WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

12-16 June 2017

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 21 August 2017. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southwest monsoon season begins -- This Thursday (15 June 2017) 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 northwestward 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, surface and upper air weather observations and long-term climate data for the region. The NWSFOs across the Southwest have produced an informative 4:40-minute for "Monsoon Awareness Week 2017" that describes the hazards associated with the monsoon such as flash floods, lightning, downburst winds, blowing dust and heat stress. The Tucson NWSFO also has produced a 5:50 minute Monsoon 2017 Outlook video that provides an outlook into their precipitation forecast for this year's monsoon that involves three key factors: current equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures, current mountain snow pack and long-term climate models.
Arizona , California, New Mexico and Texas will observe "Monsoon Safety Awareness Week" during this week (11-16 June). If you live in any of these states, you should take time to become familiar with the various public affairs announcements issued by your local National Weather Service Office. See also http://monsoonsafety.org/ .
Observing Global Wind Day -- Organized by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), Global Wind Day is a worldwide event that is held annually on 15 June and it meant to be a day for discovering wind, its power and the possibilities it holds to change the world. [Global Wind Energy Council]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2017 Campaign commences -- The sixth in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2017 will commence this Friday (16 June) and continue through Sunday, 25 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 (Hercules 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. The next series in the 2017 campaign is scheduled for 15-24 July 2017. [GLOBE at Night]
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- This Saturday (17 June 2017) has been declared World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This year's rallying call is “Our land. Our home. Our Future.” 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]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Recent heat preceding start of Indian summer monsoon season -- Very hot weather prevailed across India this past week, with daytime high temperatures ranging from 116 degrees F to 124 degrees F across portions of central and northern India as well as northern sections of Pakistan. The dome of hot air across the region often is the precursor for the onset of the summer monsoon season, marked by a southwesterly wind flow that brings humid and slightly cooler air from off the Indian Ocean. Increased cloudiness and shower activity was expected to cause temperatures to fall by as much as 20 Fahrenheit degrees. [BBC Weather]
Satellites catch Aleutian volcano spreading ash across the Bering Sea -- Bogoslof Volcano, one of the active volcanoes in Alaska's Aleutian Island chain, has been spewing volcanic ash and condensate into the atmosphere in a series of explosions that began in December 2016. A recent natural-color image made of the Bogoslof Volcano by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite early last week shows the ash plume extending to the northwest across the Bering Sea. A week earlier, an animation of the eruption was assembled from a sequence of images obtained by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on NASA's Terra satellite. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Viewing the Patagonian icefield from space -- An image made from data collected by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite in mid-April shows the northern lobe of South America's Patagonian icefields. These icefields, which are rapidly thinning due to increasing global temperatures, are only a fraction of the size when they reached a maximum size approximately 18,000 years ago. [NASA Earth Observatory] .

