WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

12-16 December 2016

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ITEMS OF INTEREST

Student scholarships announced -- The NOAA Office of Education recently announced that scholarships are available to undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, along with several of the other scientific and technical disciplines that support NOAA's mission and programs. [NOAA Office of Education] These scholarships include:
- Educational Partnership Program (EPP) Undergraduate Scholarship: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_undergrad_page.html. This program provides an opportunity for rising junior students to study disciplines relating to the NOAA's mission. Students attending Minority Serving Institutions are encouraged to apply. The application deadline for the 2017 EPP Undergraduate Scholarship Program is 31 January 2017.
- Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program: http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/scholarships/hollings.html. This program is designed to: (1). increase undergraduate training in oceanic and atmospheric science, research, technology, and education and foster multidisciplinary training opportunities; (2) increase public understanding and support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere and improve environmental literacy; (3.) recruit and prepare students for public service careers with NOAA and other natural resource and science agencies at the federal, state and local levels of government; and (4.) recruit and prepare students for careers as teachers and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science and to improve scientific and environmental education in the United States. The application deadline for the 2017 Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program is 31 January 2017.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Arctic sea ice is slow to grow with approach of winter -- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has produced several sets of charts and satellite images documenting the expansion of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean each year since the beginning of satellite surveillance in 1978. After the annual minimum extent of Arctic sea ice in September, the expansion of ice this fall was initially rapid before slowing dramatically, resulting in ice extents setting monthly record low values during October and November. Relatively warm ocean waters apparently are contributing to the slow growth of sea ice through late fall. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Coastal webcam at Barrow, AK monitors Arctic sea ice thickness and sea level -- The Sea Ice Group from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks operates a coastal ice observatory at Barrow, Alaska. The public is invited to visit their web site and monitor their webcam and radar unit for ice thickness conditions and ice movement on the adjacent Chukchi Sea that is a part of the Arctic Ocean. Changes in sea level elevation can also be examined. [US Climate Resilience Toolkit]
Kenyan students take observations using 3D-printed weather stations -- As part of a partnership with the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program, four weather stations known as 3D-PAWS (for 3D-Printed Automated Weather Stations) have been installed at four schools in Kenya for students to make observations of several weather variables including air temperature, humidity, rainfall and wind speed/direction. These stations were designed by weather experts at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and built largely with 3D-printed parts that can be easily replaced if they wear out in the field. The cost for each 3D-PAWS station is about $300, which compares favorably with a single commercial weather station that typically costs between $10,000 to $20,000, plus ongoing funding for maintenance and replacing worn-out parts. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Greenland's Ice Sheet appears to have nearly disappeared to bedrock for a time during Pleistocene -- A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Penn State University, the Berkeley Geochronology Center, Purdue University, the University at Buffalo and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory recently reported that their analysis of rock drilled from nearly miles below the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet showed the ice may have nearly disappeared for at least 280,000 years during the last 1.4 million years, which is during the Pleistocene epoch. Their finding suggests that the Greenland Ice Sheet may be more vulnerable than previously thought. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory News]
East Greenland Ice Sheet has responded to changing climate during the last 7.5 million years -- A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Vermont, Boston College and the United Kingdom's Imperial College London has discovered that East Greenland has experienced deep and ongoing glacial erosion over the last 7.5 million years, as based on their analysis of marine sediment cores off the Greenland coast containing isotopes of aluminum and beryllium. Their reconstruction of the past ice sheet erosion dynamics may provide some implications as to how much the ice sheet will respond to future interglacial warming. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory News]

