WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK THREE: 15-19 September 2014

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Monitoring degree-day units -- If you would like to monitor how this upcoming winter will affect the amount of energy that you will need for heating your home, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth. You will see how heating degree-day units are computed, as well as the corresponding cooling-degree day units. This supplemental also provides links to tabulations of the cumulative heating and cooling degree-day units that are available on a monthly basis for selected cities across the country.
Fall coloration -- By mid-September, deciduous trees begin to turn color across the nation, starting first across the higher elevations of New England and the Rocky Mountains, followed quickly across sections of the upper Midwest. During autumn, the peak in fall color progresses southward and toward lower elevations. Some locales hold events in an effort to welcome tourists who come as "leaf peepers." The Department of Agriculture's U.S. Forest Service maintains a Fall Colors 2014 Web page containing fall foliage status updates for National Forests across the continental United States. Additional information is also available through the tourism bureaus of the various states; links to some of these state sites are available from this Forest Service web page.
[Editor's Note: An interesting explanation of fall coloration can be found in The Chemistry of Autumn Colors from "Science is Fun in the Lab of Shakhashiri" from a popular chemistry educator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. EJH]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

US national weather and climate reviewed for August and Summer 2014 -- Based upon preliminary data, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center report that August 2014 was the 68th warmest August across the coterminous United States since sufficiently reliable climate records began in 1895, with a nationwide average of 72.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Virginia had its tenth coldest August on record, while thirteen additional stares across the Middle Atlantic and the Great Basin had below average statewide temperatures. On opposite ends of the nation, Florida had its sixth warmest August while Washington had its seventh warmest August on record. Four states other states (California, Oregon, Kansas and Maine) reported above average statewide August temperatures.
The recently concluded meteorological summer of 2014 (June, July and August) was the 64th coolest summer since 1895, with a three-month average temperature of 71.7 degrees, which was 0.3 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average. Twenty two states across the Plains, the Mississippi Valley and the Middle Atlantic Coast reported below average temperatures. On the other hand, many of the states in the western third of the nation, along with Florida and New England reported above to much above average summer statewide temperatures. California, Oregon and Washington along the Pacific Coast and Florida in the Southeast had summers that ranked within the top ten hottest since 1895.
The nationwide August 2014 average precipitation was approximately 0.48 inches above the 20th century (1901-2000) average with a nationwide average of 3.10 inches, while the nationwide summer precipitation was 1.07 inches above average, making it the ninth wettest summer since 1895. This past summer was also the wettest since 2004. Twenty three states across the West and Midwest reported above to much above average statewide August precipitation. Montana experienced its wettest August on record, while the Dakotas, Nebraska, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada had statewide precipitation averages that ranked within the ten wettest on record. Conversely, states across the Southeast had below to much below average August precipitation. Florida had its eleventh driest August since 1895. More than half of the states in the "Lower 48" experienced a relatively wet summer as statewide average precipitation totals were above to much above average. In the nation's midsection, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Nebraska had precipitation totals that were among the ten highest on record. Mine also joined this list from New England. Four states across the Southeast experienced below average June through August statewide precipitation totals, with Georgia having its tenth driest summer on record. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
Summer 100-degree temperatures across the nation -- The National Climatic Data Center has produced plotted maps of the locations of stations where 100 degrees or higher temperatures have occurred across the continuous United States for the last four summers. These plots indicate that the summer of 2014 had the fewest number of summer 100-degree days since 2011. [NOAA/NCDC National Overview]
August national drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its August 2013 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately nine percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of August, while 15 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
Stratospheric ozone layer appears to be recovering -- A new scientific report was released last week by the United Nations stating that according to recent assessments of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, this protective layer may be showing signs of recovery from the low levels of ozone in the 1980s that resulted in the international agreement to reduce emissions of ozone-depleting substances through the 1987 Montreal Protocol. An international team of researchers, including those from NOAA and NASA performed the analysis of the stratospheric ozone layer, finding that the concentrations of most ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere since the last assessment in 2010. [ NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News] A plot of the minimum concentration of ozone in the Southern Hemisphere for each year from 1979 through 2013 is available. [NASA Global Climate Change News]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Wind-watching satellite readied for launch -- Engineers and scientists from NASA are readying a cargo mission that is scheduled to be carried to the International Space Station this coming Saturday on a rocket that is to be launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The fourth SpaceX cargo mission to the Space Station will carry the ISS-RapidScat scatterometer instrument that will be used to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction and help improve weather forecasts. The instrument was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A schedule of NASA-TV broadcasts covering the launch of this mission is available. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory] Background information is available on the ISS-RapidScat instrument. [NASA Global Climate Change News]
Federal grant awarded for study of Southern Ocean's role in climate and ocean health -- The National Science Foundation along with support from NOAA and NASA is providing a $21 million federal grant designed to fund a six-year study designed to create an improved understanding of the importance of the Southern Ocean to the planetary climate and to ocean health. This federal grant will be used to fund the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling program, or SOCCOM, that is designed to create a physical and biogeochemical portrayal of the Southern Ocean using robotic floats deployed around Antarctica. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
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

