WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

WEEK ONE: 27-31 January 2014

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill -- This coming Wednesday (29 January) volunteers who are members of various professional scientific organizations, including the American Meteorological Society, are scheduled to visit Members of the US Congress to provide the lawmakers the best possible access to scientific information on climate science when making policy decisions. This non-partisan event is being organized by the Climate Science Working Group (CSWG) and does not subscribe to any particular policy or course of action. [American Meteorological Society]
"ClimateChangeLive" distance learning adventure webinar scheduled for this week -- The fifth in a series of six webinars will be available between 7:30 and 9:00 PM this coming Wednesday, 29 January 2014. The series of webinars is designed to raise awareness and understanding of climate change science and is aligned to national science education standards. The collection of science-based, climate education resources and programs have been gathered from at least 19 federal agency and NGO partners that include the US Forest Service, NOAA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The fifth webinar scheduled for this Wednesday is "Professional Development Programs for Climate Change Education." Check http://climatechangelive.org/ for registration details.
Groundhog Day and climatology -- This coming Saturday (2 February 2014) is Groundhog Day, celebrated by many communities around the nation with much fanfare. According to legend, if the groundhog emerged from its burrow after hibernation on this day and saw its shadow, it would return to hibernation, thereby indicating six more weeks of wintry weather. Most people assume that a converse holds true - if no shadow were seen, an early spring should be expected. According to a Groundhog Day report prepared by the National Climatic Data Center, no convincing statistical evidence appears to support this belief of the prognostic capabilities of the groundhog. The only point that can be considered to have any meteorological significance is that cloud free weather conditions would be responsible for allowing a woodchuck or human to cast a shadow. Such cloud-free weather conditions in early February typically are associated with a cold mass of air that would usually send all but the hardiest resident back into a nice warm shelter. This legend also coincides with an ancient late winter festival, since next Sunday is the customary halfway point of the astronomical winter season (the point is closer to early Tuesday, 4 February 2014). To the ancients, this date was significant because it was one of the four Cross Quarter Days, marking an important astronomical milestone. The day is located essentially at the point half way between the winter solstice, marking the occurrence of the shortest length of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere (21 December 2013) and the spring equinox (20 March 2014), when equal lengths of daylight and darkness occur once again. So regardless of what your local groundhog "predicts" the beginning of astronomical spring is still six weeks away.
Climatology of Super Bowls updated -- Next Sunday (2 February 2014) is "Super Sunday" when the Seattle Seahawks will play the Denver Broncos in the National Football League's Super Bowl XLVIII MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, the home of the New York Giants and Jets. The service climatologist for the Southeast Regional Climate Center has provided an updated listing of the Super Bowl Weather & Climate 1967-2013. This annotated list contains the "climatology" for game day that includes the daily maximum and minimum temperatures, the 24-hour precipitation and the 24-hour snowfall along with comments on the weather observed in the host city on "Super Sunday" for each of the previous 46 Super Bowl games.
During the last 47 years the Super Bowl has been played in 14 different metropolitan areas. After years of restricting the selected site to relatively warm cities (where temperatures need to be at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit) or at domed stadiums, NFL officials have scheduled this year's Super Bowl for the outdoor MetLife Stadium that is located at a cold weather site. The Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist has a useful "one-stop shop" for critical weather and climate information for "The Big Game."
Accessing and interpreting climate data -- If you would like to obtain a variety of climate data for your home town or state that are available from the National Weather Service, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth. This Supplemental not only identifies some of the sites to find the data, but also provides you with a brief explanation of the terminology used to identify the climate data.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

