WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

12-16 January 2015

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2015 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 19 January 2015. 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

Approaching coldest time of the year -- This upcoming week is the third week of January, which for many locations across the nation typically marks the coldest week of the year, as indicated by the daily normal high and low temperatures. Usually, those stations located away from the moderating influences of the oceans reach their lowest temperatures during the third week of January, or a roughly one month after the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere receives the fewest hours of daylight and the smallest amounts of solar radiation. During that month, temperatures continue to fall to their lowest typical values as cooling continues. However, the increased length of daylight and increased sunshine during this month begins to warm the ground and overlying atmosphere as normal daily temperatures begin to rise toward their highest levels in mid to late July.
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2015 Campaign commences -- The series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2015 will begin with a 10-night campaign that runs from 11 January through 20 January. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Orion in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. [GLOBE at Night]
Free admission into the National Parks and Forests-- Next Monday, 19 January 2015, has been designated by the National Park Service as a fee-free day in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. This fee waiver will cover entrance and commercial tour fees in many of the national parks and monuments administered by the Park Service. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Calendar year of 2014 was warm across the nation -- Near the end of last week NOAA's National Climatic Data Center released a preliminary narrative that noted that the calendar year of 2014 was the 34th warmest year across the 48 contiguous states since 1895. A full report will be forthcoming during this week. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
NOTE: A description is provided of the climatological rankings employed by NCDC for their monthly, seasonal and annual maps. [NOAA/NCDC]
Updated El Niño outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their El Niño watch as above-average sea surface temperatures persisted across the equatorial Pacific Ocean in December How they lowered the odds of an El Niño event during the remainder of this upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter (Jan through February) to between 50 and 60 percent. The forecasters envisioned that ENSO-neutral conditions would be favored during the following three months (March-May 2015), which constitutes Northern Hemisphere spring. An ENSO-neutral (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) event means that neither an El Niño or La Niña event would occur. A description of the forecasters' reasoning for the slightly reduced probability levels is provided. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] A blog entitled "January ENSO update: The little engine that couldn't quite" written by scientists from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center provide background information as to why the potential El Niño event is having a difficult time developing. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Extreme weather/climate events in US during 2014 -- Last week NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reported that eight weather and climate disaster events occurred during 2014 that each produced at least $1 billion in losses. These events included five severe thunderstorm/tornado outbreaks across the Plains, the Midwest and Southeast; one major flood event in Michigan and the Northeast; a winter storm event across the Midwest and Atlantic Seaboard and the major drought across California. Furthermore, these eight events appear to have caused 53 deaths across the nation. Note that the eight "billion-dollar" events in 2014 were less than the 11 weather and climate extreme events that occurred during 2012 and claimed 349 lives. Further updates to this tentative list for 2014 will be made in the next several months. [NOAA NCDC News]

CLIMATE MONITORING

New climate data record for vegetation has been released -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) recently released "the Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) Climate Data Record" that was developed by colleagues at University of Maryland. The daily vegetation data in this high-resolution record have been obtained from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Global Area Coverage data collected by the instruments onboard the NOAA POES series of polar-orbiting environmental satellites extending back to 1981. The compiled data can be used by climate modelers, meteorologists and agriculturists. [NOAA National Climatic Data Center News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Genetics indicates polar bears shifting to areas with more sea ice -- Researchers with the US Geological Survey and their colleagues from the US, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia report that their genetic studies of four clusters of polar bears in the Arctic basin indicate recent generations of polar bears moving toward those areas that contain more persistent year-round sea ice. This movement could affect the genetic diversity and the populations of polar bears around the Arctic basin. [USGS Newsroom]

CLIMATE FORCING

Fossils on tropical island reveal changes in polar ice -- Researchers from the University of Florida and other research institutions have found evidence from fossil corals on the Seychelles, a tropical island group in the Indian Ocean, indicating global mean sea level being 20 to 30 feet higher approximately 125,000 years ago than at present. The average global temperatures during the last interglacial period was slightly above current levels. The researchers concluded that a rapid retreat of an unstable part of the Antarctic ice sheet may have been a major contributor to sea-level rise during these earlier times. They also warn that a partial collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet in the future could result in an increase in sea level. [University of Florida News]
Thunderstorms bring stratospheric ozone down to Earth's surface -- Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and their colleagues have documented the role that large thunderstorm cells play in transporting significant quantities of ozone from the stratosphere down to the lower troposphere. These findings. The scientists feel that their findings, which were from the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry Experiment (DC3) conducted on the Great Plains in 2012, could have implications for climate change and air quality, as ozone is considered to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant that can affect human health. Climate models that involve ozone transport will have to be re-evaluated. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Improvements to be made on wind forecasting -- The US Department of Energy recently announced that it is providing $2.5 million to improve wind forecasting efforts by NOAA's numerical weather prediction models. These intended improvements are for short-term wind forecasts in complex terrain especially for the wind energy industry. Previous work by Department of Energy and NOAA scientists showed that new wind measurements and simulations have substantially improved these forecasts. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
New toolkit helps make coastal communities more resilient -- During the last week NOAA's National Sea Grant program unveiled the "National Sea Grant Resilience Toolkit," which represents an online portal to the various tools and resources that have been developed by the Sea Grant Network. This compilation of over 100 tools is designed to assist coastal communities across the nation become more resilient to a variety of natural hazards, water quality challenges, severe weather, and the effects of climate change. [NOAA Sea Grant News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

