26-30 December 2011

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 16 January 2012. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the AMS DS Earth's Climate Systems Central Staff!

Climatology of Southeast NCAA bowl games updated -- The Southeast Regional Climate Center has provided a listing of the weather history for eleven NCAA college 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.

• No "leap second" will lengthen 2011 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2011. However, back on 31 December 2008, the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. At the time, tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. [US Naval Observatory]
• Review of NOAA research activities around the globe in 2011 -- During the last week NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) provided a list of highlights of the scientific research the agency has conducted around the global in the calendar year of 2011 in an effort to advance weather forecasting, climate prediction, environmental modeling, and protection against coastal threats such as tsunamis and oil spills. Some of the OAR research activities during 2011 included studying the effects of water loss changes in Great Lakes levels; the causes of hurricane landfall in the North Atlantic basin; the role of aerosols on monsoon rainfall in South Asia; continued environmental studies of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; monitoring rainfall for West African Farmers; studying stratospheric ozone depletion in the Arctic and the accurate prediction of the propagation of the tsunami triggered by the March Japanese earthquake. Furthermore, twelve weather and climate-related disasters occurred across the nation that exceeded $1 billion each in 2011, setting a new record for the most billion dollar weather and climate disasters in a single year. [NOAA Research]

• Sierra "snow drought" could be a record -- Meteorologists with the National Weather Service and the University of Nevada's Desert Research Institute recently reported that the region around Lake Tahoe has not received snow this December and indications suggest that Reno may have no measurable December precipitation for the first time since 1883. This year's "snow drought" is in stark contrast to the heavy snow that fell in the Lake Tahoe Basin last year. A ridge of high pressure that has remained stationary across the eastern North Pacific and sections of the Northwest has deflected precipitation-producing storms well to the north. [USA Today]

• Vegetation canopy water content and soil moisture study conducted -- Over the last 18 months, researchers with the University of California at Davis and the US Department of Agriculture used specialized instruments mounted onboard several NASA research aircraft to collect data as part of a vegetation canopy and soil moisture study designed to gain insight into the role that vegetation plays in the transport of water between soil and the atmosphere. A series of NASA Airborne Science flights were made over California's San Joaquin Valley using high-altitude ER-2, DC-8 flying laboratory and Gulfstream III research aircraft. The diurnal water stress in the canopy area of almond and pistachio orchards and vineyards were determined with several specialized radiation instruments. [NASA Dryden Public Affairs]
• Marking a third of a century record of satellite-derived climate data -- The director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) and Alabama State Climatologist, Dr. John Christy, recently noted that satellite measurements of the Earth's temperature since November 1978 show an increase of approximately 0.82 Fahrenheit degrees. He notes that this observed increase of approximately 0.25 Fahrenheit degrees per decade is at the lower end of computer model projections of how much the atmosphere should have warmed in the past 33 years associated with the greenhouse gases added because of the burning of fossil fuels. The temperature of the Northern Hemisphere increased by 1.17 Fahrenheit degrees during these 33 years. The UAH temperature data that he references represent the tropospheric air temperature (surface to an altitude of approximately five miles) obtained from data collected by sensors onboard NASA and NOAA satellites. [USA Today]
  [Editor's note: The three commonly-referenced surface temperature data sets from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Hadley Climate Research Unit show an increase ranging between 0.23 and 0.30 Fahrenheit degrees per decade. EJH]
• New tools show increased spatial variability in south Asian rainfall extremes -- Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have used a variety of statistical analysis methods on precipitation data to show a large spatial variability in the rainfall extremes across India. They found no evidence for uniformly increasing trends in rainfall extremes averaged over the entire Indian region that were assumed to be associated with changing climate, but a steady and significant increase in the spatial variability. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory]
• Nation's major urban areas have greater mercury deposition -- A recent study conducted by scientists at the US Geological Survey reveals atmospheric deposition of mercury is approximately four-times higher in lakes near ten major US cities compared to lakes in remote areas. Coal-fired power plants and industries in the urban areas are among the primary sources of mercury emissions that are carried by the winds and then deposited in the lakes. [USGS Newsroom]
• First direct measurement of Earth's rotation is made -- Researchers at Germany's Technical University of Munich claim to be first to plot changes in the orientation of the Earth's axis and the planet's rotation using a stable ring laser they constructed. While accurate determination of the axial tilt and the rotation rate of the Earth is crucial for modern navigation systems, the information can also be used to monitor variations in atmospheric pressure, ocean loading and the wind. [Technical University of Munich]
• 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]

