WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

28 May-1 June 2007

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Hurricane Forecasts --- With the onset of the hurricane seasons in both the North Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific, NOAA forecasters have announced their seasonal outlooks for:
  • North Atlantic basin -- NOAA forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center foresee a 75 percent chance that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be more active than normal, with 13 to 17 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), including seven to ten hurricanes. Their Atlantic Hurricane Seasonal Outlook, which will be updated in August, also states that three to five of these hurricanes could reach major hurricane status (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale). NOAA also recommends that people in hurricane-prone regions to begin their preparation plans. [NOAA News] For comparison, Dr. William Gray, Philip Klotzbach and their associates at Colorado State University issued an updated forecast in early April calling for 17 named tropical cyclones, 9 hurricanes and 5 intense hurricanes during the upcoming 2007 North Atlantic hurricane season. [The Tropical Meteorology Project] Long-term statistics indicate nearly 11 named cyclones, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
  • Eastern North Pacific basin -- Forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issued their operational outlook for the Eastern North Pacific (east of 140 degrees W longitude), which began on 15 May 2007. They call for a 70 percent chance that this 2007 hurricane season will be a below average season, with 12 to 16 named tropical cyclones, including six to nine hurricanes and two to four major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). For comparison, the long-term averages for the eastern Pacific basin include 15 to 16 tropical named cyclones, nine hurricanes and four to five major hurricanes. [NOAA Public Affairs Press Release]
  • Central Pacific basin -- Forecasters at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, HI recently released their outlook for the 2007 hurricane season in the Central Pacific (from 140 degrees West to the Dateline). They are anticipating a slightly below average season, with the possibility of two to three tropical cyclones, as compared with a long-term average of between four to five tropical cyclones that includes nearly two hurricanes, two tropical storms and one or two tropical depressions. [NOAA Public Affairs Press Release]
• Long-term Atlantic hurricane strike record reconstructed -- Geologists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have analyzed sediment cores from a Caribbean lagoon in Vieques, Puerto Rico and have used these data to reconstruct a 5000-year record of past storm surges from intense landfalling hurricanes. This reconstruction, which is the longest record of hurricane strikes in the Atlantic basin, also shows that El Niño events and the West African Monsoon have a strong influence upon the frequency of intense hurricanes. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• Evacuation and traffic modeling studied -- Researchers at the Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory have been collaborating to develop large scale computer modeling systems that can simulate traffic patterns for New Orleans and that can be used to assist in emergency evacuations for the Big Easy such as when threatened by an approaching hurricane. [EurekAlert!]
• US coasts seen to be at higher risk for hurricanes -- A researcher at the University of Central Florida and his colleague from Georgia warned that large sections of the US coast lines along the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico appear to be at a substantially high risk for the upcoming 2007 North Atlantic hurricane season. They base their prediction upon analysis of over 155 years storm track data across the basin. [EurekAlert!]
• Tracking ice breakup on eastern Lake Erie -- Photographs taken by astronauts on the International Space Station during late March and April 2007 show the annual breakup of the ice on eastern Lake Erie and upstream of the ice boom placed at the entrance to the Niagara River. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Famous research vessel embarks on another Arctic expedition -- The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research flagship, Polarstern, recently departed from Bremerhaven for the Arctic Ocean to begin an expedition that will be held in conjunction with the International Polar Year. [EurekAlert!]
• Seawater from the depths sold as an exotic ingredient -- A Honolulu-based company has hired a crew of Alaska fishermen to pump 500,000 gallons of seawater per day from depths of 3000 feet below the surface off the coast of Hawaiian islands and then desalinate the water so it can be marketed as an ingredient free of impurities. [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]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 28 May 1963...A cyclone killed about 22,000 people along the coast of East Pakistan.
• 28 May 1987...A robot probe found the wreckage of the USS Monitor off Cape Hatteras, NC. (Wikipedia)
• 29 May 1827...The first nautical school was opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin's Lancasterian School.
• 29 May 1914...Shallow river fog along the St. Lawrence River approximately 185 miles from Quebec City, Quebec contributed to the collision of the CP Liner Empress of Ireland and a Norwegian coal ship, The Storstad. Although the two ships had spotted each other several minutes before the collision, altered courses and confused signals contributed to the crash. In one of the worst ship disasters in history, the liner sank in 25 minutes drowning 1024 passengers of the 1477 people on board. Only seven lifeboats escaped the rapidly sinking vessel. (The Weather Doctor) (The History Channel)
• 29 May 1950...A Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, RCMPV St. Roch, became the first ship to circumnavigate North America, when it arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Wikipedia)
• 30 May 1767...The first stone of the tower for the Charleston Lighthouse on Morris Island, SC was laid on this date. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 30-31 May 1997...As many as 140 people had to be rescued from rip currents off Dayton Beach Shores, FL. One man died in a rip current while trying to save his wife. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 31 May 1911...The hull of the ill-fated Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, "Not even God himself could sink this ship." (Information Please)
• 31 May 1997...The Confederation Bridge, also dubbed the "Fixed Link," was officially opened, linking Canada's Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick. This 8-mile long bridge that crosses the Northumberland Strait is the longest bridge in the world that spans waters that freeze. (Wikipedia)
• 1-17 June 2001...The deadliest and costliest tropical storm in US history, Tropical Storm Allison, wandered westward across the tropical Atlantic and crossed over into the Pacific before reversing direction and moving back into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. On 1 June the tropical wave, which eventually evolved into TS Allison, moved into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast of Mexico after moving westward across the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean from off the west coast of Africa on 21 May. On the 2^nd, a cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation developed to the south-southeast of Salma Cruz, Mexico, but the low-level circulation became ill-defined as the system moved inland on the 3^rd over southeastern Mexico and western Guatemala. This system intensified again and eventually moved northward to the Texas Gulf Coast and then eastward to the Atlantic before turning into an extratropical storm in mid-June. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2-4 June 1986...A tropical disturbance brought flooding rains to parts of the Greater Antilles. The flooding caused 59 deaths in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. As many as 240,000 people lost their homes to this disturbance. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 June 1979...The world's worst oil spill occurred when an exploratory oil well, Ixtoc 1, blew out, spilling over 140 million gallons of crude oil into the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico. Although it is the largest known oil spill, it had a relatively low environmental impact. The well was finally capped in March 1980. Booms were placed along the Texas coast to protect major inlets from the oil that was carried northward by prevailing surface currents in the Gulf of Mexico. (Information Please) (Wikipedia)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.