WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

31 December 2012-4 January 2013

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2013 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 14 January 2013. 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!

Ed Hopkins

ITEMS OF INTEREST

In Close -- Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the sun (147.1 million kilometers or 91.2 million miles), late in the evening of New Year's Day (officially at 05Z on 2 January 2013 or midnight EST, 11 PM CST, etc. on Tuesday, 1 January).
It's Sure Dark in the morning! -- Have you noticed that if you are an early riser, that mornings remain dark and somewhat dreary although local sunsets are becoming noticeably later during the last week? During the last week of December and the first week of January, many locations throughout the country will experience their latest sunrise times of the year, even though the winter solstice occurred more than one week ago during the morning hours of Thursday, 21 December 2012. The exact day for the latest sunrise depends upon the latitude, so you may want to check the date in your locale from the sunrise tables appearing in an on-line, interactive service available for the entire year at most cities in the United States. The reason for the late sunrise now rather than on the winter solstice is because the sun is not as precise a timekeeper as our watches. Because of a combination of factors involved with Earth's elliptical orbit about the sun and the tilt of Earth's spin axis with respect to the plane of the ecliptic, the sun appeared to "run fast" by as much as 15 minutes as compared with clock time in November. In early December, most locations experienced their earliest sunsets. However, with the approach of the winter solstice and perihelion (the smallest earth-sun distance during the early morning of 2 January 2013), the apparent sun slows during December and finally lags the clock by 12 minutes in February. Consequently, a noticeable and welcome trend toward later sunsets can be detected by the end of December, especially by those residents in the northern part of the country. However, the latest sunrises occur at most locales in early January, meaning a continuation of the dark and dreary mornings for another week or two.
Climatology of Southeast NCAA bowl games updated -- The Southeast Regional Climate Center has provided a listing of the weather history for twelve NCAA college bowl games that are to be played within the next two weeks across the Southeastern States. This climatology includes the warmest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days in the particular bowl's history.
High-quality maps of January temperature and precipitation normals across US available -- The PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University has prepared high-resolution maps depicting January's normal maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation totals across the 48 coterminous United States for the current 1981-2010 climate normals interval. These maps, with a 800-meter resolution, were produced using the PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) climate mapping system.
Videos help de-mystify science fair projects -- The Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently released a six-part video series designed to help lead teachers, students and parents in a step-by-step way through the designing and crafting a science fair project, including help with communicating the final results. [NASA JPL]
Grants for furthering environmental literacy are made available --Officials at the NOAA Office of Education has announced they will release a new funding opportunity in January 2013 through its Environmental Literacy Grants (ELG) program that is designed to build the capacity of informal and/or formal educators to use NOAA data and data access tools to help K-12 students and/or the public understand and respond to global environmental change. The proposed application deadline would be in early March. For more details, see the website http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/grants/elg.html . Eligible applicants will be considered according to two priority categories of equal importance that involve: 1.) collaborative teams of two or more US institutions, and 2.) collaborative teams exclusively composed of two or more non-profit US aquariums. Applicant teams may request up to $1 million for a 2- to 5-year project period.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

High-quality maps of January temperature and precipitation normals across US available -- The PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University has prepared high-resolution maps depicting January's normal maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation totals across the 48 coterminous United States for the current 1981-2010 climate normals interval. These maps, with a 800-meter resolution, were produced using the PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) climate mapping system.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Monitoring Arctic during the "polar night" from space....-- A "day-night" band image made from data collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite shows the sea ice that was expanding during this past autumn polar darkness across the Arctic Ocean. The VIIRS is sufficiently sensitive to be able to detect the dim light from the moon, stars and air glow that is reflected from the sea ice even when the region is not being illuminated by the Sun. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Rapid warming found on West Antarctic Ice Sheet -- Researchers from the Byrd Polar Research Center on the Ohio State University campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) report that the temperature record obtained from Byrd Station on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has increased by 4.3 Fahrenheit degrees in average annual temperature since 1958, which represents a rate of increase that is three times faster than the average temperature rise from elsewhere around the globe. Furthermore, the temperature rise is nearly double warming trends during austral summer (December through February). The researchers are concerned that this increased warming rate could result in an even bigger contribution to sea level rises than previously thought. [Ohio State University Communications][NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]
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]

