WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK ONE: 29 August - 2 September 2016

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2016 Campaign is underway -- The ninth in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2016 will continue through Friday, 2 September. 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 (Cygnus in the Northern Hemisphere and Sagittarius in the Southern Hemisphere) 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. The next series in the 2016 campaign is scheduled for 22 September - 1 October 2016. [GLOBE at Night]
World Water Week in Stockholm is underway -- The 26th annual "World Water Week in Stockholm" is being held from Sunday 28 August through Friday 2 September in Stockholm, Sweden. This week-long global water conference, which is arranged by the Stockholm International Water Institute, addresses a wide range of the world's water, development and sustainability issues and related concerns of international development. This year's World Water Week Theme is "Water for Sustainable Growth." [World Water Week in Stockholm]
A change in seasons -- This Wednesday, 31 August 2016, marks the end of Northern Hemisphere's meteorological summer, the three-month span of June, July and August that meteorologists frequently use for record keeping processes. Meteorological autumn (September, October and November) for the Northern Hemisphere starts the following day, 1 September 2016.
Additional information will be presented in the next several weeks concerning meteorological seasons and the astronomical seasons, such as the familiar autumn season that begins on the autumnal equinox in three weeks on Thursday, 22 September 2016.
High-quality maps of September temperature and precipitation normals across US available -- The PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University's website has prepared high-resolution maps depicting the normal maximum, minimum and precipitation totals for September and other months across the 48 coterminous United States for the current 1981-2010 climate normals interval. These maps, with a 800-meter resolution, were produced using the PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) climate mapping system.
September weather calendar for a city near you -- The Midwestern Regional Climate Center maintains an interactive website that permits the public to produce a ready to print weather calendar for any given month of the year, such as September, at any of approximately 270 weather stations around the nation. (These stations are NOAA's ThreadEx stations.) The entries for each day of the month includes: Normal maximum temperature, normal minimum temperature, normal daily heating and cooling degree days, normal daily precipitation, record maximum temperature, record minimum temperature, and record daily precipitation; the current normals for 1981-2010.
Accessing and interpreting climate data -- If you would like to obtain a variety of climate data for your home town or state that are available from the National Weather Service, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth. This Supplemental not only identifies some of the sites to find the data, but also provides you with a brief explanation of the terminology used to identify the climate data.
September is National Preparedness Month -- The upcoming month of September has been declared National Preparedness Month (NPM), which is aims to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all types of emergencies, including natural disasters. NPM is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which has provided a toolkit of marketing materials to help promote the month, is the lead on this campaign that was originally launched in 2004. The theme for 2016 NPM is "Don't Wait. Communicate. Make Your Emergency Plan Today," with an emphasis on preparedness for youth, older adults, and people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs. During this week (28 August-12 September) the theme is "Kickoff to National Preparedness Month."
[FEMA's Ready.gov]
NOAA's National Weather Service is working with FEMA to communicate the importance of emergency preparedness as a key component of its Weather-Ready Nation campaign. [NOAA Weather Ready Nation]
Viewing of Earth from space commenced 70 years ago -- A 1:47 minute video shows a progression of images of planet Earth made from space beginning with the first image of a portion of the Earth along with clouds made at an altitude of 65 miles from a 35-millimeter motion picture camera mounted on a captured V-2 rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range in October 1946. [Forbes.com]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Nation's climate normals now being defined in new ways -- In response to concerns voiced by various user groups about the usefulness of the traditional 30-year climate normals (from 1918-2010) in light of current changing climate conditions, NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are now computing "supplementary monthly temperature normals." These new normals, which are available as pdf-files for several thousand stations around the 48 contiguous United States, are computed for monthly maximum and minimum temperatures based upon averages over 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-year intervals, along with two additional sets of statistics (the Optimal Climate Normal and the Hinged Fit normals).[NOAA NCEI News]
