WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

20-24 February 2012

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Local Climatological Data can be obtained for no charge -- NOAA's National Climatic Data Center recently announced that its publication Local Climatological Data (LCD) would be made available online to the public for no charge. This publication, which contains 12 monthly issues along with an annual summary, is available for 278 climate stations around the nation, along with nine stations on Pacific Islands administered by the US. Some stations have LCDs commencing in the 1940s. The pdf version of the LCD, Annual Summary with Comparative Data is a very instructive document that can be used to help visualize the local climate of many locations around the nation.
NOAA Administrator comments on NOAA's budget request for next fiscal year -- Early last week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator provided a statement, along with supporting slides, of her agency's request as part of the Obama's federal budget for Fiscal Year 2013. This proposed budget, NOAA is requesting $5.1 billion, an increase of $153.9M over this year's estimate, for its mission to "(1) provide immediate life-saving and job-supporting services needed to prepare and protect American communities and infrastructure and (2) invest in science and research that will enhance America's competitiveness." [NOAA News]
Mardi Gras climatology -- With the observance of Ash Wednesday during this upcoming week, the famous Mardi Gras Carnival celebration in New Orleans, LA will conclude the day before on "Fat Tuesday" or Shrove Tuesday (21 February 2012). The National Weather Service Forecast Office at New Orleans/Baton Rouge has posted a "Mardi Gras climatology" that provides summary tables of the normals and the extremes that have been observed in New Orleans for the last 138 years during the weeks in mid February through early March when Mardi Gras would occur. [New Orleans/Baton Rouge WSFO]
Monitoring the drought -- Read this week's Supplemental Information.. In Greater Depth for information concerning assessing current drought conditions across the nation.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Review of global weather and climate for January 2011 -- Using preliminary data collected from the global network of surface weather stations, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center have determined that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for January 2012 was the nineteenth highest for any January since global climate records began in 1880. The average global ocean surface temperature for January was the seventeenth highest on record, while the global land surface temperature for January 2012 was 28th highest. The scientists claim that the moderate La Niña conditions that continued through the month were responsible for below average sea surface temperatures across the equatorial surface waters of the eastern and central Pacific.
The areal coverage of Arctic sea ice was the fourth smallest January Arctic sea ice extent since satellite surveillance began in 1979. The extent of Antarctic sea ice was the seventh largest January extent on record.
While the extent of the Northern Hemisphere snow cover during January was slightly above the long-term average for the period of record that started in the late 1960s, the January snow cover across North America was the fourth smallest on record. [State of the Climate/NCDC]
January drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its January 2012 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately 15 percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of January, while 14 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Improving the accuracy of snowfall measurements -- The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), NOAA and the University of Colorado-Boulder are conducting field experiments involving the use of devices that use light pulses, satellite signals and new GPS technologies to accurately and nearly instantaneously measure the amount of snow that cover large areas. .... [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 AND THE BIOSPHERE

Season is important to climate change projections on ecosystems -- A group of scientists from Kansas State University, the University of Maryland and the University of Kansas have found that the timing of when events such as heat waves and droughts occur during the season of the year is as critical to the ecosystem as the intensity of these events. They point to long-term data collected at the effects of heat waves and drought on the grassland ecosystem at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Kansas and concluded that future projections of ecosystem response to changing climate must involve identifying when during the year that these events would occur. [National Science Foundation News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

New Seasonal Climate Outlooks released -- Forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center recently released their Seasonal Climate Outlooks for meteorological spring, the three-months running from March through May 2012. Their outlook indicates a high chance of above average spring temperatures across the a large section of the 48 coterminous United States, with the greatest probability in the Southwest and the western to central Gulf Coast. Above average temperatures would be likely also across eastern sections of the country, extending northward into the Great Lakes States. Only the Pacific Northwest appear to have a good chance for below average temperatures. Elsewhere, near equal chances of warmer or cooler than normal conditions were foreseen. The forecasters also indicated that the Southwest, and the Southeast, especially across Florida, should have a better than even chance for drier than average conditions in the next three months. The Pacific Northwest and sections of the Midwest around the Great Lakes were expected to have a wetter than average spring. The rest of the coterminous states should have equal chances of below and above average spring precipitation. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] Outlooks for March are also available. These forecasts were based in part that the current La Niña conditions should continue into spring. A La Niña event is an anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime that is often associated with colder than normal waters across the eastern and central equatorial Pacific.
Seasonal Drought Outlook released -- The forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center also released their Seasonal Drought Outlook that would run from mid February through May 2012. With a La La Niña event expected to continue, many areas of the nation should experience the continuation or development of drought conditions, primarily across the southern tier of states from southern California eastward across the southern Rockies to the southern Plains and into the Southeast. Persistent drought conditions across the upper Mississippi Valley were also expected to expand westward. Improvement in the drought conditions was anticipated across the interior Northwest, with some slight improvement across scattered sections of the Mid-South, primarily along the central Gulf Coast.
More frequent extreme summer temperatures foreseen -- Based upon observational data and numerical simulations run on climate models, researchers at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Climate Central report that the increased frequency of extreme summer (June-August) temperatures occurring across the United States should continue with greater frequency by the mid-21st century especially if the emission of greenhouse gases continues at the current pace. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]
Food security at risk as models underestimate future temperature variability -- A climate scientist at the University of Washington and his colleagues at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin warn that since current climate models appear to underestimate the increased variability of summertime temperatures around the world due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of these temperature increases upon the food crops in the grain-growing regions of Europe and the Americas could create problems in global food security. [University of Washington News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Marine fossils may reveal history of oxygen in an ancient ocean -- Scientists at Virginia Tech and colleagues from China have analyzed fossils of seaweed and worm-like marine animals that flourished in the sea in what is now present-day south China nearly 600 million years ago. The researchers believe that these fossils could provide information as to the amount of oxygen in the ancient sea just prior to the Cambrian explosion when numerous marine life forms appeared. [Virginia Tech News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Halting increased global temperatures by end of century requires lowest carbon emitting technologies -- Researchers from the consulting company Intellectual Ventures and the Carnegie Institution for Science have calculated the effects upon the global climate that would occur if eight cleaner power generating options were to replace the current coal fired plants used to generate electricity. The researchers found that a rapid transition to the lowest emitting energy sources such as solar, wind or nuclear power along with conservation would be needed to stem the trend toward higher temperatures. [Carnegie Institution for Science]
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.

