, also known as Keystone Island in the common tongue.

[my-dreamscape]

How COVID-19 could ruin weather forecasts and climate records

Scientists have had to skip trips to clean and maintain sensors used for the Ocean Observatories Initiative.Credit: Rebecca Travis/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Twice per year, Ed Dever’s group at Oregon State University in Corvallis heads out to sea off the Oregon and Washington coasts to refurbish and clean more than 100 delicate sensors that make up one segment of a US$44-million-per-year scientific network called the Ocean Observatories Initiative. “If this had been a normal year, I would have been at sea right now,” he says.

Instead, Dever is one of many scientists sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, watching from afar as precious field data disappear and instruments degrade. The scientific pause could imperil weather forecasts in the near term, and threaten long-standing climate studies. In some cases, researchers are expecting gaps in data that have been collected regularly for decades. “The break in the scientific record is probably unprecedented,” says Frank Davis, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Davis is the executive director of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) programme, a network of 30 ecological sites stretching from the far north of Alaska all the way down to Antarctica. Consisting of both urban and rural locations, the LTER network allows scientists to study ecological processes over decades — from the impact of dwindling snowfalls on the mountains of Colorado to the effects of pollution in a Baltimore stream. At some sites, this might be the first interruption in more than 40 years, he says. “That’s painful for the scientists involved.”

Weather forecasting takes a hit

Other monitoring programmes are facing similar gaps. Scientists often ride along on the commercial container ships that criss-cross the world’s oceans, collecting data and deploying a variety of instruments that measure weather, as well as currents and other properties of the ocean. Most of those ships are still running, but travel restrictions mean that scientists are no longer allowed on board, says Justine Parks, a marine technician who manages one such programme at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

Port strikes and political instability have halted specific cruises in the past, Parks says. But to her knowledge, this is the first time that the entire programme has shut down for an extended period of time.

Measurements made at sea are important for forecasting weather over the oceans, as well as for keeping longer-term records of ocean health and climate change, says Emma Heslop, a programme specialist in ocean observations at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in Paris. Her group is still trying to assess the extent of the damage that the pandemic is doing to the ocean-observing community as a whole, but researchers are already feeling some effects. Over the past 2 months, they’ve seen steadily declining numbers of shipboard observations — amounting to, since the beginning of February, a 15% loss of stations that are reporting data. And although the community is working hard to figure out other ways to collect important data, the situation is likely to worsen as the pandemic stretches on. “The longer the restrictions are in place,” she says, “the longer it will take for our operations to recover.”

Field collection in remote areas such as McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica were halted for the Long Term Ecological Research programme.Credit: Barb Woods

Commercial flights provide invaluable weather data, too — measuring temperature, pressure and wind speeds as they cruise. The meteorological data provided by the US aircraft fleet had decreased to half its normal levels as of 31 March, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Maintenance woes

Satellites and weather balloons can fill in some gaps, but certain aircraft data are irreplaceable. “It’s certainly the case that with the virtual loss of worldwide aviation, there is a gap in some of the records,” says Grahame Madge, a spokesperson for the UK Met Office in Exeter.

The Met Office estimates that the loss of aircraft observations will increase their forecast error by 1–2%, but notes that, in areas where flights are typically more abundant, scientists' forecast accuracy might suffer even more. The Met Office maintains more than 250 UK weather stations that provide continuous or daily feeds of autonomously collected atmospheric and weather data. For now, those systems are functioning just fine, but if an instrument goes down, Madge says, it will be difficult to get staff out to fix the problem.

Much of the world’s atmospheric-monitoring data are collected with little to no human intervention, and such projects should be able to keep running. The Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment, for example, measures ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse gases and other trace components in the atmosphere at 13 remote sites around the globe. Many of their systems are autonomous: the stations are each staffed by one or two people who perform routine maintenance to keep the instruments running. Ray Weiss, an atmospheric chemist at Scripps who leads the project, says that two instruments have broken down so far, but the loss of a single instrument or even a whole site for a few weeks is unlikely to jeopardize the network’s monitoring capabilities. Arlyn Andrews, who runs NOAA’s greenhouse-gas-monitoring programme, says that impacts on that network have been “relatively minor”, and less than 5% of the NOAA sites have lost data so far.

Unless the situation gets a whole lot worse, Weiss anticipates that the programme will escape relatively unscathed. “We’re limping through, is the bottom line.”

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://ift.tt/2V5Xb4m from https://ift.tt/2K6D9Au

[tablett40]

Facts and figures from websites.

From earthwatch institute- https://earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/plastic-riversgclid=EAIaIQobChMI7oyM4Yb65wIVEdreCh1lpwEFEAAYASAAEgKUhPD_BwE

The up to 80% of rubbish in our oceans come from our rivers.

 Effecting fresh water ecosystems, oceans and coasts

Bottles- Biggest source of plastic pollution in rivers.

6.9% of all plastic bottles in the UK end up in our river every year.

Use reusable water bottles and refill with taps.

Food wrappers- 300 million crisp packets and 200 million sweet wrappers end up in our river every year.

Dispose of the wrappers properly.

Cigarette Butts- 14 billion out of 44 billion butts end up as rubbish in our rivers.

Bin the buts instead of throwing them on the ground.

Food takeaway containers- 0.3 billion end up as litter.

Use reusable containers or dispose of properly.

Cotton Bud Sticks- 1.8 billion are used every year and 10% of these end up being flushed down the toilet.

One better way is by using paper sticks.

Cups- 2.5 billion cups are used every year and only 1% of these are recycled.

Use reusable cups.

Sanitary products- Each day 9.3 million wet wipes, 700,000 panty liners, 2.5 million tampons and 1.4 million sanitary towels are flushed down the toilet.

Don’t flush them away. Put them in a bin.

Smoking related litter- Smoking related litter make up for 1.1% of all litter found in our rivers.

Plastic straws/ stirrers and cutlery make their way into our water ways in high number.

Use reusable cutlery.

Plastic bags- Us reusable bags when shopping.

From All About Glaciers- https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/quickfacts.html

10% of land area on earth is covered with glacial ice.

This includes Glaciers, Ice caps and Ice sheets.

Glacierized areas cover over 15million square kilometres (5.8 million square miles)

Glaciers store around 69% of the worlds fresh water.

During the maximum point of the last ice age, glaciers covered about 32 percent of the total land area.

Starting around the early 14th century, and lasting to the mid-19th century, the world experienced a “Little Ice Age,” when temperatures were consistently cool enough for glaciers to advance in many areas of the world.

In the United States, glaciers cover over 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles). Most of those glaciers are located in Alaska, which holds 87,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles) of glacial ice.

If all land ice melted, sea level would rise approximately 70 meters (230 feet) worldwide.

Glacier ice crystals can grow to be as large as baseballs.

Glacial ice often appears blue when it has become very dense and free of bubbles. Years of compression gradually make the ice denser over time, forcing out the tiny air pockets between crystals. When glacier ice becomes extremely dense, the ice absorbs a small amount of red light, leaving a bluish tint in the reflected light, which is what we see. When glacier ice is white, that usually means that there are many tiny air bubbles still in the ice.

North America's longest glacier is the Bering Glacier in Alaska, measuring 190 kilometers (118 miles) long.

The Kutiah Glacier in Pakistan holds the record for the fastest glacial surge. In 1953, it raced more than 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in three months, averaging about 112 meters (367 feet) per day.

In Washington State, the state with the largest area of glaciers in the contiguous United States, melting glaciers provide 1.8 trillion liters (470 billion gallons) of water each summer.

The largest glacier in the world is the Lambert-Fisher Glacier in Antarctica. At 400 kilometers (250 miles) long, and up to 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide, this ice stream alone drains about 8 percent of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Antarctic ice is up to 4.7 kilometers (3 miles) thick in some areas.

Antarctic ice shelves may calve icebergs that are over 80 kilometers (50 miles) long.

