WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

14-18 December 2015

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2016 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 18 January 2016. 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

Student scholarships announced -- The NOAA Office of Education recently announced that scholarships are available to undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, along with several of the other scientific and technical disciplines that support NOAA's mission and programs. [NOAA Office of Education] These scholarships include:

Educational Partnership Program (EPP) Undergraduate Scholarship: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_undergrad_page.html. This program provides an opportunity for rising junior students to study disciplines relating to the NOAA's mission. Students attending Minority Serving Institutions are encouraged to apply. The application deadline for the 2016 EPP Undergraduate Scholarship Program is 29 January 2016.
Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program: http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/scholarships/hollings.html. This program is designed to: (1). increase undergraduate training in oceanic and atmospheric science, research, technology, and education and foster multidisciplinary training opportunities; (2) increase public understanding and support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere and improve environmental literacy; (3.) recruit and prepare students for public service careers with NOAA and other natural resource and science agencies at the federal, state and local levels of government; and (4.) recruit and prepare students for careers as teachers and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science and to improve scientific and environmental education in the United States. The application deadline for the 2016 Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program is 29 January 2016.

Historic Paris climate change agreement reached -- This last Saturday at the end of the 2015 Climate Conference (COP21), nearly 200 nations signed on to a 31-page global climate agreement. View a 4-minute final News of the Day video. [Green TV]
An artistic tribute to climate science was apparent in Paris during the last two weeks, which played host to the (COP21) Conference. The tribute was in the form of 42 panels throughout Paris's Gare du Nord railway station honoring Dr. Syukuro Manabe, a scientist at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab at Princeton University who was a pioneer of climate modeling and climate science. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Next Geostationary Operational Environmental Series satellite to be launched in October 2016 -- During the last week, the date for launching the nation's next Geostationary Operational Environmental Series (GOES) satellite, identified as GOES-R, has been tentatively set for October 2016, following extensive review by engineers and scientists at NOAA, NASA and Lockheed Martin. Two new animations ("I'm GOES-R" and "Getting GOES-R to orbit"), each of 2-minute length, have been prepared that describe this new GOES-R satellite and are recommended to K-12 educators for use in their classrooms by Ron Gird, the NOAA-National Weather Service's Outreach Program Specialist. [NOAA NESDIS News Archive]
National Park Service and US Climate Reference Network program undertake long-term collaboration -- The National Park Service (NPS), which will be celebrating its centennial in 2016, and NOAA's US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) program, are collaborating in a long-term partnership designed to run through mid-century that involves the 25 USCRN stations in NPS units around the nation in an effort to continuously monitor the climate in pristine locations through at least 2050 in order to determine long-term climate trends. During the NPS centennial, reports are to be issued describing the environments and other information in the various national parks where these USCRN stations have been placed. [NOAA NCEI News]

