Rare Snowfall Blankets African Desert

Parts of the south-west Africa nation of Namibia usually associated with heat and dust have been blanketed in snow.

A storm brought sub zero temperatures and snow to the Namib-Naukluft Park this week, which local forecasters have described as an extremely rare event. The average overnight temperature, measured from Tuesday 18h00 until 06h00 Wednesday, was a record low of 2.1 degrees Celsius.

According to namibiaweather.info, the lowest temperature recorded by weather stations on Tuesday was minus 7.8 degrees Celsius, just south of Waterberg in the Otjozondjupa Region. The cold conditions are expected were expected to ease Thursday.

The Namib-Naukluft National Park is a national park of Namibia encompassing part of the Namib Desert (considered the world’s oldest desert) and the Naukluft mountain range. The Namib-Naukluft is the largest game park in Africa and the fourth largest in the world.



link to the source

2012?

I heard on the news that today the Scandinavian country's have unusual hot weather about 24degree Celsius.

Curious pasterns and very rare.

Well we are in very interesting times indeed.

I feel that our planet and maybe others within our solar system are going through a grand change. New cycle or what every you want to call it.

I feel very blessed to be living in such interesting times. I have seen a lot already and i'm only half way through my life.

Gotta love good ol mother nature! Apart from the very bad stuff

EDIT: Forgot to add that my best friends mum lives in South Africa, she says that the weather has been very wet and cold there. She owns a farm and it has flooded quite bad. I will see if i can get a picture from her.


Here is the picture my friends mum took from her window over looking her farmland: Taken in Gonubie, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

reply to post by boo1981


I'm very hesitant to jump on the global warming train as the cause of this.
No temperature rise has been recorded globally as of the present time, but climate change is a part of the world's history. No matter how far back you go, there is always climate change. It will always be here, and it will always be threatening the lives of everyone.

Maybe climate change will wipe us out before global warming can happen?

IMO, the earth has her cycles, and what was before, will be again.

Africa wasnt always covered with huge deserts and in time, it will return to where it was before. so while this event was relatively unheard of in our history, this may be what we've all been experiencing with the anomalies of the world weather.

my only request, is that the deserts of africa be explored for old ruins to help complete it's history, before the sands bring soil and life again.

odd. i wonder how the wildlife is coping. zebras are probably pretty sneaky these days.

rough year up ahead.

Originally posted by SpongeBeard
reply to post by boo1981

 

I'm very hesitant to jump on the global warming train as the cause of this.
No temperature rise has been recorded globally as of the present time, but climate change is a part of the world's history. No matter how far back you go, there is always climate change. It will always be here, and it will always be threatening the lives of everyone.

Maybe climate change will wipe us out before global warming can happen?

I don't think i mentioned "climate change or global warming" did i?
I never jump on that band waggon myself

In my opinion i feel that this is the normal thing for our planet to do. Some times species will be wiped out, sometimes they will survive. Im my opinion it is how us as humans can adapt to these changes and have more consideration for our fellow man and surroundings.

After all we are just guests on this beautiful planet.

I also heard it snowed on the big island of Hawaii, earlier this week. I think it was on one of the higher mountain peaks. Seems strange for this time of the year.

reply to post by ahmonrarh


I agree with you 100%
Our planet has these cycles all through history. Its just never been seen in our life time up until now.

Maybe this is why its been much more windy, the saying " the winds of change" comes to mind

reply to post by TribeOfManyColours


Well it is winter time in the southern hemisphere, so this isn't a far stretch of the imagination. I'm sure Al Gore has a very reasonable and plausible explanation for this.

We havn't had natural weather for years. They do manipulate weather all the time. Cold Cloud Seeding?

Originally posted by Unity_99
We havn't had natural weather for years. They do manipulate weather all the time. Cold Cloud Seeding?

There was actually a news report on CBS evening news last night about the strange weather, world-wide, in the past couple of years. It was kind of confusing and didn't really answer any questions. Some pointed to different weather cycles, while some were just unexplainable.

