WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

11-15 June 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

Southwest monsoon season begins -- This coming Friday (15 June 2012) is the typical date when the summer monsoon season begins in the Southwestern US. At that time, a dome of warm air expands northward across Arizona and New Mexico from the plateau of northern Mexico, with an attendant shift in the wind direction. Low level winds transport humid air northward from the Gulf of California and the eastern Pacific, while mid-level winds bring humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Tucson, AZ has a webpage called "Tracking the Monsoon." Arizona and New Mexico will observe Monsoon Awareness Week during this week, 10-16 June 2012. If you live in either of these two states, you should take time to become familiar with the various public affairs announcements issued by your local National Weather Service Office.
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- Next Sunday, 17 June 2012, has been declared World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This year, the theme is "Healthy soil sustains your life: LET’S GO LAND-DEGRADATION NEUTRAL." In December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared that World Day to Combat Desertification would be observed on 17 June of each year; this international observance would highlight the urgent need to curb the desertification process. In addition, the goal is to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the international environmental agenda. [UNCCD]
Observing the Transit of Venus from space -- An image was made of the planet Venus passing across the solar disk during last Tuesday's historic transit of Venus from data collected by the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI), an instrument on NOAA's GOES-15 geosynchronous environmental satellite. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Chief operating officer for NOAA appointed -- Recently, Rear Admiral David Titley, USN, was named the new Deputy Under Secretary for Operations at NOAA. He will be responsible for managing the agency's operations and will also serve as a key advisor to Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA Administrator and the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. Editor's note: The staff at the AMS Education Program congratulate Dr. Titley as he has been a friend to the program for several years, addressing K-12 science educators and undergraduate faculty at AERA Summer Training Sessions and AMS Diversity Workshops in Ocean and Climate Studies. EJH [NOAA News]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

National weather and climate reviewed for May and spring 2012 -- Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently reported that their analysis of preliminary data indicates that May 2012 was the second warmest month of May since 1895 when comprehensive climate records became available nationwide. The monthly temperature averaged across the coterminous US for May 2012 was over three Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century (1901-2000) average. Except for the Northwestern States, most of the coterminous states had statewide temperatures that were above or much above average readings. Of these, 26 states had monthly average temperatures that were within the top ten for the 118-year period of record. Only Oregon and Washington had below average statewide temperatures. In addition, the nationwide average temperature for the just-concluded meteorological spring (March, April and May 2012) was the highest since records began in 1895.
Precipitation across the coterminous US for May 2012 was approximately one third of an inch below the 20th-century average. The states across the Southwest, the central Plains and the lower to mid-Missisisppi Valleys were dry, as they reported below to much below average precipitation. On the other hand, the Atlantic Seaboard and the upper Midwest had above average May precipitation. [NOAA News]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Seeing a more colorful ocean from space -- In observance of World Oceans Day last week, NOAA officials released an ocean color image for the world's oceans showing the May 2012 average global chlorophyll concentration produced from data produced by the VIIRS sensor on NOAA's new Suomi NPP satellite. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Arctic site reports record concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide -- An atmospheric scientist with NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) recently reported that the NOAA sampling station a Barrow, AK reported an atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide had reached 400 parts per million in April, which represents a record monthly amount for any Arctic station. [NOAA Research]
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]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Current climate appears more sensitive to carbon dioxide than over past 12 million years -- A team of paleoclimate researchers who produced the first continuous reconstructions of Pacific Ocean temperatures during the late Miocene epoch (12 million to 5 million years ago) claim that unlike current times, the climate in the Miocene appeared decoupled from atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. At that time, carbon dioxide levels were near those prior to the Industrial Revolution, but Miocene temperatures over the North Pacific were as much as 14 Fahrenheit degrees above current readings. [NSF News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Arctic ice melt could create severe winters -- Researchers at Cornell University report that the melting of Arctic sea ice appears to be capable of triggering severe winter weather outbreaks across the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic Oscillation could create conditions that favor cold air invasions across North America and Europe accompanied by strong winds and heavy precipitation. [Cornell University Press Relations Office]
Rainfall patterns could be disrupted by geoengineering -- A team of scientists from Germany, Norway, France and the United Kingdom warns that a proposed geoengineering solution to climate change by reducing the incoming solar radiation could lead to a significant reduction in rainfall across Europe and North America. [European Geosciences Union]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

