20-24 June 2005

DataStreme Water in the Earth System will return for Fall 2005 with new Water News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2005. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Lightning Safety Awareness Week-- The National Weather Service is observing Lightning Awareness Week during this upcoming week of 19-25 June 2005 . For more information, go to http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/, a site that includes a variety of informational and teacher resource materials. [NOAA News]
• Over 5000 saved -- Last week NOAA officials reported that with five people rescued in waters off the Florida coast, more than 5000 lives have been saved in the United States since 1982 because of the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking System (COSPAS-SARSAT). [NOAA News]
• Tsunami fails to materialize along West Coast -- A magnitude 7 earthquake centered several hundred miles off the northern California coast last Tuesday evening did not generate a tsunami as feared. Immediately after earthquake, a tsunami warning was issued for the entire US coast from Mexico north to British Columbia's Vancouver Island. [CNN]
• New satellite to monitor the planet's environment -- NOAA officials announced that a new geosynchronous satellite, currently identified as GOES-N, is scheduled for launch next Friday, 24 June 2005. This satellite will have sensors that are intended to be a part of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems that will monitor tropical weather systems (e.g., hurricanes), severe local storms and solar disturbances. [NOAA News]
• Warm and cold aspects of spring in US -- Scientists with the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) recently reported that meteorological spring (consisting of the months of March, April and May 2005) was unseasonably warm across the West, but cool across the East, resulting in a spring that was slightly above the long-term (1895-2004) average. While the nationwide precipitation for spring 2005 was near the long-term mean, many areas in the West, Florida and New England were wetter than average, but the southern Plains, mid-Mississippi Valley and the western Great Lakes were quite dry during this just-concluded spring. The drought was eased across the West. [NOAA News]
• Review of last winter's snow and ice -- The National Climatic Data Center recently released its annual report of this past winter season's snowfall and ice extent across the Northern Hemisphere. This report includes numerous graphs and animated monthly snow cover charts. [NCDC]
• New water vapor sensor for airliners -- A new type sensor designed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research that accurately measures atmospheric water vapor is to be placed on a fleet of commercial jet aircraft to supplement data obtained from conventional radiosondes and satellites. [UCAR]
• Details about the Antarctic iceberg calving studied -- Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Tasmania and the Australian Antarctic Division have been studying the details of the processes involved with the detachment of icebergs from the Antarctic ice sheet. [Scripps Institution of Oceanography]
• Tropical Weather Update -- Tropical Storm Arlene, the first named tropical cyclone of the new 2005 North Atlantic Hurricane Season made landfall along the Gulf Coast one week ago.
• Tropical Storm Arlene washed out a road and caused some beach erosion along sections of the Florida Panhandle that had been hit last September by Hurricane Ivan. [USA Today] Elsewhere across the Sunshine State, the tourism industry appears not to have suffered from last year's four major hurricanes. [USA Today] Farther to the west, Tropical Storm Arlene was a minor inconvenience for residents of coastal Alabama who are still working to clean up after Hurricane Ivan. [USA Today]
• Heavy rains accompanying Tropical Storm Arlene caused some minor flooding in western North Carolina at the beginning of last week. [USA Today]
• Level of Great Salt Lake begins to rise -- Following nearly six years of drought, the level of Utah's Great Salt Lake had fallen to near record low levels. However, storms that moved across the Southwest during last winter and spring have caused lake levels to begin to rise as the snow melts on the surrounding mountains and runs into the lake. [USA Today]
• Rains welcome in South Dakota -- Recent rain across South Dakota has not only resulted in greener prairies and farmland, but also improved the outlook of ranchers and farmers, some concluding that the drought is over. However, others, including the State Climatologist, are more cautious. [USA Today]
• Desertification represents a growing health problem -- A worldwide increase in deserts has resulted in major health problems from more dust storms, including higher infant mortality in many dryland countries, according to a report sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme. [EurekAlert!]
• A long recovery is the outlook for many lakes -- A limnologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported that many freshwater lakes will suffer from eutrophication for as long as a millennium because of the increased amounts of phosphorus entering the lake watersheds during the last six decades. [EurekAlert!]
• Tracking the fresh water influx into the North Atlantic -- Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute have been assessing the amount of fresh water being added to the North Atlantic during the last several decades because of melting glaciers and increased precipitation. They have compared this increase of fresh water accumulation with the decrease in salinity and report a threshold could be reached in the next century that would result in changes in the ocean circulation and the poleward transport of heat. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• 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.

