24-28 May 2010

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 30 August 2010. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Zenithal Sun -- The noontime sun should be at the zenith or directly over the heads of those on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) during this week (25-27 May). [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
• Hurricane awareness week -- Since 2010 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin began on Saturday, 15 May 2010 and the corresponding hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin (including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico) will begin on 1 June, NOAA has declared the week of 23-29 May 2010 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
• An updated determination of ocean depth and volume is made -- Using data collected from satellites and from sonar depth finders, scientists with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service recently released the results of their revised calculations of the volume and depth of the world's oceans, claiming that the ocean volume is 1.332 billion cubic kilometers and the mean depth is 3682.2 meters. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]

• State and city weather extremes for April 2010 -- The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted a listing of some of the notable extremes in temperature, precipitation and other weather elements across the nation for the recently completed month of April in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for April 2010." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.

• Review of global weather and climate for April 2010 -- Using the combined global land and ocean surface temperature from preliminary weather data, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center have determined that April 2010 was the warmest April since global climate records began in 1880. Furthermore, the average global ocean surface temperature was also the highest since 1880, while the global land surface temperature was third highest on record. Since sea-surface temperature anomalies decreased across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, the El Niño event appeared to weaken in April. The areal coverage of Arctic sea ice remained below the 1979-2000 average and represented the fifteenth lowest April extent since satellite surveillance began in 1979. On the other hand, the extent of Antarctic sea ice was near average.
  The North American snow cover was the smallest for any April since records started in the late 1960s. [NOAA News]
  See also [NOAA Global State of the Climate] for additional information.

• Assessing the ocean's growing heat storage -- After analyzing approximately 16 years of ocean temperature data from expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) and autonomous Argo floats, researchers at NOAA, NASA, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre, Germany's University of Hamburg and Japan's Meteorological Research Institute have found that the near surface waters of the oceans have warmed, resulting in a climate imbalance. They calculated that the upper 2000 feet of the world's oceans have stored enough energy since 1993 to power nearly 500 100-Watt light bulbs for each of the nearly 6.7 billion inhabitants of the planet. [NOAA News]
  In another study from the US Environmental Protection Agency, scientists have also found that the amount of heat absorbed by the oceans is approximately ten times the amount of heat absorbed by the atmosphere. These scientists determined that the heat absorbed by the oceans is approximately 10 X 10²² Joules, equivalent to 60 years of electrical energy for the US. [Earthgauge]
• Western Mediterranean is becoming warmer and saltier -- Researchers at the Oceanic Centre of Malaga of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography have determined that temperature and salt levels of the deep water in the Western Mediterranean Sea have increased between 1943 and 2000, with the last decade experiencing accelerated increases. [EurekAlert!]
• Ice melt causes rapid rise in Greenland - Using global positioning system (GPS) receivers located along on the coastline of Greenland, scientists from the University of Miami have found that since GPS data commenced in 1995, the land under the Greenland ice cap has been rising rapidly in response to the melting of the ice cap, at a rate of nearly one inch per year in some locations. [EurekAlert!]
• 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]

• Impacts grazing lands upon greenhouse gases and climate examined -- Scientists at the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service-Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory who were estimating the net global warming potential for three grazing management systems located in central North Dakota found that the native grasslands had negative potential, meaning this ecosystem represented a net greenhouse gas sink in the northern Plains, while the grazing land that had supplemental fertilizer application was had a positive potential (net greenhouse emissions to atmosphere). [American Society of Agronomy]

• Invasive vine appears as contributor to surface ozone pollution -- Researchers at the University of Virginia and Harvard University claim that kudzu, an invasive vine native to East Asia that has spread across the Southeastern States, appears to be a major contributor to the large increases of near surface ozone pollutants across the Southeast. Kudzu produces isoprene and nitric oxide that react with nitrogen to form ozone, considered an air pollutant when occurring near the surface. [EurekAlert!]

• Heart health affected by airborne particulates -- Researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine report that breathing high levels of combustion-related airborne particles with diameters of 2.5 micrometers and smaller, called PM2.5 by the EPA, increases stress on the heart's regulation capacity for up to six hours after exposure and can contribute ultimately to cardiovascular disease. [EurekAlert!]

• Coral reefs off Thailand hit by bleaching -- Marine scientists at Thailand's Phuket Marine Biological Centre report that massive coral bleaching in the Andaman Sea off the southwest coast of Thailand appears to be the worst in 20 years. They point to increased sea temperatures as being the culprit for the bleaching. [Bangkok Post]

• Link between "climate footprints" and mass mammal extinction revealed -- An international team of scientists has found that global modeling efforts indicates certain continental "climate footprints" and that climate change appears to have played a major role in causing mass extinction of mammals during the last 50,000 years, especially as the global climate first became colder and drier, culminating in full glacial conditions approximately 21,000 years ago, before becoming warmer and wetter within the last 10,000 years. [Wiley-Blackwell]