The Antarctic continent has been at least partially covered by an ice sheet for the past 40 million years.

The land underneath parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be up to 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) below sea level.

Many more Facts and Information.

From National Geographic- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/

The world's seas have absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat from these gases

2018 set a new record for ocean heating

Average sea levels have swelled over 8 inches (about 23 cm) since 1880, with about three of those inches gained in the last 25 years.

Every year, the sea rises another .13 inches (3.2 mm).

Thermal expansion: When water heats up, it expands. About half of the sea-level rise over the past 25 years is attributable to warmer oceanssimply occupying more space.

Melting glaciers: Large ice formations such as mountain glaciers naturally melt a bit each summer. In the winter, snows, primarily from evaporated seawater, are generally sufficient to balance out the melting. Recently, though, persistently higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting as well as diminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs. That creates an imbalance between runoff and ocean evaporation, causing sea levels to rise.

Loss of Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets: As with mountain glaciers, increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt more quickly. Scientists also believe that meltwater from above and seawater from below is seeping beneath Greenland's ice sheets, effectively lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the sea. While melting in West Antarctica has drawn considerable focus from scientists, especially with the 2017 break in the Larsen C ice shelf, glaciers in East Antarctica are also showing signs of destabilizing.

It can cause destructive erosion, wetland flooding, aquifer and agricultural soil contamination with salt, and lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants.

Higher sea levels are coinciding with more dangerous hurricanes and typhoons that move more slowly and drop more rain, contributing to more powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path. One study found that between 1963 and 2012, almost half of all deaths from Atlantic hurricanes were caused by storm surges.

Already, flooding in low-lying coastal areas is forcing people to migrate to higher ground, and millions more are vulnerable from flood risk and other climate change effects. The prospect of higher coastal water levels threatens basic services such as Internet access, since much of the underlying communications infrastructure lies in the path of rising seas.

hundreds of coastal cities face flooding.

we can expect the oceans to rise between 10 and 30 inches (26 to 77 centimeters) by 2100 with temperatures warming 1.5 °C

That’s enough to seriously affect many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast.

predicting a rise of 26 inches (65 centimeters) by the end of this century if the current trajectory continues.

And much more.

[weather-usa]

Climate of Mississippi

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38730

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38733

See Weather Forecast for Mississippi today: https://weatherusa.app/mississippi

Mississippi's climate is primarily humid subtropical, with some areas experiencing shades of an oceanic type, particularly in the extreme northeast. Summers are warm and humid, while winters are generally mild to cold. The state's location in the southeastern United States, bordered by Alabama, the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, influences its climate.

Mississippi, known as The Magnolia State, has an average elevation of 90 meters above sea level, with Woodall Mountain being its highest point at 246 meters. The state's topography mainly consists of lowland plains and low hills within the Gulf coastal plain. Physiographic divisions, such as the Mississippi Delta in the northwest and the Mississippi Sound forming the southern boundary, contribute to its diverse landscape.

The best time to visit Mississippi is during autumn, from mid-September to November. The weather during this period is mild, sunny, and characterized by pleasant breezes, making it ideal for outdoor activities. Fall is also the driest time of the year, with clear skies and colorful landscapes adding to the beauty of the state.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38841

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38834

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38828

Conversely, the worst time to visit Mississippi is during the summer months, from June to August. High humidity levels make the heat oppressive, with temperatures often exceeding 100°F (37.8°C) in the southern region. Heavy rainfall and frequent thunderstorms are common during summer, and tropical cyclones from the Gulf of Mexico can cause significant disruption along the coast.

Spring in Mississippi brings a transition from cool to warm weather, with variations in temperature due to polar and subtropical jet streams. Summers are characterized by hot and humid conditions, with frequent thunderstorms and tropical cyclones contributing to heavy precipitation, especially along the coast.

Autumn is marked by mild and sunny weather, making it an inviting time for tourists and outdoor enthusiasts. The reduction in humidity provides a refreshing change from the intensity of summer, and the colorful landscapes add to the appeal of the season.

Winter in Mississippi presents mild to cold conditions, with occasional freezing temperatures in the north. While snowfall and sleet are measurable, particularly in the northern region, the winter season remains relatively mild compared to more northern states.

In January, Mississippi experiences its coldest temperatures of the year. In the northern region, average low temperatures can drop to around 27°F (-2.8°C), while the southern parts generally have milder conditions.

Moving into February, the state starts to see a subtle shift towards milder conditions as winter progresses. While the average low temperature in the northern region may still be relatively cold compared to the south, there is a gradual increase in temperature. Snowfall and sleet may still occur occasionally, but the frequency and intensity typically diminish as the month progresses. See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38851

By March, Mississippi experiences a noticeable transition towards the spring season. Warmer temperatures become more prevalent, and the state begins to see more varied weather patterns. Average low temperatures in the northern region start to rise, reaching around 39°F (3.9°C), while the southern parts of the state generally experience even milder conditions.

In April, Mississippi experiences further signs of spring, with temperatures continuing to rise and the landscape flourishing. The average low temperatures in the northern regions are around 47°F (8.3°C), while the southern parts of the state enjoy even milder conditions.

As May arrives, Mississippi transitions further into summer, marked by a significant rise in temperatures and humidity. Average low temperatures in the northern regions reach about 57°F (13.9°C), while the southern parts of the state continue to experience even warmer conditions.

By June, Mississippi is fully immersed in summer, with hot and humid conditions prevalent across the state. Average low temperatures in the northern regions reach around 65°F (18.3°C), while the southern parts remain even warmer.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38914

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38901

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38871

In July, Mississippi experiences the peak of summer, with some of the hottest and most humid conditions of the year. The northern regions see average low temperatures of approximately 69°F (20.6°C), while the southern parts endure even hotter conditions.

As August arrives, Mississippi continues to face hot and humid weather, often similar to July's conditions. Average low temperatures in the northern regions hover around 68°F (20°C), with the southern parts experiencing even higher temperatures.

September marks the beginning of a transition from the hot and humid summer to the more temperate and comfortable autumn season in Mississippi. The average low temperatures in the northern regions are around 62°F (16.7°C), and the southern areas are gradually cooling as well.

In October, Mississippi welcomes the full embrace of autumn, with a noticeable shift towards cooler and more pleasant conditions. The average low temperatures in the northern regions settle around 50°F (10°C), while the southern parts also experience a substantial decrease in heat.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-38927

Continuing into November, Mississippi sees a further reduction in both temperature and humidity as autumn progresses. The average low temperatures in the northern regions reach about 40°F (4.4°C), and the southern parts follow suit with a corresponding decrease in warmth.

December marks the arrival of winter in Mississippi, bringing with it a noticeable drop in temperatures and the onset of colder conditions. The average low temperatures in the northern regions can dip to 35°F (1.7°C), and the southern parts also experience a chill in the air.

[childsound56-blog]

AccuWeather Alert: Light Snow This Weekend

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) --

We had plenty of sunshine in play today, but it was brisk and cold, with a high of just 34.

TONIGHT: Skies are mainly clear with winds finally dropping off overnight. It's still cold with our low in Philadelphia plunging all the way down to 23 and some suburbs dipping into the mid teens.

SATURDAY: Sun gives way to thickening clouds. The high is a cold 34. Winter Weather Advisories are issued for all of Delaware and far southern New Jersey from 7PM Saturday until 7PM Sunday, where the highest totals will occur. Light snow will break out Saturday evening between 6 and 10 p.m. from west to east as a good slug of upper level energy slides toward us. The snow becomes a bit steadier overnight, especially in the southern half of the region.

SUNDAY: Light snow in the morning tapers as we head into the afternoon from north to south, as an area of low pressure passes off the Carolina coast and heads out to sea. Snowfall amounts: just flurries for the Poconos; Lehigh Valley: Coating to 1"; Philadelphia Metro: 1" to 2"; Delaware and far southern New Jersey including Millville, Atlantic City & Cape May: 2" to 4". The high hits 34.

