13+ DEAD DUE TO HEAVY SNOWFALL IN INDIA
At least 13 people have died in Uttarakhand, India after heavy, early-season snowfall battered the mountainous region, local officials said on Thursday.
The dead include three porters working for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) who were posted along the India-China border in Uttarkashi district, and ten trekkers. While an additional six others remain missing, reports hindustantimes.com.
District disaster officer Devendra Patwal said rescue teams spotted five of the bodies near Lamkhaga Pass on Thursday morning.
“The bodies will soon be airlifted from the spot,” he said. “The rescue workers managed to rescue one of the trekkers who was found alive there. He has been shifted to the army hospital in the district.”
https://youtu.be/vusXUTH8dvQ
“Over 65 tourists are (still) trapped in higher reaches of Bageshwar,” said Shikha Suyal, another disaster management officer.
“We have sent three rescue teams from the district along with one helicopter and one NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) team from Dehradun to rescue the tourists.”
Rescue workers take an injured Lamkhaga Pass trekker to hospital on Thursday.
In neighboring Nepal, heavy snow and whiteout conditions caught-out a group of trekkers on the Mera Peak summit, too.
Details are sketchy, but according to explorersweb.com, one person, a porter, is known to have died, while another person is still missing.
Initial rescue efforts were hampered by inclement weather: helicopters had to turn back, as did a group of volunteers who attempted to trek up the mountain on Wednesday.
SCOTS SHOVELING SNOW
Photographs show Scots out shoveling snow as the UK enjoyed its first plummeting temperatures and settling snow of the season–just in time for ‘Climate-Con’ which is due to commence next week.
Scots in Aberdeenshire and Moray suffered anomalous Arctic cold and unusually-early snowfall this week as a weak and wavy meridional jet stream flow (linked to the historically low solar activity we’ve been experiencing) transported a polar air mass over the UK.
Scots suffer plummeting temps and snow
[PETER JOLLY NORTHPIX]
Looking at the latest GFS run (shown below), snow is even expected as far south as central England as the calendar flips to November:
GFS Total Snowfall (cm) Oct 22 – Nov 7 [tropicaltidbits.com].
“MOUNT WASHINGTON LOOKS LIKE THE NORTH POLE”
Winter has arrived early on Mount Washington.
My NBC 5 is reporting that the mountain suffered hurricane-force winds more than 5 inches of snow overnight Wednesday — according to the article: “Mount Washington looks like the North Pole now with stunning snowfall and frigid temperatures.”
Early Season Polar Plunge hits Mt Washington on Oct 18/19.
Meteorologist Jay Broccolo said: “We’re starting to see snowdrifts build-up against the doors … you can hear the wind blowing through the doors … winter’s definitely back.”
RECORD-SMASHING SNOW HEADED FOR U.S.
This season’s early freeze isn’t just confined to higher elevations of Washington State. Far from it. Much of the Western United States bracing for an Arctic blast of record-challenging proportions.
In California, for example, a powerful winter storm is headed towards Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The storm is expected to dump heavy rain and record-breaking accumulations of October snow.
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Reno is forecasting three systems that will impact the region starting today (Fri, Oct 22) with the “main event” hitting Sunday through Tuesday which is forecast to drop well-over 3 feet of heavy, wet snow on the mountains in the basin.
“After digging through all of the probabilistic guidance, this event is shaping up to be one for the record books,” the service said. “Saturday morning may be a good day to clean those drains and gutters ahead of the storm,” they added in a special statement.
For that main event, the service said that after checking with the books, none of the late October reanalyses were this wet (between 1979 and 2009).
By Monday night into Tuesday morning, snow levels are expected to fall to 5,000 feet, well below lake level: “As the system evolves and becomes colder, we’re talking about feet of heavy, wet snow in the high Sierra. The Tahoe Basin could receive 3-plus feet of snow.”
Checking in with the latest GFS runs, the NWS’s projected totals could even be on the conservative side:
GFS Total Snowfall (inches) Oct 22 – Nov 7 [tropicaltidbits.com].
