WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

PREVIEW WEEK: 18-22 January 2016

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Free admission into the National Parks and Forests-- This Monday, 18 January 2016, has been designated by the National Park Service as a fee-free day in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. This fee waiver will cover entrance and commercial tour fees in many of the national parks and monuments administered by the Park Service. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]
End of a long polar night -- After being below the horizon for approximately 65 days, the Sun should rise at Barrow, the northernmost city in Alaska, for the first time this new year on this coming Saturday, 23 January 2016, at 1:10 PM Alaska Standard Time (AKST). However, the Sun will only remain above the horizon for only 59 minutes, as it will set again at 2:09 PM. Although the Sun set for the final time last year at 1:15 PM AKST on 19 November 2015, residents of Barrow had roughly three hours of some diffuse sunlight each day that is equivalent to civil twilight, provided the cloud cover was not too thick. To check the sunrise and sunset times of Barrow or any location in the United States go to the US Naval Observatory's on-line, interactive service for the entire year.
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

Review of national weather and climate for December 2015 and for the 2015 calendar year -- Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) have released reports based upon their preliminary analysis of temperature and precipitation data collected through the end of December 2015 from across the nation. Based upon the data processed through late last week, they report:

December 2015 was warmest and wettest month on record -- The nationwide average December temperature across the contiguous United States was 38.6 degrees Fahrenheit, making this past month the warmest December since a sufficiently dense national climate observing network was established in 1895. This monthly average temperature broke the previous December monthly high temperature of 37.7 degrees set in December 1939. During this past month, all states to the east of the Mississippi River, along with Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, reported their highest monthly December temperatures in the 121 years of record. States across the high Plains also had temperatures that were above to much above the 20th-century (1901-2000) averages. However, those states from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast had statewide temperatures that were near or slightly below the long-term average.
The nationwide precipitation total for December 2015 across the "Lower 48 states" was 1.58 inches above the 20th century average, placing this past month as the "wettest" December since 1895. More than half of the states reported above average precipitation totals, with Wisconsin and Iowa experiencing their largest precipitation totals in 121 years of record. Nearly 20 additional states across the nation had statewide December precipitation totals that ranked in the top 10 for that month. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]

Calendar year of 2015 was warm and wet across parts of the US -- The preliminary average temperature for the coterminous United States during the recently concluded 2015 was 54.4 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 2.4 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average. As a result, 2015 was the nation's second warmest year since 1895, following behind the warmest year of 2012, which had a national average annual temperature of 55.3 degrees. All states reported annual temperatures that were above to much above average. Four states experienced their highest annual statewide temperatures in 2015: Washington, Oregon and Montana in the Northwest and Florida in the Southeast. Twenty other states across the West and Southeast had statewide average annual temperatures within the top ten on record. .
The nationwide average precipitation across the 48 contiguous states for 2015 was 34.47 inches, which made the year the third wettest year on record since 1895. Many of the states across southern and central United States had above to much above annual precipitation totals, with Oklahoma and Texas experiencing their wettest years in the 121-year record. Ten other states extending from the southern Rockies to the Carolinas were in the top ten wettest years. On the other hand, California and Montana in the West, and southern New England in the East had a relatively dry 2015. Connecticut had its fourth lowest annual precipitation total on record. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]
NOTE: A description is provided of the climatological rankings employed by NCDC for their monthly, seasonal and annual maps. [NOAA/NCEI]
An animation of 13 national temperature anomaly maps showing the spatial distribution of the differences between observed and normal temperatures recaps 2015, commencing with the 2015 annual average and then indexing through each month, running from January through December. A compressed (or zip) file containing the individual maps is available. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

Annual national drought report for 2015 -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its 2015 annual drought report online. This report describes how the areas experiencing drought and wet conditions changed throughout the last calendar year. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (a commonly used indicator of drought conditions), nearly 29 percent of the area of the contiguous United States experienced moderate to exceptional drought conditions at the start of January 2015. Although the areal extent of the drought expanded to nearly 37 percent of the nation during the spring and then to 35 percent in October, drought conditions shrank during late fall and early winter to slightly less than 19 percent. The size of the moderate to exceptional drought shrinking to approximately three percent of the contiguous United States at the end of 2015. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the area with severely to extremely wet conditions had expanded from 10 percent at the start of January 2015 to approximately 28 percent of the "Lower 48 states" by the end of December. Additional drought information is also available on the December 2015 online drought report.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Nation's longest serving cooperative weather observer passes at age 103 -- Richard G. Hendrickson of Bridgehampton, NY died last weekend after serving as an unprecedented 85 years as a volunteer weather observer for the National Weather Service's Cooperative Observer Program. Starting in July 1930, Mr. Hendrickson took weather observations twice daily on his farm on eastern Long Island, NY and reported his temperature and precipitation observations to the local National Weather Service Office by telephone. His data along with those collected by approximately 8700 other observers are used to monitor the weather and climate across the nation in a program that commenced in 1890. [Washington Post]
Cataloging soil types across nation helps assess soil moisture -- Researchers at Penn State University have developed a set of national maps of soil type and the volume of available water storage based on a dataset of soil characteristics for the conterminous United States, or "CONUS-Soil." This multi-layer soil characteristics dataset has been specifically designed for regional and continental-scale climate, hydrology, and ecosystem modeling. The data for CONUS-Soil were obtained from NASA's Landsat 4 and 5 satellites. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE FORCING

