WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Eleven: 13-17 November 2006

Water in the News:

• (Thurs.) Large earthquake produces minor tsunami -- A major 8.1 magnitude earthquake off the northern coast of Japan on Wednesday (local time) prompted tsunami warnings around the Pacific by various agencies, including the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. However, the warning was soon discontinued as the wave was less than 20 inches on some of the Japanese coasts. [CNN]
• (Thurs.) A phase of large barrier island restoration project nears completion -- NOAA officials recently announced that the first phase of a project that involves the restoration of a barrier island in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish in the Mississippi Delta is nearing completion. This 800-acre project is one of the largest barrier island projects undertaken by NOAA. [NOAA News]
• (Thurs.) Harnessing the ocean -- Several small companies are requesting permits that would allow them to set up turbines at various sites that would extract energy from tidal motion. [US Water News Online]
• (Thurs.) Nanotechnology helps clean drinking water -- Scientists at Rice University have discovered that extremely small specks of rust, or iron oxide, have magnetic properties that could clean arsenic from drinking water, thereby providing a low-cost and low energy technology for cleaning water for millions of people, especially in south Asia and other developing countries. [EurekAlert!]
• (Thurs.) Major US soft drink company to undertake African water project -- The CEO of Coca-Cola Company recently pledged that his company, the world's largest beverage company, would help bring clean drinking water to parts of Africa and work with the U.S. Agency for International Development to help local communities with water management. [ENN]
• (Thurs.) European study focuses on tsunami prediction -- European scientists involved with ocean margin research are collaborating in a program called EUROMARGINS to predict tsunamis as a means to avert natural disaster along these ocean margins. [EurekAlert!]
• (Thurs.) Northern and Southern Hemispheres were connected by ocean currents during Ice Age -- A team of European scientists participating in the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) has studied ice cores and found that temperature responses in Northern and Southern Hemispheres between 55,000 and 20,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age appear to be connected by ocean currents that maintain a north-south circulation regime. [EurekAlert!]
• (Tues.) A space-eye view of the Dead Sea -- An image obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the Dead Sea and the surrounding desert in the rift valley that forms the Dead Sea depression, the lowest spot on Earth. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• (Tues.) Caribbean reef management addressed -- In anticipation of the celebration of the International Year of the Reef in 2008, the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force began planning by addressing the challenges associated with management of the Caribbean reefs, especially in the US Virgin Islands. [NOAA News]
• (Tues.) Icebergs float across Southern Ocean -- An oceanographer with New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research claims that the icebergs that have recently floated close to New Zealand in the South Pacific originally began their journey after breaking off the Ronne Ice Shelf located to the south east of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic approximately six years ago, drifting eastward in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. [ENN]
• (Tues.) Ballast water could bring harmful species to South Carolina waters -- Concern is being raised in Charleston, SC that ballast water dumped into that city's harbor containing harmful foreign marine species, which could rapidly populate the harbor and decimate the native ecosystem. [US Water News Online]
• (Tues.) African glaciers are melting -- A climate change specialist at Uganda's environment ministry recently reported that the famous glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains between his country and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have decreased by approximately 60 percent during the last century and could vanish in the future, threatening freshwater supplies for hundreds of thousands of people in equatorial Africa. [ENN]
• (Tues.) Ice crystals provide "rainbow" colors -- Contrary to what is described as a "rainbow" in the headline of the accompanying item, the included picture is of a portion of a halo formed by the refraction (bending) and dispersion of sunlight in ice crystals in a filmy cirrus type cloud over northern Idaho. [National Geographic News]
• (Tues.) An "air shower" shown to cut water use -- Researchers with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have found that using an "air shower" device on showerheads, which adds air to the water flow, cuts water use by approximately 30 percent. [CSIRO]
