A powerful late-season winter storm named Xanto by The Weather Channel brought record April snowfall to the upper Midwest and Great Lakes in mid-April 2018.

Xanto was the heaviest April snowstorm on record in Minneapolis/St. Paul, it also was the second-heaviest snowstorm of all-time in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

PBS Digital Studios launched today its new original YouTube program, “Hot Mess,” dedicated to explaining both the scientific impacts of climate change and how it impacts our daily lives. Published every Thursday, episodes showcase climate stories through the lens of one of its three hosts: ProPublica reporter Talia Buford, who covers disparities in environmental impacts; Joe Hanson, a biologist, science writer and host of the PBS Digital Studios show “It’s Okay to Be Smart”; and environmental journalist Miriam Nielsen.

Cleaning up after the weather is a tall, sometimes slushy order. And when we are out on the road, we are only as safe as we want to be.
Snow banks and tight-fitting lanes are two of the more noteworthy concerns drivers are facing.
Keeping your head on a swivel won't hurt you.

"Making sure that we know what's around us, that we're allowing that extra space and extra time for other drivers," said Capt. Jody Lemmens from the Brown County Sheriff's Office. "Just being courteous."

Sometimes the snow can spill over onto the road, causing some shoulder lanes to run out of room fast.

"Even though there's a lane there, [passing] is not always encouraged," she said.

She recommends using the left-hand lane to avoid any tricky situations if your lane decides to pull a vanishing act.
And for drivers we spoke to, many of them wished people would give the accelerator a break.

Some additional snow plowing this spring has La Crosse street crews two weeks behind on construction projects.

That means the city is in a pinch this year to get a longer-than-usual list of projects done.

Streets Superintendent Mike La Fleur said April snows have his crews playing catch up. Already two weeks isn’t good when the city has millions of dollars of additional work to fix some of the city's more troubled streets.

Residents across the Ohio Valley woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground on Tuesday morning.

Farmers are sitting back and waiting for the weather to warm up before putting seed in the ground, following the third week of snowfall.

Planting season is not starting off as quickly as some would hope, said Tim Stock, executive vice president of the Macon County Farm Bureau. People want to plant in a timely manner, Stock said, but also a cost efficient method, that won’t require a second planting.

“A couple guys have tried (planting) around the county, putting soybeans in,” Stock said. But “Most guys are keeping the seed in the shed and waiting for the weather to warm up.”

Measurable snow fell at the Tri-Cities Airport on Monday making it the 4th latest measurable snow at the site.

It was only 0.1" of snow, but it counts!

There's an unusually high volume of birds in the state right now, and the Department of Natural Resources says spring migration has come to a halt due to the snow.

This stop has forced larger crowds to Wisconsin feeders. The DNR counted nearly 300 at bird feeders near La Crosse.

Senior ecologist Don Quintenz at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center has seen a higher volume of birds are at the center. If the weather stays like this, he says, birds could be in trouble.

Torrential downpours, snow, hail, thunder and lightning strikes reported throughout region

After bringing record April snowfall to the upper Midwest and Great Lakes this weekend, Winter Storm Xanto is beginning to weaken on Monday. The storm brought 14.9 inches of snow to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, making it the heaviest April snowstorm on record in the Twin Cities. The storm made this month the snowiest April on record for the location as well.

Schools in the Twin Cities and Green Bay are closed on Monday as locals dig out from the heavy snow. Some government offices in Wisconsin were closed as well do to the storm, and the Green Bay Packers delayed the start of their offseason program by one day due to difficult travel conditions brought on by Xanto.

Three deaths have been attributed to the winter storm. Rollo Ward, 61, of Idaho Falls, Indiana, was killed on Friday after losing control of a semi-trailer in blizzard conditions near Chappell, Nebraska. The semi-trailer crashed into a second semi trailer that was stranded in the snow.

