WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

SPRING BREAK WEEK: 9-13 March 2015

This is Break Week for the Spring 2015 offering of the DataStreme Earth Climate Studies course. This Weekly Climate News contains new information items and historical data, but the Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Time change does not affect climate records -- Daylight Saving Time went into effect this past Sunday morning for essentially the entire nation -- the exceptions include Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and about 18 counties in Indiana. These changes have been mandated by the U.S. Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended Daylight Saving Time across the nation, with the start on the second Sunday in March (10 March 2013) and end on the first Sunday in November (3 November 2013). Most of Canada also observes changes to Daylight Saving Time at the same time [National Research Council Canada]. In other words, following the old adage of "spring ahead, fall behind", you will need to turn your clocks ahead by one hour to conform with the local time observance.
What does this time change mean to you (other than later sunsets)? Contrary to a popular belief that has surfaced at times, the change from Standard to Daylight Saving Time does not add an extra hour of daylight to the day nor does it affect climate record keeping. The daily high and low temperatures, along with the 24-hour precipitation taken by essentially all stations across the nation are based upon local Standard time, not Daylight time. Therefore, the daily entries in the Preliminary Local Climate Data (CF6) for any of the more than 200 cities around the nation will remain on Standard time throughout the year.
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2015 Campaign is underway -- The third in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2015 will begin a 10-night campaign that runs from Wednesday 11 March through Friday 20 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 in the Northern Hemisphere and Crux in the Southern Hemisphere) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. In addition to the 11-20 March campaign, the other three GLOBE at Night campaigns during the first half of 2015 are on 9-18 April, 9-18 May and 8-17 June. [GLOBE at Night]
Viewing atmospheric circulation in three-dimensions -- Read this week's Supplemental Information.. In Greater Depth for information concerning the average circulation in the lower and upper troposphere.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

British Isles may have had sunniest winter on record -- The United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UK Met Office) recently announced that preliminary data indicates the United Kingdom has recorded its sunniest winter on record dating back to 1929 when daily sunshine record keeping began. The winter of 2014-2015 (Dec-Feb) should break the previous record for average total sunshine hours from the 2000-2001 winter. [UK Met Office News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Changing climate could have lead to brutal winters in some locations -- Two climate scientists from Rutgers University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison claim that the major warming across the Arctic due to changing climate could also be responsible for higher amplitude waves in the upper tropospheric jet stream that have resulted in extreme weather events across North America, especially during winter. These higher amplitude waves due to "Arctic amplification" would create more frequent and persistent north-south oriented jet streams that resulted in the western sections of North America being warm while eastern sections of the continent being cold. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News]
Ocean tides have changed over last century around the world -- Scientists from the United Kingdom's University of Southampton have found that the tide levels and tidal range of ocean tides have changed significantly over the last century at many coastal locations around the world. Increases in both high tide levels and in the tidal range were found to have been similar to increases in average sea level at several locations. The researchers used 220 sea level records from around the world that had lengths of records ranging from 30 to 150 years to changes in tidal levels. Apparently, these tidal changes are due to a combination of local to global mechanisms, including the rise in sea level associated with climate change. [University of Southampton News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