• (Tues.) A cloud, climate and ocean organism link seen -- Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology theorize that airborne particles produced by the oxidation of the chemical isoprene emitted by a large bloom of phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean could be responsible for increased concentrations of clouds over the Atlantic Ocean waters off the east coast of South America, which could ultimately contribute to climate change. [EurekAlert!]
• Eye on the tropics --
  • In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Rosa formed off the Mexican coast at the midpoint of last week, moved northward and then westward before dissipating at the end of the week. Over the weekend, Tropical Depression 20-E formed west of Mexico over the weekend then dissipated.
  • In the western North Pacific, Typhoon Chebi formed last week to the east of the northern Philippines and moved westward, crossing Luzon close to the track of Supertyphoon Cimaron that caused 19 deaths across this island a week earlier. Before making landfall, Typhoon Chebi briefly intensified to a category 4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale and weakened after moving across Luzon and entering the South China Sea. Winds gusted to 143 mph and heavy rain produced some flooding. On Sunday, this minimal typhoon was heading toward the coast of Viet Nam. [USA Today]
• In Pacific Northwest rains caused flooding and several fatalities -- A visible image from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite shows the large band of clouds that reflect the plume of humid air that brought torrential rain to the Pacific Northwest. [NOAA OSEI] The State Climatologist in Oregon, George Taylor, has documented the recent heavy rains that have caused major flooding across the Pacific Northwest with photos of the devastation, satellite imagery and selected tabulations of record or near-record 24-hour precipitation totals for his state and neighboring Washington State. He claims that 6 November 2006 was "Oregon's wettest day ever," as an hourly precipitation recording station in northwest Oregon reported 14.3 inches of rain in 24 hours, which would top the state record of 11.65 inches. At least one station in Southwest Washington received even greater totals. [Oregon Climate Service] An image generated from data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite as analyzed by the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center indicates some of the spatial variability in the precipitation patterns, especially on the windward or western slopes of the Olympics, the Coastal Range and the Cascades. [Earth Observatory]
• Rising sea level could force millions to flee -- German researchers who form the German Advisory Council on Global Change report that widespread warming across the planet associated with climate change could cause sea levels to rise, storms to become more powerful and seawater to become more acidic. They caution that these threats could cause tens of millions of people to become "sea level refugees" as they flee low-lying coastal communities. [ENN]
• Sea level was higher in the past -- Investigators from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies claim that a fossil corral reef found at roughly 10 feet above high tide along the coast of West Australia marks the high point of the last major rise in sea level during the previous interglacial epoch, between 128,000 and 125,000 years ago. [ARC Coral Reef Studies]
• Drought continues across the Plains -- While many areas of the West have been receiving welcome precipitation that had resulted in recovery from years of drought, the drought conditions persist across the Great Plains, resulting in continued misery for agricultural, commercial and hydroelectric power generation interests across many locations from the Dakotas south to Texas. [USA Today]
• Australia suffers from a historic drought -- An Australian water expert recently warned that Australia was currently experiencing its worst drought in one thousand years. [Yahoo News]
• More tribal water claims to be resolved -- The Bush Administration is attempting to negotiate several additional claims made by eleven Native American tribes in California, Montana and New Mexico this year. [US Water News Online]
• Lack of water and proper sanitation causes suffering in Asia -- A recently released report by the UN Development Program indicates that nearly two-thirds of the population of South Asia lack proper sanitation and many also lack potable water. [ENN]
• New Asian monsoon study is launched -- The Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) has launched a new Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study designed to study the interaction between humans and the environment in those sections of Asia affected by the Asian monsoon to support strategies for sustainable development. [EurekAlert!]
• 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]
• 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.

