27-31 December 2010

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2011 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 17 January 2011. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the AMS DS Earth's Climate Systems Central Staff!

• No "leap second" will lengthen 2010 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2010. However, back on 31 December 2008, the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. At the time, tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. [US Naval Observatory]
• A glimpse of the lunar eclipse -- A photograph made by a NASA employee in Arlington, VA shows the Moons surface being darkened by the Earth's shadow near the height of last week's total lunar eclipse, which occurred within 12 hours of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. [NASA]

• National high temperature records set around the globe in 2010 -- A website called ClimateSignals recently provided a summary of 19 national extreme high temperature records in 2010. These all-time records from 19 countries represent the most national extreme heat records for a single calendar year in recent history. In addition, the 19 nations with these records cover approximately 20 percent of the Earth's total land area, which represents the largest area of the planetary surface to have this distinction in the historical record. [ClimateSignals]
• Global temperatures could reach record levels in 2010 -- At the beginning of December, the United Kingdom's Met Office recently announced that according to climate scientists at the Met Office and the University of East Anglia, provisional data would indicate the calendar year of 2010 could rank as either the warmest or second warmest during the instrumental period commencing in 1850. They were comparing the data with a forecast of global temperatures for 2010 made late last year. The global temperature record considered runs through October 2010 and is part of the Met Office – Climatic Research Unit (HadCRUT3) data set. These data and the ultimate annual temperature rankings may differ slightly from the global temperature data sets records developed at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The scientists predict that following near record global warmth in 2010, the lingering effects of a strong La Niña could result in a slightly cooler 2011. [UK Met Office News]
• November drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its November 2010 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately four percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of November, while 16 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.

• Several indicators point to a strong La Niña event--An oceanographer and climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently provided several images generated from data collected from satellites that demonstrate one of the strongest La events in the last 50 years is currently underway. One of the images was a sea surface temperature anomaly map for the Pacific basin obtained from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, which indicates unusually cold and nutrient-rich waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean off the South American coast. Another image is of the sea surface anomaly across the basin from the US-French Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite helps depict the heat content of the near surface water. A third image is that of the rainfall anomaly across the tropics and subtropics from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). He believes that this event should continue through the Northern Hemisphere summer. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAAWatch]
• 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]

• Planet's river systems could release large amounts of a greenhouse gas -- A team of 27 scientists recently reported that their research indicates emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, from rivers and streams around the world are at rates approximately three times greater than previously estimated by the respected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The large quantities of nitrous oxide appear to be a byproduct of microbial denitrification caused by human activities, such as urbanization and agriculture. Using a powerful river network model developed at the University of New Hampshire's Water Systems Analysis Group, the researchers estimate that the planetary river networks represent at least 10 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. According to some of the scientists, the global warming potential of nitrous oxide is 300-fold greater than carbon dioxide on a per molecule basis. [University of New Hampshire] [NSF]

• Software being trained to help monitor changing climate -- Researchers at Penn State University have developed a computer program that they envision will help climate scientists analyze the large quantities of available data and satellite imagery so as to monitor the complex environmental conditions associated with a changing climate. Using probability theory, the researchers initially developed the program to analyze mesoscale regional ocean structures that are evident on satellite images. They hope that the data on these oceanic features will offer clues on subtle changes in oceanic temperature and global climate conditions. [Penn State University Live]

• Local sea level study made for Chesapeake Bay -- Using data collected from NOAA satellites and tide gauges, researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have found that local sea-level trends along the shores of Chesapeake Bay contain a component of the absolute level of the Bay, a measure of the volume and mass of ocean water, that has been rising only half as fast as the global sea level rise. However, they also found a component in the relative sea level, or the level of the ocean measured relative to land, associated with local subsidence that has contributed to a significant increase in the Bay's water level. They caution that relatively moderate rates of absolute sea-level rise, when combined with locally high rates of land subsidence and an increasing coastal population, could result in a significant and growing threat along Chesapeake Bay. [Virginia Institute of Marine Science]

• Microscopic marine life could be altered by increased greenhouse gases -- A team of researchers from the University of California, Merced, the University of Hawaii, the University of Southern California and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences conducted experiments in the Pacific Ocean and in the Atlantic Ocean where they increased ocean acidification (decreased the pH level of ocean water). The researchers found that the increased acidification caused a decrease in the production of the oxidized forms of nitrogen used by phytoplankton and other microorganisms. They warn that increased greenhouse gas emissions, which would cause ocean acidification, could alter the nitrogen cycles in the ocean and impact microscopic marine life. [EurekAlert!]

