WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

24-28 March 2014

ITEMS OF INTEREST

A national portrait made on the 2014 Vernal Equinox from a geosynchronous satellite -- A visible satellite image of the contiguous United States was created from the sensors onboard NOAA's GOES East (or GOES-13) satellite less than 15 minutes before the occurrence of the Vernal Equinox last Thursday. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2014 Campaign is underway -- The third of a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2014 continues through this week (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]
Phenological events of note -- While astronomical spring commenced with the occurrence of the vernal equinox last Thursday (20 March 2014), several reoccurring phenological events also are used to note the onset of spring. These include:

Buzzards return to Hinckley -- According to local reports from Hinckley, OH, spring occurred on Saturday morning 15 March 2014 at 7:47 AM EDT when the first buzzard returned to roost at the Cleveland Metroparks Hinckley Reservation. According to legend, the buzzards return on the 15th of March of every year for nearly 200 years. [Cleveland.com]
Swallows return to Capistrano -- Legend indicates that swallows return to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano in southern California every St. Joseph's Day (19 March). The return of the swallows appears to be sporadic, with some reports of sightings near the Mission. Increased urbanization around the Mission appears to keep the swallows away. However, the 56th annual Swallows Day parade was held on Saturday 22 March 2014.
Cherry Blossom Watch in Washington, DC -- Many tourists descend upon Washington, DC during the spring to view the sights, including the blossoming cherry trees that line the Tidal Basin along the Potomac River. The National Park service operates a website that reports the status of the cherry blossoms in anticipation of the 102th annual Cherry Blossom Festival that is currently underway (Saturday, 29 March to Sunday, 13 April 2014). This site also has a listing of the phenological observations for past bloom dates. According to a recent update, experts expect that the trees should be at peak bloom between 8-12 April, as cold weather continues across the Middle Atlantic States and delays the anticipated bloom that typically occurs at the start of April.

Tsunami Awareness Week -- NOAA and the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (a partnership between NOAA, the United States Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the 28 U.S. Coastal States, Territories, and Commonwealths) have designated this upcoming week (23-29 March 2014) as National Tsunami Awareness Week.
Tsunami awareness training exercises will be conducted for the states and territories along the Pacific that is called Pacific Tsunami Exercise (PACIFEX 14), for the Caribbean and the Northwestern Atlantic called CARIBE WAVE/LANTEX14 and for the Gulf of Mexico (LANTEX14) Open houses will be held at the National Weather Service's tsunami warning centers in Alaska and Hawaii, along with various community activities in coastal states. The Governor of Alaska has proclaimed next Thursday 27 March 2017 as Great Alaska Earthquake Remembrance Day in observance of the 50th anniversary of the series of devastating tsunamis that struck southeastern Alaska following several earthquakes. The entire week is also Tsunami Preparedness Week in Alaska. [Governor's Office for State of Alaska]
Additional information is also available on the 50th anniversary of the Great Alaskan earthquake and tsunami of 1964. [NOAA Weather-Ready Nation]
Monitoring El Niño and La Niña -- Scientists have suggested that some of the unusual weather patterns that have affected not only the United States, but other countries during the last several years, may have been linked to events called El Niño and La Niña. For more details on how to monitor these phenomena using a variety of current weather data, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Review of global weather and climate for February 2014 -- 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 February 2014 was 0.41 Celsius degrees above the 20th century (1901-2000) average, which tied February 2001 for the 21st highest February temperature since comprehensive global climate records began in 1880. The average global ocean surface temperature for February 2014 was the seventh highest on record, while the global land surface temperature for this past month tied February 1943 as the 44th highest on record.
Furthermore, the three-months running from December 2013 through February 2014 that constitute meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere (and meteorological summer in the Southern Hemisphere) had the eighth highest three-month average temperature on record. The global ocean temperature for these last three months tied the corresponding months in 2005 for the sixth highest on record, while the land surface temperature was the tenth highest since 1880. [State of the Climate/NCDC]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Seasat images from 35 years ago still have research value -- A research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently noted that satellite images obtained 35 years ago from NASA's Seasat satellite still have importance to the scientific community and that these images have been digitally processed, cataloged and made available at the Alaska Satellite Facility on the campus of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The NASA Seasat satellite was launched in June 1978 as the first polar-orbiting satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and the first to have a synthetic aperture radar mounted onboard. However, a power failure on the space craft ended its mission after only 105 days of operation. The 1978 data set has value for oceanographic and climate studies especially in subpolar and polar latitudes. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 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