MONDAY: The storm is gone. Look for a partly sunny, but cold start to the work week with a high of just 36.

TUESDAY: It's mostly sunny with an improved high of 42.

WEDNESDAY: Clouds mix with sun. Temperatures continue to run a bit milder with another high around 44. A rain or wet snow shower can't be ruled out late in the day or at night.

THURSDAY: Its brisk and chilly with a mix of clouds and sunshine. The high is 38.

FRIDAY: Clouds mix with some sun, with a rain or snow shower possible. The high: 42. --------------------

Send a News Tip to Action News Learn More About All of The 6abc Apps

(Copyright ©2019 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.)

Source: https://6abc.com/weather/accuweather-alert-light-snow-this-weekend/49644/

[exotericenvironmentalism]

During a visit to Iceland in March, I hired a bike for a day to see some of its capital, Reykjavik, away from the centre- and wrote about it at the time. This was my experience...  

Cycling in Reykjavik- see more of the city, escape some of the crowds, travel more sustainably 

After spending a few days walking around Reykjavik by foot, I was keen to explore and discover some more of the city. Having been in and about Reykjavik from the end of February, a day after the city had experienced record breaking overnight snowfall, I gradually noted a number of cycle lanes ‘emerging’ out of the snow as it began to melt (to some extent).

I love to cycle in my home city of Glasgow in Scotland. It’s an enjoyable way to get around, keeps me fit, is affordable, and is a sustainable method of travel. It allows me to easily see places and do things in the city centre, but also access nature and cultural attractions on the city’s perimeter as well as further afield in Scotland. I also like to cycle in other countries and cities that I visit, as I find it a fantastic way to explore and find new places that I might not otherwise get to- and I’d identified a few areas of Reykjavik that I was keen to experience away from the centre. It was time to hire a bike...

My cycle: 30km of lighthouses, coffee, a thermal pool and a stop for a sandwich by the river

Having secured a hired bike for the day (see ‘Tips, tricks and resources’ for more on this) I started my route from the HI City Hostel at Laugardalur Valley, where I was staying, by cycling towards the bay to the ferry crossing to the little island of Viðey (1st row image). With the ferry only operating at weekends during winter (but throughout the week in summer) I wasn’t able to travel to the island- but it seems well worth incorporating a visit for its cultural and built heritage.

Instead I cycled on towards the city (2nd row- left), following the dedicated walking and cycle path along the seafront- enjoying moving towards the Reykjavik skyline. There is, along this route, a little ‘secret beach’ (2nd row- right)- perhaps the only accessible sand on the north side of the Reykjavik peninsula. About 3 kilometres of easy pedalling took me past the Harpa concert hall (3rd row), and then on towards the harbour area (4th row- left image). When visiting Reykjavik just now it is notable that there is quite a bit of construction work going on around this area - and it’s necessary to be particularly aware of traffic, and considerate to pedestrians if cycling. (See ‘Tips, tricks and resources’ below on negotiating areas without dedicated cycle paths.)

Soon I was past the extent of the city I had explored by foot as I made my way west to Seltjarnarnes, at the tip of the peninsula that Reykjavik is situated on. Cycling on a high quality segregated path separated from the road traffic (note that while some parts are dedicated for bikes, others are shared with pedestrians- keep an eye on the signs and markings on the path) I quickly felt I was moving away from the bustle of the city.

Following the route all the way along the coast to the beach at Grótta Island, and its lighthouse and birdlife, I then turned towards what are some of my favourite views in Reykjavik - over the water towards the mountains to the south. Passing the serene Bakkatjörn lake and nature reserve (4th row- right) image), I turned eastwards at the golf course (which looks a spectacular place for a round!) back towards the city.

Having cycled approximately 10 kilometres, I felt it was perfect timing for some swimming (which had become a daily routine for me while in Iceland…), and I stopped at the Sundlaug Seltjarnarnes pool. There are numerous public thermal pools around Reykjavik- I’d already visited the 2 most central pools, as well as Laugardalsaug next to the City hostel. Having access to a bike provided a great opportunity to spend some time in a pool a little further away from the centre, and the Seltjarnarnes pool turned out to be one of my favourites in the city - quieter that some of the other pools, and with fantastic views over the sea to the mountains to the south.

After my swim I was ready for coffee and some cake - and just a minute away from the pool I found the lovely ‘Innovation House Café’ where I thoroughly enjoyed a cappuccino and a big slice of cake (another benefit of cycling is that you feel justified to have as much coffee and cake as you want. It is pedalling fuel…).

From there I found my way back to the coast, and headed south-east towards the city airport. I’d been told that the Icelandic cultural icon Bjork’s house was somewhere around here… (5th row- left) A few more kilometres along some great segregated paths (5th row- right) took me to the Geothermal Beach at Nauthólsvík. Unfortunately I passed on one of the days during the week that the facilities are closed- but I made sure I jogged there the next day. Visiting the Geothermal Beach on a sunny Friday afternoon was, for me, one of my favourite experiences in Reykjavik- and I highly recommend making the effort to get there. But ensure to check for the changing facilities and hot bath opening times.      

Beyond the Geothermal Beach I followed the cycle path eastwards through a quiet residential area. A pedestrian/cycle bridge carried me across one of the busy highways that cut through the city- and on towards the edge of the Elliðaár River and Elliðaárdalur Valley area.

After a stopping here for a sandwich I’d packed in my bag, I came across a quite unexpected scene right underneath one of the major roads, close to the city centre. Here the river hit a small waterfall, and the view of white-water, trees, countryside and snow-capped mountains felt so different to the majority of other European capital cities I’d been in - and so close to the city centre (6th row). It is scenes like this that make Reykjavik particularly special - and what draws me back to it. However, as it becomes increasingly busy with more visitors, it is maybe now necessary to try a bit harder to seek out different parts of the city to get such experiences. In this instance, a bike was the perfect mode to find this little place of sanctuary.

I cycled north, and then west back to the City Hostel at Laugersfield from where I had started (and, of course, in time for a swim at the thermal pool next to the hostel). I had thoroughly enjoyed my day on the bike, seeing new and hidden parts to the city. However, aside from the personal benefits and experiences from my cycle, there is a wider issue that this links to - and really important for the long term sustainability of tourism in Reykjavik (and Iceland more generally)…

Trying to make tourism more sustainable

Reykjavik, and Iceland, is experiencing a bit of a tourism boom in the last couple of years. It is being more widely recognised for its incredible natural beauty- and, furthermore, potentially because of its increasing number of cultural links (from musicians such as ‘Of Monsters and Men’ through to being used as filming locations for smash TV series ��Game of Thrones’). With airlines now offering cheap flights from all around Europe, and also North America, Iceland’s infrastructure is feeling the strain of extra visitors. It is an issue that I’m sure many of the people who live and work in Reykjavik recognise. There are significant economic benefits to tourism, but there are also clear potential social and environmental trade-offs too- from increased pressure on services that locals also want to use, and depend on; to potential damage to the very nature that makes Iceland so attractive. It’s a dilemma that the increasingly popular ‘I Heart Reykjavik’ travel blog addressed in a post while I was there.

One of the primary problems associated with tourism in a place, with both negative social and environmental impacts, is increased levels of traffic on the roads. Tour buses, service vehicles, hire cars all put additional pressure on the road infrastructure of a place- leading to of negative issues such as congestion, accidents, noise, air pollution and carbon emissions. It can also just undermine how a place ‘feels’. Many visitors come to Reykjavik and Iceland to escape cities that are clogged with traffic and noise, and the city could lose one of the very qualities that attracts people in the first instance if it doesn’t effectively manage such challenges. As responsible tourists, as well as those involved in the tourism industry in Reykjavik, being aware of these issues is really important.