• Reconstructing the climate from Dead Sea cores -- Scientists from Israel's Tel Aviv University along with a team of colleagues from other nations are planning to obtain a 500-meter long core of sediments from under the Dead Sea in an effort to collect information concerning climate change and earthquake patterns over a half million year span in that region. [American Friends of Tel Aviv University]

• New fossil site helps trace recovery of life after massive ancient extinction -- Scientists from the United Kingdom's University of Bristol recently reported discovery of a major new fossil site in southwest China that could help shed light on how life recovered from what appears to be the greatest mass extinction in Earth history at the end of the Permian (approximately 250 million years ago). During this time, a sustained period of massive volcanic eruption and devastating global warming nearly extinguished all life on the planet. A diverse set of marine fossils found at this site shows that life recovered in the subsequent Triassic. [University of Bristol]

• Humans increase their reliance on plants -- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center using a variety of data obtained from the agency's satellites have found that humans are continuing to become more reliant on plants for a variety of products such as food, fiber, building materials and biofuels as both the rate of consumption and the per capita rate of consumption have increased globally. A global map shows total consumption by region of photosynthetic plant material or "demand" as Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) as a percentage of the plant material grown by region, described as plant "supply" net primary production (NPP). [NASA's Earth Science News Team] A similar map was produced from data collected by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. [NASA Earth Observatory]

• Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 28 December 1897...The temperature at Dayville, OR hit 81 degrees to establish a state record for December. (The Weather Channel)
• 28 December 1955...Anchorage, AK was buried under 17.7 inches of snow in 24 hours, a record for that location. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 28 December 1958...Albuquerque, NM received 14.2 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 29 December 1917...Washta, IA dropped to 40 degrees below zero, the record low temperature for the Hawkeye State; this record has been broken by a 47 degree below zero reading in February 1996. (Intellicast)
• 29 December 1933...Ontario's coldest day on record as fourteen sites recorded their lowest-ever temperature, including Ottawa (-38?F) and Algonquin Park (-49?F). (The Weather Doctor)
• 29 December 1954...Fort Scott, KS was buried under 26 inches of snow in 24 hours to establish a state record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 29 December 1984...One hundred cities in the central and eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures. Southerly winds gusting to 50 mph helped Kansas City experience its warmest December day of record with a morning low of 60 degrees and an afternoon high of 71 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 30 December 1880...The temperature at Charlotte, NC plunged to an all-time record low reading of 5 degrees below zero, a record that was equaled on 21 January 1985. (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1917...A great cold wave set many records in the northeastern U.S. Temperatures of 37 degrees below zero at Lewisburg, WV and 32 degrees below zero at Mountain City, TN set all-time low temperature records for both the Mountain and Volunteer States. (NCDC)
• 30 December 1933...The temperature fell to 50 degrees below zero at Bloomfield, VT, marking the lowest reading in modern records for New England. (David Ludlum)
• 30 December 1955...Anchorage, AK reported an all-time record snow depth of 47 inches. (30^th-1^st) (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1968...A new record low temperature for the state of Washington was set in two towns on the same date. Mazama and Winthrop both dropped to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 31 December 1917...The temperature at Lewisburg, WV plunged to 37 degrees below zero to set a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 31 December 1929...Greenland Ranch, in Death Valley, CA, went the entire year without measurable precipitation. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1941...Snow that began on New Year's Eve became a major blizzard on New Year's Day, burying Des Moines, IA under 19.8 inches of snow in 24 hours, an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1968...The sea-level corrected atmospheric pressure rose to a world's record for highest sea level pressure reaching 1083.8 millibars (32.01 inches) at Agata, Siberia. At the time, Agata Lake reported a temperature of -46^o C (-50.8^oF). (The Weather Doctor)
• 31 December 1989...The year and decade ended on a soggy note in the eastern U.S. Thunderstorm rains pushed precipitation totals for the year to 88.32 inches at Baton Rouge, LA and to 75.37 inches at Huntsville, AL, establishing all-time records for those two locations. Dry weather continued in California. Sacramento and San Francisco finished the month without any rain or snow, and Santa Maria reported their driest year of record with just 3.30 inches of precipitation. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
  The highest air pressure ever recorded in United States was 1078.6 millibars (31.85 inches of mercury) at Northway, AK. (The Weather Doctor) This record has since been superceded by a reading of 1085.7 millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
• 1 January 1886.Norway's coldest night on record occurred as the temperature at Karasjok dropped to 60.5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (The Weather Doctor).
• 1 January 1979...The temperature at Maybell, CO plunged to 60 degrees below zero to tie the state record set back in 1951 at Taylor Park. (The Weather Channel)
• 2 January 1885...The lowest temperature ever recorded at Duluth, MN occurred on this date. The temperature plunged to 41 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1893...Little Rock, AR had its greatest 24-hour snowfall, with 13 inches that covered the ground. . (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1961...The lowest temperature of record for the state of Hawaii was established with a reading of 14 degrees atop Haleakala Summit. (David Ludlum) (This state record has been eclipsed in May 1979.)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.