Hurricanes around the globe can be tracked back for at least 150 years --As the typical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season approaches, the public as well as emergency management officials in possible hurricane strike areas are encouraged to consult NOAA's "Historical Hurricane Tracks," a free online tool to study patterns of where hurricanes may strike along coastal sections of the nation. This Hurricane Tracker contains data for more than 6000 tropical cyclones in all ocean basins around the globe for the past 150 years. The archived positions, sustained winds and minimum central pressure data for each storm are then displayed on geographic information system (GIS) software called ArcGIS Server. [NOAA National Ocean Service News] or [NOAA Climate.gov Maps]
New study focuses on anthropogenic methane emissions across US -- The National Academies (which includes the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) recently began a new study to improve tracking of human-caused methane emissions in the US as part of the NOAA Climate Program Office's "Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, & Climate (AC4)" program. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Reasons provided for September peak in Atlantic hurricane season -- A NOAA News feature explains why the frequency of hurricanes in the North Atlantic basin tends to peak during the early part of September. Atmospheric dynamics (especially involving wind shear or the change in wind speed and/or direction with height) and thermodynamics (ocean temperature and atmospheric humidity) play key roles in the explanation. [NOAA News]
Describing the Pacific Decadal Oscillation -- A blog was written by a contractor for NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) that describes in relatively easy to understand terms the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and how this rhythmic change in sea surface temperature (SST) pattern across the North Pacific Ocean can affect the weather and climate variations over a large section of the Northern Hemisphere surrounding the Pacific basin. A PDO index is defined and the long-term index values commencing at the start of the 20th century displayed. Comparisons are made between precipitation anomalies across the 48 contiguous United States during the cold season (November through March) taken between 1901 and 2014 in terms of PDO events and during El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Airborne science mission is underway to study climate effects of smoke on clouds over Africa -- NASA scientists and two of the agency's research aircraft recently were dispatched to Walvis Bay, Namibia to participate in ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS), a five year investigation designed to study key processes that determine the climate impacts of aerosols produced by biomass burning in southwest Africa. The Namibian coast of southwest Africa is considered to be a unique natural laboratory with both persistent low-level marine layer clouds and a steady supply of tiny airborne smoke particles from inland fires that mix with the clouds. [NASA Press Release]
Solar activity appear to have direct impact on Earth's cloud cover -- A team of scientists from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Space) and the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently reported that their analysis of more than 25 years of satellite observational data indicates a link between large solar eruptions to changes in amount of cloud cover surrounding planet Earth. Apparently, large solar eruptions can temporarily shield Earth's atmosphere from cosmic rays that appear to affect cloud formation, resulting in an approximately two percent reduction in cloud cover. These results could be important for the understanding of clouds and climate variability as clouds affect global temperatures. [DTU Space News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Experience, gender and politics influence how public perceives stronger hurricanes -- Researchers at Princeton University, Auburn University-Montgomery, the Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University recently reported on their findings based upon a survey of Gulf Coast residents concerning perceived changes in hurricane intensity. During the last several decades, objective measurements of tropical cyclone intensity based upon wind speeds, storm-surge height and economic damage reveal an increase in the destructiveness of North Atlantic hurricanes. The results of the public survey indicate that the severity of the most recent tropical cyclone that a respondent experienced tended to play the largest role in determining whether this person believed Furthermore, options also differed on gender, political affiliation and belief in climate change. [Princeton University News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Concept of the Week: Touring the DataStreme Earth's Climate System Website