Three deaths have been blamed on the winter storm. The Nebraska State Patrol said Rollo Ward, 61, of Idaho Falls, was killed Friday when the semi-trailer he was driving lost control near Chappell in western Nebraska and crashed into a second semi-trailer that had become stranded in the blizzard, the AP reported.

According to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin, a 30-year-old woman from Poynette was killed when she lost control of her minivan early Saturday morning and struck an SUV on Highway 16 near Lewiston. Three passengers in the minivan and the driver of the SUV were transported to an area hospital with injuries, the AP reported.

Officials also said 52-year-old Daniel Harris died of heart failure while shoveling snow at his girlfriend's apartment complex in Milwaukee on Sunday.

WEBVTT HEART RATE THIS MORNING’S TRY TO SHOVEL MODEL THAT SNOW. AND IT STILL COMING. REPORTER: WAY TO FEWER HOURS UNTIL IT FINALLY TAPERS OFF. IT’S 30 HEAVY AND ALGONA. THE SNOW IS COMING IN SIDEWAYS. THE ROADS ARE SLICK AND WE HAVE A LOT OF CANCELLATIONS OUT THERE. WE BEEN SCROLLING THOSE THE BOTTOM OF THE SPRING. MORE SNOW SHOWERS, MORE WIND AND MORE COLD THIS AFTERNOON HIGHS NEAR FREEZING. THE SNOW FLYING ACROSS NORTHERN IOWA. REDEVELOPING EVEN HERE IN CENTRAL IOWA. THE SNOW HAS LET UP ACROSS THE WESTERN COUNTIES BUT IN CENTRAL IOWA AND STARTED TO FLY ONCE AGAIN. THE ROADS ARE GOOD WE SNOWY STATEWIDE. IT’S TRACKING BACK IN FROM THE NORTH. THIS IS THE BACK EDGE OF THE SYSTEM. ONE ITSELF UP ACROSS THE MIDWEST.

Travel is discouraged as snow falling at 1 to 2 inches per hour and 50-mph wind gusts created whiteout conditions. With 10-plus inches at the airport, flights were grounded until late Saturday.

Fox 17's Garry Frank weather forecaster has lost his temper with the seemingly endless Michigan winter in what has been described as a turbulent rant-cast.

His stormy forecast of yet another cooler-than-average period was mostly addressed to his co-hosts and anchors who were equally dispirited about the continuing cold snap.

Frank, feeling like the shot messenger, jokingly told them that it wasn't his fault that things were not warming up.

Fresh snow and sunny skies brought ideal conditions for skiers and snowboarders Thursday at Boreal Mountain Resort.
"This is exactly what we are looking for," snowboarder Tony Ngo said. "This is beautiful."

The Ngo family made their way up from the Bay Area to enjoy a day on the mountain. Their trip was originally planned for Wednesday, but Ngo decided to postpone it until after the snow was on the ground.

"Yesterday, we looked at the weather and it said it is not snowing until 4 or 5 o'clock in the evening, so we just postponed it," he told FOX40.

The likelihood of Friday the 13th bringing yet another snowstorm is great — so great, in fact, that it could become a blizzard by the afternoon and continue into Saturday.

On Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning in effect from 1 p.m. Friday until 7 p.m. Saturday.

“Right now it looks like we’ll see snow start snowing before the blizzard warning,” said Nathan Jurgensen, a meteorologist at North Platte’s National Weather Service office. He added that actual blizzard conditions — high winds and visibility restrictions — won’t begin until later.

A spring storm is bringing with it some low-level snow to the foothills. Areas like Pollock Pines could get a couple of inches. The snow started falling in the area just before 10 p.m. Wednesday.

As the temperatures quickly dropped in Pollock Pines, the snow plows sat on standby.

“We love it. We live here,” said Pollock Pines resident Paul Salas.

Pollock Pines resident Ted Host said, “I’m always ready for it. I love it.”

A spring storm is expected to drop one to two inches of snow overnight.

