DataStreme ECS WEEK SIX: 10-14 October 2011

• Celebrate Earth Science Week -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the National Weather Service, along with NASA, the US Geological Survey and several professional scientific organizations such as the American Geological Institute have recognized this week (9-15 October 2011) as Earth Science Week to help the public gain a better understanding and appreciation for the earth sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth. This year's theme for the 13th annual Earth Science Week is " Our Ever-Changing Earth", designed to "engage young people and the public in learning about the natural processes that shape our planet over time." [American Geological Institute]
• Three universities named to host Interior Department's Regional Climate Science Centers -- Last week, US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the Universities of Massachusetts-Amherst, Oklahoma and Hawaii-Manoa were selected to host his departments Climate Science Centers (CSCs) for the Northeast, South Central, and Pacific Islands regions, respectively. These centers, along with the other centers in the national network of eight CSCs will serve to provide land managers in federal, state and local agencies access to the best science available regarding climate change and other landscape-scale stressors. [US Dept. of Interior Press Release]

• US weather and climate reviewed for September 2011 -- Basing their report on preliminary data, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center indicate that the average temperature across the coterminous United States for September 2011 was approximately 1.5 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-Century (1901-2000) nationwide temperature. The statewide temperatures across the five Western States were among the ten highest for September since sufficiently reliable climate records began in 1895. Above average temperatures were also recorded across the Northeast. On the other hand, many of the states in the lower and mid-Mississippi Valleys reported below to much below temperatures in September. Although nationwide precipitation for September 2011 was approximately 0.10 inches below the 20th-century average, many areas across the Northeast and the Mid-South had much above average rainfall. Statewide, Pennsylvania had its wettest September on record. Extremely dry conditions continued across the southern, central and northern Plains, the western Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest. Drought and wildfires remained a problem across many areas. [NOAA News]

• Arctic sea ice shrinks to 2011 summer minimum -- Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Snow and Ice Data Center have found that the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean decreased to the second-smallest extent on record on 9 September 2011, the date of minimal extent for this year. The record extends back to 1979 when satellite surveillance of the sea ice began. They base their analysis on Arctic sea ice data obtained by the AMSR-E instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• German research vessel reports differences in Arctic sea ice -- Scientists from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research returning to port from the 26th Arctic expedition onboard the Institute's research vessel Polarstern reported more young and thin sea ice across the central Arctic Ocean than the normal old and bulky ice cover. The vessel reached the North Pole during this year's voyage. [Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research]
• Extended cold spell leads to Arctic "ozone hole" -- Maps from data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument and the Microwave Limb Sounder onboard NASA's Aura satellite show the development of an anomalously deep depletion in the stratospheric ozone layer over the Arctic earlier this year. This reduced stratospheric ozone layer, also known at the Arctic "ozone hole," appears to be associated with an increase in the concentration of chlorine monoxide, a gas that form in very cold conditions. [NASA Earth Observatory] Recently, an international team of scientists reported that the size of the Arctic ozone hole was the largest since satellite records began. [USA Today]
• 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]

• Changing climate may be affecting fall foliage -- Scientists and those interested in phenology are wondering if the fall coloration across the nation may be influenced by changes in climate. While some of the changes in the timing of the fall coloration may be due to soil moisture and recent storms, others claim that later dates of peak colors may be associated with higher temperatures. The public is encouraged to submit their reports on fall foliage to the National Phenology Network. [USA Today]
• Circadian rhythm of plants and low-level ozone production studied -- A team of researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and their colleagues have found that the rate at which plant canopies emit isoprene, a volatile organic compound responsible for generating ground-level ozone, is influenced by circadian rhythms. Their study of the isoprene concentrations was made over the tropical rain forest and oil palm plantations of Malaysia, which was incorporated into the NCAR Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) model along with circadian pattern to estimate isoprene emissions for input to ozone models. [UCAR/NCAR Staff Notes]
• Changing climate may affect where wine grapes grow --Climatologists and wine experts from the Stanford University, Southern Oregon University and Cornell University warn that within the next three decades, some areas that currently are noted for their fine wine grapes will be replaced by those regions little known for vineyards because of projected changes in climate. [USA Today]
• Herbivore populations could decrease with increased temperatures -- A team of scientists at the University of Toronto report that increased air temperatures associated with a change in global climate would cause a decrease in the number of herbivores, which would affect the human food supply. They claim that with increased temperatures, herbivores would grow more quickly than plants, resulting in the herbivores running out of food. [University of Toronto]
• Plants may have sufficient genetic flexibility to respond to changing climate -- Scientists from Brown University and their colleagues claim that plant genomes may help the next generation respond to climate change through survival and reproduction in their range. The researchers report that the set of genes determining fitness varies depending on the regional climate conditions that would be cold, warm, dry or wet. [Brown University]

• Post Ice Age increases in carbon dioxide not linked to Pacific Ocean -- Scientists from Oregon State University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine recently reported that their studies of benthic foraminifera found in a sediment core extracted from the Gorda Ridge off Oregon coast appears to indicate that the increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide at the end of the last Ice Age was not from the deep waters of the northeastern Pacific Ocean as previously hypothesized. The researchers reconstructed the ventilation history of the deep North Pacific. [Oregon State University]
• Loss of ancient Canadian lake linked to climate change -- A geologist at the University of Cincinnati claims that the disappearance of a long-vanished Glacial Lake Agassiz from Manitoba and western Ontario following the last Ice was due to enhanced evaporation approximately 12,000 years ago. He based his analysis on core samples collected along the ancient shore of Lake Agassiz. [University of Cincinnati]

• Changing climate led to human crisis in pre-industrial Europe -- Researchers claim that their analysis of climate, agricultural and demographic data for Europe from 1500 to 1800 indicates that changes in climate appear to be the ultimate cause of human crises in pre-industrial European societies, resulting in war, rebellion and a decline in human height. The climate changes during the Little Ice Age were toward lower temperatures and shortened growing seasons. [USA Today]
• Trees shown to clean London air -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's University of Southampton have found the trees in London, England improve the air quality in that metropolitan area by filtering out 850 and 2000 tonnes of airborne particulate matter per year. The researchers claim that their research has importance to predicting the removal of these pollutants as pollution emissions and the climate change in the future by the planting of trees in urban areas. [University of Southampton]
• 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.