• "Superjet" may have led to record severe weather and rain -- Atmospheric scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison claim that at times during spring and fall, the upper tropospheric subtropical jet stream merges with the polar front jet stream to become a "superjet" that can result in the formation of large-scale storms over the North American continent that are accompanied by torrential rain and severe weather. Two case studies were considered: a storm in May 2010 that brought flooding rain to western Tennessee and the historic April 2011 tornado outbreak in Alabama. In these cases, the coupling of the subtropical and polar jet streams to form a superjet occurred over the western North Pacific, roughly 9000 miles upstream of the region in the central US where the storms caused the most damage. One of the researchers believes that increased global temperatures due to changing climate could result in an increased frequency of conditions where the subtropical jet is displaced poleward that would set the stage for the development of more superjet events. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News]

• Monitoring the increased malaria risk in Sub-Saharan Africa from space -- NOAA is developing an experimental Malaria Risk Index for Africa that is based upon the analysis of data collected from the POES AVHRR satellite sensor for various land surface properties, including temperature, moisture and vegetation greenness. The UN's World Health Organization reports that the two wet seasons across the Horn of Africa creates a warm and wet habitat for mosquitoes, a vector for malaria. An image was prepared of last week's Malaria Risk Index with a band of high and extremely high malaria risk stretching across Sub-Saharan Africa and prominent risk areas in central Africa and the western Horn of Africa. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• Post-Ice Age warming of oceans could have future implications -- Researchers from Quebec's McGill University have found that their analysis of marine sediments indicates dissolved oxygen in many of the word's oceans decreased significantly at the end of the last Ice Age (20,000 to 10,00 years ago) as ocean temperatures increased by approximately 2 Celsius degrees. They warn that these temperature changes are comparable to those projected for the rest of the 21st century, if emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere were not curbed. [McGill University Newsroom]
• New findings are made in oceanic pH variations -- Using sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a group of 19 scientists from five research organizations in the US and Italy have conducted a major field study of ocean acidification in the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. They found variations in the acidity (pH) of ocean waters due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with human activity. These pH changes can affect marine ecosystems. [Scripps Institution of Oceanography]

• Aquatic bacteria may have moved to land at a later date -- Scientists at the University of Tennessee and the US Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have discovered that bacteria may have moved from sea to land only 400 million years ago, much later than the approximately two billion years as previously thought. [EurekAlert!]

