Anchorage Sees a Wild Amount of Snow

Anchorage, Alaska, is just an inch of snow away from breaking the November snowfall record of 38.8 inches, reports CNN. All that snow fell in just nine days, reports the AP; that's the third-most snow the city has seen over a sustained period since record-keeping began in 1916. Last December, 44 inches fell in 12 days; the same amount fell over 10 days in 1996. Brian Brettschneider of the National Weather Service points out one wrinkle: The increased snowfall hasn't been paired with colder temps. On the contrary, "every day it snowed was a warmer-than-normal day in Anchorage. We're threading the needle here of warming temperatures and increased snowfall."

In the Southern Hemisphere, records of an entirely different nature are being made. The BBC reports Brazil is suffering from a heat wave that one 60-year-old street vendor understandably described as "unbearable." Temps in Rio de Janeiro hit a November high of 108.5 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, while Sao Paulo reached 99 degrees on Tuesday, prompting the country's National Institute of Meteorology to issue red alerts for nearly 3,000 towns and cities. Summer doesn't begin in Brazil until December 22; winter begins on the same day in Alaska. (More severe weather stories.)