New seafloor features found from map made from satellite data -- An international team of scientists have created a new map of the ocean floor using satellite altimetry data collected from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 and from the NASA/Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Jason-1 satellites. The height of sea level obtained from these satellite were used in computer models to generate maps of gravity anomaly within the ocean basins, which then can be used to produce detailed bathymetry maps showing underwater ridges, seamounts, and the edges of Earth's tectonic plates where seafloor gravity anomalies are positive (gravity is stronger than average) and deep troughs on the ocean floor where negative anomalies are detected. The sea floor maps have provided topographic features of the seafloor that oceanographers could study the evolution of Earth's continents and tectonic plates. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Updated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & El Niño advisory outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their El Niño advisory as much above-average sea surface temperatures (SST) persisted across the equatorial Pacific Ocean in December 2015, a sign of the continuation of the strong El Niño event (an anomalous large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern characterized by warm waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific). SST values ranged from between two to three Celsius degrees above normal from the central into the eastern equatorial Pacific, with only some slight decrease in values. Therefore, the CPC forecasters continued their El Niño advisory, envisioning this current strong El Niño event to gradually weaken through this upcoming Northern Hemisphere spring (March through May 2016), followed by a transition to an anticipated ENSO-neutral condition during the late spring or early summer of 2016. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
A blog written by scientists from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center show that the current El Niño event during the three months running from October through December 2015 was as strong as the one in 1997-1998 that has been considered to be one of the strongest El Niño events since 1950. They base their analysis on the rankings of the SST values for one of the regions of the Pacific along the Equator identifed as Niño 3.4. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Upgrades to nation's weather, water and climate supercomputer capacities are made -- Kathryn Sullivan, PhD, NOAA's administrator recently announced that the nearly four-fold increase in the computing capacity of her agency's Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputer System has been made, which permits the computers to run at record speed. This increase along with the capacity to process and analyze earth observations at quadrillions of calculations per second is being made to allow NOAA to unveil a series of operational upgrades to its weather, water and climate forecast models. The computers, called Luna and Surge, are located at computing centers in Reston, VA and Orlando, FL. [NOAA News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Assessing how a changing climate can impact the beer industry -- A feature on NOAA's Climate.gov website assesses how changing climate appears to have an impact upon the nation's beer brewing industry, focusing on how abnormally warm and dry summers across the Northwest have affected the growth of hops, one of the key ingredients used in brewing. The impacts of changing climate upon the storage, transportation, and marketing aspects of beer are also addressed. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

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

Welcome to DataStreme Earth's Climate System (ECS)! The Earth's Climate System RealTime Climate Portal 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 RealTime Climate Portal to access and download the "Current Climate Studies" that complement your Climate Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should also be available Monday morning. 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 RealTime Climate Portal.

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 RealTime Climate Portal 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 RealTime Climate Portal 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 RealTime Climate Portal 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 "National Climate Assessment (NCA3) Highlights" 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 RealTime Climate Portal 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. 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's Climate.gov", 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 2015.
Under the Societal Interactions and Climate Policy section, click the "Global Resilience Toolkit" link. The Toolkit has been designed to aid in working through climate change issues by communities. The first step in using this toolkit is to [(Investigate options)(Identify the Problem)].