The final week of this season is unfolding and by all accounts there remains some very good skiing for the dwindling numbers finding their way up onto the hill.

March brought some truly memorable days on the hill — who can forget that one stretch where over 5 feet of snow fell in seven days? April so far has been more restrained. Yet about 5 inches of snow came in a couple of short bursts leading into the Sugar Slalom weekend.

Temperatures have remained colder than many would like in April, but let’s hope the last few remaining days of lift service will deliver a couple of classic corn-snow mornings.

A major spring storm will intensify in the nation's midsection late this week, bringing wind-whipped heavy snow in parts of the Rockies, northern Plains and Great Lakes into the weekend.

With heavy snow falling across the state last week, it's no surprise farmers had only .9 days suitable for fieldwork, halting manure spreading and other early fieldwork, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Wisconsin Crop Progress and Condition report.

While southern Wisconsin saw light snows that melted quickly, northern portions of the state remained buried under thick drifts.

Burnett and Washburn counties were buried under about 20 inches of snow. "It will take some warm weather to melt it before any fieldwork or planting is done," the report from that area stated.

The story in Clark County was snowing, blowing and frozen ground last week. "Hopefully next week is better, because robins have had three snows on their tails," the reporter said.

Raise your hand if you're sick of the snow...is it up?

Well, don't worry if it's not because plenty of other people are raising a hand for you.

Today, snow squalls moved through for what could be the last time for awhile - something Western Mass News found people aren't complaining about.

"I was like Kevin in Home Alone, ahhhhhhh!" said Kathy Zizik.

You're not dreaming western Massachusetts. For the fourth time in ten days, it's snowing in April.

While Roberta Zizik's dog, Charlie, doesn't mind the flakes, Roberta and sister-in-law Kathy do.

George Torrey is fresh off a trip to sunny Florida and he told Western Mass News this April snow has been the norm since his return.

"The weather has changed so much," Torrey said.

We are waking up with temperatures in the low and mid 30s, and yes, even some snow flurries.

A New York police department “arrested” winter Friday for sticking around for so long.

The Depew Police Department sent out a Facebook post notifying winter that it had been placed under arrest, reports the Associated Press.

The police department said winter had the “right to remain silent” and that if winter cooperated with them, the department would “look past” winter’s “past transgressions.”

“Any further snow you produce will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, but only if you turn in the groundhog that predicted six more weeks of winter,” the department wrote in a Facebook post. “If you are willing to work with us, we are willing to look past your most recent transgressions over the course of this past week. The choice is yours.”

On a Saturday afternoon well within the season of spring, Washington saw signs that winter had yet to surrender, as snowflakes fell in both the city and the surrounding suburbs.

Snow began falling in the Kansas City area late Sunday morning as another round of wintry mix moved into the metropolitan area.

But with temperatures rising into the upper 30s and low 40s, snowfall totals should be minor. Instead, a light rain and snow mix could lead to some slushy conditions in and around the Interstate 70 corridor.

…where everyone is still beaming from what felt like the first real sunny weekend of the year. Just as we’re all getting our hopes up though, it turns out the cold weather is on its way back. One Swedish university predicts 2018 will be the slowest spring to arrive in almost 100 years.

For those yearning for sunny, warm days, they're coming -- possibly by the middle of next week, said Aaron Tyburski, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in State College.

For now, though, the chilly temperatures are expected to stick around, and it's possible a storm could brush the area with a bit of snow this weekend.

So how often does it snow in April?

It happens every two or three years, Eric Horst, director of the Weather Information Center at Millersville University, said in an email.

Webmaster's Commentary: 

This is the latest carbonazi spin. "Hey; snow in April is no big deal; it has happened before."

But back when "Climate Disruption" was still being called "Human-Caused Global Warming", the claim was that snow was a thing of the past!

Winter is trying to stick around for as long as possible, and because of that seasonal businesses are feeling the itch to open.

