WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

19-23 December 2016

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 23 January 2017. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sincerely,

Ed Hopkins and the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff

Items of Interest:

The Wright Brothers had an influence upon NOAA's mission -- Last Saturday, 17 December, was the 113th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright's first successful flight of a heavier-than-air craft along near Kitty Hawk on North Carolina's Outer Banks. During the following century, many advancements in aviation and in aviation safety have taken place. NOAA has contributed to these advancements, including the Aeronautical Survey Program, which is a part of NOAA's National Geodetic Survey. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2016 Campaign resumes -- The thirteenth and last in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2016 will commence on Tuesday (20 December) and continue through Wednesday, 30 December. 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 (Perseus in the Northern Hemisphere and Orion 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 and first series in the 2017 campaign is scheduled for 19-28 January 2017. [GLOBE at Night]
Happy Winter Solstice! The winter solstice will occur this Wednesday morning (officially, at 1044 Z on 21 December 2016, or 5:48 AM EST, 4:48 AM CST, etc.). At that time, the earth's spin axis will be oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest south in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical winter, the British call that day the "Midwinter Day", as the apparent sun will begin its northward climb again. For essentially all locations in the Northern Hemisphere, Tuesday night will be the longest and the daylight on Wednesday will be the shortest of the year. Starting Wednesday night, the length of darkness will begin to shrink as we head toward the summer solstice on 21 June 2017 at 0424 Z.
Dreaming of a White Christmas -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) produced an interactive national map showing the climatological probability (in percent) that a snow depth of at least one inch would be observed on the morning of 25 December based upon the 1981-2010 standard 30-year climatological reference interval. This map shows the ratio of the number of times that a particular station experienced a white Christmas during the interval as a probability. For example, Des Moines, IA had only 12 Christmases between 1981 and 2010 when an inch or more snow cover was observed, so the probability that residents of Iowa's capital city would have a white Christmas is 40%. Some locations across the nation are almost certain to have a white Christmas, generally along the Canadian border surrounding the Great Lakes, such as Marquette, MI (with 96%) and in New England, such as at Caribou, ME (87%). Stations at higher elevations in the Rockies also have a higher probability, such as at Flagstaff, AZ with a 65%. Sites close to the oceans typically have a lower probability, as the oceans tend to be relatively warm at this time of year. Santa typically finds tough sledding on his journey to that half of the country south of latitude 40 degrees that is not mountainous, where chances of a white Christmas fall from 50% to 20% or less. You can monitor the current snow cover across North America using a snow chart that is based upon satellite data.
Environment Canada has also produced a tabulation of the Chances of a White Christmas for 43 major population centers across Canada based on data collected between 1955 and 2013.
Interesting weather data for the college football fan -- With the start of the college football bowl games:
- The updated "Climatology of College Football" was posted in September 2015 by Alex Lamers, a football fan as well as a Program Coordination Officer and meteorologist with NOAA in Washington, DC, that describes and tabulates some of the extremes in the major college football conferences, focusing upon the coldest, warmest, driest and wettest college stadiums around the nation. He also has a "NCAA Football Conference Temperature Rankings." [Alex's Weather Notes]
- Climatology of Southeast NCAA bowl games updated -- The Southeast Regional Climate Center has provided a listing of the weather history for sixteen NCAA college football bowl games that are to be played within the next two weeks across the Southeastern States. This climatology includes the warmest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days in the particular bowl's history.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Only one tropical cyclone was found across the world's tropical ocean basins at the start of last week. This lone tropical cyclone was found in the North Indian Ocean basin, where Cyclone Vardah, a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, made landfall along the southeastern coast of India near the coastal city of Chennai on Monday (local time). Strong winds and torrential rain from Vardah resulted in at least ten people losing their lives in the Chennai metropolitan area. [CNN] Vardah weakened rapidly and became a remnant low as it moved across southern India. Some redevelopment appeared to take place as this remnant low headed out into the Bay of Bengal by late last week. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Cyclone Vardah.
Initial outlook for 2017 Atlantic hurricane season issued -- Last week Dr. Philip J. Klotzbach and colleagues at Colorado State University issued a qualitative discussion of what they foresee as factors that should determine next year's Atlantic basin hurricane activity. They noted that two areas of uncertainty surround their forecast for the 2017 Atlantic basin hurricane season. These uncertainties involve what will transpire with the status of the current weak La Niña conditions over the next several months and what type of trends would occur with the Atlantic Decadal Oscillation (AMO). They are using two primary physical parameters in their outlooks: (1.) the strength of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation or the AMO and (2.) the phase of ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation). The team plans on issuing their first quantitative forecast in mid-April 2017. Details of their initial qualitative assessment appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report]
Annual Arctic Report Card released -- Last week, NOAA's Climate Program Office released its eleventh annual update of the "Arctic Report Card" for 2016, a peer-reviewed report of the state of the air, ocean and ice in the Arctic basin prepared by an international team of 61 experts from 11 countries, including those from NOAA. These experts have found: i.) air temperatures across the land areas in the Arctic basin were the highest on record since 1900 and the rate of increase is double the rate of the temperature increase for the entire globe; ii.) spring snow cover in the North American Arctic was at a record lowest extent since satellite observations began in 1967; iii.) Greenland ice sheet continued to lose mass and the start of the melting of this ice sheet was the second earliest in the 37-year observational record; iv.) Arctic sea ice during late October and early November remained at its lowest extent since satellite surveillance began in 1967; v.) Arctic Ocean temperatures were above average; and vi.) widespread algal blooms and growth of other tiny marine plants were found, signalling increased Arctic Ocean productivity. [NOAA News] or [NOAA Climate.gov News]
More detailed information along with a nearly four-minute video (with audio) is available on this report. [Arctic Report Card]
Ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is becoming younger and thinner -- A 1 minute, 20 second video (with sound) was produced that contains an animation produced from NOAA and NASA data showing changes in the relative amount of ice of different ages from 1990 through early November 2016. This video shows that the amount of thick, multiyear or perennial ice has declined, replaced by thinner, young ice that is created every winter. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Global sea ice in November is termed a "black swan event" -- A feature article written for the ClimateWatch Magazine calls the record small extent of the sea ice in both the Northern Hemisphere's Arctic Ocean and the waters of the South Hemisphere surrounding Antarctica during November 2016 a "black swan event", a metaphor associated with a relatively rare and unexpected or surprise event. [NOAA Climate.gov News] Additional graphics are available on the extent of the Antarctic sea ice during November 2016. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Aircraft provides close view of crack in ice at Larsen C Ice Shelf-- Photographs made by a NASA scientist from the agency's DC-8 research aircraft in mid November shows an interesting view of the crack that formed across Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf and grown longer and deeper during the last several months, which correspond to the Southern Hemisphere winter. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Project maps glacial ice flow speeds -- A team of scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the University of Alaska–Fairbanks, the United Kingdom's University of Bristol and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have started the Global Land Ice Velocity Extraction project (GoLIVE) that is designed to use data collected from NASA's Landsat 8 satellite to create near-real-time views of every large glacier and ice sheet on Earth in an effort to determine the changes in the speed of the ice flows. These changes in ice flow could affect global sea level rise. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A toolbox of coastal planning tools is made available -- NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has recently unveiled the Coastal Aquaculture Planning Portal (CAPP), which is a toolbox of coastal planning tools designed to assist managers, planners, and industry with sustainable aquaculture development. [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

