WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

16-20 January 2012

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Approaching coldest time of the year -- This upcoming week is the third full week of January, which for many locations across the nation typically marks the coldest week of the year, as indicated by the daily normal high and low temperatures. Usually, those stations located away from the moderating influences of the oceans reach their lowest temperatures during the third week of January, or a roughly one month after the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere receives the fewest hours of daylight and the smallest amounts of solar radiation. During that month, temperatures continue to fall to their lowest typical values as cooling continues. However, the increased length of daylight and increased sunshine during this month begins to warm the ground and overlying atmosphere as normal daily temperatures begin to rise toward their highest levels in mid to late July.
Participate in "GLOBE at Night" activities this week -- This week (14-23 January 2012) is identified as the first of the four weeks of the "GLOBE at Night" field campaign of 2012, which represents an international citizen scientist project designed to measure and report the degree of light pollution all around the world using the human eye. This project is part of the GLOBE Program and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO); financial sponsors include NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of State. Check the GLOBE at Night website http://www.globeatnight.org/index.html for additional information on this week's activities plus a Teacher Information Page and activity packet.
January declared National Radon Action Month -- Noting that January is National Radon Action Month, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging Americans to test their homes for harmful levels of radon gas, which is suspected to cause approximately 21,000 Americans to die per year from radon-related lung cancer. [EPA Newsroom]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

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

National greenhouse emissions data released for 2010 -- During the past week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the first-ever list of comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) data reported directly from large facilities in nine industry groups and from suppliers of certain fossil fuels across the nation. These data show that in 2010, power plants were the largest stationary sources of direct emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, followed by petroleum refineries. [EPA Newsroom]
Heat in Russia linked with rain in Pakistan -- Using surface temperature and rainfall observations along with satellite and upper-air data, a researcher from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and colleagues have determined that two extreme weather events during the summer of 2010 were linked. They found a stagnant atmospheric pattern called a "block" that not only resulted in a heat wave and severe drought conditions across eastern Europe and western Russia, but also contributed to the heavy rainfall that concurrently fell across northern Pakistan. [UCAR Staff Notes]
A better way to gauge climate costs of land use change is found -- A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new means for incorporating characteristics of ecosystems other than the release of carbon dioxide during their assessment of the effects upon the climate when a forest is cleared for the growth of crops. The researchers found that tropical rainforests have an even greater climate cooling impact when evapotranspiration, an important biophysical attribute, is included in their calculations on land use change. Boreal forests have less climate cooling potential when biophysical attributes are also considered. [University of Illinois News Bureau]
Increased global temperatures associated with greenhouse gases delay natural glaciation patterns -- A research team from the University of Florida and the United Kingdom's University College London and the University of Cambridge, claim that increased levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere appear to be causing increased global temperatures at a time when global cooling should begin to occur according to the astronomical theory of climatic change, where changes in solar irradiance are associated with changes in the Earth's orbital elements. This theory would have the end of the current interglacial epoch and the start of glaciation beginning within 1500 years. [ University of Florida News ]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Hail could be disappearing from Colorado -- A research team from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory, the University of Colorado and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) ran computer simulations of hailstorms across Colorado's Rocky Mountains, comparing those that would form during the period 2041 to 2070 when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations could be nearly 1.5 times current levels with hailstorms during the 1971 to 2000 interval. They found that small hail would be nearly eliminated from elevations above 7500 feet. Some of the hail would either fall as rain or evaporate. [UCAR Staff Notes]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Links found between climate change and the plants and animals in western mountains -- In a study conducted by US Geological Survey and University of Montana scientists, large changes in plant and bird populations were found across the mountains of the West due to increased ability of elk herds to stay at higher elevations over winter and consume plants. These changes, considered to be a "classic ecological cascade" appear to be due to less snow associated with changing climatic conditions. [USGS Newsroom]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Ice cores from glacier in Alps may yield past climate history --A team from Ohio State University and several European institutions have retrieved four ice cores from a glacier on Mount Ortles in the Italian Alps. They hope that these cores will reveal information on past climates over the last millennium, including atmospheric by-products of smelting metals generated by early human residents in the region. [Ohio State University Research]
Siberian volcanism may have contributed to the Earth's largest extinction event -- A researcher from the Carnegie Institution for Science and her colleagues at the Washington State University and the University of Iowa claim that a massive volcanic eruption in Russia that resulted in a large swath of volcanic rock called the Siberian Traps appears to be a trigger for the world's largest major extinction approximately 250 million years ago at the conclusion of the Permian geologic period. The massive eruption could have produced sufficient sulphur dioxide and halogens to cause a drastic deterioration in the environment that resulted in a sudden loss in more than 90 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species. [Carnegie Institution for Science]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Global health and food security should benefit from climate change actions -- An international team led by a scientist from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies recently released a study that highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that could have the greatest potential for slowing the pace of global warming within the next 40 years, improving human health and boosting global agricultural production if implemented. The focus was on reductions of the emissions of black carbon and methane. [NASA News]
Strong headwinds necessitates changes in trans-Atlantic flights -- Exceptionally strong winds traveling across the North Atlantic from the west at altitudes between 20,000 and 40,000 feet have caused some airlines to make unexpected detours in their non-stop flights from Europe to North America in order to conserve fuel. According to data from United-Continental, the average winds at flight level across the North Atlantic during December 2011 were approximately 150 percent of the average December winds since 2001. [USA Today]
Record low number of lightning fatalities in 2011 -- Although more than 500 people across the nation were killed by tornadoes in 2011, only 26 people were killed by lightning during the past year. According to the National Weather Service, the number of lightning-caused fatalities was the lowest number on record. Back in the 1940s, lightning was considered to be the nation's number one weather-related killer, with more than 300 Americans dying from lightning strikes per year. [USA Today]
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 --

