WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

16-20 December 2013

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 20 January 2014. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Happy Winter Solstice!
Endangered Species Act marks 40th anniversary -- NOAA Fisheries will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) at the end of this year. President Nixon signed the ESA into law as a means designed to protect critically imperiled animal species deemed endangered or threatened from extinction. As a consequence of ESA populations of many listed species in the ocean have increased. [NOAA Fisheries News] However, scientists remain concerned with how changing climate will affect federally protected marine species [University of Washington News]
New website provides future temperature and precipitation projections for your county -- The US Geological Survey (USGS) in collaboration with Oregon State University have developed a website that provides the public maps and tabular summaries of historical and projected changes in the temperature and precipitation for each county across the 48 coterminous United States. The forecast maps and tabular data sets, which were set to an 800-meter grid resolution, have been produced based upon NASA down-scaling of the projections provided by 33 climate models used in the 5th Climate Model Intercomparison Project and the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report. [USGS Newsroom]
Lake effect snow clouds seen from space -- An image generated by data collected last Wednesday by the VIIRS instrument onboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite shows numerous streamers of stratocumulus clouds that developed across Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron as cold air was being transported across these Lakes on northwesterly winds. The orientation of the cloud streamers provides an indication of the general near surface wind flow across the region. Skies are clear along the upwind side of the Lakes where the cold dry air blows out over the relatively warm water surfaces. During the travel over the Lakes, the near surface air is warmed and humidified sufficiently to produce convection, cloud formation and ultimately, lake effect snow that fell on the downwind shores of the Lakes, such as across the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and western Lower Michigan. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Juxtaposition of air masses across North America in early December 2013 -- A map depicting the land surface temperature anomalies (or differences between observed and long-term 2001-2010 average temperatures) across the North American continent over a one-week span in early December shows a large and slightly unusual contrast in temperatures between an unseasonably warm Alaska and frigid air across the western sections of Canada and the continental United States. This map, which was generated from data collected by the MODIS instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite, reflects the highly amplified polar jet stream pattern over the Northern Hemisphere where the jet stream was displaced far to the north across Alaska, which resulted in record-breaking warmth in the 49th State, while a southward excursion of the jet into the Southwestern States created a major arctic outbreak with record low temperatures across the western United States. Farther to the east, above average temperatures were detected across the Southeastern US as the polar jet traveled back toward the north across the nation's midsection. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Review of November and autumn 2013 weather and climate across the US -- Preliminary monthly temperature data for November 2013 from across the nation have led scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center to report that the November temperature across the coterminous United States was slightly below (0.3 Fahrenheit degrees) below the 20th century (1901-2000) average, making last month the 49th coldest November since a sufficiently dense national climate observing network was established in 1895. Furthermore, the temperature across the 48 coterminous states for meteorological autumn (September-November) was 0.5 Fahrenheit degree above the 20th century averages. Many of the states across the nation's midsection and along the Eastern Seaboard experienced below average November statewide temperatures. Florida was the only state east of the Mississippi River to have an above average November temperature. The Southwest also had a warm November, with California, Nevada and Arizona having statewide average monthly temperatures that were above average. The majority of the 48 coterminous states reported near average statewide for the three-month autumn season. The Middle Atlantic States and states in the Ohio Valley were cooler than the 20th century averages. Only Florida, Colorado and Idaho had above average autumn temperatures.
The nationwide precipitation total for November across the country was approximately one-tenths of an inch below the 20th century average, placing this past month as the 51st driest November since 1895. The national precipitation total for autumn 2012 was one inch below the 20th century precipitation average. The states along the Pacific Coast and across the northern Plains had below average November precipitation totals, with Wyoming experiencing its eleventh driest November in 119 years. States across the Southwest, the Southeast and along the Great Lakes had above average precipitation in November. Michigan had its seventh wettest November on record. States across the Rockies and northern Plains experienced a wetter than average autumn, with the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico reporting statewide autumn precipitation totals that ranked within their top ten wettest. States along the western Gulf Coast and in the Great Basin also had above average autumn rainfall. On the other hand, California had its tenth driest autumn since 1895. States along Middle Atlantic and Southeast coasts and in the mid-Mississippi Valley also experience a dry autumn. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
NOTE: A description is provided of the climatological rankings employed by NCDC for their monthly and seasonal maps. [NOAA/NCDC]
Identifying the coldest spot on Earth -- A team of researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and their colleagues recently reported that after their analysis of 32-years of data collected from satellites including the new NASA-USGS Landsat 8 and NASA's Aqua satellites, they determined that the surface temperatures have been as low as 133.6 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale (92 degrees below zero Celsius) in several hollows on the East Antarctic Plateau during the long clear winter nights. These hollows are on a ridge that runs from Dome A to Dome Fuji. A new record low of 136 degrees below zero Fahrenheit as determined from remote satellite sensors was set on 10 August 2010, which would break the record low of 128.6 degrees below zero that was observed by in-situ temperature sensors at the Russian Vostok Research Station in East Antarctica in 1983. [NASA Headquarters] Editor's Note: Contrary to any reports from the media, the remotely sensed temperature obtained from satellite in August 2010 will not be recognized as an official record low by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as this organization only recognizes in-situ temperature observations made at the standard instrument shelter height of approximately 2 meters above the surface. [USA Today]
Annual Arctic Report Card released -- Last week, NOAA's Climate Program Office released its 2013 annual update of the "Arctic Report Card," a peer-reviewed report of the state of the air, ocean and ice in the Arctic basin prepared by an international team of 147 scientists from 14 countries, including those from NOAA. These experts have found air and water temperatures across the central Arctic Ocean, Greenland and northern Canada during the summer of 2013 were slightly lower than in previous years. These lower temperatures helped moderate sea ice loss and melting of the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, both of which had occurred at a record pace during 2012. Though not as extreme as the previous year, the Arctic continued to warm and to show evidence of a shift toward a greener state as vegetation has been expanding and having greater productivity because of warmer conditions and a longer growing season. More freshwater was found in the Beaufort Gyre north of Alaska and Canada. Several species of fish have migrated into the warmer Arctic Ocean that has less summer sea ice. [NOAA News]
A map of the August 2013 sea surface temperatures in the waters of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas and straits generated from data collected from a sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows that the surface waters poleward of the Arctic Circle generally were warmer than the long-term average (1982-2006) for the summer of 2013. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

