WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

6-10 January 2014

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.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

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 FORCING

Melting of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier tied to El Niño event -- Researchers from the University of Washington and the British Antarctic Survey along with colleagues from Korea and Germany claim that the melting of the ice sheet along the coast of Antarctica that includes the much studied Pine Island Glacier depends upon the local wind direction, which is tied to changes in weather patterns across the tropics associated with El Niño events. The researchers used data on winds and topography from the Antarctic coast and from observations and numerical simulations of climate conditions across the tropical Pacific Ocean basin. While observations show that the Pine Island ice shelf has been thinning nearly continuously for the last 40 years, the melting rate has changed, with the summer of 2013 having the lowest melt rate. This reduced melt rate was due to less warm, deep water flowing across an underwater ridge that separates Pine Island Glacier from the Southern Ocean, which was linked to changes in prevailing wind direction related to changes in the tropical Pacific associated with El Niño events. [University of Washington]
Outgassing of methane hydrate deposits not caused by global warming -- An international team of scientists including those from Germany's GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel explain that that the observed outgassing of methane from gas hydrate deposits off the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean is most likely caused by natural processes and cannot be attributed primarily to global warming. [GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research]
Dramatic spikes in coastal ocean acidity caused by local factors -- Scientists at Duke University report dramatic natural short-term increases in acidity that have been observed in a North Carolina estuary have been greater than the projected 100-year increases in the global ocean acidity. The shorter spikes in acidity in coastal or estuarine waters were on the time-span of one year and were driven by changes in temperature, water flow, biological activity and other natural factors. They are occurring in addition to the long-term acidification taking place in Earth's oceans as a result of human-caused climate change. [Duke University Environment]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Future climate could be hotter than previously estimated -- Scientists warn that the global average temperatures could rise by at least 4 Celsius degrees by 2100 if carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced. The researchers claim that climate models are not correctly simulating cloud formation processes that affect planetary climate and thereby project a lower temperature response to the doubling of carbon dioxide since preindustrial times. [University of New South Wales Newsroom]
Canadian national seasonal outlook issued -- Forecasters with Environment Canada issued their outlooks for temperature and precipitation across Canada for the first three months of 2014, which represent the remainder of meteorological winter (January and February) and the first month of meteorological spring (March). Their temperature outlook indicates that most of Canada, could experience below normal (1981-2010) temperatures for these three months. On the other hand, a few sections of Baffin Island and southern Nova Scotia could have above average winter and early spring temperatures. Elsewhere, near normal temperatures were to be expected for the next three months.
The Canadian precipitation outlook for January through March 2014 indicates that most of the Canadian Arctic including northern sections of the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut Territories could experience below average precipitation. Conversely, above normal precipitation was projected for a large area extending across most of the Prairie Provinces along with a large section of Ontario to the north of Lake Superior and coastal sections of Atlantic Canada.
[Note for comparisons and continuity with the three-month seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation generated for the continental United States and Alaska by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, one would need to use Environment Canada's probabilistic forecasts for temperature and precipitation.]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Tropical mangroves advance northward due to fewer hard freeze events -- Using 28 years of NASA's Landsat 5 satellite data, a team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center has determined that cold-sensitive mangrove forests have advanced northward along Florida's Atlantic Coast to the vicinity of St. Augustine as the frequency of killing frosts between 1984 and 2011 decreased in this region. [University of Maryland Right Now]
Changing climate could cause major reductions in seafloor marine life during 21st century -- An international team of scientists lead by the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre predicts a major decline in seafloor dwelling marine life by 2100, driven by changing climate that would reduce near-surface food supplies. The researchers used a suite of recently developed climate models to predict the changes in food supply in the world's ocean basins, finding that species in the North Atlantic could decline by up to 38 percent and by over five per cent globally throughout this coming century. These changes will be driven by a reduction in the plants and animals that live at the surface of the oceans that feed deep-sea communities. As a result, ecosystem services such as fishing will be threatened. [National Oceanography Centre]

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]

COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY

Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Report from the Field --Dr. Steve LaDochy, an AMS DataStreme LIT Leader and meteorology professor from Cal State University, Los Angeles, wrote about the record dry weather that has been occurring across the state of California. He forwarded an updated current precipitation conditions report prepared at the end of last week that showed 2013 was the driest year on record for most of the western slopes of the Sierras. Fresno, Modesto and Merced had their driest year, along with San Francisco and downtown Oakland. However, some stations on the eastern slopes of the Sierras had some precipitation and did not set lowest annual precipitation records.

Historical Events:

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)
9 January 1875...The temperature at Cheyenne, WY dipped to an all-time record low reading of 38 degrees below zero. (The Weather Channel)
9 January 1899...The temperature at Norway House, Manitoba: 1899 plummeted to 63 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), marking the coldest day ever recorded in Manitoba. (The Weather Doctor)
9 January 1954...The temperature reading taken during the British North Greenland Expedition at near Northice, Greenland was 87 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Greenland. (The Weather Doctor)
9 January 1992...An unbelievable 14 consecutive days of cloudy skies finally ended at Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. Every single weather observation during this time period showed overcast conditions -- 350 consecutive hours of cloudy skies! There was not even a "mostly cloudy" -- all observations were completely cloudy. During this cloudy period, it was very mild. The average temperature from 26 December to 8 January was 19 degrees above normal. (Intellicast)
10 January 1800...Savannah, GA received a foot and a half of snow, and ten inches blanketed Charleston, SC. It was the heaviest snowfall of record for the immediate Coastal Plain of the southeastern U.S. (David Ludlum)
10 January 1949...Snow was reported at San Diego, CA for the first and only time since 1882. Snow was noted even on some of the beaches in parts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
10 January 1800...Savannah, GA received a foot and a half of snow, and ten inches blanketed Charleston, SC. It was the heaviest snowfall of record for the immediate Coastal Plain of the southeastern U.S. (David Ludlum)
10 January 1949...Snow was reported at San Diego, CA for the first and only time since 1882. Snow was noted even on some of the beaches in parts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
11 January 1911...The temperature at Fort Vermilion, Alberta fell to 78 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), which is Alberta's lowest temperature on record. (Weather Doctor).
11 January 1942...Rhode Island's record low temperature of 23 degrees below zero was set at Kingston. (Intellicast)
11 January 2002...The temperature at the Russian research Vostok Station (elevation 11,444 feet above sea level) reached 10 degrees, the all-time high temperature record for this station that is the site of the world's all-time record low temperature of 129 degrees below zero set on 21 July 1983. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
12 January 1912...The morning low temperature of 47 degrees below zero at Washta, IA established a state record for the Hawkeye State. (The Weather Channel) (This record was tied in February 1996 at Elkader).
12 January 1981...The temperature fell to 35 degrees below zero at Chester, MA, setting an all-time record low temperature for the Bay State. (NCDC)
12 January 1985...A record "snowstorm of the century" struck portions of western and south central Texas. The palm trees of San Antonio were blanketed with up to thirteen and a half inches of snow, more snow than was ever previously received in an entire winter season. Del Rio measured 5.5 inches, which was also their most snow ever in 24 hours as well as for any season. (Weather Channel) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)

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