DATASTREME WES WEEK ELEVEN: 12-16 April 2004

• Governors plea Army for end to dumping -- The governors of New Jersey and Delaware have appealed to the US Army to stop shipping of wastewater produced from the destruction of a Cold War-era nerve agent to New Jersey for the dumping of the chemical byproducts into the Delaware River, [ENN]
• New instrument for monitoring arctic ice tested-- An instrument was recently tested onboard an aircraft flying over the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole that will be used onboard the European Space Agency's CryoSat satellite to monitor small changes in the thickness of polar ice sheets and sea ice. [ESA News]
• Sea turtles nesting earlier -- Biologists at the University of Central Florida have found that loggerhead turtles are laying their eggs along Florida's Atlantic coast nearly 10 days earlier than 15 years ago. The scientists believe that the earlier dates are related to the increase of near-shore ocean temperatures by nearly 1.5 Fahrenheit degrees during this time span. [EurekAlert!]
• Argentina provides protective boost for coastal wildlife-- The Argentinean government recently committed to the Patagonia Coastal Zone Management Plan by signing an agreement that would safeguard its 2000-mile coastal zone from harmful development activities, thereby protecting coastal wildlife that includes sea lions and penguins. [EurekAlert!]
• Dangers posed by commercial trading of aquatic life -- Researchers from Stony Brook University and the University of California, Davis caution that the poorly regulated commercial trade of ornamental aquatic plants and animals for aquaria could pose a greater invasive threat to indigenous marine and freshwater ecosystems than the discharge of ballast water from ships. [EurekAlert!]
• In the search for water on Mars:
• Sapping channels on Mars point to water-- Images obtained from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express orbiter show a system of sapping channels that suggest erosion by water that may have seeped from rock outcroppings at some time in the past. [ESA News]
• Martian "blueberries" support water theory-- Analysis of the small hematite spheres dubbed "blueberries" that have been sampled by NASA's Opportunity rover suggests these mineral concretions formed as a result of water action. [US Water News Online]
• Melting of arctic sea ice could cause major water shortages in American West -- Climate modelers at the University of California recently reported on the results of their model that suggests as great as a 30 percent decrease in annual precipitation in the annual precipitation along the West Coast of the US within the next 50 years if continued global warming would cause the arctic sea ice to melt by 50 percent. [EurekAlert!]
• Seeding clouds to fight global warming? The New South Wales government in Australia is planning a 5-year cloud seeding project to increase the snowpack in Australia's Snowy Mountains that has declined as a result of increased global temperatures. [ENN]
• Quality of water intended for Hong Kong questioned-- While the environmental group Greenpeace has alleged that water coming to Hong Kong from a neighboring Chinese province contains large amounts of ammonia and mercury, local water officials consider the water safe for consumption. [ENN]
• Water debt to be reduced--An official with the International Boundary and Water Commission recently told irrigators along the Rio Grande River that recent precipitation over Mexico will allow that country to pay almost half of its outstanding water debt to the United States. [US Water News Online]
• 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 migration 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 frequency of long-term drought (described on pages 83-84 of the 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 drives 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 temperature rises, 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 into 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.

• 12 April 1994...While hiking in a nearly dry creek near Laie, HI, a group of Boy Scouts was surprised by a rapid 2 to 4 foot rise in water. One boy was swept away by the flash flood. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14-15 April 1912...The British steamer RMS Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. The collision occurred at about 11:45 PM on 14 April and the ship sank in 21/2 hours during the early morning hours of the 15^th. Reports showed 1517 people out of 2207 onboard lost their lives in this accident. As a result of this disaster, an International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the iceberg hazards in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct much of the effort. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 14 April 1986...The world's heaviest hailstone, weighing 2.25 pounds, fell in the Gopalganj District. This hailstone could have reached speeds in excess of 90 mph and could have injured or killed someone. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 15 April 1921...Two-mile high Silver Lake (elevation 10,220 ft) in Boulder County, Colorado received 76 in. of snow in 24 hrs, the heaviest 24-hr total of record for North America. The storm left a total of 87 in. in twenty-seven and a half hours. (David Ludlum)
• 16 April 1851...The famous "Lighthouse Storm" (a "nor'easter") raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed the 116-ft Minot Ledge Light at Cohasset, MA with the loss of its two keepers still inside. The lighthouse was the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean. The storm coupled with a spring tide resulted in massive flooding, great shipping losses and coastal erosion. Streets in Boston were flooded to the Custom House. (David Ludlum) (US Coast Guard Historians Office) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 16 April 1854...A furious storm that produced two feet of snow at New Brunswick, NJ also caused approximately 18 shipwrecks along the New Jersey coast. The immigrant ship Powhattan beached 100 yards from the shore. With rescue impossible, 340 people on board lost their lives. "The shrieks of the drowning creatures were melancholy indeed." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 16 April 1987...A slow moving storm system produced heavy rain over North Carolina and the Middle Atlantic Coast States. More than six inches of rain drenched parts of Virginia, and flooding in Virginia claimed three lives. Floodwaters along the James River inundated parts of Richmond, VA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 17 April 1942...A deluge of 8.35 in. of rain in only two hours dampened West Palm Beach, FL. (Intellicast)
• 17 April 1953...One of the few severe hailstorms accompanied by snow, sleet, glaze, and rain, pelted parts of Kay, Osage, Creek, Tulsa, Washington, and Rogers Counties in northeastern Oklahoma late in the day. Nearly 10,000 insurance claims were filed. (The Weather Channel)
• 17 April 1965...The Mississippi River reached a flood crest at Saint Paul, MN four feet higher than any previous mark. During the next two weeks record levels were reached along the upper Mississippi between Saint Paul and Hannibal, MO. Flooding caused more than $100 million in damage, but timely warnings kept the death toll down to just twelve persons. (David Ludlum)
• 17 April 1997...The Red River of the North crested at Fargo, ND, with a record crest of 39.6 ft, which is 22.6 ft above flood stage. This record flood, produced by several major winter storms, heavy spring rain, rapid snow melt, and ice jams, was responsible for at least 11 deaths (7 in North Dakota and 4 in Minnesota) and tremendous property damage along with large scale evacuations of residents from the Grand Forks metropolitan area. Dikes along the river gave way. Overall damage and cleanup costs have been estimated to range from $1 to $2 billion in Grand Forks, where a portion of the downtown burned as firefighters had a difficult time reaching the buildings due to the flood. [NCDC]
  Editor's Note: "History repeats!" During the second week of April 2001, the Red River at Grand Forks reached a river stage of 45 ft, or approximately 17 ft above flood stage and about 7 ft below the top of the levee. In 1997 this gauge measured a record 54.35 ft. EJH

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Prepared by AMS DataStreme WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2004, The American Meteorological Society.