CLIMATE FORCING

New tool used to determine mercury sources in Great Lakes -- A new tool was developed by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison that can be used by land and resource managers around North America's Great Lakes to distinguish between the various sources of the mercury a toxic chemical that is found in the ecosystem of the Lake basin. Atmospheric mercury has been found to be the dominant source of mercury in Lakes Superior and Huron, while the main mercury sources in Lakes Erie and Ontario appears to come from industry and runoff from watersheds. Lake Michigan has multiple mercury sources, depending upon location. [USGS Newsroom]
Longer days can affect global sea level changes -- A physics professor at the University of Alberta claims that changes in the dynamics of the flow in the Earth's core changes the speed of Earth's rotation that not only changes the length of the day, but also contributes to changes in global sea level. Over the past 3000 years, the flow in the Earth's core has increased, leading to a lengthening of the day along with changes in sea level. [University of Alberta Science News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Explaining ocean acidification and its role as "the evil twin of global warming" -- A biologist and oceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory explains ocean acidification and its effects on marine life in a 3-minute video entitled "What is Ocean Acidification." In another 4-minute video "Ancient Shells Hold Clues to Life in a Warmer World" she discusses how scientists use ancient shells collected from the sea floor to track changes in ocean chemistry has changed over millions of years and this chemistry could change in the future. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory News]
Highlighting the role of satellites in monitoring harmful algal blooms -- NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) highlighted the use of sensors on the agency's polar orbiting environmental satellites (POES) to track harmful algal bloom (HAB) in the waters of the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico since 1987. The data obtained from these sensors have been used by NOAA's CoastWatch program and NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) for its Harmful Algal Bloom Operational Forecast System. [NOAA NESDIS News Archive]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & El Niño advisory outlook updates released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) that showed a strong El Niño event continued as sea surface temperatures (SST) were above average across the central and eastern tropical Pacific during November 2015. SST values ranged from between two to three Celsius degrees above normal from the central into the eastern equatorial Pacific. Consequently, the CPC forecasters released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which their El Niño advisory was continued. They envision the current El Niño event to remain strong through this Northern Hemisphere winter (December 2015 through February 2016), followed by a transition to an anticipated ENSO-neutral condition during the late boreal spring or early summer of 2016. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
An ENSO blog written by CPC staff compares this current El Niño event with the one in 1997-1998 that has been considered to be one of the strongest since 1950. While SST values in one of the regions of the Pacific along the Equator (Niño 3.4) for November 2015 were nearly the same as during the record November 1997, the staff noted subtle differences in the response of the winds and the upper ocean heat content between these two events, which would suggest that the 2015 event has not been quite as strong as in 1997. The blog has accompanying graphics showing their comparisons of SST, near-surface winds and upper ocean heat content across the Pacific basin for the current event and the one in 1997-1998. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Initial outlook for 2016 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 should determine next year's Atlantic basin hurricane activity. The main uncertainty they feel that surrounds their forecast for the 2016 Atlantic basin hurricane season involves how fast the current strong El Niño event would weaken. Furthermore, the current phase of one of their assessment tools, the Atlantic Decadal Oscillation (AMO), has a high level of uncertainty. They are using two primary physical parameters in their outlooks: (1.) the strength of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation or the AMO and (2.) the phase of ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation). The team plans on issuing their first quantitative forecast in mid-April 2016. Details of their initial qualitative assessment appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report]
Long-range sea ice prediction model developed -- Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have developed a method for prediction of Arctic sea ice changes in years in advance, based upon how the ice that forms in winter would grow, shrink or remain close to a steady state. They have linked ocean circulation and sea ice, incorporating variations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) into their model. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]
Increases in precipitation are overestimated by global climate models -- Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Los Angeles have found that 25 global climate models are likely to overestimate the increase in precipitation expected during the rest of this century due to additional climate change. Much of this disparity appears to be due to an underestimation of the increased absorption of solar radiation caused by increased atmospheric water vapor accompanying continued higher global air temperatures. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Bilateral meetings between NOAA and Environment Canada involve discussions on weather, water and climate changes -- The Director of NOAA's National Weather Service, Dr. Louis Uccellini, and his counterpart, Assistant Deputy Minister and head of Environment Canada's (EC) Meteorological Service, David Grimes, conducted "face-to-face" bilateral meetings this past fall designed to strengthen the collaborative efforts that the United States and Canada are taking on weather, water, climate prediction and research. Topics of mutual concern involve forecast issues across their national borders, shared forecasting challenges related to high-impact weather and seasonal to sub-seasonal prediction and efforts by NOAA and EC in the Arctic. Integrated water prediction over the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River Basin was also discussed. [NOAA Weather-Ready Nation News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

14 December 1924...The temperature at Helena, MT plunged 79 degrees in 24 hours, and 88 degrees in 34 hours. The mercury plummeted from 63 degrees above to 25 degrees below zero. At Fairfield, MT, the temperature plunged 84 degrees in just 12 hours, from 63 degrees at noon to 21 degrees below zero at midnight. (David Ludlum)
14 December 1987...A powerful storm spread heavy snow from the Southern High Plains to the Middle Mississippi Valley, and produced severe thunderstorms in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Kansas City, MO was blanketed with 10.8 inches of snow, a 24-hour record for December. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
15 December 1582...The Spanish Netherlands, Denmark and Norway adopted the Gregorian calendar.
15 December 1945...A record December snowstorm buried Buffalo, NY under 36.6 inches of snow, with unofficial totals south of the city ranging up to 70 inches. Travel was brought to a halt by the storm. (14^th-17^th) (The Weather Channel)
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)

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