earthweek.com

Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Touring the DataStreme Earth's Climate System Website

Welcome to DataStreme Earth's Climate System (ECS)! The Earth's Climate System website is an integral component of the DataStreme ECS (Earth's Climate System) course. The website is intended to deliver a wealth of climate information that is both pertinent to the course as well as being a reference site for you as you study Earth's climate system. The webpage is arranged in several sections. On Monday of each week of the course, we will post the current Weekly Climate News that includes Climate in the News (a summary listing of recent events related to climate), Concept of the Week (an in-depth analysis of some topic related to climate in the Earth system), and Historical Events (a list of past events important in the understanding of climatology). When appropriate, Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth will be provided on some topic related to the principal theme of the week.

You will use the DS Climate Studies website to access and download the "Current Climate Studies" that complement your Climate Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should also be available by noon (Eastern Time) on Monday. Click the appropriate links to download and print these electronic components of the investigations as well as your Chapter, Investigations and Current Climate Studies Response forms.

Beyond these course Learning Files, sections include Climate Information, Climate Variability, Climate Change, Societal Interactions and Climate Policy, and Extras. As the titles suggest, there are multiple uses for climate data and their interpretation. Here we explore some examples of the information provided in the various sections of the webpage.

The Climate Information section includes access to weather data, the raw material of climate synthesis, from the United States and the world under the heading "Observations and Data." Under this heading, click on "U.S. and World Weather Data." This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) page first directs you to "United States Weather" and provides channels to current weather data as well as radar graphics, weather maps, and aviation and marine weather. It then leads you to International Weather Conditions.

The second major subdivision of the course website encompasses Climate Variability. Climatic variability refers to the fluctuations and oscillations that may occur within the climate system at temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Select the link, "NOAA El Niño Page". The page that appears provides access to a wealth of background and information on El Niño and La Niña, including the animation showing sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Pacific during recent months. To the left of the animation, click on "What's happening today?" The page of current tropical Pacific conditions that appears shows a small map to the right. Click on that map and again anywhere on the subsequent set of map panels to get an enlarged view of the latest conditions of SST and anomalies.

The third major section of the course website is termed Climate Change. Here we provide links to information and analyses that primarily focus on anthropogenic (human-made) change processes and results in the climate system. That prominently includes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ("IPCC") latest classic report on atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and their effects. Also linked are modeling results ("Models") based on those studies.

The last major section of the website is titled Societal Interactions and Climate Policy. This block contains information on the impacts of projected change on human societies around the world, beyond that listed in the IPCC report, and the international actions and debates regarding those issues. Select and click on "US Global Change Impacts Report" to the left in this section. This webpage introduces you to the latest comprehensive and authoritative report on climate change and its impacts in the United States, now and in the future. You will be directed to this report several times in this course.

Completing the course website is the Extras section of additional handy information for the course and individual study such as dictionaries of terms, maps and materials. Choose and examine one of the Climate Literacy links, either a PDF or the Word version. This document has recently been developed and released by NOAA to provide an overview of general concepts and information the general public and especially students should be aware of regarding the climate and the climate debate.

Concept of the Week: Questions

The first Climate Information link, "NOAA Climate Services", shows the Global Climate Dashboard where several graphs display Earth's temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide level, spring snow cover, etc. with a time slider than can be set to display from [(1800)(1880)(1940)] to the latest data in 2010.
Under the Societal Interactions and Climate Policy section, click the "U.S. Global Change Impacts Report" link. On their page, click the Home tab of the Menu bar along the top. Midway down the resulting page are two selector bars that show the climate impacts in the report are categorized by [(only regional)(only sectoral)(both regional and sectoral)] climate information.