19 December 1551...The Dutch west coast was hit by a hurricane.
19 December 1741...Vitus J Bering, Dutch navigator/explorer, died on this date.
19-21 December 1835...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin approached New Zealand and sailed into the Bay of Islands.
20 December 1984...Lili, a rare December hurricane, was officially declared a tropical system in the central Atlantic as a well-defined eye type feature was apparent on satellite imagery. The hurricane peaked at sustained 80 mph winds and a pressure of 980 millibars or 28.94 inches of mercury, very respectable Category 1 Hurricane in December. (National Weather Service files)
20 December 1987...Worst peacetime shipping disaster occurred as the Dona Paz, a Philippine ferry, sank after collision with oil tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion. As many as 1749 confirmed deaths, but the death toll was probably closer to 3000.
21 December 1163...A hurricane hit villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods.
21 December 1872...The HMS Challenger set sail from Portsmouth, England on the 4-year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography. (Wikipedia)
21 December 1936...Ice breaking operations in channels and harbors by the US Coast Guard was authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Executive Order No. 7521. (USCG Historian's Office)
22 December 1832...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reached the Barnevelts Islands
22 December 1837...Congress authorized the President "to cause any suitable number of public vessels, adapted to the purpose, to cruise upon the coast, in the severe portion of the season, and to afford aid to distressed navigators." This statute was the first authorizing activities in the field of maritime safety, thereby interjecting the national government into the field of lifesaving for the first time. Although revenue cutters were specifically mentioned, the performance of this duty was imposed primarily upon the Revenue Marine Service and quickly became one of its major activities. (USCG Historian's Office)
22 December 1894...The Dutch coast was hit by a hurricane.
23 December 1811...A cold storm hit Long Island Sound with a foot of snow, gale force winds, and temperatures near zero. During the storm, many ships were wrecked, and in some cases, entire crews perished. (David Ludlum)
23 December 1854...A tsunami struck the coast of Japan, with water in the harbor of Simoda changing depth between 8 and 40 feet. Twelve hours later this giant wave reached the Pacific coast of the U.S. The newly installed self-registering tide gauges noted these waves. The information derived from this event enabled Alexander D. Bache, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, to apply a newly derived law relating ocean depth to wave speed and provide the first relatively accurate scientific estimate of the depth of an ocean between Japan and the Pacific coast of the U.S. The velocity of the sea wave from Simoda to San Francisco was 369 mph. (Today in Science History)
25 December 1492...The Santa Maria, one of the ships that Christopher Columbus used in his historic trans-Atlantic voyage, landed at the Dominican Republic.
25 December 1974...Tropical Cyclone Tracy (a hurricane in the waters surrounding Australia) made landfall near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Excellent warnings kept the death toll to between 50 and 60, with more than 20,000 people evacuated in the week following the storm. Some areas were totally devastated. Peak wind speeds reached exceeded 174 mph. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)