Historical Events:

18 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Oregon was set at Seneca when the thermometer dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1943...The record low temperature for the state of Oklahoma was set at Watts when the mercury dipped to 27 degrees below zero. The record low temperature for the state of Idaho was set at Island Park Dam when the temperature fell to 60 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1957...The record low temperature for the state of Massachusetts was set at Birch Hill Dam when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero. This record was tied in January 1981. (Intellicast)
18 January 1977...The record low temperature for the state of South Carolina was set near Long Creek when the mercury plunged to 20 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-27 January 1980...Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced 223.5 inches of rainfall over the 10-day period at Cratère Commerson, on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor) (National Weather Service files)
19 January 1786...The temperature at Hartford, CT fell to 24 degrees below zero. Up to this time, it was the lowest ever known on a thermometer.
19 January 1925...The record low temperature for the state of Maine was set at Van Buren when the temperature fell to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
19 January 1933...Giant Forest, CA received 60 inches of snow in just 24 hours, a state record, and the second highest 24-hour total of record for the U.S. (David Ludlum)
19 January 1994...An extremely cold arctic airmass set 67 new record temperature lows from Minnesota to Virginia, including 10 cities that recorded their lowest temperatures ever. The following cities set all-time record lows: Indianapolis, IN (27 degrees below zero), Akron, OH, Clarksburg, WV, and Zanesville, OH (25 below), Pittsburgh, PA, Louisville, KY, Columbus, OH and Youngstown, OH (22 below), Cleveland, OH (20 below), and Erie, PA (18 below). The mercury plunged to 36 below zero at New Whiteland, IN to set a new record low temperature for the Hoosier State. In Kentucky, a statewide record low temperature was set at Shelbyville with a reading of 37 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
19 January 1995...Columbia, MO was buried under 19.7 inches of snow in 24 hours for its greatest 24-hour snowfall and snowstorm ever. Wind gusts up to 45 mph produced blizzard conditions and thunderstorms occurred several times during the heavy snow. Interstates 70, US 63, and US 54 were closed down. The same storm produced 15 inches of snow at Moline, IL and 14 inches at Blue Jacket, OK. (Intellicast)
20 January 1937...The record low temperature for the state of California was set at Boca when the thermometer dropped to 45 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
20 January 1954...The temperature at Rogers Pass, MT plunged to 69.7 degrees below zero to establish a new low temperature record for the continental U.S. (David Ludlum)
20 January 1977...The barometric pressure at St. Anthony, Newfoundland dropped to 940.2 millibars (27.76 inches of mercury), the lowest sea level pressure ever recorded in Canada. (The Weather Doctor)
21 January 1985...An all-time record low temperature of 7 degrees was set on this day at Jacksonville, FL. The coldest day ever recorded at Macon, GA was recorded on this day when the mercury dropped to 6 degrees below zero. Records began at Macon in 1899. (Intellicast) The all-time record low temperature for North Carolina was set at Mt. Mitchell with a 34-degree below zero reading, while a 19 degree below zero reading at Caesars Head in South Carolina set that state's record low temperature. (National Climatic Data Center)
22 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Illinois was set at Mount Carroll as the mercury dipped to 35 degrees below zero. This state record has since been broken in 1999. (Intellicast)
22 January 1961...The all-time record low temperature for Connecticut was tied when the temperature fell to 32 degrees below zero at Coventry. (National Climate Data Center)
22 January 1943...Chinook winds during the early morning hours caused the temperature at Spearfish, SD to rise 49 Fahrenheit degrees from 4 degrees below zero to 45 degrees above zero in just two minutes (between 7:30 and 7:32 AM), the most dramatic temperature rise in world weather records. An hour and a half later the mercury plunged from 54 degrees above zero to 4 degrees below zero in twenty-seven minutes. Plate glass windows cracked as a result of the quick thermal expansion and contraction. (David Ludlum)
22-23 January 1943...Hoegees Camp, at an elevation of 2760 feet in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, received 26.12 inches of precipitation in a 24-hour span, setting the Golden State's 24-hour precipitation record. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
22 January 1985...Mountain Lake Biological Station in Virginia reported a temperature of 30 degrees below zero, which established the all-time record low temperature for the state. (National Climate Data Center)
24 January 1857...The coldest weather in pre-U.S. Weather Bureau history occurred with temperatures of 50 degrees below zero reported in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero in Boston, MA and 11 degrees below zero on Nantucket Island. (Intellicast)
24 January 1916...The temperature at Browning, MT plunged 100 Fahrenheit degrees in just 24 hours, from 44 degrees above zero to 56 degrees below zero. It was a record 24-hour temperature drop for the U.S. (Weather Channel) (National Severe Storms Forecast Center)
24 January 1922...The all-time record low temperature for the state of Wisconsin was set at Danbury when the temperature dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast) (This record has been broken by one degree in February, 1996)
24 January 1956...Thirty-eight inches of rain deluged the Kilauea Sugar Plantation of Hawaii in 24 hours, including twelve inches in just one hour. The 38.00 inches remains the Aloha State's 24-hour maximum precipitation record. (David Ludlum)

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