WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

7-11 May 2012

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2012. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Land of the Midnight Sun -- Barring clouds, the sun should rise at Barrow, AK early Thursday morning (2:47 AM AKDT on 10 May 2012) after spending 48 minutes below the horizon. The sun should then remain above the local horizon for the next 12 weeks, before going below the horizon for nearly 28 minutes on 1 August 2012 (at 2:20 AM AKDT).

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Western US experienced record warm April -- Preliminary analysis of temperature data collected by the network of Automated Surface Observation System (ASOS) stations for the month of April indicates that 300 stations had record high monthly average temperatures. Many of these records were set across the Rockies and the southern Plains. [ NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Warm, dry spring offers little help for southern drought -- As of late April, more than one half of the 48 coterminous United States was considered to be abnormally dry according to the US Drought Monitor, with more than one third of the states (37 percent) in drought conditions, which represented an increase in areal coverage since one year ago (27.4 percent). Wide sections of the Southeast and the southern Plains were being hit the hardest. [NOAA Climate Services]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

NASA's "weather eye in the sky" turns 10 --Scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently marked the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), one of the six instruments onboard NASA's polar-orbiting Aqua satellite that helps measure the Earth's air temperature, water vapor, clouds and other greenhouse gases at various levels in the atmosphere. This instrument has helped improve weather and climate prediction over the last decade. [NASA JPL]
Taking a closer look at ocean temperatures -- Researchers in NOAA Satellite and Information Service have developed an operational high resolution sea surface temperature product that combines observational data from the fleet of geosynchronous and polar orbiting environmental satellites operated by the US, the European nations and Japan. This daily blended product, which has a 5-kilometer resolution, has the greatest resolution of global sea surface temperatures so far to date. [ NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Elevated methane levels found above cracks in Arctic sea ice -- Researchers from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and colleagues report finding methane, a potent greenhouse gas, seeping out of the fractures in the sea ice floating on the surface of the Arctic Ocean. The gas may have been generated from tiny bacteria and other organisms in the seawater. [NOAA Research]
Milestone in phenological observations reached by citizen scientists-- During the past week, the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) reported reaching a major milestone as it received its one millionth nature observation. These phenological observations of the seasonally-driven recurring life events of plants and animals have been made by over 4000 volunteers around the nation and are posted on "Nature's Notebook," the USA-NPN's online observation program. [USGS Newsroom]
Temperatures of western streams not paralleling regional temperature trends -- A study conducted by the US Forest Service and Oregon State University of streams in the Western States with long-term monitoring programs has found that although air temperatures across the region has generally increased, the water temperatures of the streams have not necessarily warmed at the same rate. The researchers claim that several factors could cause differences in air and stream temperatures including snowmelt, groundwater interaction, flow rates, solar radiation and atmospheric humidity. [Oregon State University]
Regions identified with high levels of smoke-related air pollutant -- Scientists at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and colleagues have found that high levels of isocyanic acid, a significant air pollutant emitted by burning biomass, can be found in sections of tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Siberia, and the Western Amazon Basin, regions where forest fires and other forms of biomass burning are common. High levels of isocyanic acid can trigger protein damage in humans, which could lead to cataracts and inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis. [NOAA Research]
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]

CLIMATE FORCING

Warmer nights found over large Texas wind farms -- Atmospheric scientists from the State University of New York-Albany and colleagues from NOAA and the University of Illinois have found that satellite-derived land surface temperatures between 2003 and 2011 were raised especially during the night in the vicinity of large wind farms across west-central Texas. Thee researchers postulate that warmer air aloft is pulled down by turbulence in the wake of the large turbine blades, eroding the development of a shallow layer of cold air at the surface. Their findings could be important for developing efficient strategies designed to ensure long-term sustainability of wind power. [University at Albany News Center]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Predicting African droughts using climate and vegetation data -- Researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara, who are part of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), warn that projected rainfall deficits across East Africa could lead to food shortages in the region. They base their warning upon climate and vegetation data that they collected and analyzed from East Africa. Some of these data were obtained from satellite sensors. In addition to projected adverse climate conditions that could exacerbate the food shortages, conflict, political unrest, corruption and other human factors could help result in famine conditions. [University of California-Santa Barbara]
Plant responses to global climate change are not adequately predicted -- An interdisciplinary team of scientists from 22 institutions in the US, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom warn experiments may have dramatically underestimated the response of plants and ecosystems to future climate change, especially because of the shifts in the timing of flowering and leafing of plants in a warmer climate. They base their conclusions upon a review of 50 plant studies on four continents. [University of California-San Diego News Center]
Changes in speeds of Greenland glaciers help in estimating future sea-level change -- Researchers at the University of Washington and their colleagues report that their research into a decade-long record of changes in the speed of movement of Greenland outlet glaciers using satellite obtained data indicates that Greenland's contribution to projected rising sea level during the 21st century might be significantly less than the upper limits previously stated. [University of Washington]