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

A drought surveillance system that does not need rainfall data is featured -- An article appearing in the ClimateWatch Magazine describes how scientists are using data collected by sensors on NOAA's GOES satellites to make maps of available soil moisture based upon the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI). These maps can be used to assess the extent of drought conditions across the nation, without the need for precipitation data obtained by traditional rain gauges. As an example, a series of maps of available soil moisture across the Southeast obtained from ESI shows the development of Florida's drought from late December 2016 through late May 2017. [NOAA News]
Editor's note: Torrential rains began falling across the Florida Peninsula beginning in early June, eliminating the extreme drought conditions and substantially reducing the moderate and severe drought. Instruments onboard NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission core satellite monitored the widespread rainfall across Florida on Wednesday, 7 June, when numerous rainfall records were broken. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature] EJH
Tracking sea ice breakup in the Canadian Arctic important to Inuit peoples -- A MODIS satellite image produced from data obtained by NASA's Aqua satellite during the last week of May shows the breakup of the sea ice surrounding the Belcher Islands in Canada's Nunavut Territory. Landfast ice could be seen anchored to shore, but offshore, polynyas, or area of open water were detected. Farther offshore, pack ice remained across much of Hudson Bay. The seasonal rhythms in the formation and breakup of this ice is critically important to the Inuit peoples who hunt and fish around the Belcher Islands. Some of the veteran hunters recently voiced their concerns about the behavior of sea ice and climate changes for the Sanikiluaq Sea Ice Project. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Increased risk of stratospheric ozone erosion over US is seen in summer -- A team of scientists from Harvard University, Texas A&M University and the University of Oklahoma has found that the protective stratospheric ozone layer above the central United States is vulnerable to erosion during the summer months from ozone-depleting chemical reactions because of the injection of increased water vapor into the stratosphere from powerful thunderstorms over the Great Plains. These storms also appear to create variations in air temperature that influence these chemical reactions. Reduced stratospheric ozone would expose people, livestock and crops to the harmful effects of UV radiation. Increased frequency and intensity of these storm systems, as well as longer-term decreases in stratospheric temperatures, are expected to accompany climate change. [Phys.org]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Updated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion is released -- 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 late last week. They reported an ENSO-neutral situation continued through May 2017, although sea surface temperatures (SST) were above-average across the east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean. However, the atmospheric system remained close to average, which has led researchers to maintain the continuation of an ENSO-neutral situation with neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions prevailing. While many of the prediction models used by the forecasters had indicated an onset of an El Niño during Northern Hemisphere summer (June, July and August), recent runs by several models appear to favor continuation of ENSO-neutral conditions into boreal autumn (September through November). The forecasters give ENSO-neutral conditions a 50 to 55 percent chance of continuing through fall 2017, while giving development of El Niño conditions a 30 to 50 percent. Therefore, the CPC's ENSO Alert System Status remained non activate. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
An ENSO blog was written by a contractor with CPC describing why CPC and IRI forecasters are anticipating a continuation of ENSO-neutral conditions through this Northern Hemisphere summer. She uses a variety of simple graphs and maps to illustrate long-term changes in the SST have occurred in one regoin of the central equatorial Pacific (called Niño3.4) that is used as a standard to determine the occurrence of an El Niño or La Niña. She also includes a graphic that shows how the various prediction models used by CPC and IRI appear to indicate a possible transition to a weak El Niño before returning to ENSO-neutral conditions. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
An El Niño forecast from Down Under -- Forecasters with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology recently issued an updated ENSO forecast, in which they reported a current continuation of ENSO-neutral conditions. According to their interpretation, while sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Pacific were above-average, cooling had occurred in some areas in May in response to stronger than average trade winds. Since four of the eight international climate models were predicting SSTs to exceed El Niño thresholds, the Australian forecasters maintain a possible development of an El Niño event in the equatorial Pacific Ocean later this calendar year of 2017, even with the current stalled development. Therefore, the Bureau's ENSO Outlook status remains as an El Niño WATCH, meaning the likelihood of El Niño forming in 2017 is approximately 50%. [Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology]
Future tropical rainfall could increase more than previously expected -- A scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues at four universities claim that the tropics could receive more rain in the future than previously anticipated as the planet warms because most global climate models have underestimated decreases in high clouds over the tropics. The decreases in high-altitude tropical clouds climate in response to surface warming have been documented by NASA observations over the last 30 to 40 years. Fewer high clouds would result in upper atmospheric cooling at the same time the surface warms. Evaporation at the surface along with vertical atmospheric motions would increase tropical rainfall as this increase would warm the air to balance the cooling from the high cloud shrinkage. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Feature]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Farmers are being told what they would rather not hear about climate change -- A farm journalist at the DTN/The Progressive Farmer in Omaha, NE has been telling farmers and agricultural business leaders across the country, many of who may be climate skeptics, about the likelihood that a changing climate could disrupt their lives and livelihood. [National Public Radio]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

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)
15 June 1991...The second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century began as Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines injected 15 to 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide 100,000 feet into the atmosphere. As a result of the eruptions, 343 people were killed in the Philippines and 200,000 were left homeless. Material from the eruption would spread around the globe, leading to climate changes worldwide as the sun's energy was blocked out and global temperatures dropped by as much as one Fahrenheit degree, making 1992 one of the coolest globally since the 1970s. (National Weather Service files)
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)

Return to RealTime Climate Portal