Spring weather and climate may play major role in Lake Erie algae blooms -- Scientists from NOAA's National Ocean Service claim that the runoff from rain in spring of 2014 appears to be linked to the explosion of algae blooms on western Lake Erie in early August that curtailed water use across northeastern Ohio. The blooms are the result of excess fertilizer, especially phosphorus, that washes from agricultural land and then into the streams and rivers that flow into Lake Erie. The wet spring of 2014 caused an increase in runoff with resultant large algae blooms. Comparisons were made with the dry spring of 2005 and a wet spring of 2011. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Florida coral reefs affected by increased ocean temperatures -- A new study conducted by the US Geological Survey entitled "A century of ocean warming on Florida Keys coral reefs: Historic in-situ observations" reports that increased ocean water temperature near the Florida Keys over the last several decades are stressing corals and increasing the number of bleaching events that could ultimately result in the deaths of the coral. [USGS Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Concept of the Week: Developing a Quality Long-term Instrumental Climate Record

Systematic temperature and precipitation observations have been made at various locations across the nation for nearly two centuries. While only a handful of stations were available in the early 19th century, weather and climate observations currently are made from several hundred automatic weather sites operated by the National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration as well as approximately 8000 stations in the Cooperative Observers Network administered by the National Weather Service. The weather data from these networks are also used to quantitatively assess changes of climate during the instrumental period of the past as well into the future. However, a variety of factors can affect the homogeneity of the record. For example, the locations of many of the stations have moved, from original downtown building roofs to current locations at airports. And the physical surroundings of the stations have changed, many becoming more urbanized.

In the late 1980s, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in conjunction with the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory created the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) of 1218 stations across the 48 coterminous states having long-term records of both daily temperature and precipitation. This network was designed to provide an essential baseline data set for monitoring the nation's climate commencing in the late 19th century. These stations were created from a subset of the Cooperative Observers Network, chosen based upon long-term data quality that included length of record, percent of missing data, spatial distribution and number of station changes. Many of the selected USHCN stations were rural in an attempt to reduce the influence of urbanization. Using statistical analyses, data for these stations have been adjusted to account for movement of stations, or when a different thermometer type was installed. An urban warming correction was applied based upon population of the surrounding area.

More recently, NOAA began the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN), a project designed to collect and analyze climate data of the highest possible quality for the next 50 to 100 years. Each USCRN station would have electronic sensors that would make routine measurements of air temperature, precipitation, IR ground surface temperature, solar radiation and wind speed with a frequency of every five minutes and transmit these data to both NCDC and to National Weather Service offices via orbiting satellites on nearly a real-time basis. In addition to these measurements, additional sensors could be added to the USCRN stations that would measure soil temperature and soil moisture. Conscientious and detailed site selection was made for all stations so that they would not only be spatially representative, but that they would be in locations where the surrounding physical conditions would have a high likelihood of remaining the same over the next 50 to 100 years. Many of the sites were placed on federal or state owned lands, helping minimize the contamination of the climate record by urbanization or other changes in local ground cover.

These long-term, comparative, spatially representative values are vital to detect and verify the subtle changes in climatic conditions before they become overwhelmingly obvious.

Concept of the Week: Questions

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

The majority of United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) stations were in [(rural), (urban)] settings.
The instruments in the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) sample the atmosphere as frequently as [(5 minutes),(1 day),(1 month)].

Historical Events

16 September 1881...Iowa's earliest measurable snow of record fell over western sections of the state. Four to six inches was reported between Stuart and Avoca. (The Weather Channel)
16 September 1964...The temperature at Concord, NH dropped to 27 degrees ending the shortest growing season on record (100 days). (Intellicast)
16 September 1988...Hurricane Gilbert made landfall 120 miles south of Brownsville, TX in Mexico during the early evening. During its life span, Gilbert established an all-time record for the Western Hemisphere with a sea-level barometric pressure reading of 26.13 inches. Winds approached 200 mph, with higher gusts. Gilbert devastated Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (The Weather Channel)
16 September 2004, Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham, AL set two all-time records for the city as Hurricane Jeanne crossed the city: Lowest sea level pressure on record, 986.8 millibars (29.14 inches of mercury), and the greatest 24-hour rainfall event on record, 9.75 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
17 September 1829...The Siebold Typhoon, Japan's most catastrophic typhoon, inflicted widespread damage over much of Japan. On the southern island of Kyushu, the storm surge off the Ariake Sea kills 10,000. (The Weather Doctor)
17 September 1932...Westerly, RI received 12.13 inches of rain, which set a 24-hour precipitation record for the state. (NCDC)
17 September 1963...Nearly 2.5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, the most intense rain for Yuma, AZ during the period between 1909 and 1977. (The Weather Doctor)
18 September 1991...2.4 inches of snow fell at Duluth, MN to set a new record for September. (Intellicast)
19 September 2004...The single-day rainfall record at Vancouver (British Columbia) International Airport was set 3.59 inches. The accumulation came in a month when rainfall is exceptional across the region. By mid-month, dozens of stations in British Columbia broke all-time September rainfall totals. (The Weather Doctor)
20-23 September 1942...A rainstorm deluged the Maritime Provinces. Four-day totals included 13.99 inches at Stellarton, Nova Scotia and 10.83 inches at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Halifax, Nova Scotia recorded 9.40 inches of rain on the 21 September climatological day. (The Weather Doctor)
20 September 1967...Hurricane Beulah moved into South Texas, spawning a record 115 tornadoes for a hurricane. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
20 September 1973...Britain's greatest September daily rainfall floods Kent with 7.51 inches of rain. (The Weather Doctor)

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