17-21 March 2014

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• Notice the Equinox -- The vernal equinox, which marks the commencement of astronomical spring, will occur next Sunday (officially at 1657Z on 20 March 2014 or 12:57 PM EDT, 11:57 AM CDT, etc.). If you checked the sunrise and sunset times in your local newspaper or from the climate page at your local National Weather Service Office, you would probably find that by midweek, the sun should have been above the horizon for at least 12 hours at most locations. As discussed previously, the effects of atmospheric refraction (bending of light rays by the varying density of the atmosphere) along with a relatively large diameter of the sun contribute to several additional minutes that the sun appears above the horizon at sunrise and sunset.
• International observances -- Several days during this upcoming week have been designated as special days that are intended to focus public attention on the environment and earth science:
• "World Meteorology Day" -- A celebration will be held on Sunday, 23 March 2014 for World Meteorology Day. This day is designated to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 23 March 1950. The WMO is an agency within the United Nations. This year's theme for World Meteorological Day 2014 is “Weather and climate: engaging youth."
• "World Water Day" -- Saturday, 22 March 2014, has been designated by the United Nations (UN) as the annual World Water Day. The theme for this year's World Water Day is "Water and Energy." [UN-Water]
• Linking weather and climate -- Find out how atmospheric scientists have extended weather forecasting efforts used to predict the weather over the next few days into monthly and seasonal (3-month) climate outlooks in this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.
• Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2014 Campaign is underway -- The third of a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2014 will begin this Friday and run for 10 nights (21-30 March). GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Orion or Leo in the northern hemisphere, and Orion and Crux in the southern hemisphere) with seven star charts of progressively fainter stars. In addition to the 21-30 March campaign, the other two remaining GLOBE at Night campaigns during the first five months of 2014 are on 20-29 April and 19-28 May. [GLOBE at Night]
  
• Flood Safety Awareness -- Many locations around the nation annually experience spring floods that cause large monetary losses and occasionally the loss of life. Therefore, NOAA's National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have designated this coming week of 16-22 March 2014 as Flood Safety Awareness Week. Check the website http://www.floodsafety.noaa.gov/ for information concerning flooding caused by excessive rain events, rapid snowmelt, ice jams and debris flow, along with useful flood safety and mitigation measures. At least 35 states are also observing this week with special activities.
  

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

• Review of national weather and climate for February 2014 and the 2013-14 winter -- Based upon preliminary data, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that the national average temperature for the coterminous United States during February 2014 was approximately 1.6 Fahrenheit degrees below the 20th-century average (1901-2000) average, making this past month the 37th coldest since a comprehensive national climate network began in 1895. As many as 23 states across the Northwest, the Plains, the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes reported below average statewide temperatures for February. Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin in the Midwest reported statewide temperatures that ranked within the ten lowest values for any February on record. On the other hand, six states that included Florida and the Southwest had above or much above average February temperatures. Arizona, California and Utah reported statewide February temperatures that were among the ten highest in 120 years.
  The average temperature for the contiguous United States for the meteorological winter season (December 2013 through February 2014) was 31.3 degrees F, or 1.0 Fahrenheit degrees below the 20th century average, making the recently-concluded winter the 34th coldest winter since 1895. Half of the states across the Lower 48 reported statewide winter temperatures that were below or much below average. Seven Midwestern States (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin) had statewide temperatures that were in the ten lowest since the 1895-96 winter. Conversely, Florida and the Southwestern States had above to much above average winter temperatures. California experienced its warmest winter in the entire record of 119 winter seasons, while Arizona had the fourth warmest winter.
  Alaska had its eighth warmest winter since statewide records began for the 49th State in 1918.
  Nationwide, February precipitation was 0.01 inches below the long-term (1901-2000) average, making the month the 65th driest in 120 years. Below to much below average statewide average precipitation totals were reported across the Carolinas, the Dakotas, the southern Plains and the Southwest. Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma reported statewide totals that were within the top ten driest since 1895. Above to much above average precipitation was reported across the Northwest, the Midwest and the Northeast. Montana and Wyoming had monthly precipitation totals that ranked in the top ten wettest on record.
  December through February precipitation across the 48 coterminous states was 1.10 inches below the 20th-century average, making this past winter the ninth driest winter on record. Many of the states across the southwestern and western sections of the nation had below to much below average winter precipitation totals. The statewide winter precipitation for four states (Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas) ranked within the four lowest in 119 seasons. Twelve states across the northern sections of the nation had above average winter precipitation totals.
  Data analyzed by the Rutgers Global Snow Lab indicate the February snow cover extent across the contiguous US was the ninth largest February snow cover extent in the 48-year period of record for across the 48 states and the largest since 2010. Furthermore, the winter average snowfall across these stations was the tenth largest since 1966. [State of the Climate NOAA/NCDC]
• February national drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its February 2014 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately 11 percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of February, while six percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

