WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

21-25 May 2012

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2012. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Zenithal Sun -- The noontime sun should be at the zenith or directly over the heads of those on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) during this week (25-27 May). [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
Watching forests recover following the Mt. St. Helens eruption -- In observance of last week's 32nd anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, an animation has been produced by NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio using a sequence of images of the area around the volcano as obtained by NASA's Landsat satellites. These images show how vegetation has returned to the slopes of the volcano in the years following the eruption that blew down approximately four billion board-feet of timber and covered over 230 square miles with a layer of volcanic ash. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]
North American Safe Boating Week -- This week of 19-25 May has been declared 2012 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2012 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
National Heat Awareness Day -- The National Weather Service has declared this coming Friday, 25 May 2012, as Heat Awareness Day across the nation. For more information consult the National Weather Service's webpage entitled "Heat: A major killer." Attention is directed to the cases where deaths of small children have been left unattended in closed vehicles.
Climatology of Indy 500 Race Day-- Next Sunday, 27 May 2012, is the scheduled running of the 96th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. The Indianapolis Forecast Office of the National Weather Service has a list of the pertinent weather and climate statistics for race day, including the average high and low temperatures, rainfall and wind for the 1911-2010 period and a listing of the top 20 temperature, precipitation and wind extremes for the races.
New director of NOAA's National Hurricane Center is named -- Last Friday Rick Knabb, PhD was named the new director of NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami, to replace the retiring current director, Bill Read, effective in early June. Dr. Knabb may be familiar to those who watch The Weather Channel, as he has been their hurricane expert for the last two years. [NOAA News]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

ENSO conditions follow La Niña event -- Scientists at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center report that ENSO-neutral conditions have returned, replacing the La Niña conditions that had lingered for the last several months. (ENSO means El Niño-Southern Oscillation and ENSO-neutral conditions are found when neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions are apparent.) Equatorial sea surface temperatures were found to be near average across much of the equatorial Pacific, except for the far eastern Pacific Ocean where above average sea surface temperatures were noted. The ENSO-neutral conditions were expected to continue through Northern Hemisphere summer 2012. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
April drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its April 2012 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately 19 percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of April, while two percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
Review of global weather and climate for April 2012 -- Using the combined global land and ocean surface temperature from preliminary weather data, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center have determined that April 2012 was the fifth warmest April since global climate records began in 1880. Furthermore, the average global ocean surface temperature for April was the eleventh highest since 1880, while the global land surface temperature was seventh highest on record. The La Niña event that had lingered for the previous several months finally dissipated as sea-surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean increased.
Although the areal coverage of Arctic sea ice remained slightly below the 1979-2010 average, the April 2012 coverage was the 17th largest April extent since satellite surveillance began in 1979. The extent of Antarctic sea ice was above average and was the sixth largest April extent in the 34-year period of record.
The snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere was the fourth smallest for any April since records started in the late 1960s. The North American snow cover for April 2012 was the eighth smallest on record. [NCDC State of the Climate] [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Review of Canadian national weather and climate for the 2011-12 winter -- Scientists at Environment Canada reported that Canada had the third warmest winter months of December 2011 through February 2012 since nationwide records began in 1948. The national average temperature for these three months was approximately 3.6 Celsius degrees above the 1961-1990 climatological average. ( The 2009/10 winter was the warmest.). The Prairie Provinces experienced the highest temperature anomalies, where winter temperatures were as much six Celsius degrees above normal. Nationwide, Canada experienced the second driest winter on record as winter precipitation totals were 18 percent below the normal. Many areas of southern Canada were relatively dry, while the region around Hudson Bay had above average winter precipitation. [Climate Trends and Variations Bulletin, Environment Canada]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Extreme rain events in Midwest double over last 50 years -- The non-profit Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council recently released a study entitled "Doubled Trouble: More Midwestern Extreme Storms," revealing a dramatic increase in the number of major precipitation events that produce deadly and costly flooding across eight Midwestern States (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin) over the last half century. Rainstorms producing three or more inches in 24 hours increased by 103 percent between 1961 and 2011. [The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization]
Scientific cooperation between US and Japan strengthened by launch of new environmental monitoring satellite -- Last week, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Global Change Observation Mission 1 - Water (GCOM-W1) satellite. Also known as "SHIZUKU" ("water drop"), this polar-orbiting satellite is designed to observe the Earth's environment. In a Memorandum of Understanding, US scientists from NOAA will be able to use the data collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR-2) onboard this satellite, which will be crucial for tracking sea-surface temperatures, support near real-time weather and ocean forecasts and monitor changes in climate as exemplified by changes in sea ice and the occurrence of El Niño and La Niña events. [NOAA News] [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Pattern recognition techniques could help enforce future greenhouse gas treaty -- Scientists from the University of Utah and Harvard University have developed a new technique to estimate carbon dioxide emissions based upon measured pattern detection in the atmosphere. These researchers claim that this technique may be refined and used as a compliance validation measurement system to enforce an international treaty if needed. [University of Utah News Center]
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]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]