Local golf clubs are preparing for opening day by laying out clubs, tees, and golf balls. With weather constantly pushing opening day away, we asked will this cause a drop in club memberships.

The snow is still lingering and while many of you are like us, wanting it to fly away, it wasn't much different today.

It's April. I know. Flowers should be blooming, outdoor lunches should be starting.

But that springtime reality is a long way off for tens of millions of Americans. For people living across the Upper Midwest, Great lakes, Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and New England, an Arctic blast and series of storm systems will make it look and feel more like February during the next week.

There are now three separate storms threatening to bring snow to parts of this swath of the country between April 4 and April 12, as bitterly cold air — courtesy of the polar vortex — blasts its way south and east to the Atlantic seaboard.

For about three hours Friday, it will be snowing in Greater Boston and most of Massachusetts.

The storm is expected to arrive around 11 a.m. and last until about 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Winds will be clearly a big part of this event, with gusts expected to reach 30 miles an hour in Greater Boston on Friday afternoon, the weather service said.

I can’t even count the amount of times on my fingers I have looked outside and dreadfully said, “It’s snowing.”

We all appreciated the snow days and missing class, but we are all kind of over it now. Not only are we completely done with the snow, if we think a little deeper, shouldn’t we be worried?

Although we are experiencing “global warming” here on campus, we have also been experiencing our fair share of cold weather.

A common misconception about climate change is that it only causes warm weather, which then causes tropical storms, hurricanes and polar ice caps melting; however, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania area have yet to see spring.

If this coming week were a parable, it would be about patience and good things coming. Instead, it seems like the next few days are from the closing pages of a Stephen King novel about snow monsters with breath that can freeze thermometers.

A series of small but unpleasant storms seems to be setting up, each carrying the possibility of snow, mixed with rain, leaving "an inch of two" of snow in its wake.

Yes, it’s April 6. And it’s snowing.

The National Weather Service issued a weather statement early Friday warning of snow between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. It might fall heavily for an hour or two before mixing with sleet and changing over to rain.

Flurries started falling in Hartford about 10 a.m.

Accumulations will range from a coating to 2 inches. Some spots may get closer to 3 inches, the weather service said.

The flurries started in earnest in the third inning, transforming a baseball game into a Christmas story.

Flood control work in the Mississippi River and its tributaries has likely made floods worse in Mississippi and Louisiana, researchers say.

Using 500 years of data from tree rings and from sediment in oxbow lakes — bends that once were part of the Mississippi River but became lakes when the river changed its path slightly — they say the river has flooded more often and poured more water into those states over the past 150 years than any previous period.

More than 10 days after the start of spring, Mother Nature played a cruel, belated April Fools joke Monday morning, dropping about a half-foot of snow in places and triggering school delays, spinouts and rollovers.

Nothing evokes the coming of spring like Opening Day, and nothing can cancel a baseball game as quickly as five inches of snow.

The chances for snow over the next couple of days are no joke. April will begin with some more snow for the northern United States as winter still fights to remain relevant as the sun's warmth digs further into the northern hemisphere with each passing day. A jet stream entrenched over the northern United States will allow the beginning of April to remain cooler than normal and bring several shots at snow across northern sections of the country. None of the storms will be intense blizzards like you'd see during the winter, but even a short-lived thump of snow could snarl travel and ruin plans.

We may be well into spring but the weather remained frozen in winter across the northeast on Monday.

The unexpected snow has caused chaos across New York where the Yankees have been forced to postpone their much-anticipated season opener after the stadium was covered in a blanket of snow.

The snowstorm has also caused hundreds of flight cancellations across its three major airports and heavy commuter traffic as up to three inches were dumped on the city in the morning.

The unseasonable snow storm also struck the northeast, bringing commuter misery to residents in Washington, Philadelphia, and much of New Jersey. New England is expecting up to five inches of snow in some non-urban areas.