CLIMATE FORCING

Hawaiian Islands are being dissolved -- Geologists from Brigham Young University claim that in addition to erosion from rainwater, the mountains on some of the Hawaiian Islands such as Oahu are being dissolved from within by groundwater. The researchers based their conclusions upon the annual mass loss they determined sampling the mineral content of the ground and surface water and from US Geological Survey records. While these mountains could disappear over time leaving low-lying islands, the researchers feel that other geological processes involving plate tectonics will maintain mountainous sections of Oahu for as long as 1.5 million years. [Brigham Young University]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Colorado River projected to be smaller in future -- Climate modelers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory predict that the flow in the Colorado River through the Southwest should decrease by approximately ten percent in the next several decades. This decreased flow would disrupt longtime water-sharing agreements between agricultural and municipal interests across the region from Colorado to southern California. The reduction in flow was projected because of projected higher temperatures across the region by 2040 that would result in increased evaporation, even if precipitation and snowfall would increase. Increased population across the region would also demand more water. [State of the Climate Blogs from Earth Institute, Columbia University]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Old views about evolution of early life challenged -- A research team from the University of California, Riverside and their colleagues in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany claim that their analysis of organic-rich shale has challenged a popular hypothesis in paleo-ocean chemistry that low levels of zinc in seawater was a factor in the delayed diversification of single and multi-cell organisms prior to 600 million years ago. These researchers believe that zinc was not in limited supply and that other controls must be invoked to explain the protracted appearance and proliferation of eukaryotic life. [University of California, Riverside Today]
Human evolution may have been driven by fluctuating environment -- After examining lake sediments from a gorge in East Africa's Tanzania, researchers at Penn State and Rutgers Universities claim that a series of rapid changes in the environment of East Africa approximately 2 million years ago may have been responsible for driving human evolution. As many as five to six rapid fluctuations between closed woodland and open grassland may have occurred during a 200,000-year period. Africa appears to experienced a general slow drying commencing at about 3 million years ago. [Penn State University Live]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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]

COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY

Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Report from the Field -- Bill Huskin, a DataStreme Climate Studies LIT member from Doylestown, PA, reported that southeastern Pennsylvania awoke to a rare white Christmas, as one half of an inch of snow fell during the predawn hours. He notes that according to NOAA, this area has a less than 20% chance of snow on the ground at Christmas.

Historical Events:

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) This world record has since been superceded by a reading of 1085.7 millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
31 December 1982...The year's total rainfall recorded at the rain gauge at Puu Kukui, at an elevation of approximately 5800 feet on the slope of the West Maui Mountains on Hawaii's Island of Kauai was 704.83 inches. This rainfall total represents the all-time greatest calendar year precipitation total in the United States. The rainfall total for that December was 42.00 inches. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
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)
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.)
3 January 1913...The barometer at Canton, NY read 28.20 inches of mercury (955.0 millibars), which is the lowest ever recorded at an inland station. (Intellicast)
3 January 1961...A three-day long ice storm was in progress over northern Idaho that produced an accumulation of ice eight inches thick, an U.S. record. Heavy fog, which blanketed much of northern Idaho from Grangeville to the Canadian border, deposited the ice on power and telephone lines causing widespread power outages. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
4 January 1888...Sacramento, CA received 3.5 inches of snow, an all-time record for that location. The heaviest snow in recent history was two inches on 5 February 1976. (4th-5th) (The Weather Channel)
5 January 1904...Bitterly cold air gripped the northeastern U.S. Morning lows of 42 degrees below zero at Smethport, PA and 34 degrees below zero at River Vale, NJ established state records for both the Keystone and Garden States. (The Weather Channel)
5 January 1913...The temperature at the east portal to Strawberry Tunnel reached 50 degrees below zero to tie the Utah state record low established at Woodruff on 6 February 1899. (David Ludlum) This record was later smashed in February 1985 when the temperature at Peter's Sink fell to 69 degrees below zero. (NCDC)
5 January 1974...The temperature at Vanda Station on the Scott Coast, Antarctica reached 59 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica. (The Weather Doctor)
5 January 1999...The temperature fell to 36 degrees below zero at Congerville in central Illinois to set a new record low temperature for the state. (NCDC)

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