CLIMATE AND HUMAN HEALTH

Deadly 2016 avalanche in Tibet may have been caused by changing climate -- A team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and two glaciologists from Ohio State University's Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center recently reported on their findings following a forensic analysis of a deadly avalanche that occurred on 17 July 2016 in the mountains of western Tibet. The avalanche containing more than 70 million tons of ice killed nine nomadic yak herders in a valley below the Aru glacier, where the avalanche occurred. The researchers concluded that increased temperatures due to changing climatic conditions were responsible, with meltwater at the base of the glacier lubricating the ice to speed down the mountain. [Ohio State University News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & La Niña advisory outlook updates released -- Forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) released their monthly "El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion" late last week. They showed La Niña conditions to be persisting through November as below average sea surface temperatures (SST) were found across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. SST values across many of these regions ranged from between one and two Celsius degrees below normal across this region. Consequently, the CPC forecasters still maintained their La Niña advisory, as they envision a continuation of the present weak La Niña conditions through the remainder of Northern Hemisphere winter (December through February) with a transition to a ENSO-neutral conditions beginning during the three-month interval of January through March, 2017; ENSO-neutral means that neither El Niño or La Niña conditions would be anticipated. A technical description of the forecasters' reasoning is provided by the "El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion" [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] An ENSO blog written by a contractor for CPC provides a non-technical description of how the CPC forecasters arrived at their forecast of the next several months where the weak La Niña conditions would begin a transition to ENSO-neutral conditions during late boreal winter and early spring. The blog also has a discussion of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), a large-scale fluctuation in tropical weather on weekly to monthly time scales that moves eastward and how it can affect the impact of the multi-month El Niño or La Niña conditions. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Seasonal temperature predictions can be improved significantly by snow data from satellites -- Researchers from the University of Texas have recently shown that the incorporation of snow data obtained from NASA satellites into the seasonal climate outlook models enhances the accuracy of the models' regional temperature outlooks by 5 to 25 percent. The satellite data included Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover fraction (SCF), and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) terrestrial water storage. [University of Texas-Austin News]
Rainfall patterns are expected to shift with increasing global temperatures -- A team of researchers from: the United Kingdom's Met Office, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)-Climate at the University of Reading and the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory recently conducted a scientific study of how precipitation patterns around the world might respond to rising average global surface temperatures. The study revealed that regional precipitation changes associated with a one to two Celsius degree in global temperature would be distinctly different than those associated with a two to four Celsius degree increase. These results suggest that direction and amplitude of precipitation change on a regional basis simply cannot be extrapolated from increasing global temperature values. In addition, the study suggests that regardless of the speed at which the two Celsius degree increase in global temperature that is considered to be the upper threshold in last year's Paris Agreement, the rainfall changes would be broadly similar. [UK Met Office News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

12 December 1882...Portland, OR was drenched with 7.66 inches of rain, a record 24-hour total for that location. (12^th-13^th) (The Weather Channel)
12 December 1995...A five-day lake-effect snowstorm came to an end at Sault Ste Marie, MI over which time 61.7 inches fell, by far the biggest snowstorm ever. In one 24-hour span, 27.8 inches fell to set the 24-hour record. The snow depth reached 50 inches at one time, tying the record. The storm brought the monthly total to 82.5 inches, the greatest monthly total ever. The city went on to set a new winter season record with well over 200 inches. (Intellicast)
13 December 1878...Los Angeles, CA fell to 30 degrees, the lowest temperature at that time for December. (Intellicast)
13 December 1915...A heavy snowstorm kicked off the snowiest winter in modern records for western New England. (The Weather Channel)
13 December 1962...A severe Florida freeze occurred. Morning low temperatures reached 35 degrees at Miami, 18 degrees at Tampa, and 12 degrees at Jacksonville. The renowned "Coldest December Day" was the coldest December weather of the 20th century and caused millions of dollars damage to crops and foliage. In Georgia, the morning low of 9 degrees below zero at Blairsville established a state record for the month of December. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
14 December 1924...The temperature at Helena, MT plunged 79 Fahrenheit degrees in 24 hours, and 88 degrees in 34 hours. The mercury plummeted from 63 degrees above to 25 degrees below zero. At Fairfield, MT, the temperature plunged 84 Fahrenheit degrees in just 12 hours, from 63 degrees at noon to 21 degrees below zero at midnight. This temperature fall is the greatest 12-hour temperature change ever recorded in the United States. (David Ludlum) (National Weather Service files)
14 December 1987...A powerful storm spread heavy snow from the Southern High Plains to the Middle Mississippi Valley, and produced severe thunderstorms in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Kansas City, MO was blanketed with 10.8 inches of snow, a 24-hour record for December. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
15 December 1582...The Spanish Netherlands, Denmark and Norway adopted the Gregorian calendar.
15 December 1945...A record December snowstorm buried Buffalo, NY under 36.6 inches of snow, with unofficial totals south of the city ranging up to 70 inches. Travel was brought to a halt by the storm. (14^th-17^th) (The Weather Channel)
16 December 1890...A big snowstorm at Pittsburgh, PA dropped 23.9 inches in 24 hours, the greatest 24-hour snow for that city. (Intellicast)
16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
17 December 1884...A three-week blockade of snow began at Portland, OR. A record December total of 34 inches was received. (David Ludlum)
17 December 1930...Greensboro, NC experienced its greatest 24-hour snowfall when 14.3 inches fell. (Intellicast)
18 December 1919...The temperature fell to one degree below zero at Central Park in New York City for the earliest sub-zero temperature on record. (Intellicast)
18 December 1989...Unseasonably warm weather continued ahead of an arctic cold front. Miami FL equaled their record for December with an afternoon high of 87 degrees. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)

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