31 May-4 June 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.

• Change in season -- Meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the three-month span from March through May, concludes on Monday (31 May 2010), while meteorological summer (June, July and August) will commence on the following day.
• Atlantic Hurricane Season begins -- The official 2010 hurricane season for the North Atlantic Basin will begin on Tuesday, 1 June. The National Hurricane Center maintains a hurricane preparedness website that provides information and educational material for the various hurricane hazards including storm surge, high winds, tornadoes and flooding. (A Spanish version of this website is also available.) In the Eastern North Pacific basin, the hurricane season began on 15 May. The season will run until 30 November in both basins.
• New video of the first US weather satellite produced -- A television producer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recently produced and showed a video about the first weather satellite, identified as TIROS-1 (Television Infrared Observation Satellite) on the fifty anniversary of its launch. The release of this video was at an event hosted by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at the nation's Capitol, called "The Climate Connection – In honor of the 50th Anniversary of TIROS." [NASA Earth Science News Team]

• April snow was below average across North America -- Although some locations across the US experienced a relatively cold meteorological winter (December through February) and record-setting snowstorms, the North American snow cover by the end of April 2010 had dwindled to its smallest areal extent since satellite surveillance began in 1967. An image collected from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite show the percent snow cover across North America during April 2010. Unseasonably warm weather in April resulted in relatively small snowfall and rapid snowmelt of the existing snow cover. [NASA Earth Observatory]

• Mapping ocean "heat potential" for tropical cyclones -- Scientists at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and colleagues at the University of Miami and Spain's University of Santiago de Compostela have been using a Google Earth application that they created to map the heat contained in the upper layers of the ocean, using satellite altimetry observations. This application was developed to assess the "Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential" (TCHP) for the global ocean basins to study the connection between ocean heat and tropical cyclones (such as hurricanes). These maps, which will be updated daily, will also show the tracks and intensities of tropical cyclones. [NASA] See also information on AOML's Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential that has a link to Google Earth.
• Monitoring springtime burning across the nation from space -- An image generated from data collected by the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite two weeks ago shows the regions of high concentrations of atmospheric carbon monoxide that were released by vehicles and other fuel-burning engines, along with fires from agricultural burning. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Future satellite should help monitor water consumption --Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are building the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) that will placed onboard a new Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite to be launched in December 2012. The TIRS instrument will help monitor water consumption on the Earth's surface, which should be important for the semiarid Western States where water rights are allocated. [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]

• Aircraft emissions could become major factor in future climate -- A researcher at the United Kingdom's Manchester Metropolitan University and colleagues report that their ten-year projections of carbon dioxide emissions by aircraft indicate that this source appears ready to become a major source of factor in creating increased global temperatures by 2050. Currently, global air traffic accounts for up to three percent of carbon dioxide emissions. [EurekAlert!]
• Simplifying the view of how aerosols affect climate change -- A research team from Colorado State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Harvard University and Brazil's Universidade de Sao Paulo has been studying the composition of organic aerosols and how these aerosols can affect the climate. They note that while numerous organic aerosols exist, they share many common characteristics, which should allow scientists to generalize their features. [Colorado State University]
• Greenhouse gas value of ecosystems calculated -- University of Illinois researchers have developed an improved and more accurate method for calculating the greenhouse gas value (GHGV) of ecosystems, focusing on the changes in emissions resulting in changes in land use. [University of Illinois]
• Huge carbon dioxide "burp" may have helped end last ice age -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge and other research institutions report that their radiochemical analysis of a marine sediment core extracted from the Southern Ocean floor indicate a large increase in the carbon dioxide, or "burp" that occurred approximately 18,000 years ago. The carbon dioxide had been sequestered in the deep ocean during the last ice age, but then was released into the atmosphere, helping signal the end of that ice age. [EurekAlert!]
• Asteroid may have help bring end of the dinosaur age --- A scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and colleagues claim that they have evidence supporting the theory that an asteroid impact, which created the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula was responsible for wide spread environmental change that eventually killed the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago. [University of Alaska-Fairbanks]

• Would a La Niña event be on the horizon? Researchers and forecasters are currently assessing the possibility that a La Niña event could develop within the next several months as the current El Niño event was waning. They are monitoring the changes in the water temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which had been above average in the eastern sections prior to May, indicative of an El Niño. However, this warm water had disappeared by late in the month, raising the possibility of the onset of a La Niña. [UCAR Magazine]
• Changing climate could signal increased frequency of UK droughts -- A study made by the United Kingdom's Met Office indicates that changes in climate could result in more frequent extreme droughts across the British Isles. [UK Met Office]

• Twentieth century was one of driest in a millennium over northwest Africa -- After constructing tree-ring chronologies extending back to 1179, dendrochronologists from the University of Arizona, Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Morocco's National School of Forest Engineering, Algeria's University of Ourgla and Tunisia's Institute of Sylvo-Pastoral have found frequent and severe droughts across northwest Africa, with the most severe occurring in the 13th, 16th and 20th centuries. [EurekAlert!]
• Savannas rather than forests may have been an early human habitat -- A team of anthropologists and geologists from the University of Utah, and six other research universities report that pre-humans called Ardipithecus ramidus (or Ardi) living in East Africa approximately 4.4 million years ago may have inhabited savannas rather than areas primarily consisting of forests or woodlands. [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.

