2-6 January 2012

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.

• In Close -- Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the sun (147.1 million kilometers or 91.2 million miles), on Wednesday evening (officially at 01Z on 5 January 2012 or 8 PM EST, 7 PM CST, etc. on Wednesday).
• Portrait of Earth on the boreal winter solstice -- A high-resolution, full-disk visible satellite image made from data collected from sensors onboard NOAA's GOES-13 satellite shows the planet's Western Hemisphere on 22 December 2011, the date of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]

• A review of Canada's top ten weather stories in 2011 -- During the last week, meteorologists with Environment Canada released a list of what they considered the top ten weather events across Canada during this just concluded calendar year of 2011. Some of these stories included widespread floods of historic magnitude in the Prairie Provinces and in Quebec, wildfires in Alberta, melting Arctic sea ice, heat waves, blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes. Insurance companies reported that Canadians experienced substantial losses due to the year's weather extremes, with 2011 becoming the second most expensive year for weather losses. [Environment Canada]
• All-time high temperature record reported at the South Pole --Scientists with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC) recently reported that the temperatures at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station and for two of their nearby automated weather stations (AWS) reached all-time high temperature records on Christmas Day (25 December 2011). On that date, the temperature at the South Pole reached 9.9 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record of 7.5 degrees F set in December 1978. The Nico AWS had a record high of 17.2 degrees and at Henry AWS the temperature was 16 degrees. Weather records have been kept at the South Pole since 1957. [Antarctic Meteorological Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison] NOTE: See also the update. EJH
• Various Antarctic ice forms seen from space -- Several images were made recently from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite and the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite that show a variety of ice forms along Antarctica's Mawson Coast. [NASA Earth Observatory]

• 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]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

• Historical patterns in North American mammal populations linked to climate change -- Researchers at Brown University and colleagues at Spain's University of Malaga and University of Valencia have found that changes in climate appeared to have directly influenced the evolution and migration of mammal species in North America over the last 65 million years. These changes in the mammal populations occurred in six distinct and successive waves of diversity or "evolutionary faunas." [ Brown University]

• Extreme weather could affect views of environmental legislation --A team of economists from New York State's Hamilton College recently reported on an Internet survey that they conducted of nearly 2500 Americans concerning views of their views of environmental legislation. The researchers claim that those people who have endured extreme weather events were more likely to support environmental legislation especially that designed to stem the effects of global warming. They also believe that extreme weather events would hurt conservative candidates for political office than more liberal candidates. [USA Today]
• Are residents in northern UK more cold-hardy? A survey is being conducted across the British Isles by the United Kingdom' Met Office and the Open Air Laboratory to determine the validity of the stereotype of the cold-hardy northerner and the southern-softy. Some initial analyses indicate that while the stereotype may be a myth, people adjust to local weather conditions and therefore have different tolerances during cold weather. [UK Met Office]
• Weather seen to have help clean the air for the 2008 Olympics -- An atmospheric chemist at the US Department of Energy's and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a colleague from Chinese Academy of Sciences claim that while the efforts made by the Chinese government to cut the air pollution in the Beijing metropolitan area for the 2008 Summer Olympics by approximately 50 percent, they credit favorable weather conditions also contributed to nearly half the reduction in air pollutants. Rain at the start of the games and windy weather during the games helped cleanse the air. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]
• 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.

• 2 January 1885...The lowest temperature ever recorded at Duluth, MN occurred on this date. The temperature plunged to 41 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1893...Little Rock, AR had its greatest 24-hour snowfall, with 13 inches that covered the ground. . (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1961...The lowest temperature of record for the state of Hawaii was established with a reading of 14 degrees atop Haleakala Summit. (David Ludlum) (This state record has been eclipsed in May 1979.)
• 3 January 1913...The barometer at Canton, NY read 28.20 inches of mercury (955.0 millibars), which is the lowest ever recorded at an inland station. (Intellicast)
• 3 January 1961...A three-day long ice storm was in progress over northern Idaho that produced an accumulation of ice eight inches thick, an U.S. record. Heavy fog, which blanketed much of northern Idaho from Grangeville to the Canadian border, deposited the ice on power and telephone lines causing widespread power outages. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4 January 1888...Sacramento, CA received 3.5 inches of snow, an all-time record for that location. The heaviest snow in recent history was two inches on 5 February 1976. (4th-5th) (The Weather Channel)
• 5 January 1904...Bitterly cold air gripped the northeastern U.S. Morning lows of 42 degrees below zero at Smethport, PA and 34 degrees below zero at River Vale, NJ established state records for both the Keystone and Garden States. (The Weather Channel)
• 5 January 1913...The temperature at the east portal to Strawberry Tunnel reached 50 degrees below zero to tie the Utah state record low established at Woodruff on 6 February 1899. (David Ludlum) This record was later smashed in February 1985 when the temperature at Peter's Sink fell to 69 degrees below zero. (NCDC)
• 5 January 1974...The temperature at Vanda Station on the Scott Coast, Antarctica reached 59 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica. (The Weather Doctor)
• 5 January 1999...The temperature fell to 36 degrees below zero at Congerville in central Illinois to set a new record low temperature for the state. (NCDC)
• 7 January 1913...Tucson, AZ set its all-time record low temperature with a frigid six degrees above zero. (NWS)
• 7 January 1971...The temperature at Hawley Lake, located southeast of McNary, AZ, plunged to 40 degrees below zero to establish a state record low temperature for the Grand Canyon State. (The Weather Channel)
• 7 January 1989...Fargo, ND was in the middle of a 3-day snowstorm over which time 24.4 inches of snow fell on the city -- the greatest single storm total ever for the location. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 7 January 1992...A rare January thunderstorm rumbled over Sioux Falls, SD. This was the first January thunderstorm recorded in the city since 1939. Meanwhile, thunderstorms produced six tornadoes (one F2 and five F1) near Grand Island, NE -- the first tornadoes ever recorded in Nebraska during January. (Intellicast)
• 7 January 1996...The "blizzard of '96" clobbered a huge area from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast with record snows. A new snowfall record for New Jersey was set when 35 inches were measured at White House. (Intellicast)
• 7-8 January 1966...Torrential rain fell at Foc Foc on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, with 45 inches falling in 12 hours and 72 inches falling in 24 hours, both world precipitation records.
• 8 January 1859...This is the only day New York City's temperature stayed below zero the entire day. (Intellicast)
• 8 January 1923...The all-time January record high temperature reading was reached at Los Angeles when the mercury climbed to 90 degrees. (Intellicast)
• 8 January 1937...The record low temperature for the state of Nevada was set at San Jacinto when the temperature dropped to 50 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2012, The American Meteorological Society.