Arctic air continues to descend unusually-far south, while Antarctic air continues to ride anomalously-far north. The culprit is low solar activity, namely its weakening of the jet streams, and the upshot is COOLING across the lower-latitudes (where us humans reside). AUSTRALIA Swathes of Australia are shivering through a record-breaking cold snap, with the frosty mornings set to continue across eastern parts through the weekend. The mercury in Sydney dropped to 8.6C (47.5F) at 7am early Thursday, marking the fifth-straight day of mornings below 9C (48.2F). Not since the year 1967 has Sydney experienced a colder streak in May. Back then, the temperature fell below 9C (48.2F) for six nights in a row. In addition, not only was this the city’s coldest run of May nights in 54 years, it was “the coldest run of nights this early in the year in 66 years,” a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said. In Sydney’s west, it was just 1C (33.8F) in Camden, 2C (35.6F) in Campbelltown, 3C (37.4F) in Penrith and 5C (41F) at Olympic Park. It’s been a cold week across much of Canada, too. In Kamloops and the Okanagan, British Columbia record-breaking overnight lows have been logged. A return to near-zero temperatures was observed overnight, a stark contrast to the daytime highs of 30C (86F) witnessed this past weekend (another example of the Grand Solar Minimum and the Swings between Extremes). A myriad of cold temperature records fell on the morning of May 19, according to Environment Canada data. Kamloops recorded a low of 1.3C (34.3F) at its airport, a reading which smashed the previous benchmark of 2.1C (35.8F) set back in 2003. While Penticton plunged to a low of -0.8C (30.5F), also annihilating its old record of 0.3C (32.5F), also set in 2003. Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist said hopefully it wasn’t “cold enough for long enough” to do any frost damage to recently planted summer crops.