El Niño watch issued -- During the last week, forecasters at National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center issued an El Niño watch since they feel that a 50 percent chance that El Niño conditions could develop during the second half of 2012. An El Niño event represents anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation conditions associated with anomalously warm water in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Currently, ENSO-neutral conditions prevail across the equatorial Pacific. ENSO stands for El Niño Southern Oscillation and ENSO-neutral conditions are associated with relatively small anomalies or departures in the sea surface temperatures from long-term average values across the equatorial Pacific Ocean east of the Dateline. [NWS Climate Prediction Center]

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Massive algal blooms found under Arctic sea ice --A scientist at Stanford University who participated in the NASA-sponsored ICESCAPE expedition in 2011 reports that his team of interdisciplinary scientists found a massive phytoplankton bloom under the Arctic pack ice that covers a portion of the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait. Until recently, no phytoplankton was assumed to reside below the ice. This discovery should affect how scientists think of Arctic ecosystems especially as the region warms. [Stanford University News]
Earth could be approaching the "tipping point" --A statement was recently issued by 22 respected scientists from the US, Canada, Chile, Finland and Spain warn that because of human activity, planet Earth appears to be nearing a critical threshold called a "tipping point" beyond which environmental changes would be rapid and unpredictable. [Stanford University News]

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:

11 June 1877...The temperature at Los Angeles, CA reached 112 degrees during a heat wave. It would have been the all-time record for Los Angeles but official records did not begin until twenty days later. Over a century later, Los Angeles would again reach this temperature on 26 June 1990. (The Weather Channel) (The Weather Doctor)
11 June 1972...Heavy showers brought 1.64 inches of rain to Phoenix, AZ, a record for the month of June. (The Weather Channel)
12 June 1991...The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century began as Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines injected 15 to 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Global dust cloud cooled the planet, reversing for a time the global warming trend, as 1992 was globally one of the coolest since the 1970s. On the same day that Mt Pinatubo awakens from its 635-year slumber, Typhoon Yunya crossed Luzon province. Mudslides and flooding caused many deaths and added with impacts of Pinatubo leaving more than a million homeless. (The Weather Doctor)
13 June 1907...The temperature at Tamarack, CA dipped to 2 degrees above zero, the lowest reading of record for June for the U.S. The high that day was 30 degrees. Tamarack received 42 inches of snow between the 10^thand the 13^th. On the 13^th the snow depth was 130 inches. (The Weather Channel)
13 June 1977...Masirah, Oman received 16.95 inches of rain this day, a national record. (The Weather Doctor)
14 June 1876...Cherrapunji, India recorded 1036.3 mm (40.8 inches) of rain in 24 hours. (The Weather Doctor)
14 June 1961...The temperature in Downtown San Francisco, CA soared to 106 degrees to establish an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1879...McKinney, ND received 7.7 inches of rain in 24 hours, a state record. This 24-hour state precipitation record has since been broken in June 1975 with an 8.10-inch reading. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1887...Regina, Saskatchewan reported its wettest day to date as 6.31 inches rain fell. (The Weather Doctor)
15 June 1896...The temperature at Fort Mojave, CA soared to 127 degrees, the highest reading of record for June for the U.S. The low that day was 97 degrees. Morning lows of 100 degrees were reported on the 12^th, 14^th and 16^th of the month. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1957...East Saint Louis, IL was deluged with 16.54 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state of Illinois. In July 1996, this record was broken when 16.91 inches fell. (The Weather Channel)
Month of June...According to a 1969 US Army technical report, the average dewpoint temperature at Ras Andahglie and Assab, Eritrea (Ethiopia) average slightly more than 84 degrees F. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 June 1917...The temperature soared to 124 degrees at Mecca, CA climaxing the most destructive heat wave of record in California history. (David Ludlum)
17 June 1965...Holly, CO was deluged with 11.08 inches of rain to establish a state 24-hour rainfall record. (The Weather Channel)

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