Holland Ice
A truly historic spell of cold is sweeping southeast Asia this early April, particularly Thailand.
After a string of exceptionally chilly days, low temperature records for April are starting to fall, most notably in the Eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand.
In a number of cases, the first non-tropical (sub-18C) April nights on record have been experienced. This includes an unprecedented 17.7C at Koh Sichang, a district of Chonburi province — the locale’s first-ever sub-20C reading in April.
It’s also been historically cool (and rainy) in northeast Thailand with daily highs holding below 20C for many there, too. The polar air has been entering via Central Vietnam, and has been driving temperatures to record levels. The 17.7C daily max logged in Buriram province is the lowest April max ever recorded at such a low elevation anywhere in Thailand.
On April 3, the mercury in the Laotian town of Phongsal plunged to 6.5C (43.7F) — a reading which is generally accepted to be the lowest ever temperature logged in Laos in April in Laos, beating out the previous benchmark, the 7.1C (44.8F) at Nong Het set back in 1929.
MONTHLY LOW TEMPERATURE RECORDS TUMBLE ACROSS EUROPE
Central and Western Europe, after enjoying something of mild winter (with its cold concentrated to the east, most noticeable in Turkey), is now suffering record freezes for April and could be on for another year without a spring as there’s little letup in sight:
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) April 4 [tropicaltidbits.com].
HOLLAND
It may be officially spring across the Northern Hemisphere, but in the municipality of Winterswijk, Holland the record cold that swept in Saturday night allowed locals to skate on naturally-formed ice come Sunday morning.
“We thought long and hard, but we decided we had to give it a go,” said local ice master Hendrik ten Prooije on whether or not to prepare the ice rink for skating. “This is unique,” he continued: “for the first time, we are skating on natural ice in April.“
In nearby Deelen, the mercury dipped to -6.3C (20.7F) overnight Saturday — the lowest temp ever recorded on April 3.
Holland is becoming more accustomed to hard April frosts in recent years, with the April of 2021 delivering readings below the freezing mark on a record 18 nights at Eelde, near Groningen, for example.
GERMANY
Minimums in Germany on Sunday also saw a host of monthly records usurped.
The longest standing ones were the -10C (14F) at Eslohe; the -9C (15.8F) at Burgwald-Bottendorf; the -7.8C (18F) at Genthin; and the -7.5C (18.5F) at Kyritz.
SPAIN
Spain set a new national monthly record low over the weekend.
Pamplona, the capital of Navarre province, northern Spain, observed -3.6C (25.5F).
FRANCE
Incredibly cold temperatures have been hitting France of late, and all.
Recently, -20.3C (-4.5F) was suffered in Aiguille du Midi (the station’s third sub -20C ever recorded); -15.5C (4.1F) hit Ristolas; -9.6C (14.7F) was noted in Arbent; -5.1C (22.8F) in Bergerac; -3.6C (25.5F) in Albi; and 0.3C (32.5F) Toulon — all of these are new monthly records (far more telling than daily benchmarks), and they are also only 6 selected out of the 25 broken on Sunday alone (with a further 6 tied).
One of the fallen records extended as far back as 1958 (see the table below); but more interestingly, many were set only a year ago, with the majority of the others set either during the previous solar minimum (of 2008) or the minimum before that (of 1996/7):
Impressively, an “ice day” (daily maxes at or below 0C) was declared across much of France on April 2, so even at low elevations.
The weather station at Courpiere, east of Clermont-Ferrand (455m/1,493ft) logged a daily high of just -0.9C (30.4F), which is only the fourth time in recorded history that France has experienced such a low reading at such a low elevation in the month of April.
ANDORRA
April 1 brought with it the lowest monthly temperature ever recorded in Andorra.
A bone-chilling -17.1C (1.2F) was logged at Les Font d’ Arinsal–and while this station is relatively new, the reading was backed-up by a long-standing station located at Port d’ Envalira which recorded its own similar historic benchmark of -16.3C (2.6F).
UK
Record April chills have been sweeping the UK, too, with heavy snow also causing disruptions for some parts.
Specifically to the cold, the most noteworthy feat was probably England’s capital, London registering its coldest April low in at least 70 years (with some reports claiming of all time)–beating out the previous record of -3.1C (26.4F).
But across the UK, frosts and freezes have been prevailing since the last day of March when lows of -10C (14F) swept the Scottish Highlands, -7C (19.4F) hit Wales and -5C (23F) was logged in Cumbria. Much colder Arctic air has descended since the, driving temperatures down to as low as -5C (and beyond) even in southwest England.
In fact, it’s been such as cold start to April that the Central England Temperature Record (CET) has a mean reading of just 4.3C (39.7F). To put this into context, the CET extends all the way back to the year 1659, and in all of those centuries 4.7C (40.5F) is the coldest April on record (tied by the years 1701 and 1837). Of course, we’re only a few days into April, and the mean will not remain at 4.3C, but it does go to show just how unusually frigid England’s start to April 2022 has been.
MSM BLAMES ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ FOR REDUCED SNOW CRAB NUMBERS IN THE BERING SEA… THEN 2022 CAME ALONG
There is a rambling article in the Seattle Times dated April 3 that bemoans low Bering Sea ice coverage in 2018 and 2019 which it claims is due to catastrophic ocean warming and also the key factor behind reduced snow crab numbers.
The winter ice is a key ally to the snow crab, reads the article. It helps in the growth of algae at the base of the food chain, and is vital to the formation of a vast cold pool at the sea bottom that acts as a safe haven for snow crab to escape predators that prefer warmer temperatures. Climate scientists forecast the Bering’s ice cover will be in long-term retreat in a 21st century where greenhouse gas emissions –spurred by the combustion of fossil fuels on land, in the air and at sea– unevenly warm the planet–however, no mechanism for this ‘uneven warming is explained, however, and is likely another case of hypothesis molded to fit a unexpected reality. Temperatures are rising in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the Bering Sea much faster than regions farther south, adds the article—and while the data appears to support this, it does, paradoxically, appear to be a sign of a Grand Solar Minimum, as GSM’s see the Arctic region (as well as the North Atlantic and Alaska) warm during bouts of otherwise ‘global’ cooling (see NASA graphic below, or click HEREfor more).
Temp change between 1780 (a year of normal solar activity) and 1680 (a year within the depths of the Maunder Minimum) — NASA.
“These are human-caused events,” said Mike Litzow, a federal fishery biologist who directs a shellfish laboratory in Alaska, regarding the catastrophic ocean warming: “It’s us.”
However, despite the typically human-bashing tone you’d expect from a mainstream outlet, the Seattle Times article finishes with the below inconvenient paragraphs, which would appear to run directly against the doom-laden grain of the piece.
The 2022 snow crab harvest began under much colder conditions … The ice formed early and threatened to close off the open water in some of the best crabbing areas … The winter ice also was a welcome sight, a tangible sign of hope for at least a short-term resurgence in the snow crab populations and the fishery they sustain.
So the article was simply fear-mongering claptrap then…?
In February 2022, the floating ice cover in the Bering Sea reached its greatest extent since 2013. The below map shows the extent of sea ice in the Bering Sea as of mid-Feb. Ice covered more than 846,000 square kilometres (327,000 square miles), far exceeding the 1981–2010 mean:
Bering Sea Ice Extent, Feb 16, 2022 [NSIDC].
The fishing boat Pinnacle struggles its way through an ice floe Jan. 25 in the Bering Sea southwest of St. Matthew Island. [Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News].
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