Measuring the recent European haze from space -- An image made from data collected by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor onboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite between 3-9 March 2014 shows the magnitude of the haze and high levels of airborne particulate matter that developed during that week over sections of northwestern Europe and neighboring waters of the North Sea. The map represents a display of the week's average aerosol optical thickness, a measure of the transparency of the atmosphere to the passage of solar that corresponds to the amount of airborne particulate matter. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Wind-borne dust led to iron fertilization of Southern Ocean during Pleistocene Ice Age -- A team of researchers from Princeton University, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom have determined that wind-borne dust with high concentrations of iron compounds was dropped into to the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica during the last Pleistocene Ice Age, leading to iron fertilization of these waters of the Subantarctic zone that caused plankton to thrive. The resulting plankton growth eventually led to the removal of substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the Ice Age. [News at Princeton University]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

New Seasonal Climate Outlooks released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) released their Three-Month (Seasonal) Climate Outlooks for the three-months running from April through June 2014, which contains the last two months of meteorological spring and the first month of meteorological summer. [NOAA News] Specific details include:

Temperature and precipitation outlooks -- According to their temperature outlook, a large section of the 48 contiguous United States should experience a high chance of above average spring temperatures, with the greatest probability of such an occurrence extending from the Oregon and California coasts across the Southwest and across Central States and New England. The northern tier of states extending from the northern Rockies in Montana eastward across the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes to western New York State has a good chance for below average temperatures. Elsewhere, near equal chances of warmer or cooler than normal conditions were foreseen.
Their precipitation outlook calls for better than even chances of dry spring conditions for a large section of the West Coast. The rest of the coterminous states should have equal chances of below and above average spring precipitation. Outlooks for April are also available. A summary of the prognostic discussion of the outlook for non-technical users is available from CPC. These forecasts were based in part that the current ENSO-neutral conditions (ENSO = El Niño/Southern Oscillation) should continue into spring, where neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions should prevail.
Seasonal Drought Outlook released -- The CPC's US Seasonal Drought Outlook was released for late March through June 2014 that indicates a persistence or expansion of drought conditions across most of the southwestern quadrant of the nation, especially across the southern Plains, the southern Rockies, the Great Basin and California. Drought was expected to continue across interior Oregon. The forecasters foresee an improvement in the drought conditions across sections of the central Plains and the Northwest. Note: a Seasonal Drought Outlook Discussion is included describing the forecasters' confidence.
Spring flood outlook for nation -- Forecasters with the National Weather Service's Hydrologic Information Center issued their National Hydrologic Assessment for Spring 2014 that includes minor to moderate flooding across a large section of the nation stretching across the Northeast, the Midwest, the northern Plains and sections of the Southeast. The greatest threat appears to be across the region around the Great Lakes and the upper and mid-Mississippi Valleys where an above average snowpack and a deep layer of frozen soil remains. Moderate flooding was also possible across several river basins in North Dakota including the Red River of the North and the Souris River. [National Weather Service]