El Niño event has finally developed -- Late last week forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center in collaboration with colleagues at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society released their assessment that a weak El Niño event had finally arrived based upon their analysis of the average sea surface temperature data for February 2015 collected by the fleet of NOAA satellites. Consequently, these forecasters issued an El Niño Advisory to declare the arrival of the long-anticipated El Niño event, which is an ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by above-average sea surface temperatures in the central sections of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The outlook indicates that an approximately 50-60% chance for the continuation of El Niño conditions through Northern Hemisphere summer 2015. Since the strength of this El Niño appears to be weak, widespread or significant global weather pattern impacts are not anticipated. [NOAA News][NOAA Climate.gov blog]
Certain impacts often associated with El Niño may appear this spring in the Northern Hemisphere, such as drier-than average conditions across the northern tier of states from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, while wetter-than-average conditions could prevail the US Gulf Coast.[NOAA Climate.gov News]
High-resolution climate model provides improved seasonal temperature and precipitation predictions over land -- Scientists at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) recently reported on the improvement in the seasonal prediction of temperature and precipitation over land made using a high-resolution GFDL Climate Model. They claimed that increased skill in seasonal precipitation forecasts over land appears to arise primarily from the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, while the increased seasonal prediction skill of near surface air temperature over land appears to involve both a multi-decadal change component and a spatially heterogenous ENSO-related component. [NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Global coral bleaching event foreseen for 2015 due to warm oceans -- NOAA scientists recently released their agency's "Four-Month Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook" for March through June 2015 in which they foresee a global outbreak of coral bleaching in 2015 due to above-average ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans. The coral bleaching represents a loss of the corals' food-producing algae. This thermal stress outlook depends on sea surface temperature forecasts from NOAA's operational climate forecast system model to show regions that are most likely to experience bleaching up to four months in advance. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Yucatan Peninsula may have been hit by tsunami 1500 years ago -- Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and Mexico's Centro Ecological Akumal claim that their radiocarbon analysis of peat taken from a berm along the eastern coastline of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula indicates that this peninsula may have been slammed by a tsunami consisting of two or three giant waves between 1,500 and 900 years ago. This tsunami may have been triggered by a variety of events ranging from earthquakes and underwater landslides to volcanic eruptions and oceanic meteor strikes. [University of Colorado Boulder News]

CLIMATE AND HUMAN HEALTH

Cleaner air means healthier kids in Los Angeles -- In a 20-year long study of lung development of more than 2000 children in the Los Angeles basin, researchers at the University of Southern California study have found that children's lungs grew stronger as air pollution declined in the Los Angeles basin over the past two decades. [University of Southern California News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

This Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

Concept of the Week: Tropospheric westerly winds, north and south

The theoretical existence of upper tropospheric jet stream winds were not confirmed until being encountered by World War II bomber pilots when heading west into strong headwinds at altitudes of approximately 30,000 feet (10,000 m). Wind speeds sometimes exceeded 170 mph causing their relatively slow, heavily laden aircraft to almost stand still. Subsequently, westerly jet stream winds were found to encircle the planet in midlatitudes of both hemispheres above regions of strong temperature contrasts.

The explanation for these winds involves atmospheric mass distributions and forces on a rotating planet. Air in tropical latitudes is warmed, rises and then flows poleward, both north and south. On a rotating planet, moving air is deflected by the Coriolis effect, to the right in the Northern Hemisphere (and left in the Southern). The greater the temperature differences between warm lower and cold higher latitudes, the stronger the air motions and the faster the jet streams. The vertical temperature patterns result in the highest wind speeds near the top of the troposphere.

So Northern Hemisphere air headed northward, deflected to the right ends up headed east, a "westerly wind." In the Southern Hemisphere, southward moving air, deflected left will also go east, as a westerly wind. These "rivers" of strong upper-level winds steer surface weather systems as they move generally eastward across midlatitudes. They also provide boosts for jet aircraft headed eastward with them, but need to be avoided for going west! Of course, the full story is complex as land (especially mountains) and water surfaces interact with the heating of the air and eddies form in the turbulent flows, so jet streams wander. And with them go the storms and the weather patterns that form our short-term climate.

Concept of the Week: Questions

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

The Northern Hemisphere jet stream winds would be directed such that cold air is [(to the left),(to the right),(directly ahead)] of their forward motion.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the jet stream winds to be directed generally toward the [(south), (east), (west)].

Historical Events:

