DATASTREME WES WEEK TWELVE: 18-22 APRIL 2005

• Cruise ship damaged by giant wave -- The Norwegian Dawn, a 965-foot long cruise ship that was returning to New York from the Bahamas was battered by a seven-story wave that caused damage, flooded 62 cabins and injured four passengers late last week. The ship was diverted to Charleston, SC for repairs. [CNN]
• Hurricane evacuation plans overhauled -- Based upon experience gained from the traffic snarls in the New Orleans metropolitan area when Hurricane Ivan approached the Gulf coast last year, Louisiana and Mississippi state officials have recently unveiled a new plan that is designed to help residents evacuate coastal regions of the state more quickly and safely when a hurricane threatens. [USA Today]
• A major wildfire season due to Western drought -- The continuation of the exceptionally dry conditions across the northern Rockies and adjacent high Plains through this past winter have led forecasters to conclude that some areas could experience major wildfires this season, despite some recent precipitation. [USA Today]
• Southwest Utah bracing for snowmelt -- Officials across southwest Utah are preparing for possible flooding as record snowpack in the southern part of the Beehive State begins to melt with increasing spring temperatures. [USA Today]
• New marine pollution law sought for cruise ships -- Environmentalists and a variety of state and federal lawmakers are working on a Clean Cruise Ship Act designed to improve the treatment of wastewater on cruise ships operating off the US coasts, including banning of wastewater discharges within 12 miles of shore. [ENN]
• Cost not an acceptable reason for noncompliance -- The California Supreme Court recently ruled that the cities of Los Angeles and Burbank could not use high costs as a reason for not meeting the federal requirements for treating sewage as specified in the Clean Water Act. [US Water News Online]
• Spring salmon run is at record low level -- Scientists monitoring the annual spring run of chinook salmon in the Columbia River of Washington and Oregon have noted that fewest salmon in recent history have made their way upstream to the Bonneville Dam this spring. [ENN]
• Thirsty plants could keep deserts dry -- Hydrogeologists at the University of Texas at Austin reported that their research in the Mojave Desert would suggest that desert plants responding to increased precipitation could reduce the water entering the subsurface below the desert pavement. [EurekAlert!]
• Carbon dioxide not oceans could have caused an earlier warm period -- After studying algae sediments to determine sea surface temperatures and running computer models, researchers with the British Antarctic Survey and the University of California, Santa Cruz have concluded that increased levels of carbon dioxide rather than ocean currents may have been responsible for the last large scale global warming approximately 3 million years ago. [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: Change in the Earth System

In 1881, Henri Louis Le Chátelier (1850-1936) formulated a general law of chemistry: "If a system at equilibrium is subjected to a stress, the equilibrium will shift in an attempt to reduce the stress." This reasoning provides insight into the behavior of systems. The interaction of subsystems within the Earth system involves the transfer of mass and energy. A stress or disturbance of a subsystem will thus affect the other subsystems to varying degrees.

The final week of the course is an appropriate occasion for us to revisit and reflect on the paradigm that guided our investigation of water in the Earth system and to consider how this system will react to stresses resulting from both natural and human disturbances.

The burning of fossil fuels appears to be a major contributor to the increased amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Le Chátelier would describe this anthropogenic increase as a stress on the system. By altering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, human activity may be modifying climate on a global scale. The Earth system and its various interdependent subsystems may respond to this disturbance by shifting to a new climate state. The interdependency of Earth's various subsystems and biogeochemical cycles implies that such a shift will have implications for the distribution of water within the global water cycle and for fresh water resources (e.g., changes in glacial ice cover, sea level, drought frequency).

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. After completing DataStreme WES, I now understand the global water cycle as a flow of [(mass) (energy) (both mass and energy)].
2. After completing DataStreme WES, I now understand that human activity [(may) (may not)] impact the Earth system with implications for the water cycle and water resources.

• 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
• 20 April 1952...The tankers Esso Suez and Esso Greensboro crashed in thick fog off the coast of Morgan City, LA. Only five of the Greensboro's crew survived after the ship burst into flame. (David Ludlum)
• 24 April 1987...Showers and thunderstorms produced heavy rain in the Middle Atlantic Coast Region. Up to 7 in. of rain drenched Virginia in three days. Morgantown, WV received 4.27 in. in 24 hrs, and flooding was reported in south central West Virginia. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 24 April 1990...The Bogan River forced many residents to the second floors of two story buildings as the river topped sandbags protecting Nyngan, New South Wales, Australia. All of Nyngan was flooded to a depth of up to 20 ft in 4 to 6 hours and all 2500 residents were evacuated by helicopter or bus on the 25^th. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24 April 1995...Up to 6 in. of snow fell on the summits of Mauna Kea (13,796 ft elevation) and Mauna Loa (13,680 ft) on Hawaii's Big Island. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

Return to DataStreme WES Homepage

URL: DS-WES/news.html

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