Historical Events:

16 January 1881...The temperature at Markree Castle (County Sligo) fell to 2 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), Ireland's lowest temperature of record. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
16 January 1889...The temperature at Cloncurry, Queensland reached 128 degrees F, the highest ever reported in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
17 January 1893...The mercury dipped to 17 degrees below zero at Millsboro, DE to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
17 January 1972...A single storm unloaded 77.5 inches of snow at Summit, MT to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
17 January 1988...A Pacific storm battered the southern coast of California. Los Angeles reported an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 29.25 inches. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
18 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Oregon was set at Seneca when the thermometer dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1943...The record low temperature for the state of Oklahoma was set at Watts when the mercury dipped to 27 degrees below zero. The record low temperature for the state of Idaho was set at Island Park Dam when the temperature fell to 60 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1957...The record low temperature for the state of Massachusetts was set at Birch Hill Dam when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero. This record was tied in January 1981. (Intellicast)
18 January 1977...The record low temperature for the state of South Carolina was set near Long Creek when the mercury plunged to 20 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-27 January 1980...Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced of rainfall over the 10-day period at Commerson, La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor)
19 January 1786...The temperature at Hartford, CT fell to 24 degrees below zero. Up to this time, it was the lowest ever known on a thermometer.
19 January 1925...The record low temperature for the state of Maine was set at Van Buren when the temperature fell to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
19 January 1933...Giant Forest, CA received 60 inches of snow in just 24 hours, a state record, and the second highest 24-hour total of record for the U.S. (David Ludlum)
19 January 1994...An extremely cold arctic airmass set 67 new record temperature lows from Minnesota to Virginia, including 10 cities that recorded their lowest temperatures ever. The following cities set all-time record lows: Indianapolis, IN (27 degrees below zero), Akron, OH, Clarksburg, WV, and Zanesville, OH (25 below), Pittsburgh, PA, Louisville, KY, Columbus, OH and Youngstown, OH (22 below), Cleveland, OH (20 below), and Erie, PA (18 below). The mercury plunged to 36 below zero at New Whiteland, IN to set a new record low temperature for the Hoosier State. In Kentucky, a statewide record low temperature was set at Shelbyville with a reading of 37 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
19 January 1995...Columbia, MO was buried under 19.7 inches of snow in 24 hours for its greatest 24-hour snowfall and snowstorm ever. Wind gusts up to 45 mph produced blizzard conditions and thunderstorms occurred several times during the heavy snow. Interstates 70, US 63, and US 54 were closed down. The same storm produced 15 inches of snow at Moline, IL and 14 inches at Blue Jacket, OK. (Intellicast)
20 January 1937...The record low temperature for the state of California was set at Boca when the thermometer dropped to 45 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
20 January 1954...The temperature at Rogers Pass, MT plunged to 69.7 degrees below zero to establish a new low temperature record for the continental U.S. (David Ludlum)
20 January 1977...The barometric pressure at St. Anthony, Newfoundland dropped to 940.2 millibars (27.76 inches of mercury), the lowest sea level pressure ever recorded in Canada. (The Weather Doctor)
21 January 1985...An all-time record low temperature of 7 degrees was set on this day at Jacksonville, FL. The coldest day ever recorded at Macon, GA was recorded on this day when the mercury dropped to 6 degrees below zero. Records began at Macon in 1899. (Intellicast) The all-time record low temperature for North Carolina was set at Mt. Mitchell with a 34 degree below zero reading, while a 19 degree below zero reading at Caesars Head in South Carolina set that state's record low temperature. (National Climatic Data Center)
22 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Illinois was set at Mount Carroll as the mercury dipped to 35 degrees below zero. This state record has since been broken in 1999. (Intellicast)
22 January 1961...The all-time record low temperature for Connecticut was tied when the temperature fell to 32 degrees below zero at Coventry. (National Climate Data Center)
22 January 1943...Chinook winds during the early morning hours caused the temperature at Spearfish, SD to rise 49 Fahrenheit degrees from 4 degrees below zero to 45 degrees above zero in just two minutes (between 7:30 and 7:32 AM), the most dramatic temperature rise in world weather records. An hour and a half later the mercury plunged from 54 degrees above zero to 4 degrees below zero in twenty-seven minutes. Plate glass windows cracked as a result of the quick thermal expansion and contraction. (David Ludlum)
22-23 January 1943...Hoegees Camp, at an elevation of 2760 feet in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, received 26.12 inches of precipitation in a 24-hour span, setting the Golden State's 24-hour precipitation record. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
22 January 1985...Mountain Lake Biological Station in Virginia reported a temperature of 30 degrees below zero, which established the all-time record low temperature for the state. (National Climate Data Center)

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