23-27 May 2011

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2011 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2011. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• NOAA Administrator comments on new climate science report -- At the start of last week, the NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco issued a statement that welcomed the release of National Research Council's fifth and final report in the "America's Climate Choices" series. [NOAA News]
• 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 -- In anticipation of the start of the 2011 hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins, NOAA has declared the week of 22-28 May 2011 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation. 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.)
• North American Safe Boating Week -- This week of 21-27 May has been declared 2011 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2011 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.

• National weather and climate reviewed for April 2011 -- Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center reported that their analysis of preliminary data indicates April 2011 across the United States was wetter and slightly warmer than the 20th-century (1901-2000) averages. Persistent and locally heavy rainfall across sections of the Ohio and mid-Mississippi Valleys helped produce the tenth wettest April since 1895 when comprehensive climate records became available nationwide. While many areas of the Midwest, the Northeast and the Northwest had above to much above average precipitation, sections of Texas and the Gulf Coast had below average to record low April precipitation totals. Nationwide, April 2011 was the 39th warmest since 1895, with most of the southern tier of states and the Eastern Seaboard reporting much above to record high temperatures. On the other hand, the West Coast and the northern tier of states had below average temperatures, with sections of western Washington State reporting the lowest April temperatures on record. [NOAA News]
• April drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its April 2011 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately eleven percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of April, while 28 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
• Review of global weather and climate for April 2011 -- 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 2011 was the seventh warmest April since global climate records began in 1880. Furthermore, the average global ocean surface temperature for April was the eleventh highest since 1880, while the global land surface temperature was seventh highest on record. A lingering La Niña event with below average sea-surface temperature across the equatorial Pacific Ocean remained a factor.
  The areal coverage of Arctic sea ice remained below the 1979-2000 average and represented the fifth lowest April extent since satellite surveillance began in 1979. The extent of Antarctic sea ice was the fourth smallest.
  While the snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere was the 15th smallest for any April since records started in the late 1960s, the North American snow cover was the tenth largest. [NOAA News]
• Review of Canadian national weather and climate for the 2010-11 winter -- Scientists at Environment Canada reported that much of Canada had a warmer than normal winter, with southern sections of the Prairie Provinces having below average temperatures. The national average temperature for the three months of December 2010 through February 2011 was approximately 2.5 Celsius degrees above the long-term average, making it the sixth warmest winter since nationwide records began in 1948. ( This winter followed the 2009/10 winter, which was the warmest.). Nationwide, Canada experienced winter precipitation totals that were only slightly below the long-term average. Many areas of southern Canada were relatively dry, while the Arctic and the Maritime Provinces had above average winter precipitation. [Climate Trends and Variations Bulletin, Environment Canada]

• Partnerships formalized to aid in environmental observations of western Indian Ocean -- At the start of last week, representatives from NOAA and the Agulhas-Somali Currents Large Marine Ecosystem recently formalized an agreement designed to help the nine western Indian Ocean nations (Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa and Tanzania) better manage their ocean ecosystems and resources. This agreement also fills the remaining gap of the Tropical Moored Buoy Array, to now cover the Indian Ocean as well as the Atlantic and Pacific basins. [NOAA News]
• 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]

• Assessing seasonal effects of Arctic snow and ice upon climate forcing -- A scientist from the University of Michigan assembled a series of seasonal images that depicts "cryospheric forcing," defined as the amount of solar energy that snow and ice reflect, based upon satellite measurements of snow and ice extent with calculations of the amount of sunlight reaching the ground during the season. The images indicate that over the past three decades, fall snow cover has increased in the Northern Hemisphere, but spring snow cover has decreased. Consequently, more energy was absorbed in the Arctic during spring. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Risk of wetland habitat loss in Southern States predicted -- Researchers at Baylor University and the US Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station predict that wetlands across a 13-state area of the southern United States were at risk of habitat loss due to human activity associated primarily with development or agriculture. [Baylor University]

• Changes in climate could affect boreal forest growth -- Researchers at the University of Alberta and the University of Quebec report that with higher global temperatures, earlier spring weather conditions across the boreal forests of western Quebec could enhance the growth of black spruce. They also noted that colder summers could reduce boreal forest growth. [EurekAlert!]