This is where cycling, if even just around the city, can potentially have a significant positive impacts. By taking some of the load off the road network, visitors can avoid contributing a number of the negative issues that are associated with using motorised vehicles. Clearly it is necessary for the majority of visitors to Iceland to use a form of motorised transport while in the country, and with many hiring a private car. But, and particularly when in the city, the option of using a bicycle could be a great way to reduce their social and environmental impact to some extent. What is more, by exploring parts of Reykjavik they might not otherwise visit, help spread the economic benefits of tourism more widely around the city. Notably, the HI City Hostel from where I started my cycle, as well as associated hostels in the city centre and around the country, have a strong sustainability policy. 

Also, as I’ve already stated- when you cycle about you are justified to have as much coffee and cake as you want…    

Tips, tricks and resources

- Make sure you pick up the #Reykjavikloves ‘cycling’ fold out map- available from the tourist office, and many other locations. It details a number of recommended routes linking some of the dedicated cycling infrastructure around the city, and indicates interesting places to visit along the way. Combine the cycling map with the others in the #Reykjavikloves series- which include maps focused on culture, festivals and thermal pools. For me, in particular, linking cycling and the city’s numerous swimming pools was a perfect combination…

- There are increasing numbers of people who bring their own bikes to Iceland to do some cycle touring (much more an option for summer- and something I’m really hoping to do later this year). But most people are likely to consider hiring a bike for just some time while in the city- as I did on this occasion. The added benefit of this is that you can look to hire a bike that best suits your needs, and the weather conditions, for the time you are in Reykjavik. Depending on the time of year this could be just a normal city bike, or a mountain bike with winter tyres.

- Bike hiring options in the city include: The ‘bike company’ next to the Harpa concert hall (www.bikecompany.is); ‘Borgarhjól’ on Hverfisgata, right in the centre of town (www.borgarhjol.is); while the HI City hostel rents out bikes direct from its reception- including high quality mountain bikes with suspension and winter tyres if the conditions merit these. The HI Loft hostel hires more conventional city bikes.

- Unlike many other places and cities (and certainly in the UK), Reykjavik seems happy to allow cyclists to use pavements/sidewalks where there isn’t a dedicated cycle path available. The major roads in the city can be quite busy, and with some large vehicles (tour coaches, to all-terrain vehicles)- and it is notable that local cyclists seemed to avoid the roads. I would advise to do the same.

[sarissophori]

Hither Yonder, Chapter 9

Two is Company

It was later that evening, when the stew was hot, that Luxwannen returned from the fields to the longhouse, where Halli and the others were waiting. They told her everything about Halli’s decision to leave, her looking into the tarmaril, and Noma’s choice to go with her. She sat and listened, never interrupting, intent to the story’s end. She then stared off to the forest in thought, watching the fireflies flit through the branches. Slowly, she turned to Halli and spoke.

      “Were you my child, I would forbid this. The feeling is no less for a foster-daughter. Is there nothing I may say to dissuade you?”

      “I’ll be gone by morning” Halli said.

      “Will you come back?”

      “If I can.”

      Luxwannen embraced her, tears streaming down her face.

      “Never go where Noma cannot follow you. She looks after you now.”

      “Yes, Dasslin.”

      “And never let her leave your sight, Noma.”

      “Not if the Roof of Night should crash and fall down upon us” Noma said.

 Supper, despite the mood, was a fairly happy thing. They laughed and reminisced, talking about past humors, lazy springs, and mild winters. Halli talked about Yuta in detail, the good memories and bad, and they understood then the depth of her resolve. Near its end, she finally told them of her visions in the tarmaril, lingering on the ship at sea.

      “It may mean that others made this journey too” Halli said. “That it isn’t impossible, or forbidden.”

      “Did they return?” Luxwannen said.

      “I wasn’t shown that.”

      “Then we will put our faith in being the first of them” Noma said. “You crossed those mountains alone, right? Through sun, rain, storm and hail? I doubt the gods themselves can throw much worse at us –risking a jinx, of course.”

 The supper ended with Halli going to bed, but the others stayed awake through the night to prepare her as well they could: dried foodstuffs, water for her water-skin, boots of doeskin and leather, a blanket, a coil of rope, a small kit of cooking utensils and a flint for fire starting. One luxury only would be missing, Sador’s purification tablets.

      Halli tossed and turned, touched by impatience and a restless mind. She gave up after a while and lay face up, listening to her heartbeat. Suddenly there was howling away in the gardens of the longhouse, not predatory, even familiar. The shepherd dogs were in gathering, giving Noma her sendoff in ceremony, for come sunrise they would be in the fields again alongside their herdsmen, carrying on without.

      Halli peered through her window at the assembled pack and watched as each in turn gave her their farewell under the stars. What started as howling grew into a melody, a song, but what they sang was lost to Halli, being a lament of no words. It rose and fell like breath as each took their part in the rhythm, rich at first in sadness, then gradually stronger; the tone became confident, if tinged with reflection.

      It reminded her of Yuta’s pyre, and how heavy that night also felt. She folded her arms on the windowsill and rested her chin, closing her eyes and seeing again the flames, the smoke, the embers thrown skyward, coming down like burning snowfall under those same unheeding stars. Sorrow was there, yet also a serenity that cooled her thoughts, soothed them, as she listened, and she remembered Noma’s words, we can never return. We can never go back.

      “We will come back” Halli whispered.

 Morning shone, warm but crisp. Cooler days were on their way, if slowly yet. Amerrotecus, Amerrotaieu and Luxwannen stood ready to see Halli and Noma off, each taking their time, dressed in their finest furs and raiment. They knelt and held both, kissing Halli on her brow. Amerrotecus, being the last, handed her something round wrapped in cloth.

      “It is the tarmaril. We have no more use for it. Please, take it with you to those lands where it belongs. Keep it or discard it as you wish.”

      Halli pocketed the tarmaril, said goodbye, then followed Noma from the longhouse to a trail by the hills, winding through the forest first south along Meadow-home, then west, going deeper into the Wood, passing from sight as the village was waking. Halli glanced over her shoulder at the smokes already rising from breakfast fires, then went on behind Noma.

      “This is the third family I’ve had to leave; my village in Hanan, then Sador and Yuta, and now Meadow-home. You’d think after a while it would stop hurting, but it doesn’t.”

      “If it be any consolation, they remain with you in spirit” Noma said. “And I am with you.”

      “Of course” Halli said. “I mean not to despair. It’s just that, I’ve left so many behind for what all said was a fool’s hope, I started believing it better to be alone. I was alone, for a while.”

      She walked beside Noma and patted her head, smiling.

       “I’m glad to have you with me, Noma.”

 After a few miles the trail stopped at a trickling forest creek, the accepted boundary of the peoples of Meadow-home and the other middle Nosi tribes. Crossing it meant forsaking the safety of their laws, and risk the mercy of whoever should find them wandering.

      “Are the other Nosi friendly?” Halli said.

      “Friendly and wary” Noma said. “Or so I assume. I’ve never been this far into the forest before, yet I doubt we’ll meet many on our way. The Gallenwood’s heart is sparsely inhabited. If we are lucky, we might go by unnoticed.”

      “If not?”

      “Then don’t let on that you’re part Westerlander.”

The trees here were beeches, tall and smooth, mingled with ash and aspen. There wasn’t a single robust trail to walk, but several meandering footpaths half lost in underbrush. They stayed on, then switched to, any path that seemed to keep west. It proved difficult finding a proper way, since many that looked true at the beginning wound on to circle around again. Some simply ended, forcing them to retrace and try another path. With fair guesswork, Halli and Noma picked their way through to the Gallenwood’s west eaves in good time, so far unbothered. They walked until the sun sank past the tree tops, hiding the paths in night, making them set up camp where they were stopped. By morning they resumed, eating lightly, stepping swiftly, sure now that the forest’s end was nearing as the groves lost their density. Beeches, ashes and aspens were supplanted by willows, and meadows began to open.

