WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

11-15 January 2016

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

Welcome climate science educators to the annual AMS meeting -- The 96th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is being held this week (10 - 14 January) in New Orleans, LA. The theme for this year's AMS meeting is "Earth System Science in Service to Society." One of the numerous symposia and conferences that will be conducted at the meeting is the 25th Symposium on Education, where educators from kindergarten through university levels will be attending workshops or giving presentations on weather, ocean, climate and space science education issues.
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.
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the "father of satellite meteorology" -- NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) recently posted an article that celebrates 2015 as the centennial of the birth of the late Professor Verner Suomi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is often called the "father of satellite meteorology." Beginning in the late 1950s, he helped develop the various instruments placed on polar orbiting and geosynchronous satellite platforms to measure the reflected solar radiation and the emitted long-wave or infrared radiation from the Earth-Atmosphere system. As Director of the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University, he was instrumental in developing a computer system called McIDAS (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System) that permits analysis of data collected from satellites, radar and the traditional surface and upper air weather observation networks. [NOAA NESDIS News Archive]
Free admission into the National Parks and Forests-- Next Monday, 18 January 2016, 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 2015 was exceptionally warm across the nation -- Near the end of last week NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly the National Climatic Data Center) released a preliminary narrative that noted that the calendar year of 2015 was the second warmest calendar year across the 48 contiguous states since 1895. The annual temperature for 2015 across the "lower 48 states" was 54.4 degrees Fahrenheit, (or 2.4 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average), which fell below the record nationwide average temperature of 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit. A full report will be forthcoming during this week. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]

NOAA/NCDC

Extreme weather/climate events in US during 2015 -- Last week NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported that according to preliminary data, ten weather and climate disaster events occurred during 2015 that each produced at least $1 billion in losses. These events included a drought event, two flooding events, five convective (thunderstorm) events, a wildfire event and a winter storm event. Furthermore, these ten events appear to have caused 155 deaths across the nation. Note that the ten "billion-dollar" events in 2015 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 2015 will be made in the next several months. [NOAA NCEI News]
Nation's 2015 wildfire season was a record -- According to a report issued this past week by the National Interagency Coordination Center, 68,151 wildfires during the calendar year 2015 burned 10,125,149 acres across the entire United States (including Alaska). The number of acres burned across the nation represents a record, with over half the acreage was in Alaska. Continuing drought conditions, together with unusually high temperatures across the Western States contributed to the length and severity of the 2015 fire season. The US Forest Service has warned that wildfires could continue to grow longer and become more devastating due to changing climate. [National Interagency Fire Center]
A year of storms in review through the "eyes" of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission spacecraft -- Goddard Media Studios at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has assembled a 2-minute video that takes a look at the animated images made of 41 storms from around the world by the sensors onboard the agency's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) spacecraft during 2015. [NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center]
Record winter flooding along the Mississippi River -- Between six and ten inches of rain fell across Missouri and Illinois over the Christmas weekend, which resulted in rises in the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries to near record levels, followed by widespread flooding from the St. Louis (MO) metropolitan area southward to Cape Girardeau, MO and the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers by early January. Comparison of a false-color image of the mid-Mississippi Valley made from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite last weekend with a corresponding image made from the same sensor one year ago reveals the magnitude of the flooding along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Specialized remote-sensing cameras mounted on NOAA's King Air aircraft and a National Geodetic Survey aircraft have been taking aerial photographs of the flooding along the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers following the recent historic flooding. These photographs, which are available online, are part of the damage assessment being made by the National Ocean Service's National Geodetic Survey. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]

CLIMATE MONITORING

Review of Canada's top ten weather stories in 2015 -- During the last week, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society released a list of what it considered the top ten weather events across Canada during the calendar year of 2015. The top story was the long cold and snowy 2014-15 winter across eastern Canada, with the month of February being referred to as "Friguary" as Toronto experienced its coldest month since weather records began in this city in 1840. Additional stories focused upon wildfires and dry conditions along with a hot summer across western provinces. [Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society]

CLIMATE FORCING

Airborne laboratory to study uptake of carbon by the Southern Ocean -- A field campaign called the O₂/N₂ Ratio and CO₂ Airborne Southern Ocean (ORCAS) Study that is being led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) will be launched late this week. A series of research flights using the NSF/NCAR HIAPER research aircraft will be made over remote sections of the Southern Ocean collecting data that will be used to determine the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchanged between the atmosphere and ocean in the region around Antarctic, with an anticipated increased knowledge of how much carbon dioxide is being sequestered in this oceanic reservoir. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]
Humans may be adding less nitrogen to oceans than predicted -- A team of scientists from the United States, South Africa and Bermuda recently reported that human activity appears to be adding far less nitrogen compounds to the open oceans than many of the current atmospheric models are predicting. Additional nitrogen added to the oceans could stimulate the ocean's ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which means that the underestimated nitrogen would affect estimates of the carbon cycle. [Brown University News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

An El Niño forecast from Down Under -- Forecasters with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology recent reported that several ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) indicators suggest that the current El Niño event in the equatorial Pacific Ocean appears to have peaked and should be on a decline in coming months. Their models project that this El Niño would evolve into a ""ENSO-neutral state" by the second quarter of the year (April-June). [Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

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)
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 record 24-hour temperature rise 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, due to a powerful chinook. This record 103-Fahrenheit degree temperature change in 24-hours 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)

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