New statistical models for ocean forecasting could increase accuracy of long-range weather and climate forecasts -- Researchers at the University of Missouri claim that their application of complex statistical models to prediction of ocean circulation patterns has increase the accuracy of ocean forecasting especially in the prediction of events such as El Niño and how the ocean plays a role in the storage of the planet's storage of heat and carbon. Using a statistical "Bayesian hierarchical model," the researchers helped improve the prediction of sea surface temperature extremes and wind fields over the ocean. They claim that the forecasts could have an effect on the prediction of major atmospheric weather events that include hurricanes and drought. [University of Missouri News Bureau]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Chemical signals from plankton affect ocean ecosystem and global climate -- Researchers from the University of California, Davis report that phytoplankton can release a chemical signal called dimethyl sulfide when consumed by grazing crustaceans, especially krill. The emitted dimethyl sulfide attracts far-ranging seabirds that help maintain a healthy ocean ecosystem, through the fertilization of the Southern Oceans with iron compounds. The dimethyl sulfide also forms atmospheric sulfur compounds promoting cloud formation and the modulation of planetary climate. [University of California, Davis News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Concept of the Week: Seawater Salinity and Carbon Dioxide

The contemporary concern regarding global climate change has caused scientists to study the various factors that govern the ocean's ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, are on the rise primarily because of increased burning of fossil fuels. Higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be contributing to increased global temperatures, a condition often identified as global warming. The ocean's role in regulating the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide depends on the temperature, salinity, and biological components of surface waters.

Studies show that the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide is primarily temperature dependent. As noted in Chapter 8 of your textbook, gases are more soluble in cold seawater than warm seawater. Hence, changes in sea surface temperature affect the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide. We also found in Chapter 1, photosynthetic organisms assimilate carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Through cellular respiration, all organisms release carbon dioxide. Therefore, biological activity affects the ocean's ability to absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

What about the effects of changes in salinity on the ocean's uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide? Research from the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii provides some insight on this question. For nearly 20 years, scientists have been collecting physical, chemical and biological data through a large column of ocean water at Station ALOHA, a sampling site about 100 km (62 mi) north of Oahu that appears representative of oceanic conditions in the central North Pacific. In 2003, David M. Karl, a biogeochemist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, reported a decline in the rate at which surface ocean waters were absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In 2001, the rate of carbon dioxide uptake was only about 15% of the rate in 1989. Why the change in carbon dioxide uptake? In this region of the Pacific north of Hawaii, sea surface temperatures showed no significant change during the period of observation but precipitation decreased and evaporation increased. Less precipitation associated with drought coupled with higher rates of evaporation caused the surface water salinity at ALOHA to increase by about 1%. Increasing salinity inhibits water's ability to absorb gases including carbon dioxide. Karl and his colleagues attribute 40% of the decline in the ocean's carbon dioxide uptake to the saltier waters. The balance of the decline may be due to changes in biological productivity or ocean mixing.

Projected changes in global climate indicate significant changes in precipitation around the globe including reduced precipitation over various large areas of the oceans, resulting in potential "drought" conditions. Since changes in oceanic salinity result from changes in precipitation, the contribution that salinity plays on future assimilation of atmospheric carbon dioxide by the ocean also becomes an important consideration.

Concept of the Week: Questions

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

With rising sea surface temperatures, the rate of evaporation of seawater [(increases), (decreases)].
With increasing salinity and constant temperature, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide that is taken up by ocean water [(increases), (decreases)].

Historical Events:

24 March 1993...What was to be called "the winter of the return of the big snows" continued to set records. Boston, MA had 8.6 inches of snow on this day to push its monthly total to 38.9 inches that set a new March monthly snowfall record. The old record was 33.0 inches set in 1916. Boston's seasonal snowfall total now stood at 81.7 inches, the third snowiest winter season on record. (Intellicast)
25 March 1914...Society Hill, SC was buried under 18 inches of snow, establishing a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
25 March 1975...The town of Sandberg reported a wind gust to 101 mph, a record for the state of California. (The Weather Channel)
26 March 1913...The Ohio River Basin flood reached a peak. Ten-inch rains over a wide area of the Ohio River Basin inundated cities in Ohio, drowning 467 persons, and causing 147 million dollars damage. The Miami River at Dayton reached a level eight feet higher than ever before. The flood, caused by warm weather and heavy rains, was the second mostly deadly of record for the nation. (David Ludlum)
26 March 1930...A two-day snowfall of 19.2 inches at Chicago, IL was the greatest modern snowfall on the record books at Chicago. (Intellicast)
26 March 1954...The temperature at Allakaket, AK plunged to 69 degrees below zero, setting a record for the lowest temperature ever for March. (The Weather Channel)
26-28 March 2004...The first ever confirmed hurricane in the South Atlantic Ocean, named Catarina, struck the coast of the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul with heavy rains and winds, before dissipating over land late on the 28th. (The Weather Doctor)
27 March 1931...A blizzard that struck western Kansas and adjoining states was called the "worst since January 1888". The low temperature of 3 degrees below zero, which was reached during the blizzard, stands as the lowest temperature recorded so late in the season. (Intellicast)
27-28 March 1964...The most powerful earthquake in US history, the Good Friday Earthquake, rocked south central Alaska, killing 125 people and causing $311 million in property damage, especially to the city of Anchorage. The earthquake in Prince William Sound, which had a magnitude of 9.2 on the Richter scale, caused some landmasses to be thrust upward locally as much as 80 feet, while elsewhere land sank as much as 8 feet. This earthquake and submarine landslides also created a tsunami that produced extensive coastal damage. A landslide at Valdez Inlet in Alaska generated a tsunami that reached a height of 220 feet in the inlet. A major surge wave that was approximately 100 ft above low tide caused major damage to Whittier (where 13 died) and other coastal communities in Alaska. The first wave took more than 5 hours to reach the Hawaiian Islands where a 10-foot wave was detected, while a wave that was 14.8 feet above high tide level traveled along portions of the West Coast, reaching northern California 4 hours after the earthquake. Nearly 10,000 people jammed beaches at San Francisco to view the possible tsunami, but no high-amplitude waves hit those beaches. Tsunami damage reached Crescent City in northern California. Tens of thousands of aftershocks indicated that the region of faulting extended about 600 miles. The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center was established in the wake of this disaster, with a mission to warn Alaskan communities of the threat from tsunamis. [See the 1964 Prince William Sound Tsunami page from the University of Washington.] (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
27 March 1984...A strong storm system traversing northern Texas pulled very hot air northeastward into southern Texas. The temperature at Brownsville, TX soared to 106 degrees, which broke not only the monthly record high temperature but the all-time record as well. Cotulla, TX reached 108 degrees, equaling the March record for the U.S. (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
27-28 March 2009...A blizzard moving across the southern Plains was responsible for new 24-hour snowfall records for the states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. A 30.0-inch snowfall at Pratt eclipsed the previous Kansas 24-hour record of 24 inches set at Norcator on 26 October 1996. Freedom and Woodward in Oklahoma replaced the 24.0-inch state snowfall record at Buffalo on 21 February 1971. In Texas, 25.0 inches fell at Follett, which broke the previous 24.0-inch record at Plainview set on 4 February 1971. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
28 March 1902...McMinnville, TN (elevation 900 feet) received 11.00 inches of precipitation, setting a 24-hour precipitation record for the Volunteer State. (National Climate Data Center).
28 March 1955...Florida's latest measurable snowfall occurred at Marianna when one inch of snow fell. Ground is whitened further south in Panama City. (The Weather Doctor)
29 March 1879...The temperature at Los Angeles, CA climbed to 99 degrees, which was 3 degrees higher than any other March day had ever reached in the city. (Intellicast)
29 March 1886...Atlanta, GA was drenched with a record 7.36 inches of rain in 24 hours. (The Weather Channel)
29 March 1920...Clear Spring, MD received 31 inches of snow in 24 hours to establish a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
29 March 1942...The "Palm Sunday snowstorm" buried Baltimore, MD under 22 inches of snow in 24 hours. This was the heaviest 24-hour snowfall ever for the city for the month of March as well as the heaviest snow for so late in the season. (Intellicast)
29 March 1945...Providence, RI hit 90 degrees to establish a March record for the New England area. (The Weather Channel)
30 March 1977...Hartford, CT hit 87 degrees to establish a record for the month of March. (The Weather Channel)

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