• 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 Midwest, primarily along the mid-and upper Mississippi Valleys. On the other hand, they foresaw better than even chances of above average temperatures across the Great Basin, the Southwest and the Gulf Coast States, running from south Texas to the Florida Peninsula. Elsewhere, equal chances of below or above average summer temperatures can be anticipated. The forecasters also expected the northwestern quadrant of the nation, centered on the northern Rockies, to have a better than even chance of below average summer precipitation. However, the forecasters felt that much of the country could experience equal chances of above and below average summer rainfall. [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 mid-May through August. Their outlook would call for improvement of the drought conditions across the Florida Peninsula, the central Plains and the central through southern Rockies. They also envisioned some slight improvement across sections of the Middle Atlantic coast, the Southeast, the southern Plains and the Southwest. However, they indicated that drought conditions would develop or persist across the lower Mississippi Valley and south Texas. [NOAA CPC Drought Outlook]
• Hurricane outlooks issued -- Scientists with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center have released their outlooks for the upcoming hurricane seasons in the Atlantic, the eastern Pacific and central Pacific Basins last week:
• For the North Atlantic basin, the outlook indicates a hurricane season in 2011 that would be more active than normal. Specifically, the outlook calls for a 70 percent chance that the basin could experience 12 to 18 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), which would exceed the long-term average of 11 named tropical cyclones. Of the 12 to 18 named systems, six to ten hurricanes could develop, of which three to six could become major hurricanes (Category 3 hurricanes or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale). Based upon long-term averages, six hurricanes form in the Atlantic basin, with two becoming major hurricanes. The forecasters anticipate an active Atlantic hurricane season because of a combination of factors that include above average sea surface temperatures across the tropical Atlantic Ocean, a continuation of the 15-year trend toward more active Atlantic hurricane seasons and reduced wind shear through the lower atmosphere across the basin due to the eventual disappearance of the waning La Niña event. [NOAA News]
  For comparison, Phil Klotzbach and Bill Gray at Colorado State University released an updated forecast of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season in early April calling for a season with above average activity as they envision 16 named tropical cyclones, of which nine could reach hurricane status. As many as five of these hurricanes could become major hurricanes. [The Tropical Meteorology Project]
• For the Eastern North Pacific basin (east of 140 degrees West longitude), the outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center suggests a below-normal hurricane season. This outlook would call for a 70 percent chance of 9 to 15 named tropical cyclones, with five to eight hurricanes. One to three major hurricanes were also envisioned. These anticipated numbers compare with the long-term average of 16 named cyclones, nine hurricanes and as many as five major hurricanes. The lower than average anticipated numbers could be related to two climate factors: increased wind shear that continue to suppress activity across the basin since 1995 and to anticipated ENSO-neutral conditions during the peak months of the season that would follow this spring's lingering La Niña-like conditions. [NOAA News]
• For the Central North Pacific basin (between 180 degrees and 140 degrees West longitude), forecasters at NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center in collaboration with their colleagues at the Climate Prediction Center expect that the upcoming hurricane season would have better than even chance (70 percent) of below normal activity. They called for two to three tropical cyclones to affect the central North Pacific in 2011, either forming with in the basin or entering it from the east. On average, four to five tropical cyclones (including tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes) travel across the basin. [NOAA News]

• Hidden world of ancient Maya seaport explored -- A NOAA-sponsored team of researchers from Georgia State University, Northwestern University, the University of Washington and Israel's University of Haifa have been exploring the northeastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula looking for an ancient Maya seaport of Vista Alegre, which was an important part of the region's Pre-Columbian trading network between about 800 BC and AD 1521. [NOAA News]

• Chemical from smoke in atmosphere may have health implications -- A report made by a team of scientists led by a chemist with NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory indicates that isocycanic acid (chemical formula HNCO) found in air samples that included smoke from Colorado wildfires, urban Los Angeles air, cigarette smoke and in laboratory-simulated wildfires can be linked with human health effects ranging from cataracts to cardiovascular disease. [NOAA News]

• Seaports need to plan for changes in climate -- Based upon their survey of nearly 100 seaports around the globe, researchers at Stanford University warn that many of these ports are not prepared to protect themselves from changes in climate during the 21st century that would result in rises in sea level and increased frequency of storms. [Stanford University News]
• 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.

• 23 May 1953...The temperature at Hollis, OK soared from a morning low of 70 degrees to an afternoon high of 110 degrees, to establish a state record for the month of May. (The Weather Channel)
• 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)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.