What a difference a year makes for Sierra snowpack -- Comparison of natural color images obtained from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite last weekend with one made by the same sensor one year earlier shows the effect that the current Western drought has had upon the snowpack across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. the Coast Range and southern Cascade Mountains in California. Unlike last year, these mountain ranges have essentially no snow cover this year. The lack of a significant snowpack across these mountains is creating concern across California, where the Governor declared a state of emergency and urged state residents to conserve water. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Global weather and climate for 2013 reviewed -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that based upon their preliminary analysis of worldwide land and ocean surface temperature data, the annual worldwide combined land and ocean surface temperature for 2013 was approximately 0.62 Celsius degrees (or 1.12 Fahrenheit degrees) above the 20th century (1901-2000) average, tying 2003 for the planet's fourth warmest calendar year since sufficiently detailed world-wide climate records began in 1880. Separately, the globally averaged land surface temperature for 2013 was 0.99 Celsius degrees above the 20th century average, or the fourth highest annual land temperature on record, while the globally averaged ocean surface temperature for the year was 0.48 Celsius degrees above the 20th century average, or the sixth highest on record, or tied with 2006. The scientists indicated that a ENSO-neutral conditions (standing for El Niño/Southern Oscillation) were found throughout the the year. ENSO-neutral conditions refer to lack of either an El Niño or La Niña event that are anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime favoring warm or cool waters in the equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The scientists also note that the preliminary global precipitation data indicate 2013 was slightly above long-term averages across the land areas. Although some areas of the planet were exceptionally wet, others experienced drought conditions. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
Using a slightly different methodology for averaging global surface temperatures, scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) reported that the global average temperature for 2013 tied 2006 and 2009 for the seventh highest reading since 1880. [NASA GISS]
NCDC also provides a map showing the Global Significant Weather and Climate Events map for 2013.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Five NASA Earth Science missions planned for 2014 -- NASA officials recently announced that five NASA Earth science missions will be launched into space in order to provide improved monitoring of the Earth's changing environment. Two of the launches will send sensors to the International Space Station designed to measure ocean winds, clouds and aerosols. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory is to be launched in February that is a joint satellite project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to make global observations of rainfall and snowfall, ultimately providing additional information on the planet's water cycle. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)-2 is scheduled to be launched July that is designed to make precise global measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide in an effort to monitor the natural and human-induced sources of carbon dioxide and to improve understanding of the role this greenhouse gas has on climate change. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission should be launched in November in an effort to map Earth's soil moisture and provide precise indications of the soil's freeze-thaw state, to improve understanding of the cycling of water, energy and carbon. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
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]

CLIMATE FORCING

Emissions from nation's power plants are down -- A report was recently released by scientists at NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the Earth System Research Laboratory proclaims that power plants across the United States are releasing fewer air pollutants in their emissions because of the increased number of power plants using natural gas and new technology to increase energy efficiency. These power plants are releasing less carbon dioxide than coal-fired power plants and many also release significantly less nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. The scientists analyzed data from systems that continuously monitor emissions at power plant stacks around the country. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
Exploring role played by dust on changing Earth's climate -- Scientists from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute and their colleagues from Germany and the US have been analyzing ocean sediments obtained from the Southern Ocean by the Institute's research icebreaker Polarstern. From these ocean sediments, the researchers have found an archive of the climate history of the polar regions that indicates airborne dust particles have played a major role in the oscillations between warm and cold periods in the Southern Hemisphere. They were able to prove that dust that dust infiltrations were as much as three times higher during all the ice ages in the last million years than in the warm phases. [Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research]
Misconceptions dispelled about evaporation on Great Lakes -- A team of US and Canadian scientists recently reported that while ice cover affects evaporation, the reverse is true as well in that evaporation rates in the autumn help determine the extent of winter ice cover. The commonly held concept is that a lack of winter ice cover tends to cause more evaporation and a drop in lake levels. The new research indicates that years with high evaporation rates in autumn and early winter cool the lake water to form ice, meaning that extensive ice cover would be an indicator of high evaporation rates prior to a high-ice winter. The water levels of the Great Lakes rose slightly in 2013. [University of Michigan News]
During the last week, Environment Canada reported that the ice coverage on the Great Lakes this January is more than double the median value of ice cover since 1980. [Milwaukee/Sullivan, WI National Weather Service Forecast Office]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Current California drought could doom an endangered desert plant -- Botanists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) are concerned that the current drought across southern California could kill off the endangered Lane Mountain milkvetch (Astragalus jaegerianus) species, which grows in California's Mojave Desert near Barstow, can do better in drought conditions than many other California native plants. [KCET ReWild]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Survival of Winter Olympics in face of climate change questioned -- In a study conducted at Canada's University of Waterloo, researchers reported that only six of the cities that hosted previous Winter Olympics would be sufficiently cold to host the Games by the end of the 21st century if current climate projections were accurate. The average February daytime temperatures at the previous Winter Games locations have increased since the 1920s. [University of Waterloo]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Explanation made for increased sized life forms in Earth's early oceans -- An international team of scientists from multiple disciplines using sophisticated modeling techniques claim that the increase in the size of multicellular life forms in Earth's early oceans approximately 580 million years ago just prior to the "Cambrian explosion" appears to have been due to increased access to nutrient carrying ocean flow afforded by increased size. [UCLA Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD --

A request: If you have some climate-related experience that you would like to share with other DataStreme Earth's Climate System participants, please send them to the email address appearing at the bottom of this document for possible inclusion in a News file. Thank you. EJH

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

NOTE: This Concept for the Week is a repeat of that which appeared in last week's Weekly Climate News.

