28 December 2009-1 January 2010

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 January 2010. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

From the AMS DS Earth's Climate Systems Central Staff

• Conclusion to the Copenhagen climate talks -- The 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference held in mid December at Copenhagen concluded with what was described as "a bare minimum agreement" following a non-binding accord struck between the United States, China and other emerging powers that fell well short of the original goals set for the conference. The accord set a target of limiting the increase in global temperature to a maximum two Celsius degrees over pre-industrial times, a level seen as a threshold for major climate changes. [Reuters]
• No "leap second" will lengthen 2009 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2009. Just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) on 31 December 2008, the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. Tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. [US Naval Observatory]
• In Close -- Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the sun (147.1 million kilometers or 91.2 million miles), on Sunday, 3 January 2010 at 00Z (7 PM EST, 6 PM CST, etc. on 2 January).
• Satellite catches a cold air mass spreading across northern Eurasia -- An image of the eight-day average land surface temperature anomaly generated from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows the extent of the cold air mass that spread across northern Europe and sections of Russia in mid December, resulting in at least 90 fatalities. The anomaly chart shows the difference between observed and long-term average temperatures. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Record-breaking snow from nor'easter seen from space -- An image obtained from the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows the widespread snow cover the blanketed much of the Middle Atlantic States following a powerful nor'easter storm that moved along the coast over the previous weekend, resulting in record snowfall totals for the month of December in many locations. [NASA Earth Observatory]

• Global temperatures continue to increase -- The United Kingdom's Met Office recently released the new analysis of global temperatures produced by the Met Office in conjunction with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), based on all available surface temperature measurements, together with data from sources such as satellites, radiosondes, ships and buoys. This new analysis shows a larger temperature increase than the Met Office's HadCRUT record with a more limited set of observations. [UK Met Office News]

• Satellite reaches ten years of monitoring solar output -- NASA's Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite (AcrimSat), which monitors the total (or "wavelength integrated") solar irradiance reaching the outer fringes of the Earth's atmosphere, recently marked its tenth year in orbit, far surpassing its five-year expected mission life. The ACRIM III instrument on this satellite represents the third radiometer of this type to monitor solar irradiance since 1980. [NASA JPL]
• Monitoring the flow of African dust over the Atlantic -- Several images generated by data collected by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and the MISR (Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors onboard NASA's Terra satellite show airborne dust being carried by winds from the Sahara Desert westward over the Atlantic Ocean. Images such as these are used by NASA scientists to track dust storms over West Africa that can affect sea surface temperatures and the frequency of tropical cyclone activity. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• An All-Hazards Monitor--This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAAWatch]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]

• Studying the wavelike motions of the Earth's core -- Using measurements of the Earth's magnetic field from surface observatory stations and satellite data, researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the French Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris have found that regularly occurring periodic wave motion appears to "stir" the liquid outer core within planet Earth. This wave motion, which may persist for decades, may influence the Earth's internal structure along with the generation of the planetary magnetic field that shields the planet from harmful solar radiation. [NASA JPL]

• Melting glaciers modifies marine food chain -- A field study of eleven coastal watersheds along the Gulf of Alaska has led researchers from the University of Alaska Southeast, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of California Davis, Virginia Tech and the US Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station to conclude that as glacial ice disappears, the meltwater is enriching stream and near shore marine ecosystems from ancient carbon contained in glacial runoff. While this added ancient carbon was increasing high quality food to marine ecosystems, the trend will not last long, resulting in serious consequences for marine food webs. [EurekAlert!]

• A larger rise in global temperatures foreseen -- Geologists at Yale University and the University of California, Santa Cruz warn that global temperatures could rise more than expected because of the sensitivity of the global climate to the increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. They base their conclusions upon their analysis of sediment cores collected from six different locations under the global oceans by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Their analysis, which bridged the substantial warming of the global climate in the mid- and early-Pliocene era (three to five million years ago), was due to a relatively small rise in carbon dioxide levels in this ancient atmosphere. [EurekAlert!] [EurekAlert!]

• Disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by increased global temperatures and pollution -- A series of peer-reviewed articles were recently published in a special issue of Environmental Justice that were based upon a conference on climate justice held earlier in 2009. Many of the authors of the articles claim that increases in global temperatures and pollution levels, together with the environmental consequences of energy production, appear to impose a disproportionate burden upon low-income and disadvantaged communities. [EurekAlert!]
• Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]

• Fog found on Titan -- Planetary astronomers at the California Institute of Technology who have been studying the data collected by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft of the environment around planet Saturn and its moons have found the presence of fog on the surface of Titan, near this moon's south pole. Apparently, this fog is above a large quantity of liquid methane and ethane on Titan's surface, and can be compared with fog that forms on planet Earth. [EurekAlert!]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 28 December 1897...The temperature at Dayville, OR hit 81 degrees to establish a state record for December. (The Weather Channel)
• 28 December 1955...Anchorage, AK was buried under 17.7 inches of snow in 24 hours, a record for that location. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 28 December 1958...Albuquerque, NM received 14.2 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 29 December 1917...Washta, IA dropped to 40 degrees below zero, the record low temperature for the Hawkeye State; this record has been broken by a 47 degree below zero reading in February 1996. (Intellicast)
• 29 December 1933...Ontario's coldest day on record as fourteen sites recorded their lowest-ever temperature, including Ottawa (-38?F) and Algonquin Park (-49?F). (The Weather Doctor)
• 29 December 1954...Fort Scott, KS was buried under 26 inches of snow in 24 hours to establish a state record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 29 December 1984...One hundred cities in the central and eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures. Southerly winds gusting to 50 mph helped Kansas City experience its warmest December day of record with a morning low of 60 degrees and an afternoon high of 71 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 30 December 1880...The temperature at Charlotte, NC plunged to an all-time record low reading of 5 degrees below zero, a record that was equaled on 21 January 1985. (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1917...A great cold wave set many records in the northeastern U.S. Temperatures of 37 degrees below zero at Lewisburg, WV and 32 degrees below zero at Mountain City, TN set all-time low temperature records for both the Mountain and Volunteer States. (NCDC)
• 30 December 1933...The temperature fell to 50 degrees below zero at Bloomfield, VT, marking the lowest reading in modern records for New England. (David Ludlum)
• 30 December 1955...Anchorage, AK reported an all-time record snow depth of 47 inches. (30^th-1^st) (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1968...A new record low temperature for the state of Washington was set in two towns on the same date. Mazama and Winthrop both dropped to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 31 December 1917...The temperature at Lewisburg, WV plunged to 37 degrees below zero to set a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 31 December 1929...Greenland Ranch, in Death Valley, CA, went the entire year without measurable precipitation. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1941...Snow that began on New Year's Eve became a major blizzard on New Year's Day, burying Des Moines, IA under 19.8 inches of snow in 24 hours, an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1968...The sea-level corrected atmospheric pressure rose to a world's record for highest sea level pressure reaching 1083.8 millibars (32.01 inches) at Agata, Siberia. At the time, Agata Lake reported a temperature of -46^o C (-50.8^oF). (The Weather Doctor)
• 31 December 1989...The year and decade ended on a soggy note in the eastern U.S. Thunderstorm rains pushed precipitation totals for the year to 88.32 inches at Baton Rouge, LA and to 75.37 inches at Huntsville, AL, establishing all-time records for those two locations. Dry weather continued in California. Sacramento and San Francisco finished the month without any rain or snow, and Santa Maria reported their driest year of record with just 3.30 inches of precipitation. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
  The highest air pressure ever recorded in United States was 1078.6 millibars (31.85 inches of mercury) at Northway, AK. (The Weather Doctor) This record has since been superceded by a reading of 1085.7 millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
• 1 January 1886..Norway's coldest night on record occurred as the temperature at Karasjok dropped to 60.5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (The Weather Doctor).
• 1 January 1979...The temperature at Maybell, CO plunged to 60 degrees below zero to tie the state record set back in 1951 at Taylor Park. (The Weather Channel)
• 2 January 1885...The lowest temperature ever recorded at Duluth, MN occurred on this date. The temperature plunged to 41 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1893...Little Rock, AR had its greatest 24-hour snowfall, with 13 inches that covered the ground. . (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1961...The lowest temperature of record for the state of Hawaii was established with a reading of 14 degrees atop Haleakala Summit. (David Ludlum) (This state record has been eclipsed in May 1979.)
• 3 January 1913...The barometer at Canton, NY read 28.20 inches of mercury (955.0 millibars), which is the lowest ever recorded at an inland station. (Intellicast)
• 3 January 1961...A three-day long ice storm was in progress over northern Idaho that produced an accumulation of ice eight inches thick, an U.S. record. Heavy fog, which blanketed much of northern Idaho from Grangeville to the Canadian border, deposited the ice on power and telephone lines causing widespread power outages. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.