      The morning was late on their second day since leaving Meadow-home when they came to the shores of the Middlesea, made blue by a clear sky. The banks were smooth and grassy, dotted with patches of marshlands, reed beds, and mangroves. Halli wandered to the water’s edge and gazed afar, reminded of the Sea of Ahn in all its vastness, and of her cautious respect for it as a plains-dweller. Herons and egrets grazed the shoreline for crickets and small fish, following tracks beaten through the grass made by larger animals; dragonflies zipped through patches of cattails and weeds.

      Halli looked over the map, tracing it with her finger. The way around the Middlesea was at least forty leagues to the south, to the Gwaldenneth river (named Galdon on the map) before the border to Tarmaril was reached. The other way, to the north, was just as long, but would be made more arduous by the coming autumn rains. The climate would remain warmer further south, and offer perhaps the easier road.

      So south they went, finding the ground firm and earthy for a few furlongs, then marshy the next, then back again, and so on, for many miles, then many days. The mornings were still and pale, often foggy with steam from the water until the sun’s light shone out over the forest, giving warmth and stirring whatever lay hid in the shadows. Wildlife in the open remained sparse, save for the birds leaving their summer homes, and the odd squirrel or turtle. People were nowhere to be seen; not so much as a hunting party, or even footprints, to suggest the Gallenwood was populated. This was how it was when they came to the Paxannet river, the boundary between the southern and middle Nosi tribes, nine days since leaving Meadow-home.

      “Not that I complain” Halli said. “But it seems that the Nosi avoid these shores.”

      “They tend to avoid open places” Noma said. “Especially those facing the Westerlands, one imagines.”

       Crossing the river, which was shallow at its mouth, Halli and Noma plodded on through yet more marshlands fed by stagnant courses studded with pampas grasses, connecting the driest ways they could find under swarms of aphids harrying them step by careful step. It was slow going, for the marshes of the Paxannet stretched wide along the Middlesea, adding hours to miles that otherwise would have swiftly passed. Halli donned her cloak despite what was an almost unseasonably warm day, preferring to swelter than leave herself for the clouds of mosquitos now shadowing them. She swatted at her arms, back, legs, neck, then arms again; still, the little pestilences managed to find a mark.

      “How I long for the treacherous Mistgap” Halli muttered. “When the greater worry was starvation, not being eaten alive. You are lucky to have your coat, Noma.”

      Noma shook her fur, releasing the mosquitos embedded onto and within, shaking again, then again.

      “It is less protection than you imagine it.”

 Slogging on, they were relieved when the ground hardened and the bogs began to dry, finally ending constant aggravations big and small, especially small. The water lost its brackish tinge, and its occasional wafting odor. Making up for time, they moved on in a hurried pace for most of the daylight left to them, shorter now due to the waxing of autumn. They resumed before dawn for much the same reason, and progress was steady, even expedient. Eating was done on the go, and rests were few and short, save at night.

      Four days since leaving the marshes, the vegetation gave way to sedimentary beaches made warm by the sun, level as a ruler but for small rippled dunes buffed by the forest, and the sandbars offshore. Here the Middlesea’s southern coast began its gradual curve westward, meeting with its eastern side as a narrow and sandy outlet to form the mouth of the Gwaldenneth, the river itself carrying on in a southerly course to empty in the Bay of Arlon.

      It was a cloudy afternoon when Halli and Noma came to this river, the final claim of Nosi territory, and what they found surprised them: a line of border-stones stood on the beach halfway between the water and forest, similar to those that marked the herding boundaries of Meadow-home, except these were etched with runes and spells to keep evil away from the Wood, now weathered and worn. Beyond the stones were the remains of quays, platforms, and tidal breaks, obviously Tarmarillian in make, eroded, swallowed by the river, or partly dismantled by the Nosi. Buried in the sand were the fragmentary remains of the boats and mooring pillars that once made the Gwaldenneth a thoroughfare, bleached by the sun and left by those who crafted them, though that very craftsmanship assured their salvaging even after centuries of neglect, something not lost on Halli.

      Digging out the planks with her bare hands, she pried them loose using her cooking spit, laying down a first layer on the beach, then a second atop at an opposite angle. She bound this makeshift raft together with the rope from her roll-kit, making every synch tight, every knot firm.   She pushed it to the water’s edge and tossed on their supplies. Noma hopped on as Halli slowly drifted it in before climbing on uncouthly herself. The raft tilted, forcing her to try and evenly spread her weight. She scrambled, breathing sharply, almost sending Noma off the side. A few more hasty adjustments and she finally settled, exhaling softly. Her arms were shaking.

      Noma cocked her head. “Are you alright, Halli?”

      “I’m fine” Halli said. “Just nervous, is all.”

      “Of what?”

      Halli hesitated to say, looking away and muttering.

      “Halli?”

      “Promise you won’t laugh?”

      “Of course not. What’s the matter?”

      “It’s the river” Halli said. “It’s so deep here, and wide. The middle is so dark, I can’t see the bottom, and we have no choice but to cross it anyhow. That’s why my nerves are high.”

      “You cannot swim, you mean?” Noma said.

      “Well” Halli said. “It’s like what the elders used to say in the village, if folks were meant to swim as the fishes, we’d have gills all the same.”

      “Dogs have no gills” Noma said. “And we still swim.”

      “That’s because it’s part of your instinct” Halli said. “Humans have to learn how.”

      “Swimming isn’t instinctive for bipeds?”

      “Why would it be?”

      “Why wouldn’t it be?”

      “I know not why” Halli said. “The gods willed it so. Would you sit more to the other side, please?”

      “Of course” Noma said. “As long as this piecemeal thing doesn’t fall apart from under us first.”

      “Not with my knots” Halli said. “Every knot I’ve ever tied has held true, from cots to bridles. It will hold.”

      Even so, for ease of mind, Halli pulled on the knots on her side of the raft to check their tautness, amusing Noma.

      “If you’ve jinxed us” Halli said. “I’m grabbing you by the tail, and taking you down with me.”

 Paddling with her hands, Halli ferried them across without incident. The raft indeed held, beaching nicely and intact on the opposite shore, on Tarmaril; and yet, despite all the stories she had heard and read, all the legends she knew, the sand was just as warm as it was on the Nosi side, the far pines were every bit as green as the Gallenwood, and the wind as crisp as it was on cool Hananin mornings. It had the quiet loveliness of an unspoiled wilderness, a peaceful loneness of beauty undimmed. Mountains were in the distance, past the trees.

      “Here we are” Noma said. “The Westerlands. It always seemed so far away, hearing how it was spoken of, as if its very history gave the land a greater distance –yet here it is, after only fifteen days from Meadow-home.”

      “My journey began in Dumbria” Halli said, breaking the raft apart to retrieve her rope. She draped the coils over her roll-kit and hefted it to her shoulders.

      “Were it so short from there.”

      As they started to move on Halli stopped and glanced to the north, taking a second long look at Meadow-home’s direction, seeing in her mind the smokes of morning fires again, though now many leagues lay between. With a sigh she turned away, her heart deepened, having no words to say.

      “I know, Halli” Noma said. “I miss them too. Banish the despair, child. Dwell on the warmth of their feelings, not on the chill of an afterthought.”

      “I’m trying, Noma” Halli said. “I’ve been trying ever since I ran from Thargorod.”

      Noma brushed her nose against Halli’s hand, licking her fingers. Halli smiled, and petted behind her ears.

      “Dear, faithful Noma.”

      “Let us go” Noma said. “While the sun is still up.”

 Before they did, Halli once more consulted her map, crouching so Noma could also read it. The mountain range ahead of them, the Grayrim, was less in scale than the Sheerim, but still gave little option for easy travel. To the far north, it met with a jumble of mounds called the Icerim Hills, likely with good reason. Southward, it sputtered out into a collection of sharp hills halted by numerous scattered bogs that fed into the main marshes of the Gwaldenneth’s seaward mouth.

