WEEKLY WATER NEWS

26-30 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 homepage products will continue to be available throughout the break period.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sincerely,

Ed Hopkins and the AMS WES Central Staff

Water in the News:

• Mapping the Antarctic ice sheet -- As many as 260 detailed images of Antarctica made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors onboard NASA's orbiting Terra and Aqua satellites have been archived in The MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica, including one of the famous Steershead Ice Rise, roughly half-way between McMurdo and Byrd Stations. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Studying snow layers -- Scientists have been studying cores that have annual layers of snow accumulated in Antarctica and in Greenland in an effort to develop a time-line of the climate extending back to 750,000 years ago. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Earth portraits at the solstices -- NASA recently released images of the reflected solar radiation around the globe on recent summer and winter solstices made by the MODIS sensors onboard the agency's orbiting Terra and Aqua satellites [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Flooding proves deadly in the Far East -- During the last week torrential rains caused:
  • Floods in the Philippines that resulted in at least 10 deaths and making 13,000 people homeless. [USA Today]
  • Floods and landslides across Thailand that killed at least 36 people and stranded thousands. [USA Today]
• A giant snowman found in Alaska -- A resident and neighborhood children in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, have built and decorated a snowman that is over 16-feet tall. [USA Today]
• Cloud seeding effort to begin in Wyoming -- An ambitious 5-year cloud-seeding project has begun in Wyoming in an effort to help increase the snowpack across the mountains in the Cowboy State. [USA Today]
• Water management from space -- The European Space Agency and African water agency representatives have been collaborating on a program called Aquifer meant to develop products and services from data acquired from the Agency's Envisat, ERS-2 and Proba satellites, which can then be used to support sustainable water management along the edge of the Sahara Desert in Africa. [ESA]
• Hurricanes and runoff tax efforts to manage estuaries -- Scientists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland contend that the increased hurricane activity and runoff along the Eastern Seaboard has had an impact upon the phytoplankton populations and the water quality management efforts in some of the major estuaries, such as Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina's Pamlico Sound. [University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]
• Chemicals listed in tap water -- The Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization, recently released the results of a survey of 40,000 water utilities around the country that included a list of over 200 chemicals found in the drinking water. The US Environmental Protection Agency has set health-based limits on less than half of these listed chemicals. [ENN]
• Pain-reliever is a problem in wastewater -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have been studying how acetaminophen, a common pain-reliever, reacts with chlorine disinfectants during wastewater treatment to form some toxic byproducts. [EurekAlert!]
• Toxic spill reaches Russia -- The slick of benzene released into a river in northeast China following a chemical plant explosion last November has finally reached the border with Russia and has begun affecting the drinking water in a large Russian city. [ENN]
• China plagued by another toxic spill -- Within a month following a chemical plant explosion that resulted in a substantial spill of carcinogenic benzene into a river in northeast China, an accident at a zinc smelter in southern China spilled toxic waste into an area river, resulting in increased levels of cadmium in the water. [ENN]
• What's the stink? --Scientists in Germany, Virginia and California have determined that the rotten cabbage odor often detected around waster treatment facilities may be caused by trace amounts of dimethyl sulfoxide in the wastewater produced by bacteria in the sewage. [EurekAlert!]
• Loss of permafrost foreseen -- Based upon the output from a climate model, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research predict higher global temperatures during the next century could result in a significant loss of the permafrost in Alaska, Canada and Russia. [UCAR/NCAR]
• Asian rivers give clue to past mountains -- Scientists at the University of Aberdeen and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have studied ocean cores and used laboratory techniques to decipher changes in the erosional sediments from major rivers in south Asia over the last 30 million years caused by the rerouting of rivers during the building of mountain ranges where crustal plates collided. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• 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:

• 26 December 1836...A snow cornice built out from a chalk cliff at Lewes, England, the result of heavy snow and high wind that began on the 24th. This cornice, which overhung a row of houses, collapsed in the day's sunshine on the 26^th, with eight people dying in the crushed homes. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 26-31 December 1993...The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race off Australia was plagued by hurricane-force wind gusts in excess of 74 mph and 33 foot high seas. Of 104 starters, only 37 yachts finished the race. On the 28^th, one yacht owner spent five hours in the water after being swept overboard. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 26 December 2004…A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale approximately 100 miles off the western coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed. (Wikipedia)
• 28 December 1879...Seventy-four lives were lost when a passenger train plunged from the track as the middle section of the Tay Bridge at Tayside, England collapsed into the Tay Estuary. The failure of the bridge was believed to have been caused by two or three waterspouts that were sighted close to the bridge immediately before the accident. (The Weather Doctor)
• 28-29 December 1879...An extraordinary snowfall of 17 inches of snow fell in Palestine. In his 1883 report on the climate of Palestine, the U.S. consul reported snow (mainly light and quickly melting) falling on Jerusalem in only 14 of the previous 22 years. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 30 December 1955...Anchorage, AK reported an all-time record snow depth of 47 inches. (30^th-1^st) (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 30 December 1996-6 January 1997...Approximately 25 inches of rain and snowmelt flooded the Truckee River and other rivers along the eastern Sierra. The floodwaters made a temporary lake on the east side of Truckee Meadows. The airport at Reno, NV was flooded, with water reaching the fuselage of some airliners. The floods caused more than 500 million dollars in regional damage. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 31 December 1929...Greenland Ranch, in Death Valley, CA, went the entire year without measurable precipitation. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1933...A 24-hour rainfall of 7.36 inches set the stage for the worst flood in Los Angeles and Orange County history. Flooding claimed 44 lives. (David Ludlum)
• 31 December 1962...Perhaps the worst blizzard in the history of the state of Maine finally ended. The storm produced 40 inches in 24 hours at Orono, and a total of 46 inches at Ripogenus Dam. Gale force winds produced snow drifts twenty feet high around Bangor. A disastrous ice storm was over Georgia and South Carolina. It ravaged the two states for days causing more than seven million dollars damage. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1987...Torrential rains caused extensive flash flooding over eastern sections of the island of Oahu in Hawaii, resulting in many rock and mudslides. Rainfall totals ranged up to 22.89 inches in a 24-hour period, and property damage was estimated at 35 million dollars. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
• 31 December 1989...The year and decade ended on a soggy note in the eastern U.S. Thunderstorm rains pushed precipitation totals for the year to 88.32 inches at Baton Rouge, LA and to 75.37 inches at Huntsville, AL, establishing all-time records for those two locations. Dry weather continued in California. Sacramento and San Francisco finished the month without any rain or snow, and Santa Maria reported their driest year of record with just 3.30 inches of precipitation. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 January 1934...Heavy rain, which began on 30 December 1933, led to flooding in the Los Angeles Basin area of California. Flooding claimed the lives of at least 45 persons. Walls of water and debris up to ten feet high were noted in some canyon areas. Rainfall totals ranged up to 16.29 inches at Azusa, with 8.26 inches reported in Downtown Los Angeles. (The Weather Channel)
• 1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1-2 January 1992...Harsh winter weather raked the Middle East. At least 20 died when an avalanche crushed eight houses near Kuksekova, Turkey. Sixteen inches of snow fell on Jerusalem, in Israel, marking the most in 42 years. Rare flurries fell in Nicosia, Cyprus and Beirut, Lebanon.
• 1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 1 January 1999...An avalanche destroyed the wall of a school gymnasium where hundreds of people were celebrating the New Year in the Inuit village of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec. Nine people were killed. The school had been built on a site known to be susceptible to avalanches. (Accord's Weather Calendar)

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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.