DataStreme ECS WEEK TEN: 7-11 April 2014

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• Masters climatology -- The 2014 Masters Golf Tournament, one of professional golf's four major championships, will be held this coming week ( 7 April – 13 April 2014) at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, GA. The Southeast Regional Climate Center has produced a Masters Climatology for 1934-2013 that includes the daily maximum and minimum temperatures and the 24-hour precipitation totals for each day of the four-day event in early April, extending over the last 78 years.
• Update on the Cherry Blossom Watch -- 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 102nd annual Cherry Blossom Festival that is scheduled to continue through next week (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 reach peak bloom at the end of this week and into the following week (11-15 April) because of the harsh winter and the slow spring. [Capital Weather Gang]
• Development of long-term state, national and global instrumental climate records -- Temperature and precipitation data have been collected around the world since the mid-19th century. Beginning in the 1890s, a sufficiently dense climate network has been established in the United States and its territories. The records from around the nation and from around the global have been collected and archived at several central locations, such as NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Scientists at NCDC along with colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and in the United Kingdom have produced time series of area-average monthly and annual temperatures for over a century on state, national and global space scales. For more details on these records and how to access them, please read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

• Arctic sea ice reaches a winter maximum -- During the last week scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that their analysis of satellite data has indicated sea ice on the Arctic Ocean reached its maximum seasonal extent on 21 March 2014 after a brief surge in extent mid-March. As of that date, the scientists declared the annual melt season had commenced as the ice cover would begin to contract, continuing to shrink to a minimum extent in September. The date of this year's maximum ice extent occurred eleven days later than the average date of 9 March for the era of satellite surveillance that began in 1979. This winter season's maximum areal extent was the fifth lowest in the satellite record. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• Arctic melt season lengthening as ocean rapidly warms -- In a study conducted by researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA, the length of the melt season for Arctic sea ice has lengthened by several decades since satellite surveillance began in 1979. The longer sea ice season when coupled with an earlier start to the melt season has permitted the Arctic Ocean to absorb additional solar radiation in some locations that could melt as much as four feet of ice from the thickness of the ice cover. Passive microwave data were collected from NASA's Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer, and the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder carried onboard Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]

• "World Ocean Atlas 2013" released -- Late last week NOAA released the "World Ocean Atlas 2013," which represents a compilation of ocean climate data that include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients from the world's oceans as part of the World Ocean Database. The newest version of this Atlas contains high resolution data and objectively analyzed figures with a one-degree latitude-longitude grid for oceans' climate at standard levels from the surface to a depth of 5500 meters on monthly, seasonal and annual intervals. [NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service News]
• Ocean cruise provides "ground truth" for satellite sensors -- A team off oceanographers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are making detailed observations of ocean water during a 45-day cruise across the waters of the South Pacific and Southern Ocean designed to calibrate data collected by orbiting satellites such as the Suomi NPP, Landsat 8 and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) spacecraft that have been launched during the last two years. The researchers onboard the National Science Foundation Nathaniel B. Palmer are timing their observations to coincide with the overhead passage of the satellites. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• 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 FORECASTS

• Canadian national seasonal outlook issued -- Forecasters with Environment Canada issued their outlooks for temperature and precipitation across Canada for the three months of April through June 2014, which represents the last two months of meteorological spring and the start of meteorological summer. The temperature outlook indicates that western Canada, in particular British Columbia, would experience above normal (1981-2010) temperatures for these three months. In addition, a large section of the Canadian Archipielago should also have above average spring and early summer temperatures. Only a few scattered areas to the north of Lake Superior and over the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Atlantic Canada would have below average temperatures for the next three months. Elsewhere across Canada, near normal spring temperatures were anticipated.
  The Canadian precipitation outlook for April through June 2014 indicates that sections of eastern Canada including Quebec and the Maritime Provinces could experience below average precipitation. Drier than average conditions could occur across Saskatchewan in the Prairie Provinces and in sections of the Northwest Territory in the western Canadian Arctic. On the other hand, sections of the eastern Canadian Arctic in Nunavut could have above normal precipitation.
  [Note for comparisons and continuity with the three-month seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation generated for the continental United States and Alaska by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, one would need to use Environment Canada's probabilistic forecasts for temperature and precipitation.]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

• Fluorescence from US Corn Belt detected by orbiting satellite -- A team of scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Germany's Freie Universität Berlin used data collected from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) on Metop-A, a European meteorological satellite, capable of detecting fluorescent glow emitted by plants to determine the amount of photosynthesis in land plants and then to estimate the gross productivity of these plants. The researchers found that during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the Corn Belt in the Midwest region of the United States has more photosynthetic activity than any other region on the planet, including the Amazon basin. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• Another segment of the most recent IPCC report released -- At the start of last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the latest segment of its 5th Assessment Report (AR5) titled "Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability." This report presents a comprehensive look at impacts of climate change that is currently occurring and an assessment of climate adaptation practices needed for society to become more resilient to climate change and to mitigate risk. [IPCC Press Release]
• Health costs of air pollution from nation's agriculture clarified -- Researchers from Harvard University used computer models to estimate the health costs from air pollution associated with food produced for export across the US. One of their models was one a NASA model of chemical reactions in the atmosphere designed to determine how ammonia interacts in the atmosphere to form harmful particulate matter. This study determined that the health cost associated with the ammonia emissions from agriculture exports to be $100 per kilogram of ammonia, or approximately double the estimates made by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Sections of the Midwest and the Northeast appeared to have the largest increases in annual mean surface concentration of particulate matter resulting from ammonia emissions associated with food export. [NASA's Earth Science News Team ]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Developing a Quality Long-term Instrumental Climate Record

Systematic temperature and precipitation observations have been made at various locations across the nation for nearly two centuries. While only a handful of stations were available in the early 19th century, weather and climate observations currently are made from several hundred automatic weather sites operated by the National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration as well as approximately 8000 stations in the Cooperative Observers Network administered by the National Weather Service. The weather data from these networks are also used to quantitatively assess changes of climate during the instrumental period of the past as well into the future. However, a variety of factors can affect the homogeneity of the record. For example, the locations of many of the stations have moved, from original downtown building roofs to current locations at airports. And the physical surroundings of the stations have changed, many becoming more urbanized.