It comes as the Met Office issued a yellow severe weather warning for snow over Scotland.

Students weather the rain and snow as they walk on the Auraria campus on March 28, 2018 in Denver. Much needed snow is expected in the Denver metro area over night.

The scare about global warming is overdone, according to more than 40 scientific papers published in just the first three months of 2018.
What their charts clearly show is that “nothing climatically unusual is happening.”

In the chart below from a study by Polovodova et al, we see that 20th century warming is perfectly normal in a long-term historical context. It was no warmer – indeed, is slightly cooler – than either the Roman Warm Period or the Medieval Warming Period.

So a NASCAR race was postponed by snow on Sunday for the first time in 25 years. OK, bad weather happens. The race in Martinsville, Va., just as easily could have been rained out. Qualifying for last year's race was rained out. A truck race scheduled for Saturday was stopped because of rain, which turned to snow.

It had stopped snowing by Sunday morning in Martinsville, but NASCAR officials said the race was postponed because snow plows and emergency and utility vehicles were needed elsewhere in the area.

Climate change could make the opioid crisis worse, a Penn State University professor claims.

You probably did not notice, but it was Earth Hour last night at 8.30 pm local time.

While the virtue signallers at the BBC made a song and dance about it, the rest of us it seems just carried on as normal:

MORE Beasts from the East are on the way and its OUR fault because of climate change, an expert has warned as people across Britain have been warned to expect another cold snap over the Easter weekend.

There’s a lot of evidence mounting that solar cycle 25 will usher in a new grand solar minimum. Since about October 2005, when the sun’s magnetic activity went into a sharp fall, solar activity has been markedly lower, with solar cycle 24 being the lowest in over 100 years.

Gore issues new climate warning: Bizarre weather such as “flying rivers” and “rain bombs” are just some of the recent effects of climate change, warned former US vice-president Al Gore at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai on Sunday...global weather is becoming “extreme” and “disruptive”, mainly because of global warming, Gore explained.

Has the climate propaganda reached a point where radical climatism is leading us into dangerous negligence?

The severe winter in the northern hemisphere has been widely recorded. However, key climate information providers have altered data. The result — intended or not — has been to make the recent record lows of the winter appear normal.

November 2017 marked the onset of a very cold winter across the Northern Hemisphere. Many parts of North America and Eurasia registered record lows, breaking even 80-year records.

Below-average temperatures continued well into February, breaking records in Japan and Europe. In fact, Europe is about to experience a deep freeze due to changes in local weather patterns.

Wind power’s meant to be clean, green and safe as houses, but these things have a habit of hurling deadly chunks of ice at people, family homes and, in one recent case, through the roof of a College in the US: Deadly Cool: Wind Turbine Throws Ice Chunks Into US College

We’d only just reported on the frozen and potentially lethal chunk lobbed at College Students in Gardner, Massachusetts, when yet another report of ice being slung from turbine blades appeared. This time it’s a truck and its driver that turned into a frightening form of renewable ‘targets’.

The spy poisoning scandal turned into a diplomatic row and now threatens to spill into energy issues, after UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that Britain was looking “to other countries” for its gas supplies.

The UK has gas supply contracts with Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, and although the British dependence on Russian gas supply is not as high as that of other European countries, the UK still relies on some Russian gas for its energy needs. The UK has also imported a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Russia’s newly started Yamal project, and re-exported another LNG cargo originating from Yamal.

For now, UK gas traders remain unconcerned that the UK could run short of nat gas supplies, even shrugging off Prime Minister May’s comments that the UK would be looking for other gas suppliers.

During question time in Parliament on Wednesday, May said that “I can reassure … that in looking at our gas supplies we are indeed looking to other countries.”

Over the course of just two weeks, three nor’easters have blasted the Eastern Seaboard with heavy snow, damaging winds and coastal flooding. The first in early March struck New England with incredible wind gusts up to 97 mph and knocked out power to 2 million homes and businesses.

