WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

6-10 July 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

Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun this afternoon (officially at 20Z on Monday, 6 July 2015, which is equivalent to 4 PM EDT or 3 PM CDT). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year during the early morning of 4 January 2015. [US Naval Observatory]
Welcome -- to the weather, climate and ocean educators attending the 2015 AMS DataStreme LIT Leader Summer Training Workshop that is being held in Silver Spring, MD from 6 to 8 July 2015.
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2015 Campaign is underway -- The seventh in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2015 will begin on Tuesday 7 July and continue as a 10-night campaign that runs through Thursday 16 July. 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 campaign will be on 5-14 August. [GLOBE at Night]
Extra "leap" second inserted into the year -- By international agreement, one second was added to last Tuesday (30 June 2015) at 23:59:59 UTC to account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation because of tidal forces between Earth and the Moon. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
Remembering IGY and the "Year of the Satellite" -- This past week NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) commemorated the 58th anniversary of the start of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). During that year, the first artificial satellites were launched by the former Soviet Union (Sputnik 1 and 2) and the United States (Explorer 1). These satellites represented the start of the study of the Earth-atmosphere system from space. [NOAA NESDIS News Archive]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

June ends with record breaking heat reported across the globe -- Record high temperatures were reported across sections of Asia, Europe, North America and South America during the last week of June. In Pakistan, the June heat wave has been responsible for over 1000 fatalities. Record breaking temperatures helped spark wildfires that destroyed homes in Washington State in the United States. Sections of Colombia in South America had temperatures that reached 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). [BBC Weather Centre]
Alaska wildfire season becomes worst in Alaska's history -- According to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, the more than 600 wildfires that have burned more than 1.8 million acres across the 49th State so far in 2015 have made this year the worst wildfire season so far in Alaska's history. Above average temperatures and below average precipitation have contributed to the critical wildfire weather conditions. [NOAA News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Satellites help show changes in fine particulate air pollution -- Researchers have used data collected from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectorRadiometer (MISR) on the Terra satellite, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument on the CALIPSO satellite to create a long-term estimate of the amount of fine particulate matter with diameters less than 2.5 micrometers that represent potentially hazardous air pollution to human health and termed PM_2.5. Comparison of the PM_2.5 data between 1998 and 2000 with corresponding data from 2010 and 2012 reveals declines in particulate pollution levels over North America and Europe, but increases in pollution over Eastern and Southern Asia. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Assessing the role of lightning in maintaining the atmosphere's electrical balance -- A scientists at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory explains how lightning produced in thunderstorms serves to maintain a global electric circuit that features a negatively charged Earth's surface and a positively charged ionosphere. Without lightning, the electrical balance in the Earth and atmosphere would disappear within five minutes. In addition, lightning serves as the largest natural mechanism for nitrogen fixation, which is important for nourishing plant life, and generating nitrogen oxides that are ozone-producing chemicals at altitudes of several miles above the Earth's surface. Currently, lightning is monitored over land by surface lightning detection networks, but the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) that will be on the GOES-R satellite to be launched in 2016 will help track lightning over the oceans. [NOAA NESDIS News Archive]
Project to study nocturnal thunderstorms on the Plains is underway -- The Plains Elevated Convection at Night, or PECAN, project has completed the first four weeks of a scheduled six-week field campaign designed to study why summertime thunderstorms over the Great Plains tend to form after sunset and continue through the night. The PECAN project involves participants from eight research laboratories and 14 universities. Beginning within the last week, the researchers have been using NASA's instrumented DC-8 airborne laboratory for began research flights from Salina, KS. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Canadian national seasonal outlook issued -- Forecasters with Environment Canada issued their outlooks for temperature and precipitation across Canada for July, August and September 2015, which represents the last two months of meteorological summer and the first month of autumn. The temperature outlook indicates that large sections of western and eastern Canada along with the Prairie Provinces would experience above normal (1981-2010) summer-early fall temperatures. Scattered areas across northern Quebec and sections of Nunavut were expected to have below normal summer temperatures. Elsewhere, temperatures for the next three months should be close to normal.
The Canadian precipitation outlook for summer and early autumn 2015 indicates that below average precipitation could be expected across a large section of southern Canada, extending from western British Columbia eastward across the Prairie Provinces to Ontario. Scattered sections across northwestern and southeastern Canada could have above normal precipitation for these three months.
[Note for comparisons and continuity with the three-month seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation generated for the continental United States and Alaska by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, one would need to use Environment Canada's probabilistic forecasts for temperature and precipitation.]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Greenhouse gas emissions appear to create primary threat to polar bears -- Researchers employing updated US Geological Survey (USGS) research models warn that greenhouse gas emissions especially from human activity appear to remain the primary threat to the preservation of the planet's polar bear populations. This finding is based the results obtained from the numerical simulations using two emission scenarios, with one involving reduced emissions designed to stabilize global temperatures, while the other scenario involves emission and warming rates continuing at the current pace. Reduced sea ice would cause a reduction in polar bear populations. [USGS Newsroom]
Coastal erosion threatens northern Alaska habitat and infrastructure -- Scientists with the US Geological Survey (USGS) have recently published a study that finds the remote coast of northern Alaska has been subjected to some of the highest shoreline erosion rates in the world, with some sections of the coast retreating at annual rates exceeding one meter. This finding is based upon the analysis of shoreline data extending back for more than 50 years along the Alaska coast westward from the Alcan border to Icy Cape along the Chukchi Sea in northwest Alaska. The changes to the coast may be due in part to increased sea level associated with human activity and to storms. The retreating shoreline can have major impacts not only upon natural coastal ecosystems, but upon Native Alaskan villages and various energy and defense related infrastructure. [USGS Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Historical Events:

6 July 1928...A hailstorm at Potter, NE produced a stone that was 5.5 inches in diameter, and seventeen inches in circumference, weighing a pound and a half. At the time, it was the world's largest hailstone. (David Ludlum) (Wikipedia)
6 July 1921...The mercury hit 104 degrees at Ville Marie, Quebec, marking Quebec's highest temperature on record. (The Weather Doctor)
6 July 1936...Steele, ND reached 121 degrees, the state record. Moorhead, MN reached 114 degrees to set a record high temperature for the Gopher State. (Intellicast) (NCDC).
6 July 1988...Thirty-six cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Afternoon highs of 98 degrees at International Falls, MN and 101 degrees at Flint, MI equaled all-time records. Highs of 96 degrees at Muskegon, MI and 97 degrees at Buffalo, NY were records for July. (The National Weather Summary)
6 July 1994...An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. (NCDC)
7 July 1889...The greatest 20-minute rainfall ever recorded on Earth occurred when 8.1 inches of rain fell on Curtea-de-Arges, Romania. (The Weather Doctor)
7 July 1905...The mercury soared to 127 degrees at Parker, AZ to tie the state record established at Fort Mohave on 15 June 1896. (The Weather Channel)
7 July 1982...France's hottest day on record occurred at Le Luc near St. Tropez when the high reached 108.9 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
7 July 1988...Thirty-eight cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Youngstown, OH hit 100 degrees, and for the second day in a row, Flint, MI reached 101 degrees, equaling all-time records for those two cities. (The National Weather Summary)
8 July 1936...The temperature hit an all-time record high of 106 degrees at the Central Park Observatory in New York City, a record that lasted until La Guardia Airport hit 107 degrees on 3 July 1966. (The Weather Channel)
8 July 1989...Sixteen cities in the central and western U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. The high of 103 degrees at Denver, CO equaled their record for July, and a 110-degree reading at Rapid City, SD equaled their all-time record high. Denver reported a record five straight days of 100 degree heat, and Scottsbluff, NE reported a record eight days in a row of 100 degree weather. (The National Weather Summary)
8 July 2003...Dhahran, Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf, recorded a dewpoint of 95 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
9 July 1914...Finland's hottest day on record occurred when the temperature at Turku, Finland reached 96.6 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
9 July 1950...The town of York, NE was deluged with 13.15 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a record for the Cornhusker State. (The Weather Channel)
9 July 1968...Columbus, MS received 15.68 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
9 July 1988...The percentage of total area in the country in the grips of severe to extreme drought reached 43 percent, the fourth highest total of record. The record of 61 percent occurred during the summer of 1934. (The National Weather Summary)
10 July 1913...The mercury hit 134 degrees at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, CA, the highest temperature reading of record for the North American continent. Sandstorm conditions accompanied the heat. The high the previous day was 129 degrees, following a morning low of 93 degrees. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) [Note: In September 2012, this 134-degree reading was determined to be the world record high temperature as a World Meteorological Organization panel disqualified the previously recognized world record temperature of 136 degrees set at El Azizia in Libya on 13 September 1922 due to errors made in recording the temperature at that location.]
10 July 1936...Afternoon high temperatures of 112 degrees at Martinsburg, WV, 109 degrees at Cumberland, MD and Frederick, MD, 110 degrees at Runyon, NJ, and 111 degrees at Phoenixville, PA, established all-time record highs for those four states, and marked the hottest day of record for the Middle Atlantic Coast Region. (The Weather Channel)
11 July 1888...The temperature at Bennett, CO reached 118 degrees, setting a record high temperature for the Centennial State. (NCDC)
11 July 1911...The highest temperature ever recorded in Maine was at North Bridgton, with a reading of 105 degrees. (NCDC)
11 July 1936...The temperature at St. Albans, Manitoba reached the provincial high temperature record of 112 degrees Fahrenheit, while the temperature at Atikokan, Ontario peaked at 108 degrees, tying the highest temperature ever in Ontario. (The Weather Doctor)
12 July 1900...The record high state temperature reading of 114 degrees in Wyoming was reached at Basin. This record has since been eclipsed in 1983 by a 115-degree reading. (Intellicast)
12 July 1910...Cherrapunji in India's northeastern Meghalaya State -- one of the rainiest places on Earth -- recorded 839 mm (33 inches) of rainfall on this day. (The Weather Doctor)
12-14 July 1936...The hottest three-day period in US history was recorded, with average temperatures of 88.5 degrees Fahrenheit; the second warmest such period had occurred three days earlier. (The Weather Doctor)

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