Concept of the Week: Desertification

Desertification is one of the world's most pressing environmental issues, threatening the existence of more than a billion people who depend on the land for survival. In 1992, the United Nation's Conference on Environment and Development defined desertification as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climate variations and human activities." Through desertification, arable land is transformed into desert-like land, greatly reducing or eliminating the land's capacity to produce food. Desertification's impact on people dependent on subsistence farming and herding is food insecurity. Often, their only option to avoid famine is to migrate to urban areas.

According to U.N. estimates, desertification affects about 130 million hectares (320 million acres) of land worldwide, equivalent to the combined areas of France, Italy, and Spain. Portions of some 110 nations are impacted, including parts of the North American Great Plains, the Pampas of South America, the steppes of Asia, the Australia's "outback," and the edges of the Mediterranean. But by far the most widespread and severe impact is in Africa, where two-thirds of the continent's land area is desert or dry land. Almost three-quarters of Africa's dry-land agricultural area is degraded to some extent. Desertification is a very serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa with its considerable year-to-year variability in seasonal rainfall and frequent long-term droughts (described on pages 83-84 of your DataStreme WES Textbook).

The systems approach is valuable in understanding desertification in that the process involves interactions of climate, Earth's land surface, the water cycle, and human activity. Desertification of dry lands accelerates during prolonged drought. Climate change can alter the frequency, duration, and intensity of drought and thereby contribute to soil desiccation. Although climate change may play an important role in desertification, a key factor is human mismanagement of the soil resource. Poverty and subsistence agriculture drive people to over-cultivate the land, quickly exhausting the soil's fertility. Overgrazing by livestock and deforestation exacerbate an already bad situation by removing the protective vegetative cover and exposing the topsoil to erosion by wind and running water. Winds can transport fine topsoil thousands of kilometers and sandstorms strip the leaves from plants and bury crops under dunes.

Land mismanagement also impacts the local climate and water budget, speeding up desertification. Without a vegetative cover, soil surface temperatures rise, accelerating evaporation of water, depletion of soil moisture, and build up of salts in the soil. Less soil moisture means that more of the available heat is used for raising the air temperature through conduction and convection (i.e., sensible heating). In this way heat stress combines with moisture stress to cut crop yields.

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. Through desertification, crop productivity [(declines) (increases)].
2. Human mismanagement of the soil resource [(is) (is not)] a key factor in desertification.

Historical Events:

• 13 November 1946...General Electric scientists, led by Vincent J. Schaefer, produced snow from a natural cloud over Mt. Greylock in the Massachusetts Berkshires in the first modern day cloud seeding experiment. An airplane spread small pellets of dry-ice (frozen carbon dioxide) for three miles at a height of 14,000 ft. Although the snow fell an estimated 3,000 feet, it evaporated as it fell through dry air, and never reached the ground. (The Weather Channel) (Today in Science History)
• 13 November 1970...A cyclone swept over Bangladesh, then known as East Pakistan, pushing a 49-foot storm surge against the coast at high tide. Flooding killed an estimated 500,000. Over 50 million people were affected by the storm rain, wind and surge. (The Weather Doctor)
• 13 November 1998...The youngest son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and two companions were swept into Kokanee Lake in British Columbia's Kokanee Glacier National Park by an avalanche while on a backcountry ski trip. The companions swam to shore, but the young Trudeau drowned. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 November 2002...The single-hulled oil tanker Prestige sank off Spain's Galician coast, causing a huge oil spill. (Wikipedia)
• 14-18 November 1979...Approximately 40 in. of rain were measured over northeast Hawaii, with much higher amounts likely in mountainous areas not monitored by rain gauges. The Waipio Valley was hit hard, with more than 90 percent of the valley's farmland covered by flood debris. The new $6.9 million road to Waipio Lookout that had just been dedicated was severely damaged. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14-21 November 1991...Tropical Cyclone Tia spent most of its life near the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. However, it completely destroyed 90 percent of all dwellings on Tikopia Island. The remaining 10 percent of the buildings had collapsed walls or roofs that had been blown off. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 15 November 1900...A record lake-effect snowstorm at Watertown, NY produced 45 in. in 24 hrs. The storm total was 49 in. (14^th-15^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 18 November 1421...Wind-driven waves from an intense storm breached Dutch dikes, sweeping away 72 villages. At least 10,000 people died in "St. Elizabeth's flood." (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 18 November 1873...A severe storm raged from Georgia to Nova Scotia causing great losses to fishing fleets along the coast. In Maine, the barometric pressure dropped to 28.49 in. at Portland. (David Ludlum)
• 18-19 November 1921...A storm that produced 54 in. of snow, sleet and glaze in Oregon blocked the Columbia River Highway at The Dalles. Apart from traffic on the river itself, all transportation between Walla Walla, WA and Portland, OR came to a halt. Nine trains were stopped as railroads were blocked for days in both Washington and Oregon. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum)
• 19 November 1978...A waterspout came onshore to become a tornado near Muhio Wharf in Hilo Harbor on Hawaii's Big Island. Some industrial buildings lost their roofs. The proximity of the waterspout-tornado caused an airliner to change its landing approach to Hilo's airport. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 19 November 1996...A 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state of Oregon was established when 11.65 in. of rain fell at Port Orford. (NCDC)

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Prepared by AMS DataStreme WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.