Archive for February, 2020

75 mph ‘Calima’ Sandstorm Chokes Canary Islands Forcing School Closures and Grounding/Re-Routing Flights

Written by on February 25, 2020 in Rest of Europe with 0 Comments
75 mph ‘Calima’ Sandstorm Chokes Canary Islands Forcing School Closures and Grounding/Re-Routing Flights

The tight pressure gradient between high and low pressure helped generate a powerful and highly disruptive ‘calima’ wind/sandstorm from Sahara across the Canary Islands. The hot, dusty, sandy easterly  gale-force winds turned skies thick red and orange with visibility dropping from 5 miles to less than 1 mile in minutes as choking sand blew through […]

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Europe March 2020 Outlook (Why was winter so mild?)

Written by on February 24, 2020 in Rest of Europe, United Kingdom & Ireland with 0 Comments
Europe March 2020 Outlook (Why was winter so mild?)

Winter 2019-20 could not be any different to the winter of a decade ago. In fact it’s the polar opposite to 2009-10 which was one of the coldest. 2019-20 will go down as one of the warmest for the entire hemisphere never mind North America or Europe. Cities such as Oslo and Helsinki received their […]

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Record Strong Polar Vortex /+AO/NAO Pushes Arctic Sea Ice to 10-Year High But Makes For Warm, Wet, Stormy Winter Across Europe

Written by on February 14, 2020 in Rest of Europe with 0 Comments
Record Strong Polar Vortex /+AO/NAO Pushes Arctic Sea Ice to 10-Year High But Makes For Warm, Wet, Stormy Winter Across Europe

With barely 2 weeks remaining of meteorological winter 2019-20, I think it’s safe to say that warmth, a lot of rain and big storms have been dominant. Europe as well as the UK and Ireland has likely seen one of it’s warmest winters on record with summer-like warmth hitting central countries including Switzerland at a […]

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Baghdad, Iraq Receives 1st Snowfall In 12 Years, Only 2nd Time in 100 Years!

Written by on February 12, 2020 in Asia with 0 Comments
Baghdad, Iraq Receives 1st Snowfall In 12 Years, Only 2nd Time in 100 Years!

Typically associated with blazing heat and with recent summers witnessing temperatures as high as 51C or 124F, a cold front has brought snow to the Iraqi capital for the first time since 2008. Back then, it was the first for the city in over 100 years. Photos show a coating to perhaps 1-2 inches of […]

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265 mph Jet Stream powers 930mb bomb off Greenland while Ciara rapidly deepens on approach to UK/Ireland!

Written by on February 8, 2020 in Rest of Europe, United Kingdom & Ireland with 0 Comments
265 mph Jet Stream powers 930mb bomb off Greenland while Ciara rapidly deepens on approach to UK/Ireland!

Thanks to the collision of arctic and tropical air over North America and the North Atlantic, the jet stream crossing the pond has intensified to supersonic speed, creating the perfect incubator for rapid cyclogenesis and formation of the Atlantic’s deepest depressions in several years. A visible satellite image captured this morning shows a storm system […]

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