• 20 June 1874...Intense thunderstorm brought 8 hours of heavy rain and incredible lightning to southern Manitoba. Lightning stampeded a herd of 250 police horses. (The Weather Doctor)
• 20 June 1921...Circle, MT received 11.50 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state. The town of Circle received a total of 16.79 inches of rain that month to establish a rainfall record for any town in Montana for any month of the year. (The Weather Channel)
• 21 June 1791...A hurricane, called El Temporal de Barreto - the storm of Barreto, generated a monster ocean wave that carried off the coffin of a rich, but hated, count as he lay in state in his mansion near Havana, Cuba. (The Weather Doctor)
• 21 June 1886...A destructive hurricane hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida on the summer solstice. Extensive damage was done in Florida and throughout the southeast by this storm, which was the first hurricane of the year. Damage was due mainly to extremely high tides. (Intellicast)
• 22 June 1915...A hailstorm struck the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The hailstones were pear-shaped and occasionally contained small pebbles. (Flora, Hailstorms of the United States, 1956)
• 22 June 1947...Twelve inches of rain fell in forty-two minutes at Holt, MO establishing a world rainfall intensity record. That record was tied on 24-25 January 1956, at the Kilauea Sugar Plantation in Hawaii, as their state record was established with 38.00 in. of rain in 24 hrs. (The Weather Channel)
• 22 June 1997...Thunderstorms caused flash flooding in parts of Michigan's Allegan and Ottawa Counties. Unofficially, 12 inches of rain fell on Zeeland, where 20 percent of the streets were flooded. More than 200 roads were either partially or totally washed out, with some washouts up to 8 feet deep. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 22 June 2003...The largest recorded hailstone in the United States fell on Aurora, NE. The diameter of this hailstone was 7 inches, and its circumference was 18.75 inches. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 23 June 1969...More than nine inches of rain soaked Salt Lick Creek watershed in the morning. In Red Boiling Springs, TN, a wall of water as much as seven feet high tumbled, swirled and crushed houses, vehicles, street pavement and small buildings as though they were "children's toys in a drainage ditch." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 23 June 1983...Excessive rainfall from the wetter than normal previous fall and winter, followed by a record wet March, led the DMAD Dam near Delta, UT to fill to twice its capacity before failing. Oasis and Deseret were flooded by water 3 to 5 feet deep. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24 June 1897...Hailstones six inches in diameter fractured a boy's skull in Topeka, Kansas. (Flora, Hailstorms of the United States, 1956)
• 24 June 1946...Mellen, WI received 11.72 inches of rain, setting a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Badger State. (NCDC)
• 24 June 1972...Rainier Park Ranger Station in Washington State had 4.4 inches of snow on this day. This turned out to be the last snowfall for the 1971-72 season and brought the seasonal total to 1122 inches -- a new single season snowfall record for the U.S. (Intellicast)
• 25 June 1749...A general fast was called on account of drought in Massachusetts. It was the year of the famous dry spring in which fields and villages burned. (David Ludlum)
• 25 June 1989...Tropical Depression Allison, the remnants of what was earlier Cosme (a hurricane over the Pacific Ocean that dissipated as it crossed northern Mexico), began to spread heavy rain into southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. (The National Weather Summary)
• 26 June 1933...A hailstorm swept a path of destruction 12 mi wide and 40 mi long across eastern Saskatchewan. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 26 June 1954...Eight fishermen were swept off the breakwater of the Montrose Harbor in Chicago, IL by a seiche on Lake Michigan. At the time, this killer wave rose suddenly from a serene Lake Michigan; sunny skies and calm wind conditions were reported. The seiche, produced by an earlier squall on the lake, caused the lake water to rise ten feet. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 26 June 1985...A spectacular early morning waterspout developed at 5:20 AM (MST) from a stationary thunderstorm over the south end of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It was visible 20 mi away, and lasted four minutes. (The Weather Channel)
• 26 June 1986...Hurricane Bonnie made landfall on the upper Texas coast. A wind gust to 98 mph occurred at Sea Rim State Park. The town of Ace recorded 13 inches of rain. (Intellicast)
• 26 June-7 July 1989...Tropical Storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico from remnants of Hurricane Cosme in the eastern North Pacific. Periods of heavy rain caused flooding across parts of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Winnfield, LA reported a six-day total of 29.52 inches of rain. This system was responsible for eleven deaths and approximately 500 million dollars in damage. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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