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Loss of biodiversity could rival climate change in ecosystem impacts ....-- A comprehensive study conducted by an international research team from the US, Canada and Sweden concludes that the loss of biological diversity due to species extinctions appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress. [University of Michigan News Service]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Stalagmites in caves used to study past climate changes -- Geochemists from the California Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology have reconstructed a climate record for the western tropical Pacific region over four glacial cycles during the late Pleistocene era (from 570,000 to 210,000 years ago) based upon their analysis of the oxygen isotopes in samples from stalagmites collected from caves in northern Borneo. [California Institute of Technology]
Cores from northern California lake reveal past climate change -- Scientists from the University of California-Berkley have been retrieving core samples of ancient sediments drilled from the bottom of Clear Lake in northern California in an effort to determine the response of plants and animals to changing climate over the last 500,000 years. [University of California-Berkley News Center]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Ten-year global change strategic plan released by the Administration -- During the last week, the Obama Administration released a 10-year strategic plan through the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) designed to stimulate research related to global change and to identify priorities that will help state and local governments, businesses, and communities prepare for anticipated future changes in the global environment, including climate change. [US Global Change Research Program]
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]

COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY

A planet's lightning signature could help reveal solar system's origins -- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recently discovered that the phenomenon known Schumann Resonance, a signature of low frequency electromagnetic waves encircling the Earth in the ionosphere at an altitude of approximately 60 miles, could be detected by the NASA's Vector Electric Field Instrument (VEFI) aboard the U.S. Air Force's Communications/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS) satellite. These researchers claim that this type of instrument could be used on other planetary orbiters to study the atmospheric compositions of other planets in the solar system, which could help in understanding on how the solar system formed. [NASA GSFC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

7 May 1964...The temperature at White Mountain 2, located in California, dipped to 15 degrees below zero to set a record for May for the continental U.S. (The Weather Channel)
10 May 1910...A meteorograph ascent of an instrumented Weather Bureau kite to 23,835 feet from Mount Weather, VA set the altitude record for the site. The ascent, which had a kite with instruments to measure atmospheric conditions aloft, used 10 kites in tandem and 8.5 miles of kite wire. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
10 May 1966...Morning lows of 21 degrees at Bloomington-Normal and Aurora established an Illinois state record for the month of May. Snow flurries were reported at Kansas City, MO and Chicago, IL (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
10-11 May 1986...Bangkok, Thailand received 15.79 inches of rain in 24-hours, which was a national record. (The Weather Doctor)
11 May 1966...The 1.6 inch-snow at Chicago, IL was their latest measurable snow of record. Previously the record was 3.7 inches on the 1^stand 2^nd of May set in 1940. (The Weather Channel)
11 May 2003...A total of 4.63 inches of rain fell at Nashville, TN, breaking the previous 24-hour record for the month. (The Weather Doctor)
12 May 1916...Plumb Point, Jamaica reported 17.80 inches of rain in 15 minutes, which set a world record. (The Weather Doctor)
13 May 1930...A man was killed when caught in an open field during a hailstorm 36 miles northwest of Lubbock, TX. This event was the first, and perhaps the only, authentic death by hail in U.S. weather records. (David Ludlum)
13 May 1992...Record late season snow ended over the Tanana Valley and Yukon Uplands in Alaska. This storm set two records at Fairbanks. The 9.4 inches of snow from the storm was by far the greatest May snow on record, shattering the previous record of 4.5 inches set on 13 May 1964. The total water content of the melted snow and rain was also a new one-day record for May (0.78 Inches). Snowfall in excess of two feet occurred at elevations above 2000 feet. (Intellicast)

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