Siberia’s Coldest Temperature Since 2002, Host Of Records Felled ACROSS Transcontinental Russia; + X1.9-Flare ‘Jerks’ Earth’s Magnetic Field

Cap Allon

Siberia’s Coldest Temperature Since 2002, Host Of Records Felled ACROSS Transcontinental Russia

The 13.1 million km2 land mass that is Siberia has just logged its coldest temperature since 2002, with many more older, localized records being felled, too — and with an intensification and expansion of the Arctic Outbreak still to come.

A bone-chilling -62.1C (79.8F) was registered in Dzalinda last night (-61.9C shown below, but it dropped a little further). This is Siberia’s coldest temperature since at least 2002, and usurps Dzlalinda’s January record of 62C set in 1942 (for ref, the all-time low of -64C was registered here back in the 1880s).


Nearby, a fierce -60.3C (-76.5F) was logged in Olenek, which the locales’s first -60C since 1969, and its coldest reading since at least 1959.

Elsewhere, -59.8C (-75.6F) was suffered in Suhana, -59.7C (-75.5F) in Delyankir, and -59.5C (-75.1F) in Oymyakon.


Looking west, extreme cold is also infiltrating European-Russia.

Here, a remarkable -45C (49F) has been observed, with similar chills beginning to extend into the likes of Ukraine and Belarus, too — contrasting Central Europe’s winter warmth.

For reference, Ukraine’s coldest-ever recorded temp is the -41.9C (43.4F) set in Luhansk on Jan 8, 1939; while in Belarus, its the -42.2C (44F) in Slavnom from Jan 17, 1940.

As well as west, 2023’s Arctic Outbreak is also spreading both eastward and southward. Much of Asia will be in the grips of historic lows for the foreseeable, with polar cold descending as far south as Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, too…

GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies for Jan 11 [tropicaltidbits.com].


…and also into southwest China by the weekend:

GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Jan 15 [tropicaltidbits.com].


X1.9-Flare ‘Jerks’ Earth’s Magnetic Field

The powerful X1.98-flare of Sunday, January 9 did something rare — it jerked Earth’s magnetic field.

With thanks to Dr Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com, here is a composite of magnetometer recordings from Boulder, Colorado; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Fredericksburg, Virginia:


The jerk, circled in yellow, began at 18:46 UT and was detected by many magnetic observatories across the dayside of Earth at the time of the X-flare.

The phenomenon is officially known as a ‘magnetic crochet.’

Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere and caused currents to flow 60 km to 100 km above Earth’s surface. These currents, in turn, briefly altered Earth’s magnetic field.

Thankfully, everything returned to normal a few minutes later, but it shows what the Sun is capable of — particularly given our planet’s ever-waning magnetic field strength, which has weakened ≈20% from the 1800s, with this weakening accelerating.

Earth’s waning magnetosphere is due to two key factors: 1) low solar activity, and 2) our planet’s migrating magnetic poles.

As Earth loses its dipole magnetic shape –due to the shifting of its poles– the overall field strength weakens and its protective shield against potentially harmful space energy is reduced, meaning every enhancement of the solar wind, every crossing of the Sun’s current sheet, and every CME has a larger and larger impact than it ordinarily would, both directly on the upper atmosphere, and also indirectly through the ionosphere’s equator-traveling waves that come from the aurora.

In the year 2000, we knew the field had lost 10% of its strength since the 1800s; another 5% was lost by 2010; further accelerations occurred in recent years, 2015 and 2017, but we laymen were not privy to any additional loss data–with guesses on why that might be quickly sending you down a conspiracy rabbit hole.

Migrating magnetic poles indicate that another ‘flip’ aka ‘reversal’ may be on the cards soon.

Such an eventuality would spell scenes akin to the ‘end of times’, as proxy records reveal has occurred in the ancient past — the most notable being the ‘Laschamp excursion’ of approx. 42,000 years ago (although research suggests that these reversals (or ‘excursions’) can occur on a much shorter periodicity of 6,000 years, meaning we’re due).

This is a reality that even mainstream science is slowly waking up to:


Also rather fortuitously, Sunday’s X-flaring did not hurl a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth; the blast was intense enough, but it was too brief/impulsive to lift ejecta out of the Sun’s atmosphere.


We got lucky, this time.

Three large sunspots (AR3181, 82 and 84) remain on the Earth-facing solar disk, all with unstable ‘delta-class’ magnetic fields capable of strong explosions. NOAA forecasters warn that there is a 35% chance of X-flares today, Jan 10.

To reiterate, and to simplify–although many factors are involved: if, or rather when, a long-lasting solar X9+ flare hits us directly, it’s game over for a large portion of Earth’s power grid: This means chopping wood instead of watching Netflix; it’s raising chickens in place of ordering-in; and that’s interacting with your loved-ones by candlelight of an evening rather than separately becoming captured and controlled by mindless internet clickbait.

I suppose it’s not all bad then; at least not for those properly prepared.

Bring it on heavens, I’m ready for it…