Thursday, 4 November 2021

BLIZZARDS BATTER THE EUROPEAN ALPS, DELIVERING 2M (6.6FT) OF SNOW, + RARE EARLY-SEASON SNOWFALL WARNINGS ISSUED IN PORTUGAL

NOVEMBER 4, 2021 CAP ALLON


BLIZZARDS BATTER THE EUROPEAN ALPS

Heavy, early-season snow arrived Tuesday evening in the Italian ski resort of Livigno, and it hasn’t let up.

Totals of approximately 2 meters (6.6 feet) have accumulated on the peaks of “Little Tibet”, with the latest weather models suggesting further historic early-November dumpings are on the way.

Below are clips of the wintry scenes in and around the Livigno and Lombardy regions of Italy on Wednesday, November 3 (video courtesy Dangerous Planet), where heavy snowfall paralyzed traffic and resulted in more than 100 snow-clearing operations:

https://youtu.be/iOy4UdG-94s

The next video (from Storm Center) is titled “A Terrible Snow Storm Buries Houses, Streets And Cars” — and it shows just that, again in the Livigno region of Italy:

https://youtu.be/eoEIu5UkykA

Looking ahead, this week’s blast of polar cold is set to persist, and across the majority of Europe, too — latest GFS runs see anomalous lows and further heavy snows continuing to hit the continent as the month of November progresses:

GFS Total Snowfall (cm) Nov 4 – Nov 20 [tropicaltidbits.com].

Note also: northern Africa, namely Morocco and Algeria, can also expect rare November flurries starting this weekend.

Winter has begun early in the Northern Hemisphere this year, just as a prolonged bout of low solar activity predicted. Across large swathes of Europe, Asia, and North America (pictured below), the story is the same — the growing seasons are shortening.




Heavenly Resort, California this week



RARE EARLY-SEASON SNOWFALL WARNINGS ISSUED IN PORTUGAL

Europe’s heavy snows aren’t just being confined to the continent’s Alps, either — vast swathes of eastern Europe are currently experiencing exceptional totals for the time of year, as are the higher elevations of Spain, and even Portugal.

Authorities in Portugal have even issued weather warnings across the nation’s mountains.

At elevations of above 1,400 meters (4.600 feet) snowfall warnings have been put in place for today, November 4, by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA)–snow that the above GFS run isn’t actually picking up on.

As reported by theportugalnews.com, “the districts of Castelo Branco and Guarda will be under yellow weather warning for heavy snow until 15:00 on Thursday” as an Arctic air mass descends into the Iberian Peninsula.

I personally can attest to the cold — we registered a low of 4.6C (40F) on our land early this morning, which sits at an elevation of around 210 m (690 ft) — a highly unusual reading for early November.

The aforementioned accumulations have yet to be plotted on the FMI’s ‘Total Snowfall for the Northern Hemisphere’ chart (shown below), data-points that I’m fully expecting to accelerate the already above-average opening to the snow mass season.

[Finnish Meteorological Institute]


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