New results revealed from inside the "ozone hole" -- NASA scientists recently had a briefing in which they provided their discoveries of the processes that occur annually in what is commonly called the Antarctic "ozone hole" and why the recovery of more normal stratospheric ozone levels has not occurred despite a decline in chlorine concentrations in the stratosphere over the last decade. The researchers used data collected in 2012 season from the Ozone Mapper and Profiler Suite's Limb Profiler onboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite and from the NASA Aura satellite's Microwave Limb Sounder to make their assessment. Winds and temperature in the stratosphere appear to continue driving annual changes in ozone hole size. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
Airborne Snow Observatory mission over the high Sierra assists water managers -- Last spring NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory mission generated high resolution snow maps that revealed the spatial distribution of snow water equivalent across California's Tuolumne River Basin within Yosemite National Park. These snowpack maps helped water managers optimize water operations and supply the water for approximately 2.6 million residents of the San Francisco Bay area, despite the occurrence of the driest year in California recorded history. The Airborne Snow Observatory, which is carried on a Twin Otter aircraft, measures snow depth and snow reflectivity, two properties needed to calculate the amount of runoff. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
New NASA satellite should help answer questions on the Earth's carbon cycle -- A new satellite identified as NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission is scheduled to be launched in the summer 2014 with the goal of measuring the levels of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere with increased resolution. Recently, the OCO-2 mission's Deputy Project Scientist, Dr. Annmarie Eldering of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was interviewed and answered five questions concerning carbon dioxide and NASA's OCO-2 mission. [NASA Global Climate Change]
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]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Increasing global temperatures affect snowy winters and animals in polar zones -- The year 2012 was one of the 10 warmest years globally since instrumental records began over 120 years ago. During this year, the area of snow across the Northern Hemisphere shrank to its 12th smallest snow area for the interval extending between 1967 and 2012; in addition, snow is arriving later and leaving earlier in the season and dense wet snow is replacing powdery dry snow. Scientists have voiced concern that the dwindling snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere will pose an environmental disaster for animals that live in the snow. [The Why Files]

CLIMATE FORCING

Arctic cyclones are not that uncommon -- Scientists at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center and Russia's Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University have determined that between the years 2000 and 20010, approximately 1900 cyclones (atmospheric low pressure systems) developed over and traveled across the Arctic basin. The counts of storms were obtained from a variety of historical weather data, together with statistics and computer models. This number of Arctic storms is approximately 40 percent greater than previously thought, since hundreds of the smaller storms had previously escaped detection. The Arctic storms leave warm water and air in their wakes, which helps cause melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. [Ohio State University Research News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Initial outlook for 2014 Atlantic hurricane season issued -- Last week Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University issued a qualitative discussion of what they foresee as factors that will determine next year's Atlantic basin hurricane activity. While they expect that typical conditions associated with a positive Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO) and strong thermohaline circulation (THC) should continue, they note that one of the big uncertainties for the 2014 Atlantic basin hurricane season will be whether or not an El Niño event will develop. Until last year, the team usually released their initial quantitative forecast of the tropical cyclone activity for the forthcoming hurricane season in the North Atlantic Basin during the first week of December. However, they have elected to discontinue this quantitative forecast in 2012 and provide a qualitative discussion. They will issue their first quantitative forecast in early April 2014, provided that sufficient funding is available for continuation of their work. Details of their initial qualitative assessment appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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.

Historical Events:

16 December 1890...A big snowstorm at Pittsburgh, PA dropped 23.9 inches in 24 hours, the greatest 24-hour snow for that city. (Intellicast)
16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
17 December 1884...A three-week blockade of snow began at Portland, OR. A record December total of 34 inches was received. (David Ludlum)
17 December 1930...Greensboro, NC experienced its greatest 24-hour snowfall when 14.3 inches fell. (Intellicast)
18 December 1919...The temperature fell to one degree below zero at Central Park in New York City for the earliest sub-zero temperature on record. (Intellicast)
18 December 1989...Unseasonably warm weather continued ahead of an arctic cold front. Miami FL equaled their record for December with an afternoon high of 87 degrees. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
19 December 1911...A 24-hour snowfall record occurred in Oklahoma with 22 inches at Beaver. (Intellicast)
19 December 1924...The Riverside Ranger Station in Yellowstone Park, WY reported a low of 59 degrees below zero, a December record for the contiguous U.S. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
19 December 1967...The second heavy snow in a week brought a total of 86 inches of snow to Flagstaff, AZ with a record snow depth of 83 inches. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum)
20 December 1989... Squalls produced more heavy snow in the Great Lakes Region. Erie, PA received 21 inches of snow, including four inches in one hour, to bring their total snow cover to 39 inches, an all-time record for that location. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
20 December 1990...Snow fell at Santa Maria, CA for the first time since records were kept. (Intellicast)
21 December 1892...Portland, OR was buried under an all-time record 27.5 inches of snow. (21^st-24^th) (The Weather Channel)
21 December 1989...Forty cities in the north central U.S., including thirteen in Iowa, reported record low temperatures for the date. The high for the date of 16 degrees below zero at Sioux Falls, SD was December record for that location. (The National Weather Summary)

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