Record May Cold In Japan; IPCC Arctic Sea Ice 'Adjustments'; Canada Is Building Six New Polar Icebreakers; + Five CMEs Headed For Earth, 'Severe' Geomagnetic Storms Forecast

As well as temperature, government agencies have been caught tweaking sea ice data and all.

Record May Cold In Japan

This week, Japan has been engulfed by a mass of descending Arctic air.

March-like cold has gripped the entire country:

The northern prefecture of Hokkaido has posted some of the coldest temperatures.

Asahikawa's low of -1.2C (29.8F) on Thursday —for example— has been confirmed as the city's coldest May temperature since 2005. Teshio dipped lower still, the -4.9C (23.7F) registered there is the town's second-lowest temperature ever recorded (in books dating back to 1978), bested only by the -5.7C (21.7F) set during the May of 2009 (the deep solar minimum of weak cycle 23).

May snow has even been falling in these parts, even after Golden Week — a big national holiday running from 29 April to 5 May.

More than 10 cm (4 inches) has hit the higher elevations, while even lower down, on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, substantial flurries have been noted for the time of year, as revealed by the below webcam shot of the Ukishima Tunnel on National Route 273:

Flakes were also falling in Asahikawa:

赤羽 祐介 / 気象予報士・防災士 on X

Japan has seen wild swings between extremes in recent weeks, from record lows to record highs, back and forth, constantly flip-flopping.

In March, the country's famed cherry blossom bloom came 5-days late due to persistent cold, the latest "front" in 12-years; April was then an anomalously-warm month; but now May is delivering record low temperatures and mountain snowfall.

These swings are highly unusual, far more than your standard spring fluctuations. They are evidence of an increasingly-wavy jet stream, the cause of which is thought to be the cumulative effects of years —decades, in fact— of decreasing solar activity.

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Recurring climate patterns such as solar cycles and events like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) control our planet's climate, the only thing CO2 controls is the people via despotic policy decisions.