• Monitoring "bombogenesis" over the North Atlantic in early 2014 -- NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center recently noted that 20 unique wind events that generated hurricane-force winds (maximum sustained wind speeds in excess of 74 mph) occurred across the ocean basins in the Northern Hemisphere during January and February 2014. The North Atlantic basin was especially hard hit with wind speeds that were above the 30-year historical average (1981-2010). The stronger than average winds were due to 14 storms that were considered to have undergone "bombogenesis" a process where an extratropical cyclone (midlatitude low pressure system) experiences rapid intensification in which the storm's minimum central pressure drops by at least 24 millibars (mb) in 24 hours. The number and intensity of these "meteorological bombs" during the first two months of 2014 appears to be greater than normal. At the same time, high pressure across western North America and the eastern North Pacific resulted in lower wind speeds across that basin. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• New Arctic Campaign commences for NASA's Operation IceBridge -- Early last week, NASA's P-3 research aircraft along with NASA researchers left the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia headed for Greenland's Thule Air Base to start this year's campaign of collecting data on Arctic land and sea ice. This year's campaign is part of a multi-year mission called Operation IceBridge that is designed to collect data on changes to polar ice and maintain continuity of measurements between the first of NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) missions that ended in 2009 and its successor, ICESat-2, which is scheduled for launch in 2017. Three high school science teachers from the United States, Denmark and Greenland will join IceBridge and fly with the research team. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• Climate divisional and statewide data sets being revised -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) released a new version of its datasets designed to monitor the long-term variations of climate-division, statewide, regional, national, and population-weighted drought, temperature, precipitation, and heating and cooling degree day values commencing in January 1895 and running through February 2014. This new divisional dataset, known as "nClimDiv," uses an improved 5-km by 5-km gridding technique to determine spatial averages for each of the 344 climate divisions across the contiguous United States based on Global Historical Climatology Network–Daily (GHCN-D) observations. Previously, NCDC determined climate divisional averages from the monthly averages for all of the Cooperative Observer Network stations in each division. In addition to the newer averaging techniques, the nClimDiv divisional dataset will include more climate stations for the era between 1895 and the 1930s. Differences between the old and new datasets have been documented. [NOAA National Climatic Data Center News]
• 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

• Stronger trade winds could reduce global temperature rise -- Researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Australia's University of New South Wales have found that the stronger trade winds that have been observed across the tropics since 2001 appear pushed surface waters westward across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, resulting in increased vertical oceanic circulation where additional heat has been sent downward to greater depths in the ocean. Cooler waters from below have also been brought to the surface. Consequently, the global temperature rise has been less due to the increased trade winds. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

• An El Niño event may be on the horizon -- Forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center recently posted an El Niño watch indicating a 50 percent chance that an El Niño event could develop during the upcoming Northern Hemisphere's summer or fall (beginning in June and running through November) as current forecast models suggest a warming of the equatorial Pacific during the second half of 2014. The forecasters indicate that the current ENSO-neutral conditions should persist through Northern Hemisphere spring. (ENSO represents El Niño/Southern Oscillation). . [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• A warmer planet could have more frequent and more intense downpours -- According to a forthcoming update to the 2009 National Climate Assessment, scientists have found that increases in the amount of heavy precipitation rates across the United States have occurred, especially across the Northeast, the Midwest and the Northwest. Maps have been produced by NOAA's Climate.gov that depict the climate model simulations for several scenarios of increased global temperatures using the downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) model. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

• More accurate paleoclimate data help resolve mystery of retreating glaciers in the western tropical Pacific basin. -- Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have used a new research technique known as "clumped isotope thermometry" to reconstruct the long-term temperature record across the western tropical Pacific Ocean over the last 20,000 years. This technique examines the subtle differences in the amounts of carbon-13 and oxygen-18 in the calcium carbonate shells of marine plankton that had been collected. The researchers discovered that regional temperatures changed by about 8 to 10 Fahrenheit degrees over this 20,000-year span, more than what had been previously thought. Changes in the height of tropical glaciers were also reconstructed. [UCLA Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

• Vastly different ecosystem in Antarctica's Ross Sea envisioned during next century -- A team of researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary and the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography at Old Dominion University predict that rising temperatures and changing surface wind patterns across the Ross Sea along the Antarctic continent would affect predator-prey relationships, which would result in a vastly different ecosystem for this major, biologically productive Antarctic ecosystem within the next century. The researchers using the Regional Ocean Modeling System, a computer model of sea-ice, ocean, atmosphere and ice-shelf interactions, determined that rising temperatures and changing wind patterns would create longer periods of ice-free open water, affecting the life cycles of both predators and prey. [National Science Foundation News]
• Climate and fisheries stories featured -- NOAA's Fisheries has posted several feature stories that describe how climate change is having a profound effect on life in the world's oceans. [NOAA Fisheries News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• NOAA's budget request for next fiscal year promotes environmental intelligence -- The Obama Administration recently released its discretionary budget request for the upcoming 2015 Fiscal Year, proposing $5.5 billion to be used for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to enhance public safety and community resiliency to weather and climate disasters. This requested amount represents a $174 million or 3.2 percent increase over NOAA's 2014 enacted budget. The proposed 2015 budget focuses on three areas: investing in mission critical infrastructure; strengthening scientific innovation; and providing services to enhance community resilience. NOAA's five offices include the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). [NOAA News]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Start of the Growing Season

As we move through meteorological spring, the increases in daylength and air temperature across many areas of the nation make backyard gardeners as well as farmers contemplate the start of the growing season. For many crops, the soil has to be tilled and prepared for planting before the growing season really commences. Soil temperatures and moisture levels often influence when fieldwork can start.