• New seasonal outlooks for this summer issued -- Near the end of last week, forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center released their new three-month seasonal national climate outlooks for the upcoming summer season. For the three months identified as meteorological summer running from June through August, they call for a better than equal chances for below average temperatures across the western Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi Valley and the much of the Plains. On the other hand, they foresaw better than even chances of above average temperatures across the Great Basin and Southwest, along with sections of the Southeast, centered on Florida. Elsewhere, equal chances of below or above average summer temperatures can be anticipated. The forecasters also expected sections of the high Plains and the Southeast to have a better than even chance of above normal rainfall, while the Pacific Northwest would have better than equal chance of below average summer precipitation. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
• Seasonal drought outlook posted -- Forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center issued their three-month seasonal drought outlook for the nation last week, which would run from June through August. Their outlook would call for some improvement of the drought conditions across the central Gulf Coast, sections of the northern Rockies and the Southwest near the Four Corners area. However, they indicated that drought conditions would persist across sections of the Intermountain West, the Northwest and across the western Great Lakes. Drought conditions could also develop this summer over Downeast Maine and the Carolinas. [NOAA CPC Drought Outlook]
• Outlook issued for the Central Pacific hurricane season -- Last week, forecasters at NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, HI, announced that their outlook for the 2010 Central North Pacific hurricane season, which commences in one week, would have below normal activity. They called for two to three tropical cyclones to develop in the central North Pacific (between longitude 140 degrees west and the International Dateline) during the 2010 season, compared with an average season that would have four or five tropical cyclones, including tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes. Collaborating with their colleagues at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, they reached this outlook from projected climate conditions for the central North Pacific that involved a continuation of low tropical cyclone activity across the region and to an anticipated conditions that were deemed either ENSO-neutral or La Niña-like. The forecasters at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center also stated that this years message was Prepare, Watch, and Act! [NOAA Central Pacific Hurricane Center]

• Major warming of large African lake is documented -- Geologists from Brown University, the University of California, Los Angeles; and the United States Geological Survey have determined from a 1500-year reconstruction of the surface temperature of Lake Tanganyika from core samples that this east African rift lake, reported to be the second oldest and the second-deepest lake in the world, has experienced unprecedented warming during the last century, and its surface waters are the warmest on record. These researchers also warn that the warm surface waters would likely affect fish stocks used by ten million people in the region. [Brown University]

• Three new climate change reports released -- Last week, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science released its "America's Climate Choices" report. This report has three segments entitled: "Evidence for Climate Change"; "Mitigation of Climate Change" and "Adapting to Climate Change." [http://americasclimatechoices.org/] One of the items in this report is the recommendation about setting a price on carbon emitted from industry, either through a tax or in combination with a carbon market that was proposed in the Waxman-Markey bill approved by the US House of Representatives last year. [USA Today] [EurekAlert!]

• Public comments invited for national vision and strategy policy on the Arctic-- NOAA officials are inviting public comment through the first week and a half of June on the agency's proposed Arctic strategic plan and vision. This plan is designed to identify NOAA's strategic approach to the emerging environmental, economic and national security issues in the Arctic, a region vulnerable to rapid change due to several factors including climate. Six goals have been identified to realize the mission of improving understanding of the Arctic and improving forecasts of future change. [NOAA News]

• Increased attention to ocean acidification urged -- European and American scientists attending the "Impacts of Ocean Acidification" science policy briefing presented last week by the European Science Foundation emphasized the need for a concerted and integrated international effort to research and monitor the effects of ocean acidification on marine environments and human communities because of increases in carbon dioxide levels caused by increased fossil fuel combustion. [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]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 26 May 1967...A slow moving nor'easter battered New England with high winds, heavy rain, and record late season snow on this day and into the 26th. Over 7 inches of rain fell at Nantucket, MA with 6.57 inches falling in 24 hours to set a new 24-hour rainfall record. The 24.9 inches of snow that fell at Mount Washington, NH set a new May snowfall record. Other locations in New Hampshire received 10 inches of snow near Keene and 6 inches at Dublin. (Intellicast)
• 26 May 2001...The 2000-2001 snowfall season finally ended in St John's, Newfoundland, during which time a grand total of 255.3 inches of snow fell. The total snow, which broke a century-old mark, was estimated to have weighed 500 million tons! (The Weather Doctor)
• 27 May 1948…The 1.5 inches of rainfall at Victoria, British Columbia set the record for the wettest May day observed in the provincial capital city. (The Weather Doctor)
• 28 May 1887...The temperature reached 97 degrees at San Francisco, CA, establishing a record high temperature for the month of May for the city. (Intellicast)
• 28 May 1942...The latest snowstorm of record for the state of Iowa left ten inches at LeMars, eight inches at Cherokee, and 7.5 inches at Waukon. Afternoon highs were in the lower 30s in parts of northwestern Iowa. (The Weather Channel)
• 28 May 1984...Sacramento, CA had its highest temperature ever recorded in the month of May, when the temperature reached 110 degrees, breaking the old record of 100 degrees set in 1932. (Intellicast)
• 28 May 2003…A new Nevada maximum temperature record for May was set when the high temperature at Battle Mountain, NV rose to 102 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
• 29 May 2000…A new national maximum temperature record for May is set when the high temperature in Death Valley, CA soared to 122 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
• 30 May 1948...The Columbia River reached its highest stage since 1894. A railroad bed acting as a dam gave way during a flood along the Columbia River destroying the town of Vanport, OR. The nearly 18,700 residents escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs. Damage was estimated at 101 million dollars and 75 lost their lives. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) Twenty carloads of glass were needed in Denver, CO to replace that destroyed by a severe hailstorm. (The Weather Channel)
• 30 May 1985...The temperature in Oklahoma City, OK reached a sizzling 104 degrees, making it the highest ever for so early in the season. This also marked the very first time the temperature had reached the 100-degree plateau in the month of May at Oklahoma City. (Intellicast)
• 30 May 1986...Hanford, WA hit a scorching 104 degrees, breaking the all-time record high temperature for May for Eastern Washington. Yakima, WA hit 102 degrees, a record high for the month of May for Yakima. Records also fell at Boise, ID and Reno, NV. (Intellicast)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.