Concept of the Week: Keeping your cool!

In order to survive, humans need to maintain a nearly constant internal core temperature that is within several degrees of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Your internal temperature depends upon an energy balance involving the gain and loss of energy from radiation (incoming solar versus incoming and outgoing infrared radiation), sensible heat transfer (conduction and convection), latent heat of evaporation (respiration and perspiration) and the body's metabolic rate. This heat transfer depends upon the differences between skin temperature and the ambient air temperature of the surroundings. In addition, wind and atmospheric humidity can affect the rate of sensible and latent heat transfer. Problems arise when either too much or too little heat flows to or from the body, yielding hypothermia and hyperthermia (heat stress) conditions, respectively.

When the air temperature increases, heat flow from the body is often reduced. Heat flow can be increased to maintain stable temperatures involuntarily by thermoregulatory processes such as increased perspiration (sweating) and dilation of the blood vessels. Humans can also act to prevent hyperthermia by selecting lightweight and light colored clothes, as well as seeking of shade and well ventilated locations. Unfortunately, high atmospheric humidity that often accompanies high summer temperatures also reduces body heat loss since evaporative cooling by perspiration is suppressed. During the summer, the National Weather Service alerts the public of potentially dangerous combinations of high air temperature and atmospheric humidity levels by calculating the Heat Index.

Statistics kept by the National Weather Service reveals that heat (along with high humidity) is responsible for the greatest number of weather-related deaths across the nation during the 10-year period (2001-2010), with 115 fatalities occurring per year. By comparison, 116 fatalities per annum are caused by tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), 56 deaths per year are associated from tornadoes and 25 deaths annually caused by the cold (low temperatures). (Note: The large number of fatalities associated with the hurricanes of 2005, which totaled 1016 deaths in the US due primarily to Hurricane Katrina, has inflated the annual averages associated with tropical cyclones.) Furthermore, concern has been raised that during this century, more frequent and more severe heat waves due to global climate change could become more common, leading to a greater risk of hyperthermia and, ultimately, to higher morbidity rates.

Concept of the Week: Questions

(Each week you will be asked to respond to two questions relating to that week's Concept of the Week topic. Place your responses on the Chapter Progress Response Form provided in the Study Guide.)

The heat index is a function of air temperature and [(atmospheric humidity),(wind speed),(sunshine levels)].
The annual number of fatalities across the nation in the last ten years due to heat stress is approximately [(15),(60),(120)].

Historical Events:

20 February 1974...The mean wind speed at Bonilla Island, British Columbia was 89 mph, the highest sustained speed on record in British Columbia. (The Weather Doctor)
20 February 1995...The temperature at the Civic Center in Los Angeles, CA hit 95 degrees for the highest temperature ever recorded for the month of February. (Intellicast)
21 February 1918...A spectacular chinook wind at Granville, ND caused the temperature to spurt from a morning low of 33 degrees below zero to an afternoon high of 50 degrees above zero, representing a rise of 83 Fahrenheit degrees. (David Ludlum)
21 February 1971...Elk City, OK was buried under 36 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour snowfall record for the Sooner State. (David Ludlum)
21 February 1996...Very hot weather for the time of year prevailed across South Texas. All-time February high temperatures were set at Del Rio (103 degrees), San Antonio (100 degrees), Austin and College Station (99 degrees), and Waco (96 degrees). (Intellicast)
22 February 1936...Although heat and dust prevailed in the spring and summer, early 1936 brought record cold to parts of the U.S. Sioux Center, IA reported 42 inches of snow on the ground, a state record. (20^th-22^nd) (The Weather Channel)
22 February 1996...Record heat continued over the south-central states. All-time February high temperatures were set at San Angelo, TX (97 degrees), Wichita Falls, TX (93 degrees), Oklahoma City, OK (92 degrees), and Wichita, KS (87 degrees). (Intellicast)
23 February 1998...Otis, OR recorded its 79 straight day of rain, the longest in the contiguous US. The streak began on 7 December 1997 (The Weather Doctor)
24 February 1905...The temperature at Valley Head, AL fell to 18 degrees below zero, which was the lowest temperature ever recorded in Alabama until January 1966. (Intellicast)
24-26 February 1910...Parts of Washington State were in the midst of a storm that produced 129 inches of snow at Laconia between the 24^th and the 26^th, a single storm record for the state. A series of storms, which began on the 23^rd, led to a deadly avalanche on the first of March. By late on the 28^th, the snow had changed to rain, setting the stage for disaster. (The Weather Channel)
24 February 1994...The Crystal Mountain ski resort in Washington State recorded 65 inches of snow in a 24 hour period, the state record for 24 hour snowfall. (Intellicast)
25 February 1914...South Carolina had its biggest snowstorm in modern history, as 18 inches fell at Society Hill. (Intellicast)
25 February 1922...The temperature at Los Angeles, CA soared to 92 degrees to establish a record for the month of February. (David Ludlum)
26 February 1969...Both Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME set new single storm snowfall records with 33.8 inches and 26.9 inches, respectively. (Intellicast)

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