WEEKLY WATER NEWS

19-23 December 2005

DataStreme Water in the Earth System (WES) will return for Spring 2006 with new Water News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 16 January 2006. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the break period.

Water in the News:

• Another view of the 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season -- The Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has produced a high resolution image along with animations that show the tracks of the 30 tropical cyclones, ranging from tropical depressions, to tropical storms and to hurricanes that developed across the North Atlantic during the just-concluded record hurricane season. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Initial review of 2005 -- In a recent press release, climatologists at the National Climatic Data Center issued their initial assessments of the weather across the nation during the nearly-concluded year of 2005. This year has seen the most active North Atlantic hurricane seasons in more than 150 years, with record numbers of hurricanes and tropical storms, along with major hurricanes (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). Four major hurricanes and three tropical storms made landfall on the coasts of the continental U.S. The climatologists indicate that this year could be one of the 20 warmest years since 1895, when extensive nationwide climate records began. They also noted that 2005 was a year with large contrasts in precipitation across the nation. The states in the Northeast (New England States and New York State), the northern Plains (Minnesota and North Dakota) and the Great Basin (Utah and Nevada) should be either the wettest or within the ten wettest years in the 111-year long period. However, continued drought across the Mid-South, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, with Arkansas appearing set to have the seventh driest year on record. [NOAA News] These scientists, along with those with the World Meteorological Organization, indicate that worldwide, 2005 probably will be the second-warmest year in the last 140 years. [USA Today]
• Snowpack updates -- Following last winter's meager snowpack across some areas of the West, early season snow this year has produced a bigger snowpack:
  • Snowpack that has developed across the mountains of Oregon was slightly above the long-term average, giving some guarded optimism to hydrologists and ranchers across the Beaver State. [USA Today]
  • Recent snow across Utah has built an above-average snowpack across the northern mountains of the Beehive State. [USA Today]
• Where are the ducks?--Waterfowl experts in Arkansas are concerned with a roughly 50 percent decrease in the number of ducks found statewide. Some believe that the moderate to extreme drought conditions that the state has experienced since last summer may be a major factor in this decline. [The State.com]
• Identification of tsunami victims continues -- Nearly one year has elapsed since the disastrous Indian Ocean tsunami claimed more 200,000 lives along the shorelines of this ocean basin, but attempts continue at identifying the remains of numerous victims, including use of DNA [USA Today]
• Reservoir collapse associated with rubble -- Dam inspectors from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources found that the collapsed section of a retaining wall that helped hold water in a mountaintop reservoir in southeastern Missouri was made from fill material consisting of various sized "rubble." Roughly one billion gallons of water were released last week when the wall collapsed. [ENN]
• Additional health concerns raised in the Katrina aftermath -- Researchers from Texas Tech University have found unsafe levels of lead in the sediments and soil disturbed by Hurricane Katrina in the city of New Orleans. [EurekAlert!]
• Breaking the rules along the Gulf Coast -- Numerous environmental rules have either been broken or set aside along the Louisiana Gulf Coast following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in an effort to aid in the recovery and rebuilding efforts. [ENN]
• Greenland microbes could have Martian counterparts -- A physicist from the University of California, Berkeley, who has been studying the methane-producing bacteria found under the Greenland ice sheet, indicates that similar bacterial life forms could possibly be found below the surface of Mars. [EurekAlert!]
• Soil water CD to aid in golf course management -- The Crop Science Society of America has released a compact disc (CD) entitled "Soil Wetting Agents" that is intended to provide a practical learning tool for golf course managers as how soil wetting agents can be applied to the turf so as to improve water and nutrient absorption. [EurekAlert!]
• Response to 10,000-year old glaciation monitored -- A team of scientists, led by a Purdue University geophysicist, has been using precise satellite observations of GPS stations across North America to monitor the horizontal movement of the northeastern section of the continent. They attribute this southward movement at roughly one millimeter per year as being a "rebounding" response to the Pleistocene glaciers that covered a large portion of the continent approximately 10,000 years ago. [Purdue University]
• Lake Erie receives untreated sewage -- The Ohio Public Interest Research Group has reported that more than 8.9 billion gallons of untreated sewage flows annually into Lake Erie because of sewer systems that are overwhelmed during storms crossing the watershed surrounding the lake. [US Water News Online]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes-- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 19 December 1967...The second heavy snow in a week brought a total of 86 inches of snow to Flagstaff, AZ with a record snow depth of 83 inches. Many homes, farm buildings and business structures collapsed from the weight of the snow. The snows inflicted great hardship on the Indian reservations. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum)
• 20 December 1990...Snow fell at Santa Maria, CA for the first time since records were kept. (Intellicast)
• 21 December 1892...Portland, OR was buried under an all-time record 27.5 inches of snow. (21^st-24^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 23 December 1811...A cold storm hit Long Island Sound with a foot of snow, gale force winds, and temperatures near zero. During the storm many ships were wrecked, and in some cases, entire crews perished. (David Ludlum)
• 25 December 1974...Tropical Cyclone Tracy (a hurricane in the waters surrounding Australia) made landfall near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Excellent warnings kept the death toll to between 50 and 60, with more than 20,000 people evacuated in the week following the storm. Some areas were totally devastated. Peak wind speeds exceeded 174 mph. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 25 December 1988...A massive winter storm made for a very white Christmas in the western U.S. Las Vegas, NV reported snow on the ground for the first time of record. Periods of snow over a five-day period left several feet of new snow on the ground of ski areas in Colorado, with 68 inches reported at Wolf Creek Pass. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
• 25-26 December 1927...The worst Christmas blizzard in a century buried the United Kingdom. While most of the country experienced snow, the south bore the brunt of the storm with drifts in places to 15 feet or more. Many roads were blocked with stranded vehicles. (The Weather Doctor)

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Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.