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 Research Program" 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:

27 January 1940...Florida had a 3-day long freeze with the lowest temperatures ever in January. Mason, FL dropped to 8 degrees. Eleven million boxes of citrus were damaged, resulting in a 10 million-dollar loss. Further north, Georgia's record low temperature of 17 degrees below zero was set near Calhoun. (Intellicast)
27 January 1994...A frigid arctic air was in place over New England and New York as a massive 1052-millibar (31.06 inches of mercury) high pressure provided ideal radiational cooling. Crown Point, NY dipped to 48 degrees below zero and Shoreham, VT shivered with 46 degrees below zero, Burlington, VT broke its old record daily low by 9 degrees with a reading of 29 degrees below zero and Caribou, ME set a record low for the third day in a row with a temperature of 23 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
28 January 1925...The temperature at Pittsburg, NH fell to 46 degrees below zero, establishing a new record low temperature for the state. (Intellicast) In January 1934, this record was broken with a reading of 47 degrees below zero. (NCDC)
28 January 1963...The low temperature of 34 degrees below zero at Cynthiana, KY equaled the state record established just four days earlier at Bonnieville. (The Weather Channel) This all-time state record for Kentucky has since been eclipsed by a 37 degree zero reading in January 1994. (NCDC)
28 January 1988...Barometric pressure readings of 30.55 inches at Miami FL, 30.66 inches at Tampa, FL, and 30.72 inches at Apalachicola, FL were all-time record high readings for those locations. (National Weather Summary)
28 January 1989...Nome, AK reported an all-time record low reading of 54 degrees below zero. (National Weather Summary)
29 January 1934...The temperature at the Observatory on top of Mt. Washington, NH (the highest point in New England) fell to 47 degrees below zero, establishing a new all-time record low temperature for the state. (NCDC)
30 January 1966...Alabama's record low temperature of 27 degrees below zero was set at New Market. Mississippi's record low temperature of 19 degrees below zero was set near Corinth. North Carolina's record low temperature of 29 degrees below zero was set at Mount Mitchell. (Intellicast) The record for the Tarheel State has been broken with a reading of 34 degrees below zero in January 1985. (NCDC)
31 January 1911...Tamarack, CA was without snow the first eight days of the month, but by the end of January had been buried under 390 inches of snow, a record monthly snowfall total for the U.S. (The Weather Channel)
31 January 1920...The highest barometric pressure observed in the contiguous forty-eight states was recorded at Northfield, VT with a reading of 31.14 inches of mercury (1054.5 millibars). (The Weather Doctor)
31 January 1963...The Mt. Rose Highway Station near Reno, NV reported 7.13 inches of precipitation, which set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Nevada. (NCDC)
31 January 1989...The barometer rose to 31.85 inches of mercury (1079.7 millibars) at Northway, AK, establishing the all time highest reading for the North American continent. (The Weather Doctor)
31 January 1994...Caribou, ME recorded its coldest month ever. The average temperature for the month was a frigid 0.7 degrees below zero. The old record was 1.3 degrees set in January 1957. (Intellicast)
1 February 1985...The temperature at Gavial, NM dropped to a state record low of 50 degrees below zero. The state record low temperature in Colorado of 60 degrees below zero was tied at Maybell. A station at Peter's Sink, UT reported a temperature of 69 degrees below zero, which set the all-time state record. (NCDC)
2 February 1951...The record low temperature for the state of Indiana was set at Greensburg when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero; this record was broken in January, 1994. (Intellicast)
2 February 1952...The only tropical storm of record to hit the U.S. in February moved out of the Gulf of Mexico and a cross southern Florida. It produced 60-mph winds, and two to four inches of rain. (2nd-3rd) (The Weather Channel)
2 February 1996...Extremely cold air covered the north-central U.S. Tower, MN dropped to 60 degrees below zero to set a new state low temperature record. International Falls, MN and Glasgow, MT both set records for the month of February with 45 and 38 below zero, respectively. Rochester, MN dipped to 34 below zero for its lowest temperature in 45 years. Green Bay, WI only reached 16 degrees below zero for the high temperature for the day, which is its lowest high temperature on record in February. Meanwhile, farther to the east, heavy snow fell across the mid-Atlantic region. Eighteen inches of snow was recorded at Rehoboth Beach, DE and 17 inches fell at Solomons, MD. Charleston, WV recorded 6.8 inches of snow for the day to bring its seasonal snowfall to 80.7 inches, the city's snowiest winter ever -- and still two months of winter to go! (Intellicast)

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