Concept of the Week: Tropospheric westerly winds, north and south

The theoretical existence of upper tropospheric jet stream winds were not confirmed until being encountered by World War II bomber pilots when heading west into strong headwinds at altitudes of approximately 30,000 feet (10,000 m). Wind speeds sometimes exceeded 170 mph causing their relatively slow, heavily laden aircraft to almost stand still. Subsequently, westerly jet stream winds were found to encircle the planet in midlatitudes of both hemispheres above regions of strong temperature contrasts.

The explanation for these winds involves atmospheric mass distributions and forces on a rotating planet. Air in tropical latitudes is warmed, rises and then flows poleward, both north and south. On a rotating planet, moving air is deflected by the Coriolis effect, to the right in the Northern Hemisphere (and left in the Southern). The greater the temperature differences between warm lower and cold higher latitudes, the stronger the air motions and the faster the jet streams. The vertical temperature patterns result in the highest wind speeds near the top of the troposphere.

So Northern Hemisphere air headed northward, deflected to the right ends up headed east, a "westerly wind." In the Southern Hemisphere, southward moving air, deflected left will also go east, as a westerly wind. These "rivers" of strong upper-level winds steer surface weather systems as they move generally eastward across midlatitudes. They also provide boosts for jet aircraft headed eastward with them, but need to be avoided for going west! Of course, the full story is complex as land (especially mountains) and water surfaces interact with the heating of the air and eddies form in the turbulent flows, so jet streams wander. And with them go the storms and the weather patterns that form our short-term climate.

Concept of the Week: Questions

(Place your responses on the Chapter Progress Response Form provided in the Study Guide.)

1. The Northern Hemisphere jet stream winds would be directed such that cold air is [(to the left),(to the right),(directly ahead)] of their forward motion.
2. In the Southern Hemisphere, the jet stream winds to be directed generally toward the [(south), (east), (west)].

• 10-16 October 1780...The most deadly Western Hemisphere hurricane on record raged across the Caribbean Basin, killing 22,000 people on the islands of Martinique, St. Eustatius, and Barbados. Thousands more die at sea. (The Weather Doctor)
• 10 October 1928...The temperature at Minneapolis, MN reached 90 degrees, their latest such reading of record. (The Weather Channel)
• 10 October 1967...Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island experienced its wettest day ever when 4.19 inches of rain fell. (The Weather Doctor)
• 10 October 1973...Fifteen to 20 inches of rain deluged north central Oklahoma in thirteen hours producing record flooding. Enid was drenched with 15.68 inches of rain from the nearly stationary thunderstorms, which established a state 24-hour rainfall record. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 10 October 1979...A storm blanketed Worcester, MA with 7.5 inches of snow, a record snowfall total for so early in the season for that location. The earliest measurable snowfall was recorded at Boston, MA with 0.2 inches falling. Blue Hill Observatory at an elevation of 635 feet had 7 inches. (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
• 10 October 1991...Sacramento, CA hit 100 degrees setting a daily record. It was also the latest 100-degree reading and the warmest so late in the season. (Intellicast)
• 11 October 1977...The wet community of Ketchikan, AK experienced its wettest day: 8.71 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
• 11 October 2005...A tropical depression, the former Hurricane Vince, became the first tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in Spain. (The Weather Doctor)
• 12 October 1979...The lowest observed sea-level barometric pressure (870 mb or 25.69 inches of mercury) was recorded approximately 300 miles west of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean at the center of Typhoon Tip. (The Weather Doctor)
• 12 October 1982...Angoon, AK received 15.20 inches of precipitation, to set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the 49th State. (NCDC)
• 12 October 2006...With 0.3 inches of snow falling at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, IL set a new record for the earliest measurable snowfall since record-keeping began in 1871. The previous earliest date was 18 October in both 1972 and 1989. An unusually-early and intense lake-effect snow storm, resulted in 8.3 inches of snow that was measured at the official Buffalo, NY weather station on the 12th set a record for the snowiest October day in the station's 137-year history. The record did not last long, however, as the measurement on the morning of the 13th totaled10.9 inches. The two-day event totaled 22.6 inches (57.4 cm), breaking the October record for a single snowfall event. The storm was the sixth heaviest snowfall on record. (The Weather Doctor)
• 15-17 October 2005...The summit of Mount Washington, NH, the highest peak in the Northeast received 34 inches of snow between Saturday and Monday. The 24-hour record for the most snowfall was broken when 25.5 inches of snow piles up between noon Sunday and noon Monday. (The Weather Doctor)
• 16 October 1913...The temperature in Downtown San Francisco soared to 101 degrees to equal their record for October. (The Weather Channel)
• 16 October 1988...The afternoon high temperature of 100 degrees at Red Bluff, CA was the latest such reading of record for so late in the autumn season. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

Return to DataStreme Earth Climate Systems website

Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.