      “Both paths look equally terrible” Noma said.

      “What of this?” Halli said, putting her finger on a Middlesea tributary called the Gatewater, where a thin line was drawn through the Grayrim Mountains.

      “Can it be a pass?” Noma said. “No roads lead to it.”

      “It must be” Halli said. “Why else call it ‘Gatewater’ if it leads not to a gate, or at least another way?”

      “I don’t know why you bipedals name half the things you do” Noma said.

      “Either we find out” Halli said. “Or we go through the swamps south of the mountains.”

      To that logic Noma relented, and they resumed their venture going north with a slight bend west. The mountains, now beside them, hid the setting sun behind their flanks, bathing the sweeping grasslands and broken forests in a pale orange dusk that gleamed sunrays over the darkling peaks before night wholly subsumed them, brightened by the arc of the Glittering Swath.

      They woke before dawn, making ready while the east still slept. All that day they marched, sprinting at times, at unyielding lengths through the hours with sparing rest. If pain or weariness hampered them they didn’t show it; after many months of trudging and slogging Halli was quite used to the strain, and Noma, being a shepherd dog, had stamina in abundance, with more to spare.

      Closer the mountains loomed, rising ever higher over the depression of the Middlesea. They reached the furthest outliers of the mountain foothills, inexhaustible, until a brief but heavy rain fell and forced them to seek cover under the eaves. Noma slept a little, and Halli used the rain to refill her water-skin.

      The clouds still brooding they went off, going from meadow to meadow, their pace slowing as the ground steepened toward the mountains, and faces of bare rock began to show. Boulders broken away from overgrown bluffs were becoming more common obstacles. An outthrust shelf from the range stood in their way, yet rather than go around they decided to climb it. Many parts were fresh, and offered good holds. Halli adjusted her roll-kit to hang at her waist, then they began their scramble to the top. Noma took the lead, being more nimble and lighter in step, but Halli was ever on her tail, stubbornly clinging on.

      “Noma, you cheat!” Halli laughed. “You’ve neither pack or kit!”

       “You’re the one with thumbs, dear” Noma said.

      That being so, Noma won the race to the top. Ever a good sport, she grabbed Halli’s collar with her teeth and helped pull her up, until both stood on the precipice looking west, to the frowning Grayrim yonder, five miles distant. They made camp as evening settled in, somber with cloud fronts lying over the range like a heavy brow, denying all but the most pallid light.   Shadows fell long against the slopes, and into the valleys. The first touch of autumn had come to the Hitherlands, and most of their journey lay behind them. The most difficult parts, however, were still ahead.        

[kayla1993-world]

Though there's one more day of terrible travel through the mountain passes, freezing levels are rising through British Columbia, such that the heaviest snows will be mostly for the mountain areas into the weekend. However, that takes avalanche risk to extreme levels for some areas, while closer to the coasts, heavy downpours show no signs of ending any time soon. A closer look, below.

Wave after wave of moisture has beatled B.C. lately, and rain and snowfall warnings are existing.

There's still a bit harder travel ahead for the mountain passes, but freezing levels are rising to over 1500 metres through the day, making of easier conditions as the weekend approaches.

Through Friday afternoon, a low lifts the heaviest snowfall across northern B.C. and into northwestern Alberta, with a connected cold front following onto the coast Friday evening through the overnight, strengthening the snowfall along the coastal and interior mountains.

That, combined with the snow that has already fallen, has pushed the landslide risk up to high levels, reaching extreme for the Sea to Sky and Whistler area, in the guess of Avalanche Canada.

Meanwhile, strong winds will be increasing through the day, with wind warnings in effect for much of Vancouver Island and the lower mainland -- including all of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

Western Vancouver Island and the central coasts are likely to see the strongest gusts, in the 80-100 km/h range, and 60-80 km/h through the Strait of Georgia.

As for the rain, there will be some slowly moving to the heavy rain, but it will be short-lived, with heavy downpours increasing again by the late day.

⚠️ We very rarely see extreme avalanche danger, but the Sea to Sky area is forecast to be extreme for tomorrow. Other areas in BC will also see an increase in avalanche danger as another storm hits the land #AvCan #KnowSnow Get the forecast 👉 https://t.co/JwMaRhyDrR

There simply is very little letup this weekend for people in B.C., with the heavy snow at the mountain level expected to continue -- such that more than 100 cm is possible for parts of the coastal mountains. Freezing levels also fall back again somewhat.

Heavy rain, meanwhile, continues through to Saturday, heaviest on the central mainland coast and western Vancouver Island, where as much as 150 mm is possible. Metro Vancouver has another 20-50 mm in store, rising up to 75 mm through the Fraser Valley.

Sunday night will feature a brief break, before the next round invites for the next week.

The very active pattern continues to next week, with the parade of systems again bringing heavy rain to coastal areas and heavy snow for the mountain  areas.

Weather Network weather expert Dr. Doug Gillham says snow levels will differ next week, though will be low enough most of the time so north shore ski areas should get their share.

[bigyack-com]

Time for hip waders: Venice sees record 3rd exceptional tide - world news

Venice was hit Sunday by a record third exceptional tide in the same week while other parts of Italy struggled with a series of weather woes, from rain-swollen rivers to high winds to an out-of-season avalanche.Stores and museums in Venice were mostly closed in the hardest-hit area around St. Mark’s Square, but tourists donned high rubber boots or even hip waders to witness and photograph the spectacle.Most were disappointed when officials closed the historic square as winds rippled across the rising waters. The doors of the famed St. Mark’s Basilica were securely shut to the public, an authorities took precautions — stacking sandbags in canal-side windows — to prevent salt-laden water from entering the crypt again.Venice’s Tide Office said the peak tide of 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) hit just after 1 p.m. but a weather front off the coast blocked southerly winds from the Adriatic Sea from pushing the tide to the predicted level of 1.6 meters (5 feet, 2 inches). By early evening, the level was less than a meter (three feet).Still it marked the third time since Tuesday night’s 1.87-meter flood — the worst in 53 years — that water levels in Venice had topped 1.5 meters. Since records began in 1872, that level had never been reached even twice in one year, let alone three times in one week.While Venetians had a bit of relief, days of heavy rainfall and snowfall elsewhere in Italy swelled rivers to worrisome levels, triggered an avalanche in the Alps and saw dramatic rescues of people unable to flee rising waters.In Venice, many store owners in the swanky area around St. Mark’s completely emptied their shops, while others put their wares as high as possible and counted on automatic pumping systems to keep the water at bay. In one luxury boutique, employees used water vacuums and big squeegee mops to keep the brackish lagoon waters from advancing.Venice’s mayor has put the flooding damage at hundreds of millions of euros and Italian officials have declared a state of emergency for the area. They say Venice is both sinking into the mud and facing rising sea levels due to climate change.Luca D’Acunto and his girlfriend Giovanna Maglietta surveyed the rising water from a bridge, wondering how to reach their nearby hotel in their colorful yet inadequate rubber boots.“We made the reservation this week before the floods and had paid already, so we came,” said D’Acunto, a 28-year-old from Naples. “Instead of a romantic trip, we’ll have an adventurous one.”Most museums were closed as a precaution, but the Correr Museum, which overlooks St. Mark’s Square and explores the art and history of Venice, remained open. Tourists enjoyed a Venetian Spritz — a colorful aperitif with an Italian bitter and Prosecco — as the waters rose.Officials said 280 civil protection volunteers were deployed to assist as needed. Young Venetian volunteers in rubber boots have also showed up at key sites, including the city’s Music Conservatory, to help save precious manuscripts from the invading salt water.The flooding has raised renewed debates about the city’s Moses flood defense project, a corruption-riddled underwater barrier system that is still not operational after more than 16 years of construction and at least 5 billion euros (€5.5 billion) of public funding. It was supposed to be working by 2011.Floods were also hitting other parts of Italy on Sunday.In Pisa, famed for its Leaning Tower, workers sandbagged the road along the rising Arno River, which authorities said had reached the highest level there and in another Tuscan city, Florence, since 1992.“I ask citizens to go home and stay there,’’ Pisa Mayor Michele Conti, said in an appeal on state TV. He said bridges were being closed as a precaution in case the Arno overran its banks. Pisa’s offices and stores were ordered shuttered until midday Monday.The Arno also surged through the heart of historic Florence, reaching a level near the Uffizi Galleries that was described as the highest in some 20 years. In 24 hours, 6.26 centimeters (2.5 inches) of rain had fallen in Florence, which was whipped by winds as high as 76 kilometers per hour (42 mph).A popular Florence tourist attraction, the Boboli Gardens, was closed as a precaution for fear of falling trees. Near the Tuscan town of Cecina, 500 people were evacuated when a local river swelled to the top of its banks.Elsewhere in Tuscany, 2,000 people were ordered evacuated in Grosseto as the Ombrone river swelled dangerously. Near Grosseto, firefighters rescued a man clinging to a tree as floodwaters surrounded him.In the countryside outside of Bologna, in the central-north Emilia Romagna region, an elderly couple was plucked to safety by a helicopter when the Idice river overran its banks.In Italy’s mountainous Alto Adige, or South Tyrol region, a mid-autumn snowstorm triggered power outages and blocked roads in several Alpine valleys. The mayor of Val Martello, Georg Altstaetter, told state TV that an avalanche had damaged two houses but caused no injuries. Other homes were evacuated as a precaution in the town, which was left without electricity.The region’s governor told people to stay home so crews could clear snow-clogged roads.A windstorm overnight in the Rome area toppled scores of trees, with two falling on cars, severely injuring a motorist.Some politicians lamented that the drama over Venice’s high tides was eclipsing the needs of other areas.In Matera, a once-impoverished southern town that has experienced a renaissance through tourism, heavy rain sent torrents of mud racing through its streets last week, ruining shops and lodging.“There are no minor-league regions,” said Luigi Di Maio, a populist who leads the 5-Star Movement, the government’s main party. Source link Read the full article