• 31 May 1889...The Johnstown, PA disaster occurred, the worst flood tragedy in U.S. history. Heavy rains totaling 4 to 10 inches over the previous 36 hours collapsed the South Fork Dam sending a thirty-foot wall of water rushing down the already flooded Conemaugh Valley. The wall of water, traveling as fast as twenty-two feet per second, swept away all structures, objects, and people, practically wiping out Johnstown. About 2100 persons perished in the flood. (David Ludlum)
• 31 May-1 June 1941...Thunderstorms deluged Burlington, KS with 12.59 inches of rain to establish a 24-hour rainfall record for the Jayhawk State. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 May 1973…Canada's sunniest month ends as Eureka, Northwest Territories recorded 621 hours of bright sunshine. (The Weather Doctor)
• 31 May 1983...Albany, NY experienced its wettest spring (March-May) in 109 years of records as 19.54 inches of precipitation was recorded. (Intellicast)
• 31 May 1986...The Weather Service Office in Washington, DC reported its driest spring on record with only 3.47 inches of precipitation from 1 March to 31 May. (Intellicast)
• 31 May 1988...Hot and humid weather prevailed in the eastern U.S. Thirteen cities reported record high temperatures for the date. Cape Hatteras, NC reported their first ninety-degree day in May in 115 years of records. (The National Weather Summary)
• 31 May 1991...Norfolk, VA hit 100 degrees, setting a new all-time record high for the month of May. (Intellicast)
• 31 May 1992...This May was the driest on record for Chicago, IL and Rockford, IL. Only 0.30 inches of rain fell at Chicago and Rockford had a paltry 0.48 inches. The total rainfall at El Paso, TX of this past month was 4.22 inches, making this the wettest May ever for the city. The normal rainfall for May is only 0.24 inches, which means that this month rainfall total was 1758 percent of normal! (Intellicast)
• 1 June 1907, Sarmiento, Argentina reported a temperature of 29 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature ever recorded in South America. (The Weather Doctor)
• 1 June 1941...Burlington, KS received 12.59 inches of rain, which set a 24-hour precipitation record for the Jayhawk State. (NCDC)
• 1-17 June 2001...The deadliest and costliest tropical storm in US history, Tropical Storm Allison, wandered westward across the tropical Atlantic and crossed over into the Pacific before reversing and moving back into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. On 1 June the tropical wave, which eventually evolved into TS Allison, moved into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast of Mexico after moving westward across the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean from the west coast of Africa on 21 May. On the 2^nd, a cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation developed to the south-southeast of Salma Cruz, Mexico, but the low-level circulation became ill-defined as the system moved inland on the 3^rd over southeastern Mexico and western Guatemala. This system intensified again and eventually moved northward to the Texas Gulf Coast and then eastward to the Atlantic before turning into an extratropical storm in mid-June. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 1 June 2005…The UV (ultraviolet) Index in Toronto, Ontario reached 11 or Extreme on the 5-category UV scale, marking the first time the new extreme category has ever been attained in Canada. (The Weather Doctor)
• 2 June 1917...The temperature at Tribune, KS dipped to 30 degrees to establish a state record for the month of June. (The Weather Channel)
• 3 June 1905...Seattle, WA received its heaviest ever 24-hour June rainstorm with 1.42 inches falling. (Intellicast)
• 4-5 June 1908...Helena, MT was deluged with 3.67 inches of rain to establish their all-time 24-hour rainfall record. (The Weather Channel)
• 5 June 1993...A strong, late season spring storm moved into California. The 0.76 inches of rain at Los Angeles set a new daily rainfall record for June. Lake Gregory was deluged with 3.24 inches of rain in 24 hours and a foot of snow fell at the Mammoth Mountain ski area. (Intellicast)
• 6-10 June 1816...The temperature reached 92 degrees at Salem, MA during an early heat wave, but then plunged 49 degrees in 24 hours to commence the famous "year without a summer". Late season snow fell across New England and eastern Canada. The editor of the Bangor (ME) Register observed that individual snowflakes that fell on Bangor during the afternoon of the 6^th covered areas up to two inches in diameter. Snow fell near Quebec City, Quebec over a 5-day period accumulating to 12 inches with "drifts reaching the axel trees of carriages" during this infamous Year Without a Summer. The Montreal Gazette reported that this "Extraordinary Season" gave snow squalls to the city on the 6^th and 8^th. On the 7^th, a famous June snow fell in the northeastern U.S. Danville, VT reported drifts of snow and sleet twenty inches deep. The Highlands were white all day, and snow flurries were observed as far south as Boston MA. Waltham, MA reported a low temperature of 33 degrees and New Haven, CT had a low of 35 degrees (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 6 June 1894...One of the greatest floods in U.S. history occurred as the Williamette River overflowed to inundate half of the business district of Portland, OR. (David Ludlum)

Return to DataStreme ECS website

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