Shifting our attention to the east, the models are also picking up on some debilitating falls across the Northeast around November 6 (though this forecast is in the unreliable time frame, and so should be taken with a pinch of salt–but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on).
THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST OIL HUB IS RUNNING DRY
Given the climatic event hitting this weekend, it will be doubly-concerning to hear that there may soon be no physical oil at all in the largest U.S. commercial storage facility–a scenario which analysts expect to lead to a “superspike” in the price.
In a note predicting the near-term dynamics of the oil market, JPMorgan’s Natasha Kaneva writes that in a world of pervasive natural gas and coal shortages, which are forcing the power sector to increasingly turn to oil, ‘Cushing Oil Storage’ may be just weeks away from being “effectively out of crude.”
The bank’s conclusion: “If nothing were to change in the Cushing balance over the next two months, we might expect front WTI spreads to spike to record highs.”
Given the climatic event hitting this weekend, it will be doubly-concerning to hear that there may soon be no physical oil at all in the largest U.S. commercial storage facility–a scenario which analysts expect to lead to a “superspike” in the price.
In a note predicting the near-term dynamics of the oil market, JPMorgan’s Natasha Kaneva writes that in a world of pervasive natural gas and coal shortages, which are forcing the power sector to increasingly turn to oil, ‘Cushing Oil Storage’ may be just weeks away from being “effectively out of crude.”
The bank’s conclusion: “If nothing were to change in the Cushing balance over the next two months, we might expect front WTI spreads to spike to record highs.”
Today’s spiraling global crisis begins with Europe’s catastrophic handling of its energy needs.
As JPMorgan notes, the heating season of 2021-2022 is opening with record high global gas prices, even well-before the chill of winter hits. This is due in no small part to the historically cold winter of 2020-2021 which depleted reserves, while the blind ‘fingers-crossed’ reliance on failing renewables is another key factor. The situation is so dire that JPM says “finding even 1 bcf of spare capacity is becoming increasingly difficult.”
The good news is that Russian domestic gas storage is at 97% full — this potentially allows for 4-10 bcm of additional shipments to Europe. However, Russia is not currently planning to ship additional gas until Nord Stream 2 is fully authorized, at least.
This particular aspect of the shortages is political, of course. And given the gullible ‘green’-hamstrung politicians of the West, who, in placating those noisy yet clueless activists, have destroyed their citizens access to affordable energy, Putin will soon have them bent over a barrel and paying extortionate prices out of desperation.
As JPM notes, echoing what Goldman said earlier this week, “without additional Russian volumes, the winter weather premium currently embedded in the European natural gas price cannot significantly diminish.”
In short, even higher natural gas prices are on the cards, especially if the winter is cold, reports oilprice.com.
So, given these record coal and gas prices, power sectors and energy intensive industries are turning to oil. Reuters quoted Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman who confirmed that users switching from gas to oil could account for demand of 500,000-600,000 barrels per day (bpd), adding that the world was now waking up to shortages in the energy sector.
“People all of a sudden woke up to the reality that they are running out of everything: they are ran out of investments, they ran out of stocks and they ran out of creativity in trying to be attending to real solution that address real issues,” Prince Abdulaziz told the CERA Week India Energy Forum.
Abdulaziz said the potential switch depended on how severe winter weather would be:
Cushing crude storage fell to 31.2 mb last week, and because operational tank bottoms are likely 20-25% of capacity, JPM predicts that “we could be just weeks away from Cushing being effectively out of crude,” adding that “if nothing were to change in the Cushing balance over the next two months, we might expect front WTI spreads to spike to record highs—a ‘super backwardation’ scenario.”
If JPM’s prediction is correct, it would prompt the bank to hike its Q1 2022 price target to $95 from $77.5/bbl, which would in turn have a catastrophic impact on the price of oil.
This, at least to me, is increasingly looking like a controlled demolition of society. Perhaps we peasants got too opinionated…? Maybe we were found to be abusing the few freedoms we had…? Or was it that those back-alley whispers of revolution grew a little too loud…? But whatever the reason, the future is looking decidedly Totalitarian, and cold.
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