[wikitopx]

Skiing? Check. Swimming? Check. Golfing? Check. Shopping, dining, and nightlife? Yup, those too.

Lake Tahoe offers the best of all worlds rolled into a holiday destination. Spend your day walking through the Sierra Nevada mountains, pulping along the slopes of the Squaw Valley Ski Resort, watching the lake from Gondola in Paradise or kayaking on Emerald Bay. Then, as night falls, follow the bright lights to the southern shore's big-name casinos like Harrah's.

[toc]

1. Emerald Bay State Park

Created millions of years ago by crossing glaciers, this state park is a must-see for anyone who wants to experience the beauty of Lake Tahoe. Sheltered by towering trees, this inlet along the southwest shore of Lake Tahoe is known for its colorful granite cliffs and stunning panoramas.

Follow Route 89 south from Tahoe City (about 20 miles) or north from South Lake Tahoe (about 10 miles) and you will pass Emerald Bay Lookout, of the crown park. And you should make sure you have a camera on hand – the scenery is breathtaking and travelers say there are photo opportunities everywhere you turn.

But staring off into the sunset isn't the only thing to do here. Emerald Bay State Park is also home to many attractions. Budding geologists can hop a boat out to Fannette Island (the only island on Lake Tahoe) where evidence of glacial activity abounds.

If you go down in history, a stop at Vikingsholm is a must: Built in the 1920s, the summer house was once one of the best examples of Scandinavian architecture in the country. In addition, many of the materials used to build Vikingsholm come from the Lake Tahoe area, making this villa an authentic part of the landscape.

Adults can tour the house for $ 10 (children aged 7 to 17 and college students pay $ 8). Coming home takes a little work. After parking in the Vikingshom parking lot by Highway 89 at Emerald Bay, visitors must hike via a steep 1-mile trail that drops 500 feet in elevation.

Those with medical conditions or mobility issues are advised not to attempt this hike.

2. Squaw Valley

Sprawling across six peaks on Lake Tahoe's western shore (about 10 miles northwest of Tahoe City), Squaw Valley has been dubbed one of the world's finest ski resorts thanks to the terrain is close to 4,000 ski patterns and its advanced lift system. This resort was chosen to hold the 1960 Winter Olympics.

Travelers have recently been impressed by the resort's excellent scale and said it offers a variety of exciting activities - when the weather is collaborative. Squaw is a smart choice for first-time skiers too; about 70 percent of its slopes are geared toward those at the beginner and intermediate level.

3. Donner Memorial State Park and Emigrant Trail Museum

Donner State Park Memorial and Migration Trail Museum honors one of the darkest moments in American pioneering. Here, you'll find a great stone pedestal commemorating the Donner Party, the legendary pioneers who fell victim to the harsh Sierra Nevada winter of 1846 to 1847.

The party (originally comprised of nearly 90 migrants) was on its way to California when their convoy encountered a severe snowstorm. Only half of the pioneers survived (many by resorting to cannibalism).

The stone marker near the Emigrant Trail Museum is 22 feet high, marking the huge amount of snowfall that winter. For more information about the tragic Donner Party, visit the Migration Trail Museum.

There, you will also find intricate sets of photos detailing the rail development history in the Sierra Nevada area. It's a great spot for history buffs, according to recent visitors, though some expressed disappointment in the lack of interactive exhibits.

4. Kings Beach State Recreation Area

Stretching along the northern shore of Lake Tahoe, this beach is one of the largest beaches in the region. The nearly 13-acre park - including a sizable number of shorelines on the northern edge of Lake Tahoe - is ideal for swimming, sunbathing and boating; In addition, there is a picnic area and a playground and restroom.

Recent visitors said an area is a great place for families, but add that it pays to get there early to find both a parking spot and a place to set up on the beach.

5. Homewood Mountain Resort

According to skiers, this small resort on Lake Tahoe's west shore (about 7 miles south of Tahoe City) is far more manageable than nearby titans like Squaw Valley and Heavenly Resort.

Sitting on 1,260 acres, Homewood has only 67 runs and eight lifts. But the relaxed atmosphere and its breathtaking scenery impress visitors from time to time, they call this one of the most beautiful resorts with great lake views and a great place. to ski on the tree.

Homewood is also the perfect location for those who are trying to experience Lake Tahoe on a budget, as lift tickets are much cheaper than those in nearby resorts (starting at $ 49 if purchased online. before).

Reviewers also quickly praised the family-friendly atmosphere and on-the-spot children's lessons. However, visitors were less impressed with limited and outdated food options and urged future travelers to pack their own snacks.

6. Northstar California Resort

Although it is significantly smaller than Squaw Valley or Heavenly Resort - boasting only 3,170 acres and nearly 100 runs - Northstar California Resort is often ranked among the top ski resorts in the West. In fact, Northstar had to construct an "express gondola" to accommodate the number of people who couldn't wait to hit the slopes.

Aside from skiing and snowboarding, other Northstar activities include swimming, ice skating (roller skating in summer) and snowshoeing. Also, youngsters can have the time of their lives on the kid-friendly slopes and the rides found at the Kids Adventure Zones.

After a long day on the slopes (or the trails or the rink or the pool), catch up on your rest and relaxation with some time at the spa. There is also a movie theater on the property, as well as several shops and eateries. Recent visitors extolled the resort's awesome trails and family-friendly activities, but admit it is quite expensive.

7. D. L. Bliss State Park

Named for 19th-century lumber titan Duane Leroy Bliss, this stunning 744-acre park is home to the deepest section of Lake Tahoe and some of the area's most breathtaking sites, including several pristine beaches, hiking trails and the Balancing Rock, a 250,000-pound boulder balancing on a mere fist of granite.