The term growing season depends upon the plant species, as well as the climate of the locale, meaning that several ways can be used to define the growing season. In most mid latitude climates, the growing season is often used synonymously with the frost-free season, loosely defined as the length of time between the last killing frost in spring and the first killing frost in the autumn. The National Climatic Data Center has produced climatological tables that identify those median dates (a 50 percent occurrence) during spring and fall when the temperature at a station falls to 36, 32, 28, 24 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit for the last time in spring or the first time in autumn. While the exact time span that a plant survives would vary by plant type, the growing season for climatological purposes is often related to the interval when the daily minimum temperature remains above 32 degrees.

Across the continental U.S. the typical lengths of the frost free regions range from about 120 days along the Canadian border to about 220 days in Oklahoma and north Texas and over 320 days in southern sections of Florida and California. Mountainous areas provide a complex pattern, with some higher elevations having lengths that are less than 100 days. By accessing the NOWData (NOAA Online Weather Data) feature on the Climate page of your local National Weather Service, you can find the "first/last dates" for various climate reporting stations around your area.

Many crops, especially vegetables and fruits, are sensitive to relatively low air temperatures. In spring, when many crops are emerging and in various stages of development they are more vulnerable to air temperatures near 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But by fall, many of these plants have become hardy. Generally speaking, a spring killing frost would occur when the plant has become well emerged and the temperature around the plant would fall to a point that would kill most tender vegetation. Sometimes, other terminology is used.

Concept of the Week: Questions

(Place your responses on the Chapter Progress Response Form provided in the Study Guide.)

1. Many emerging crops would succumb if the spring air temperatures fell to [(36),(33),(28)] degrees.
2. The frost-free season in states bordering Canada would probably be about [(60),(90),(120)] days.

Historical Events:

• 17 March 1906...The temperature at Snake River, WY dipped to 50 degrees below zero, a record for the coterminous U.S. for the month of March. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders -1987)
• 17 March 1998...Calgary, Alberta experienced its worst March snowstorm in 113 years, measuring 13 inches of snow at the airport and from 15 to 18 inches in other parts of the city. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17-24 March 1999...Intense Tropical Cyclone Vance (Category 5) moved across portions of Western Australia. A record wind gust for the Australian mainland of 167 mph was recorded at the Learmonth Meteorological Office. (The Weather Doctor)
• 18 March 1914...San Francisco, CA reached its highest temperature ever recorded in March. The mercury rose to 86 degrees. (Intellicast)
• 18 March 1925...The great "Tri-State Tornado" occurred, the most deadly tornado in U.S. history. The tornado, which claimed 695 lives (including 234 at Murphysboro, IL and 148 at West Frankfort, IL), cut a swath of destruction 219 miles long and as much as a mile wide from east central Missouri to southern Indiana between 1 PM and 4 PM. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
• 18 March 2002...A snowstorm over coastal British Columbia produced the latest and heaviest single-day snowfall on record for the city of Vancouver of 2.55 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
• 19 March 1950...Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood reported 246 inches of snow on the ground, a record for the state of Oregon. (The Weather Channel)
• 19 March 1964...Up to 39 inches of snow fell at Cape Whittle for Quebec's greatest one-day snow total. (The Weather Doctor)
• 20-21 March 1948...Juneau, AK received 31.0 inches of snow, to set a 24-hour snowfall record for Alaska's capital. This snowfall record pales compared to the state's 24-hour snowfall record of 62.0 inches set at Thompson Pass on 28-29 December 1955. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 20 March 1986...A wind gust of 173 mph was recorded in the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland, the highest ever recorded in the United Kingdom. (The Weather Doctor)
• 22 March 1888...The morning's low temperature at Chicago, IL dipped to one degree below zero, the latest sub zero Fahrenheit reading in the Windy City's history. (The Weather Doctor)
• 23 March 1912...Residents of Kansas City, MO began to dig out from a storm that produced 25 inches of snow in 24 hours . The snowfall total was nearly twice that of any other storm of modern record in Kansas City before or since that time. A record 40 inches of snow fell during the month of March that year, and the total for the winter season of 67 inches was also a record. By late February of that year, Kansas City had received just six inches of snow. Olathe, KS received 37 inches of snow in the snowstorm, establishing a single storm record for the state of Kansas. (23rd-24th) (Intellicast) (The Kansas City Weather Almanac) (The Weather Channel)

Return to DataStreme ECS website

Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2014, The American Meteorological Society.