CLIMATE FORCING

Human generated pollutants may be expanding the atmospheric circulation pattern of the tropics -- A team of scientists from University of California-Riverside, the University of California-Irvine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Australia's University of New South Wales has identified black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone produced by human activity as most likely drivers of large-scale atmospheric circulation change in the Northern Hemisphere tropics, which has resulted in a poleward movement of the boundary of the tropics. These findings were based upon observations and output statistics from numerical simulations using 20 climate models. [University of California, Riverside Today]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

New seasonal outlooks for this summer issued -- Near the end of last week, forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center released their new three-month seasonal national climate outlooks for the upcoming summer season. These three months, running from June through August 2012, are identified as meteorological summer for the Northern Hemisphere. The forecasters call for better than equal chances that the southern half of the 48 coterminous United States would experience above average summer temperatures, especially across the Four Corners Region of the Southwest. Across the northern tier of states, equal chances of below or above average summer temperatures can be anticipated. The forecasters also expected that the northwestern quadrant of the nation, centered on the northern Rockies would have a better than even chance of below average summer precipitation. Elsewhere, much of the country could experience equal chances of above and below average summer rainfall. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] A summary 3-month outlook text for non-technical users is available.
Seasonal drought outlook posted -- Last week, forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center issued their seasonal drought outlook for the nation that would run from mid-May through August 2012. Their outlook would call for development or persistence of drought conditions across a broad area of the Southwest, extending from Texas across the southern Rockies to the Great Basin and southern California. On the other hand, the forecasters foresaw improvement of the drought conditions across the Florida Peninsula, some sections of the Southeast Atlantic Coast, the northern Plains and southern sections of Arizona and New Mexico. They also envisioned some slight improvement across sections of the Middle Atlantic coast and some sections of the Southwest. [NOAA CPC Drought Outlook]
Watershed response to climate change detailed for selected watersheds across the nation is detailed -- The US Geological Survey is conducting a modeling studies project that is investigating how changes in climate will affect the water availability in specific water basins across the United States. Currently, this project involves fourteen river and lake basins in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. The USGS's Precipitation Runoff Modeling System is being used in conjunction with downscaled projections from the World Climate Research Programme's General Circulation Models to determine the effects that projected increases in global temperature would have upon local watersheds, where the impacts of climate change on water availability will depend on local conditions. [USGS Newsroom]
Statistical analysis used to project future North American temperatures -- Statisticians at Ohio State University have developed advanced statistical analysis techniques that were employed with several regional climate models to project future seasonal temperature changes across North America for the 30 years between 2041 and 2070. The researchers report that these models would indicate an average increase of 2.5 Celsius degrees (4.5 Fahrenheit degrees) in land temperatures across the North American continent by 2070. [Ohio State University Research News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Today's "mega fires" across Southwest are unusual according to ancient tree-ring records -- Researchers from Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the University of Arizona report that their analysis of ancient tree-ring data and fire-scar records covering more than a 1500-year span indicates that the current series of mega forest fires that destroy millions of acres of forests across the Southwestern US are unusual and exceptional. The researchers claim that changing climate and human activity contribute to the increased frequency and severity of the fires. [SMU Research]
A millennium long climate data set confirms warming in Australia-- Researchers at Australia's University of Melbourne have reconstructed a temperature record for Australasian over the last 1000 years from 27 proxy paleoclimate indicators. These proxy records, obtained from tree rings, corals and ice cores, were compared with climate model simulations. This temperature reconstruction confirms that the current period since 1950 is the warmest of the last 1000 years. [The University of Melbourne Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

21 May 1895...The temperature at Norwalk, OH dipped to 19 degrees to set a state record for the month of May. (The Weather Channel)
21 May 1896...The mercury soared to 124 degrees at Salton, CA to establish an U.S. record for May. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
21 May 1980...The temperature at Williston, ND reached 102 degrees to set a record for May, and the next day the mercury hit 106 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
22 May 1876...Denver, CO was drenched with 6.53 inches of rain in 24 hours, an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
22 May 1911...The temperature at Lewiston, ME soared to 101 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in New England during the month of May. (David Ludlum)
22 May 1922...The United Kingdom recorded its hottest May day on record when the thermometer hit 91 degrees at Camden Square, London, England. (The Weather Doctor)
22 May 1980...The temperature at Winnipeg, Manitoba rose to 98.6 degrees, setting a record high for May. (The Weather Doctor)
23 May 1953...The temperature at Hollis, OK soared from a morning low of 70 degrees to an afternoon high of 110 degrees, to establish a state record for the month of May. (The Weather Channel)
26 May 1967...A slow moving nor'easter battered New England with high winds, heavy rain, and record late season snow on this day and into the 26th. Over 7 inches of rain fell at Nantucket, MA with 6.57 inches falling in 24 hours to set a new 24-hour rainfall record. The 24.9 inches of snow that fell at Mount Washington, NH set a new May snowfall record. Other locations in New Hampshire received 10 inches of snow near Keene and 6 inches at Dublin. (Intellicast)
26 May 2001...The 2000-2001 snowfall season finally ended in St John's, Newfoundland, during which time a grand total of 255.3 inches of snow fell. The total snow, which broke a century-old mark, was estimated to have weighed 500 million tons! (The Weather Doctor)
27 May 1948...The 1.5 inches of rainfall at Victoria, British Columbia set the record for the wettest May day observed in the provincial capital city. (The Weather Doctor)

Return to DataStreme ECS website