Fewer and fewer people die from climate-related natural disasters

This is clearly opposite of what you normally hear, but that is because we’re often just being told of one disaster after another – telling us how *many* events are happening. The number of reported events is increasing, but that is mainly due to better reporting, lower thresholds and better accessibility (the CNN effect). For instance, for Denmark, the database only shows events starting from 1976.

What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic.

Extreme winter weather across the U.S. is linked to unusual warmth in the Arctic, according to a study published Tuesday.

That is especially true in the heavily populated eastern U.S., the study said, where extreme winter weather is two to four times more likely when temperatures in the Arctic are unusually warm.

The research comes out as the wild winter of 2017-18 comes to its (hopefully) merciful close with yet another nor'easter blasting the Northeast.

The eight inches of snow that fell on the Capital Region Tuesday pushed this March into fifth place on the list of the snowiest months of March, the National Weather Service in Albany said.

The region moved into a tie for fifth place - 32 inches - at 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

New England likely will get a bit more snow today as the blizzard that just dumped more than 2 feet in some parts begins winding down.

The highest snowfall, at least so far, was recorded in Wilmington, Massachusetts, which got 29.5 inches. Boston saw 14.5 inches and Worcester saw 21.8 inches, both of which broke daily records in those cities. Elsewhere in the state, wind gusts of 81 mph were felt in Falmouth.

Hartford, Connecticut, saw 7.1 inches, while in Maine 14.6 inches were recorded in Bangor and 11.5 inches in Portland.

Well, look at that. Another wretched winter wonderland. The trees are positively laced with delicate new fallen snow. The whole world is all stupidly quiet as billions of tiny special snowflakes float gently down out of the sky.

I don’t care, though. I have a huge puff coat and I’ve resigned myself to the hopelessness of it being winter forever.

Blizzard conditions are expected in some areas Tuesday as a major nor’easter sweeps into Massachusetts, whipping up high winds and dumping up to 2 feet of snow on a region weary — and wary — after two other powerful storms in as many weeks.

“The storm itself is probably going to cover the entire length and width of the Commonwealth,” Governor Charlie Baker said.

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Boston and much of the rest of the state, and forecasters warned of “near impossible travel conditions” for the Tuesday morning commute.

Here we go again? The active weather pattern continues with yet another nor’easter on the way. We are becoming more confident that this storm will at least have some impacts on our region, but the question is how much.

Winter weather including possible snowfall was predicted Sunday morning through evening in the metro-east.

According to St. Louis’ U.S. National Weather Service base, a storm system was expected to bring a wintry mixture to the metro-east beginning Sunday morning and into the evening. Possible heavy snow was predicted with accumulations from 1 to 3 inches.

The wintry mix was expected to begin around 10:30 a.m., according to Weather Underground.

John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.

The idea of publicly critiquing climate change on the national stage has been a notable theme for Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A. For nearly a year he has championed the notion of holding military-style exercises known as red team, blue team debates, possibly to be broadcast live, to question the validity of climate change.

Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change is urging environmental activists to address the “gendered impacts” of climate change, especially its effects on women and girls.
In a recent post on Twitter, Catherine McKenna, the 47-year-old Trudeau appointee from Canada’s Liberal Party, called on followers to “consider the gendered impacts of climate change on women, girls and children” while praising Canada’s leadership in training “women negotiators” in the fight against manmade global warming.

Apparently, at least in the minister’s mind, the weather is now waging its own “war on women.”

Massachusetts communities have reported as much as 26 inches so far from the Nor'easter that hit Massachusetts this week.

For those dreading more snow, the end is in sight.

The above map, released Thursday morning by the National Weather Service, shows expected end times for precipitation across the state.

Snowfall ended first for communities in the Southern Berkshires and will end late Thursday morning for communities near the New Hampshire state line.

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of 21 children and young adults suing the U.S. government for not doing enough to protect their constitutional right to a stable climate.