We live in Interesting time indeed. I thing this is all about ocean currents are slowing and fading. From the same reason that snow fall in south Africa June in central Europe is now absolutely tropical. Air is hot, sultry and humid. Short storms with heavy rain every afternoon. I know how summer should look like in Poland. This is definitely something different.

Its wild how this stuff happens over time.
1 minute your land is vegi fertil/next is desert
1 minute your land is desert/next its vegi fertil again
1 minute your land sits atop/next its below water or sand
1 minute your land is atop/next its ice covered
1 minute your home planets that sphere then its this

CYCLES cycles

Originally posted by maybee

Originally posted by Unity_99
We havn't had natural weather for years. They do manipulate weather all the time. Cold Cloud Seeding?

There was actually a news report on CBS evening news last night about the strange weather, world-wide, in the past couple of years. It was kind of confusing and didn't really answer any questions. Some pointed to different weather cycles, while some were just unexplainable.

The cycle stuff is what they say to make it all real/surreal for us the viewers. For decades, the weather is in their hands, its not natural.

reply to post by Unity_99


I'm kind of thinking the same. I think people are questioning too much, so they feel they have to give some sort of answers. As I said, the report was somewhat confusing and didn't really answer much, IMO.

Originally posted by SpongeBeard
reply to post by boo1981

 

I'm very hesitant to jump on the global warming train as the cause of this.
No temperature rise has been recorded globally as of the present time, but climate change is a part of the world's history. No matter how far back you go, there is always climate change. It will always be here, and it will always be threatening the lives of everyone.

Maybe climate change will wipe us out before global warming can happen?

No temperature rise has been recorded globally? The NOAA and Goddard have been keeping satellite and land / ocean records for years. Where in the world do you get your information from?

Here is the most recent chart:



Now as to your confusion about 'Global Warming' and 'Climate Change'.

Global Warming is what has been occurring that is a result of man-made carbon based pollutants in the atmosphere.

Climate Change is the result of the Warming - which is a number of nasty anomalies in the weather including droughts in formerly wet areas, excess precipitation leading to floods, blizzards, stronger mesoscale storms (tornadoes and hurricanes) stronger winds, etc.

If you want to know more, here is a list of Scientific organizations that have concurred that Global Warming is man-made and that Climate Change is a result of that warming pattern:

en.wikipedia.org...

There are hundreds of them- so take your time and see what they have to say.

Just saw a strange weather report on the news a few minutes ago. Seems early this morning in Wichita, KS, the temp rose 20 degrees in 20 minutes. Didn't quite understand what happened but some disturbance in the upper atmosphere from a decaying thunderstorm. It was on the ticker on Fox news. Just wondering if anyone else has heard about this.

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
zebras are probably pretty sneaky these days.

That put an image in my head of a suspicious looking Zebra. What are you up to Zebra...

I was wondering the same thing though, I'm sure some animals aren't prepared for this type of weather. Humans either. It seems like every time it gets extremely hot or extremely cold, even in the western world, many people die. Curious if this has been the case there? Hopefully people will be able to adapt.

Scientist have said that Zebra's stripes are a cooling mechanism because the heat is absorbed in their skin at different rates, causing a convection current. Maybe they are black & white as to blend in with snow! Their coloring would make them look right at home with Penguins, Snow Leopards, Some wolves, and other snow living creatures. Maybe the striped color just happened to also help them in the heat. I am completely talking about my rear end here and I'd suspect it's not true at all, but it just seemed interesting to me.

EDIT:

I googled "snow zebra" and I guess there are some zebras that live in cold climes? In Siberia somewhere I guess. That is complete news to me. The only article I could find was on a site trying to get donations to "save" the snow zebra, so I don't know if this is completely made up or what. If real, I think that's pretty cool that zebras live in the snow.

Ok, so this is kind of freaking me out because I have the WeatherBug app on my HTC Evo, and lately it has been saying "my location" is Wavis Bay, Namibia even though I am actually in Kansas, USA.

Did the poles shift and I didn't notice?