Recent visitors raved about the park's beaches, trails, and campsites, saying that they're definitely worth a visit. However, one common complaint is the lack of parking and limited access to the park in the winter offseason.

8. Heavenly Ski Resort & Gondola

With a peak of 10,067 feet above sea level (the highest peak in Lake Tahoe), this extremely popular resort is truly paradise. And it is the only ski resort located on the southern coast of Lake Tahoe.

It offers more than 4,600 acres of slidable land - with steps suitable for all levels - as well as two ski parks, nearly 30 lifts, and a 50-passenger aerial tram. Heavenly Resort also offers daycare programs and ski lessons for children, so feel free to bring them with you.

Despite Heavenly's incredible activity, its main attraction is not its fresh powder, but its soaring Gondola Heavenly. Suspended cable cars transport passengers more than 2 miles through mountains to a 9,200-foot-high observation deck.

Rides will cost you a small fortune ($ 58 for adults, $ 35 for children), but tourists agree that this experience is mandatory for first-time visitors. In addition, in the summer at the resort's Epic Discovery adventure area, guests can enjoy ropes, zippers, mountain gliders, climbing walls, tubes and hiking tours.

Long tutorial. Order the Ultimate Adventure Pass to try them all for $ 99 (or $ 74 for those shorter than 54 inches), including gondola sailing.

9. Harrah's Casino

Located just across the border from South Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada, Harrah's Casino provides a vivid contrast to the natural tranquility of Lake Tahoe. There are many gambling options, including table games and slot machines, as well as indoor concert venues and nightclubs.

Harrah's is also home to a spa and several upscale and casual dining options. Recent visitors praised the cleanliness of this casino and its friendly staff, though some griped about the age of some of the machines.

Despite reviewers' comments about the need for a casino face-lift, they still said it was a fun escape after a few days enjoying Lake Tahoe's outdoor pursuits.

10. Alpine Meadows

If you want to avoid the crowds that flock to nearby Squaw Valley, consider visiting the lesser-known Alpine Meadows. Often referred to as the hidden jewel of Lake Tahoe, this 2,400-acre ski facility has over 100 running paths, not to mention a number of ski parks.

Its diverse activities suit a variety of interests; recent visitors recommend a stop here, whether you're a novice skier looking to take your first stab at shredding powder or you are a daring black diamond who wants to walk on the wild side.

What's more, there are ski schools, play areas and special programs for kids. Note that 75 percent of the trails are designed for intermediate or advanced skiers.

For the most part, recent visitors gave glowing reviews of the diversity of the ski runs and the on-site kid's programs, while others said the customer service is a little lacking and the expensive lift tickets don't match the limited facilities and restaurants. But all reviewers agreed, the views are unparalleled.

More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in West Palm Beach

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-lake-tahoe-2-703783.html

[shirlleycoyle]

Arctic Ice Is Crashing, and That’s Bad News For Everyone

Over the next few days, Greenland is expected to roast as the weather system that fueled Europe’s second record-smashing heatwave of the summer marches north and west. Scientists are warning of what could be a near-record melt-out across the northern ice sheet’s surface, one that may also impact sea ice surrounding the island.

It’s just the latest manifestation of the high fever gripping the Arctic in a year where sea ice is running near record-low levels and Greenland has already sweated through one major melt event in June. And whether or not 2019 goes down as an all-time record year for Arctic ice losses on land or at sea—both of which experts say are possible—years of extreme ice demise like this one are consistent with a pattern of rapid transformation taking place up north due to human-caused climate change.

“This fits in exactly with our expectations of long-term climate change,” Zack Labe, a climate scientist and PhD candidate at the University of California Irvine, told Motherboard, speaking of this year’s ice conditions.

The heat wave currently bearing down on Greenland comes courtesy of the same weather pattern that caused Western Europe to experience its hottest day on record on Thursday—a strong, high pressure air mass associated with mild temperatures. That weather system migrated over Scandinavia this weekend, shattering heat records in southern Finland and causing many places in Norway to experience what the national meteorological service described as “tropical nights” on Sunday.

Now the hot weather is making a run to the west. Weather models predict temperatures across Greenland could rise as much as 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal on Tuesday and Wednesday, with extreme heat engulfing a vast swath of the ice sheet. Twila Moon, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told Motherboard current forecasts suggest this is likely to be Greenland’s second-largest melt event in terms of aerial extent since record-keeping began in the 1950s.

It has already been a sad year for ice in the Arctic. Ruth Mottram, a glaciologist with the Danish Meteorological Institute, told Motherboard that Greenland saw an unusually dry winter, meaning less new snowfall accumulated than usual. When the summer melt season got going, the snow that had accumulated started to vanish, exposing bare glacier ice. Bare ice is darker than snow, meaning its reflectivity, or albedo, is lower and it absorbs more heat, which hastens the melt along.

“So that’s a feedback,” Mottram said.

In mid-June, a spate of exceptionally warm weather triggered a melt event that encompassed nearly half of Greenland’s ice at its peak, something that’s very unusual so early in the year. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, some 80 billion tons of ice were lost over the course of the entire event from June 11-20.

The ice losses have continued apace throughout July as albedo along the ice sheet’s margins, where the melting is highest, veered into record-low territory. Mottram said that as of Sunday, Greenland had lost 177 billion tons of ice this month—far above what scientists would typically expect even in the peak of summer. And she was “sure there would be elevated melting” across Greenland again this week. Mottram cautioned, however, that the incoming weather system is also bringing a lot of moisture, and snowfall at higher elevations could counterbalance some of the losses.

2012 currently holds the record both for largest individual melt event and largest ice losses in a single year across Greenland. While it’s too early to say for sure, Moon said that “if we see the full extent of the melt event that we expect, we’ll be on course to have an amount of ice loss that might rival or even set a new record” this year.

The warm weather may also have some impact on the sea ice still hanging around Greenland’s northeastern coast. Then again, there isn’t much there. In fact, sea ice across the Arctic Ocean is running at or near record low levels right now, and as with Greenland, there’s a chance of eclipsing an all-time low set in September 2012.

Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told Motherboard that will very much depend on the weather patterns over the rest of the summer. But, he added, “every day that goes by that we continue at a record low increases the probability that we’re gonna set a new record low.”

Record-setter or no, Arctic sea ice losses have been dramatic this year, particularly in the Laptev Sea north of Russia and in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas north of Alaska, where the ice is currently in a state of “collapse” as state climatologist Rick Thoman put it on Twitter. Labe worried about what the diminished state of Alaska’s sea ice would mean for the freeze-up that occurs every fall.

“I have to wonder how much it’s going to affect and delay freeze up this fall,” he said. “There’s so much open water.”

Of course, the melting that’s occurring this year, and that which took place in 2012, can’t just be seen as one-off events. As Labe noted, these spikes are part of a longer-term pattern of rapid change taking place across the Arctic, where temperatures are rising at about twice the globally-averaged rate. And that has consequences for the entire planet.

Ice losses from Greenland have already caused global sea levels to rise about half an inch, and the rate of rise is accelerating as the ice melts faster. A study published in June found that if emissions continue to climb at their present rate, Greenland’s melting could raise sea levels by up to a foot by the end of the century. If all of Greenland were to melt, global sea levels would rise by about 23 feet.

Arctic sea ice loss doesn’t contribute to sea level rise. But its dramatic decline over the past 30 years is having a host of other impacts, from hastening coastal erosion to disrupting indigenous hunting and fishing activities that rely on the ice to alterning the the Arctic food chain from its base. What’s more, as shiny, reflective surfaces gives way to darker ocean water, the Arctic is absorbing more of the Sun’s energy, amplifying warming and hastening melt. There may even be connections between this Arctic amplification and the jet stream that can influence weather patterns further south.

What happens to the Arctic’s ice—this week, this year, and over the decades to come—will be felt far beyond its melting, receding edges.

Arctic Ice Is Crashing, and That’s Bad News For Everyone syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/