• Thinning forests for wildfire prevention may increase carbon emissions -- Oregon State University scientists claim that the currently accepted practice of thinning Western forests to remove potential fuel for wildfires could release more carbon into the atmosphere than any amount saved by successful prevention of wildfires. [Oregon State University]
• New air quality regulations benefits greatly outweigh costs -- Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health report that over $1 trillion in health and environmental benefits would far outweigh the estimated $195 billion in costs associated with reductions in emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants into the atmosphere due to the new air quality regulations recently adopted or proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The savings would be realized particularly by minorities and the poor. [Mailman School of Public Health]
• Water supplies threatened by retreating Peruvian glaciers -- Researchers from McGill University and Ohio State University have found that glaciers in northern Peru have been shrinking at an unexpectedly fast pace, which would cause water levels to decrease by as much as 30 percent during the dry season. [McGill University Newsroom]
• Geoengineering plans need to consider impacts on ecosystems -- In a recent workshop hosted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which is associated with the University of California, San Diego, several researchers warned that future planning of geoengineering efforts designed to artificially mitigate climate change must also consider their potential effects on ecosystems. [University of California, San Diego News]
• 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]
• COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY
• Earth-sized planets discovered beyond or solar system -- NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory involved with the agency's Kepler mission have discovered Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. These exoplanets are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. [NASA JPL]
• Meteorites seen as helping create life on Earth -- A team of researchers using advanced spectroscopy techniques to analyze samples from meteorite samples report that meteorites appear to hold a record of those chemicals that existed in the early Solar System and that may have been a crucial source of nucleobases or organic compounds that ultimately gave rise to life on Earth. [Carnegie Institution for Science]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 26 December 1909...Philadelphia, PA had its record snow to that date with 21 inches. The Delaware state record was also broken with 24 inches. (Intellicast)
• 26 December 1947...New York City recorded its all-time record snow with 25.8 inches at the Battery and 26.8 inches at Central Park. A record 26.4 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, with as much as 32 inches reported in the suburbs. White Plains had 6 inches in one hour with 19 inches in just 6 hours. The heavy snow brought traffic to a standstill, and snow removal cost eight million dollars. Thirty thousand persons were called upon to remove the 100 million tons of snow. The storm claimed 27 lives. (26^th-27^th) (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
• 26 December 1983...Miami, FL established a December record with a morning low of 33 degrees. Just three days earlier, and again three days later, record high temperatures were reported in Florida, with daytime highs in the 80s. (The National Weather Summary)
• 26 December 1993...Bitterly cold air prevailed across the north central states. Sault Ste Marie, MI plunged to 31 degrees below zero to set a new December record. Tower, MN reached a frigid 50 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 26 December 2004...A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale approximately 100 miles off the western coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed. (Wikipedia)
• 28 December 1897...The temperature at Dayville, OR hit 81 degrees to establish a state record for December. (The Weather Channel)
• 28 December 1955...Anchorage, AK was buried under 17.7 inches of snow in 24 hours, a record for that location. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 28 December 1958...Albuquerque, NM received 14.2 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 29 December 1917...Washta, IA dropped to 40 degrees below zero, the record low temperature for the Hawkeye State; this record has been broken by a 47 degree below zero reading in February 1996. (Intellicast)
• 29 December 1933...Ontario's coldest day on record as fourteen sites recorded their lowest-ever temperature, including Ottawa (-38?F) and Algonquin Park (-49?F). (The Weather Doctor)
• 29 December 1954...Fort Scott, KS was buried under 26 inches of snow in 24 hours to establish a state record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 29 December 1984...One hundred cities in the central and eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures. Southerly winds gusting to 50 mph helped Kansas City experience its warmest December day of record with a morning low of 60 degrees and an afternoon high of 71 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 29 December 2004...The sea-level corrected atmospheric pressure rose to an unofficial world's record for highest sea level pressure reaching 1083.8 millibars (32.01 inches) at Agata, Siberia. At the time, Agata Lake reported a temperature of -46^o C (-50.8^oF). (The Weather Doctor) This world record has superceded a reading of 1085.6 mb millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
• 30 December 1880...The temperature at Charlotte, NC plunged to an all-time record low reading of 5 degrees below zero, a record that was equaled on 21 January 1985. (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1917...A great cold wave set many records in the northeastern U.S. Temperatures of 37 degrees below zero at Lewisburg, WV and 32 degrees below zero at Mountain City, TN set all-time low temperature records for both the Mountain and Volunteer States. (NCDC)
• 30 December 1933...The temperature fell to 50 degrees below zero at Bloomfield, VT, marking the lowest reading in modern records for New England. (David Ludlum)
• 30 December 1955...Anchorage, AK reported an all-time record snow depth of 47 inches. (30^th-1^st) (The Weather Channel)
• 30 December 1968...A new record low temperature for the state of Washington was set in two towns on the same date. Mazama and Winthrop both dropped to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 31 December 1917...The temperature at Lewisburg, WV plunged to 37 degrees below zero to set a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 31 December 1929...Greenland Ranch, in Death Valley, CA, went the entire year without measurable precipitation. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1941...Snow that began on New Year's Eve became a major blizzard on New Year's Day, burying Des Moines, IA under 19.8 inches of snow in 24 hours, an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1968...The sea-level corrected atmospheric pressure rose to a world's record for highest sea level pressure reaching 1083.8 millibars (32.01 inches) at Agata, Siberia. At the time, Agata Lake reported a temperature of -46^o C (-50.8^oF). (The Weather Doctor) This world record has since been superceded by a reading of 1085.7 millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
• 31 December 1982...The year's total rainfall recorded at the rain gauge at Puu Kukui, at an elevation of approximately 5800 feet on the slope of the West Maui Mountains on Hawaii's Island of Kauai was 704.83 inches. This rainfall total represents the all-time greatest calendar year precipitation total in the United States. The rainfall total for that December was 42.00 inches. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 31 December 1989...The year and decade ended on a soggy note in the eastern U.S. Thunderstorm rains pushed precipitation totals for the year to 88.32 inches at Baton Rouge, LA and to 75.37 inches at Huntsville, AL, establishing all-time records for those two locations. Dry weather continued in California. Sacramento and San Francisco finished the month without any rain or snow, and Santa Maria reported their driest year of record with just 3.30 inches of precipitation. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
  The highest air pressure ever recorded in United States was 1078.6 millibars (31.85 inches of mercury) at Northway, AK. (The Weather Doctor)
• 1 January 1886...Norway's coldest night on record occurred as the temperature at Karasjok dropped to 60.5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (The Weather Doctor).
• 1 January 1979...The temperature at Maybell, CO plunged to 60 degrees below zero to tie the state record set back in 1951 at Taylor Park. (The Weather Channel)

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