In the late 1980s, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in conjunction with the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory created the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) of 1218 stations across the 48 coterminous states having long-term records of both daily temperature and precipitation. This network was designed to provide an essential baseline data set for monitoring the nation's climate commencing in the late 19th century. These stations were created from a subset of the Cooperative Observers Network, chosen based upon long-term data quality that included length of record, percent of missing data, spatial distribution and number of station changes. Many of the selected USHCN stations were rural in an attempt to reduce the influence of urbanization. Using statistical analyses, data for these stations have been adjusted to account for movement of stations, or when a different thermometer type was installed. An urban warming correction was applied based upon population of the surrounding area.

More recently, NOAA began the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN), a project designed to collect and analyze climate data of the highest possible quality for the next 50 to 100 years. Each USCRN station would have electronic sensors that would make routine measurements of air temperature, precipitation, IR ground surface temperature, solar radiation and wind speed with a frequency of every five minutes and transmit these data to both NCDC and to National Weather Service offices via orbiting satellites on nearly a real-time basis. In addition to these measurements, additional sensors could be added to the USCRN stations that would measure soil temperature and soil moisture. Conscientious and detailed site selection was made for all stations so that they would not only be spatially representative, but that they would be in locations where the surrounding physical conditions would have a high likelihood of remaining the same over the next 50 to 100 years. Many of the sites were placed on federal or state owned lands, helping minimize the contamination of the climate record by urbanization or other changes in local ground cover.

These long-term, comparative, spatially representative values are vital to detect and verify the subtle changes in climatic conditions before they become overwhelmingly obvious.

Concept of the Week: Questions

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

1. The majority of United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) stations were in [(rural), (urban)] settings.
2. The instruments in the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) sample the atmosphere as frequently as [(5 minutes),(1 day),(1 month)].

Historical Events:

• 8-10 April 1958...A global 48-hour precipitation record was established at Aurere, La Reunion Island, when 97.1 in. of rain from a tropical cyclone fell on the Indian Ocean island. (The Weather Doctor)
• 8 April 1989...Two dozen cities in the southwestern U.S. reported new record high temperatures for the date. Phoenix, AZ equaled their record for April of 104 degrees established just the previous day. (The National Weather Summary)
• 9 April 1983...Hottest day in Malaysian historical record, as the temperature reached at Chuping, Malaysia reached 101 degrees, a record that was tied nine days later. (The Weather Doctor)
• 9 April 2000...A record April snowfall of 14.6 in. shut down Montreal, Quebec. Snow removal contracts had ended on 1 April. (The Weather Doctor)
• 9 April 1995...Glasgow, MT recorded 12.2 inches of snow in 24 hours, its greatest 24-hour snowfall on record. (Intellicast)
• 10 April 1985...A late season cold snap in the east set record low April temperatures in the following cities: Asheville, NC, 23 degrees; Beckley, WV, 11 degrees; Elkins, WV, 3 degrees. April record lows were tied in Raleigh-Durham, NC (23 degrees) and Roanoke, VA (20 degrees). (Intellicast)
• 10 April 1996...A wind gust of 253 mph was measured when the eyewall of Tropical Cyclone Olivia passed over Australia's Barrow Island. This gust became the highest surface wind speed record, replacing the 231-mph wind gust measured at New Hampshire's Mount Washington Observatory on 12 April 1934. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 April 1815...Massive eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia blew 400 cubic kilometers (100 cubic miles) of ash skyward. Eruption disrupted the global weather for several years, particularly noteworthy: the cold summer of 1816 in North America and Europe. (The Weather Doctor)
• 12 April 1934...Winds atop Mount Washington, NH (elevation 6288 feet) averaged a world record 186 mph for five minutes, with a peak gust from the southeast of 231 mph, which is the highest wind speed ever clocked in the world. (David Ludlum) On 10 April 1996, a wind gust of 253 mph was measured when the eyewall of Tropical Cyclone Olivia passed over Australia's Barrow Island and is now considered to be the highest surface wind speed record. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 April 1985...Key West, FL set a new record for April rainfall in a 24-hour period as 6.06 inches of rain were recorded, eclipsing the previous record of 6.04 inches which fell on 29 April 1941. In addition, the heavy rainfall shattered the old record for this date set back in 1931 when 1.49 inches of rain fell. (Intellicast)
• 12 April 1996...Duluth, MN recorded 1.7 inches of snow on this day to raise its seasonal snowfall total to 132.8 inches -- its snowiest winter on record. The old record was 131.6 inches set back in 1949-50. (Intellicast)
• 13 April 1955...The town of Axis, AL was deluged with 20.33 inches of rain in 24 hours establishing a state record. (The Weather Channel)
• 13 April 1985...The high temperature of 86 degrees for this date at Medford, OR was the highest ever so early in the spring season. (Intellicast)

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