9 March 1911...Aibonito, Puerto Rico had temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the lowest temperature recorded on that island. (The Weather Doctor)
9 March 1943...The temperature at Lac Frontiere, ME fell to 40 degrees below zero, the lowest reading ever in March in New England. (Intellicast)
9 March 1956...A whopping 367 inches of snow was measured on the ground at the Rainier Paradise Ranger Station in Washington. The snow depth was a state record and the second highest total of record for the continental U.S. (The Weather Channel)
10 March 1912...The barometric pressure reached 990.9 millibars (29.26 inches) at Los Angeles, CA, and 997.7 millibars (29.46 inches) at San Diego, CA, setting all-time records for those two locations. (David Ludlum)
10 March 1922...Dodge City, KS reported an all-time record 24-hour total of 17.5 inches of snow. (The Weather Channel)
10-11 March 1972, The temperature at Chicago, IL rose from 15 degrees on the 10th to 73 degrees on the 11th. The 58-Fahrenheit degree temperature rise tied the largest day-to-day rise on record. The city experienced a similar jump in temperature in February 1887. (The Weather Doctor)
11 March 1911...Tamarack, CA reported 451 inches of snow on the ground, a record for the U.S. (David Ludlum)
11 March 1948...Record cold followed in the wake of a Kansas blizzard. Lows of 25 degrees below zero at Oberlin, Healy, and Quinter established a state record for the month of March. Lows of 15 degrees below zero at Dodge City, 11 degrees below zero at Concordia, and 3 degrees below zero at Wichita were records for March at these locations. The low of 3 degrees below zero at Kansas City, MO was their latest subzero reading of record. (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
11 March 2006...The record run for dry days in Phoenix, AZ finally ended at 143 at 12:07 AM MST. The last measured rain in the city fell on 18 October 2005. The last time the region had significant precipitation was 2 August when 0.59 inch (15 mm) fell. Not only did the rain break the dry spell, the 1.40-inch total was a record amount for the date: The previous consecutive dry-day mark, set in 1998-99, was 101 days. (The Weather Doctor)
12-13 March 1907...A storm produced a record 5.22 inches of rain in 24 hours at Cincinnati, OH. (The Weather Channel)
12 March 1923...The record low air pressure of 971.9 millibars (28.70 inches) for Chicago, IL was set during a storm that produced heavy snow, a thick glaze, gales, and much rain that caused $800,000 damage. (Intellicast)
13-15 March 1952...The world's 5-day rainfall record was set when a tropical cyclone produced 151.73 inches of rain at Cilos, Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The 73.62 inches that fell in a 24-hour period (15^th-16^th) set the world's 24-hour rainfall record. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
13 March 1993...The "Great Blizzard of '93" clobbered the eastern US and produced perhaps the largest swath of heavy snow ever recorded. Heavy snow was driven to the Gulf Coast with 3 inches falling at Mobile, AL and up to 5 inches reported in the Florida Panhandle, the greatest single snowfall in the state's history. Thirteen inches blanketed Birmingham, AL to set not only a new 24-hour snowfall record for any month, but also set a record for maximum snow depth, maximum snow for a single storm, and maximum snow for a single month. Tremendous snowfall amounts occurred in the Appalachians. Mount Leconte in Tennessee recorded an incredible 60 inches. Mount Mitchell in North Carolina was not far behind with 50 inches. Practically every official weather station in West Virginia set a new 24-hour record snowfall. Farther to the north, Pittsburgh, PA measured 25 inches, Albany, NY checked in with 27 inches, and Syracuse, NY was buried under 43 inches. The major population corridor from Washington, DC to Boston, MA was not spared this time as all the big cities got about a foot of snow before a changeover to rain. A rather large amount of thunderstorm activity accompanied the heavy snow. Winds to hurricane force in gusts were widespread. Boston recorded a gust to 81 mph, the highest wind gust at that location since hurricane Edna in 1954. Numerous cities in the south and mid Atlantic states recorded their lowest barometric pressure ever as the storm bottomed out at 960 millibars (28.35 inches of mercury) over Chesapeake Bay. Some 208 people were killed by the storm and total damage was estimated at $6 billion-- the costliest extratropical storm in history. (Intellicast)
14 March 1944...A single storm brought a record 21.6 inches of snow to Salt Lake City UT. (The Weather Channel)
14 March 1984...A coastal storm dumped very heavy snow over northern New England. Caribou, ME received 28.6 inches of snow in 24 hours, by far its greatest 24-hour snowfall on record. (Intellicast)
15 March 1892...A winter storm in southwestern and central Tennessee produced 26 inches of snow at Riddleton, and 18.5 inches at Memphis, resulting in the deepest snow of record for those areas. (David Ludlum)
15 March 1906...The temperature at Snake River, WY dipped to 50 degrees below zero, a record for the U.S. for the month of March. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders -1987)
15 March 1952...Over 72 (73.62) inches of rain fell on Cilaos, Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean, the greatest global 24-hour total rainfall. (The Weather Doctor)
15 March 2004...Rain at Brownsville, TX broke a century-old precipitation record for the greatest daily rainfall accumulation for March with 3.23 inches . (The Weather Doctor)

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