WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

15-19 June 2015

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2015 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 24 August 2015. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southwest monsoon season begins -- This Monday (15 June 2015) 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 (NWSFO) in Tucson, AZ has a webpage called "Tracking the Monsoon" that provides links to satellite imagery and climate data for the region. The NWSFO at Phoenix has produced an informative 7-minute Monsoon Season 2015 Outlook video.
Arizona and New Mexico will observe "Monsoon Awareness Week" during this week, 14-19 June 2015. 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 -- This Wednesday (17 June 2015) has been declared World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This year's theme is "Attainment of food security for all through sustainable food systems" with the slogan, "No such thing as a free lunch. Invest in healthy soil." 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 especially in those nations in Africa experiencing serious drought and/or desertification. In addition, the goal is to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the international environmental agenda. [UNCCD]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2015 Campaign continues -- The sixth in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2015 continues as a 10-night campaign that runs through Wednesday 17 June. 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 (Bootes in the Northern Hemisphere and Scorpius 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. Over the summer, the next GLOBE at Night campaigns will be on 7-16 July and 5-14 August. [GLOBE at Night]
Happy Summer Solstice! The summer solstice will occur next Sunday (officially, 21 June 2015 at 1638 Z, or 12:38 PM EDT, 11:38 AM CDT, etc.). At that time, the earth's spin axis is oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest north in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical summer, the British call the day the "Midsummer Day", as the apparent sun will begin its southward descent again. For essentially all locations in the Northern Hemisphere, daylight on Sunday will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Monday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 22 December 2015 at 0448 Z. However, because the sun is not as perfect a time-keeper as a clock, the latest sunsets of the year at many mid-latitude locations will continue through about the first week of July -- a consequence of the earth being near aphelion (during the afternoon of 6 July 2015) and the apparent sun moving across the sky well to the north of the celestial equator.
World Hydrography Day celebration -- The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) will celebrate its annual World Hydrography Day on Sunday, 21 June 2015, the 94st-anniversary date on which the IHO was created in 1921. The theme for this year's celebration is "Our seas and waterways - yet to be fully charted and explored." This year's theme was selected because large sections of the world's oceans and other navigable waters remain unsurveyed, while higher resolution maps of the Moon and Mars are available. [International Hydrographic Organization]
Summer institute to commence for Maryland science teachers -- During the upcoming month of July elementary school teachers from Maryland who teach science will be able to participate in NASA's Summer Watershed Institute, organized by education specialists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The teachers will study the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding area alongside scientists and engineers who will provide an insider perspective on scientific study. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

National weather and climate reviewed for May and spring 2015 -- Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center (now called the National Centers for Environmental Information) recently reported that their analysis of preliminary data indicates that the monthly temperature averaged across the contiguous US for May 2015 was 0.6 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century (1901-2000) average. Therefore, this past month was tied the months of May in 1918, 1965 and 1982 for the 48th warmest May since 1895 when comprehensive climate records became available nationwide. Essentially all states to the east of the Mississippi River had statewide temperatures that were above to much above the 20th century average, with the May 2015 statewide temperatures in the New England States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island reporting the warmest May in 121 years and Vermont along with neighboring New York State experiencing their second warmest Mays. Above average statewide average May temperatures were reported in the Northwest, with Washington reporting the third warmest May since 1895. Nine states across the Southwest, the Rockies and Plains had statewide temperatures in May that were below average. The average maximum (daytime) temperature for May 2015 across the "lower 48" was 0.4 Fahrenheit degrees below the 20th-century average, while the month's average minimum (nighttime) temperature was 1.6 Fahrenheit degrees above average. Alaska also experienced its warmest May in 91 years of record.
The nationwide average temperature for the just-concluded meteorological spring (March, April and May 2013) was the 2.2 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average, making this spring the 11th warmest since records began in 1895. Except for nine states in the Northeast and the southern Plains, above to much above spring statewide temperatures were reported across the nation. Florida experienced its warmest spring temperature on record. Alaska had its fourth warmest spring.
The precipitation across the coterminous US for May 2015 was 1.45 inches above the 20th-century average, which was not only the wettest May on record, but was also the all-time wettest month in 121 years, as the average nationwide precipitation for this past month was 4.24 inches breaking the previous all-time record of 4.29 inches of rain in October 2009. Fifteen states across the West, including the southern Plains, the Rockies and sections of the Mississippi Valley had much above average precipitation for May. Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas experienced their wettest Mays on record. On the other hand, states along the Atlantic Seaboard had an extremely dry May, with six states (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and South Carolina) reporting May statewide precipitation totals that were in the lowest 10 on record. .
Spring precipitation across the nation was 1.39 inches above the 20th century average, which was the eleventh wettest spring in 121 years. Six states across the south central section of the nation had much above average statewide spring precipitation. Texas had its wettest spring on record, followed by Oklahoma at second wettest. On the other hand, states along the West and East Coasts had below to much below average spring precipitation totals. On the West Coast, California had its ninth driest spring, while in the East, a half a dozen states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York and Vermont) experienced a spring that was one of the ten driest on record. [NOAA NCDC State of the Climate]
NOTE: A description is provided of the climatological rankings employed by NCDC for their monthly and seasonal maps. [NOAA/NCDC]
May drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its May 2015 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately nine percent of the contiguous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of May, while 16 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