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)
13 January 1862...The "Noachian flood of California" created a vast sea in the Sacramento Valley. San Francisco had a January rainfall total of 24.36 inches. (Intellicast)
13 January 1871...The mercury plunged to 41 degrees Fahrenheit at Key West, FL, the lowest reading ever at this farthest south location in the contiguous US. The mark was tied on 12 January 1993. (The Weather Doctor)
13 January 1888...The mercury plunged to 65 degrees below zero at Fort Keogh, located near Miles City, MT. The reading stood as the all-time lowest temperature record for the continental U.S. for sixty-six years. (David Ludlum)
13 January.1912...The temperature at Oakland, MD plunged to 40 degrees below zero to establish a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
14 January 1863...The greatest snowstorm of record for Cincinnati, OH commenced, and a day later twenty inches of snow covered the ground. That total has remained far above the modern day record for Cincinnati of eleven inches of snow in one storm. (David Ludlum)
14 January 1863...The greatest snowstorm of record for Cincinnati, OH commenced, and a day later twenty inches of snow covered the ground. That total has remained far above the modern day record for Cincinnati of eleven inches of snow in one storm. (David Ludlum)
14 January 1972...A 24-hour temperature for the United States occurred at Loma, MT when the temperature rose from 54 degrees below zero at 9 AM on the 14th to 49 degrees on the 15th, which represented a 103-Fahrenheit degree temperature change in 24-hours. This record was not acknowledged until 2002, when it was recognized due to recommendation of the National Climate Extremes Committee. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
14 January 1979...Chicago, IL was in the midst of their second heaviest snow of record as, in thirty hours, the city was buried under 20.7 inches of snow. The twenty-nine inch snow cover following the storm was an all-time record for Chicago. (David Ludlum)
15 January 1952...A six-day snowstorm was in progress in the western U.S. The storm produced 44 inches of snow at Marlette Lake, NV, 52 inches at Sun Valley, ID and 149 inches at Tahoe CA, establishing single storm records for each of those three states. In addition, 24-hour snowfall totals of 22 inches at the University of Nevada and 26 inches at Arco, ID established records for those two states. The streamliner, City of San Francisco was snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Range, near Donner Summit. (David Ludlum)
15 January 1988...A small storm over the Atlantic Ocean produced heavy snow along the coast of North Carolina. The five inch total at Wilmington, NC was their third highest for any storm in January in 117 years of records. (National Weather Summary)
16 January 1881...The temperature at Markree Castle (County Sligo) fell to 2 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), Ireland's lowest temperature of record. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
16 January 1889...The temperature at Cloncurry, Queensland reached 128 degrees F, the highest ever reported in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
16 January 1881...The temperature at Markree Castle (County Sligo) fell to 2 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), Ireland's lowest temperature of record. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
16 January 1889...The temperature at Cloncurry, Queensland reached 128 degrees F, the highest ever reported in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
17 January 1893...The mercury dipped to 17 degrees below zero at Millsboro, DE to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
17 January 1972...A single storm unloaded 77.5 inches of snow at Summit, MT to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
17 January 1988...A Pacific storm battered the southern coast of California. Los Angeles reported an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 29.25 inches. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
18 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Oregon was set at Seneca when the thermometer dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1943...The record low temperature for the state of Oklahoma was set at Watts when the mercury dipped to 27 degrees below zero. The record low temperature for the state of Idaho was set at Island Park Dam when the temperature fell to 60 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1957...The record low temperature for the state of Massachusetts was set at Birch Hill Dam when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero. This record was tied in January 1981. (Intellicast)
18 January 1977...The record low temperature for the state of South Carolina was set near Long Creek when the mercury plunged to 20 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-27 January 1980...Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced of rainfall over the 10-day period at Commerson, La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor)

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