TRMM spacecraft expected to reenter tropical atmosphere soon -- The U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for Space is predicting that NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft should reenter the Earth's atmosphere early Tuesday, 16 June, and disintegrate as it travels through the upper atmosphere between 35 degrees North and 35 degrees South latitude. The TRMM satellite, which was launched in 1997, collected precipitation data across the Earth's tropical and subtropical latitudes until April. [NASA News]
Nation's first operational space weather spacecraft reaches final deep space orbit -- Early last week NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite reached its intended orbit approximately one million miles from Earth. The orbit of the DSCOVR satellite is between Earth and Sun at a location called the Lagrange point 1, or L1, which provides DSCOVR a unique vantage point to see both the Earth and Sun. After the completion of final instrument checks, this DSCOVR satellite should provide improved measurements of solar wind conditions to enhance NOAA's ability to warn of potentially harmful solar activity, especially after a new forecast model would come online as scheduled in 2016. [NOAA NESDIS News]
Satellite data used to monitor and predict atmospheric rivers -- The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instruments onboard NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite help forecasters and scientists monitor and predict Atmospheric Rivers (AR) and drought-related weather patterns with greater accuracy. ARs are relatively narrow regions in the atmosphere that are responsible for most of the horizontal transport of water vapor outside of the tropics, especially across the Pacific Ocean Basin and into western North America. The National Weather Service (NWS) can identify the AR phenomena in current numerical forecast models that utilize the data from the Suomi NPP CrIS and ATMS to provide forecasters with advanced warning of potential heavy rain events up to five to seven days in advance. NOAA's Unique CrIS/ATMS Processing System is an operational algorithm to retrieve temperature, water vapor, and trace gases from the Suomi NPP CrIS and ATMS instruments. [NOAA-NESDIS Joint Polar Satellite System News]
Smoke from Canadian wildfires spread across Midwest and Northeast -- A natural-color image obtained last Tuesday (9 June 2015) from the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite shows a smoke plume that spread across the western Great Lakes, the Midwest and the upper Ohio Valley from wildfires that were burning in northern sections of Canada's Prairie Provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. A series of images were made from the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite that shows the southeastward progression of the smoke plume across the Midwest and Northeastern States early last week. [NASA Earth Observatory] {Editor's note: This reporter observed hazy skies and a spectacular sunset last Monday evening from his home outside of Madison in south central Wisconsin. The Sun became a dark orange orb as it approached the horizon because of the sufficiently thick haze from the Canadian fires. However, the haze moved to the east on the following day, leaving bright blue skies across the Madison area. EJH}
Start of India's summer monsoon season monitored from space -- An animation of images obtained from NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite shows the total rainfall accumulated across India and adjacent sections of Pakistan and Bangladesh during the first eight days of June 2015. The animation, which was produced by NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), shows the onset of India's southwest monsoon season that features a broad southwesterly wind flow and rainfall across South Asia. According to some reports, the monsoon rainfall started on 5 June, slightly later than normal. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]

CLIMATE FORCING

Semi-arid land areas may serve as key to variations in terrestrial carbon dioxide sink -- An international team of researchers recently provided an assessment of the contributions of regional terrestrial ecosystems to the average sink, recent trend, and interannual variability of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Terrestrial ecosystems remove approximately one-fourth of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by humans out of the atmosphere per year. Swings in carbon dioxide fluxes can cause large variations in the net carbon exchange between the land and atmosphere. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

El Niño advisory continues -- Sea surface temperatures continued to increase across central and eastern sections of the equatorial Pacific during May 2015, which indicates that an El Niño event is currently underway. Forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) have continued their El Niño advisory that indicates atmospheric and oceanic conditions across the tropical Pacific appear favorable for an El Niño event in the next six months. These forecasters foresee that an approximately 90 percent chance that this El Niño event would continue through the Northern Hemisphere autumn of 2015, together with an 85 percent chance that it will last through the 2015-16 winter. A detailed El Niño/Southern Oscillation Diagnostic Discussion with supporting maps and charts is available from CPC. An ENSO blog written by CPC staff suggests that the El Niño event could become strong in the next several months. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Climate model output statistics available to the public -- Early this week NASA released the high-resolution NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP) dataset containing projected global temperature and rainfall patterns through the year 2100 produced from 21 general circulation model simulations in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). The new NEX-GDDP model projections show how global temperature and precipitation might change under different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. The CMIP5 model runs were developed in support of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Current El Niño appears to accelerate coral bleaching in Caribbean - NOAA's Coral Reef Watch was recently released and NOAA scientists expect the spread of coral bleaching conditions during this upcoming Northern Hemisphere summer from the tropical Pacific across the northeast Pacific and the Caribbean. The outlook is based on sea surface temperature forecasts from NOAA's operational climate forecast system. . The ongoing El Niño is causing additional warming of the sea surface water along the west coasts of North and South America. Maps are provided showing where a 60-percent likelihood of coral heat stress at any time from June through September 2015 in the eastern Pacific Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea and in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Historical Events:

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)
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)
18 June 1991...Atlanta, GA set a new record for the amount of the rain in one hour as 3.47 inches fell between 6:52 and 7:52 PM EDT. (Intellicast)
19 June 240 BC...On the summer solstice, Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
19 June 2004...An all-time record high temperature of 93 degrees was set: at Annette Island, Alaska. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 1921...Circle, MT received 11.50 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state. The town of Circle received a total of 16.79 inches of rain that month to establish a rainfall record for any town in Montana for any month of the year. (The Weather Channel)
20 June 1970...Norway's hottest day on record occurred, as the temperature at Nesbyen, Norway peaked at 96.1 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 2000...The town of Barrow on Alaska's North Slope experienced its first recorded thunderstorm, which dropped 0.16 inches (4.1 mm) of rain in just a couple minutes. (The Weather Doctor)
21 June 1942...The temperature at Tirat Tsvi, Israel reached 129 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Asia. (The Weather Doctor)

Return to DataStreme ECS website