NOTE: This Concept for the Week is a repeat of that which appeared in last week's Weekly Climate News.

Welcome to DataStreme Earth's Climate System (ECS)! The AMS Climate Studies RealTime Climate Portal is an integral component of the DataStreme ECS (Earth's Climate System) course. The website is intended to deliver a wealth of climate information that is both pertinent to the course as well as being a reference site for you as you study Earth's climate system. The webpage is arranged in several sections. On Monday of each week of the course, we will post the current Weekly Climate News that includes Climate in the News (a summary listing of recent events related to climate), Concept of the Week (an in-depth analysis of some topic related to climate in the Earth system), and Historical Events (a list of past events important in the understanding of climatology). When appropriate, Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth will be provided on some topic related to the principal theme of the week.

You will use the RealTime Climate Portal to access and download the "Current Climate Studies" that complement your Climate Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should also be available Monday morning. Click the appropriate links to download and print these electronic components of the investigations as well as your Chapter, Investigations and Current Climate Studies Response forms.

Beyond these course Learning Files, sections include Climate Information, Climate Variability, Climate Change, Societal Interactions and Climate Policy, and Extras. As the titles suggest, there are multiple uses for climate data and their interpretation. Here we explore some examples of the information provided in the various sections of the RealTime Climate Portal.

The Climate Information section includes access to weather data, the raw material of climate synthesis, from the United States and the world under the heading "Observations and Data." Under this heading, click on "U.S. and World Weather Data." This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) page first directs you to "United States Weather" and provides channels to current weather data as well as radar graphics, weather maps, and aviation and marine weather. It then leads you to International Weather Conditions.

The second major subdivision of the RealTime Climate Portal encompasses Climate Variability. Climatic variability refers to the fluctuations and oscillations that may occur within the climate system at temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Select the link, "NOAA El Niño Page". The page that appears provides access to a wealth of background and information on El Niño and La Niña, including the animation showing sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Pacific during recent months. To the left of the animation, click on "What's happening today?" The page of current tropical Pacific conditions that appears shows a small map to the right. Click on that map and again anywhere on the subsequent set of map panels to get an enlarged view of the latest conditions of SST and anomalies.

The third major section of the RealTime Climate Portal is termed Climate Change. Here we provide links to information and analyses that primarily focus on anthropogenic (human-made) change processes and results in the climate system. That prominently includes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ("IPCC") latest classic report on atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and their effects. Also linked are modeling results ("Models") based on those studies.

The last major section of the RealTime Climate Portal is titled Societal Interactions and Climate Policy. This block contains information on the impacts of projected change on human societies around the world, beyond that listed in the IPCC report, and the international actions and debates regarding those issues. Select and click on "National Climate Assessment (NCA3) Highlights" in this section. This webpage introduces you to the latest comprehensive and authoritative report on climate change and its impacts in the United States, now and in the future. You will be directed to this report several times in this course.

Completing the RealTime Climate Portal is the Extras section of additional handy information for the course and individual study such as dictionaries of terms, maps and materials. Choose and examine one of the Climate Literacy links. This document has recently been developed and released by NOAA to provide an overview of general concepts and information the general public and especially students should be aware of regarding the climate and the climate debate.

Concept of the Week: Questions

The first Climate Information link, "NOAA's Climate.gov", shows the Global Climate Dashboard where several graphs display Earth's temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide level, spring snow cover, etc. with a time slider than can be set to display from [(1800)(1880)(1940)] to the latest data in 2016.
Under the Societal Interactions and Climate Policy section, click the "Global Resilience Toolkit" link. The Toolkit has been designed to aid in working through climate change issues by communities. As the first step to building resilience, one should [(Prioritize actions)(Explore climate threats)].

Historical Events

29 August 1876...A torrential downpour inundated St John's Newfoundland with 173.2 mm (6.8 inches) of rainfall, the greatest single daily accumulation ever recorded in the province. (The Weather Doctor)
29 August 1965...The observatory on top of Mount Washington NH reported a snowfall of 2.5 inches of snow, a national record for the month of August. (The Weather Doctor)
29 August 2005...As Hurricane Katrina traveled across the northern Gulf of Mexico toward the Louisiana Coast, a reconnaissance aircraft determined that Katrina's minimum central pressure was 902 millibars (or 26.64 inches of mercury), the fifth lowest pressure ever recorded in an Atlantic hurricane. Katrina was also the third most-intense land-falling hurricane in US history based on a minimum landfall pressure of 920 millibars (or 27.17 inches of mercury). (The Weather Doctor)
29 August 2007...With its high temperature pegged at 113degrees, Phoenix, AZ set a new record of 29 days with 110 degree or higher temperatures. (The Weather Doctor)
30 August 2000...The temperature rose to 111 degrees at the North Little Rock Airport in Arkansas, setting a new record for the highest temperature ever observed at that location. (The Weather Doctor)
31 August 1885...A record 71-day dry period began at Calgary, Alberta. (The Weather Doctor)
31 August 1889...Los Angeles, CA set two local rainfall records as 0.61 inches fell, the maximum 24-hour and monthly records for August. (Intellicast)
31 August 1915...The temperature at Bartlesville, OK dipped to 38 degrees to establish a state record for the month of August. (The Weather Channel)
31 August 1971...The low of 84 degrees and high of 108 degrees at Death Valley, CA were the lowest of the month. The average daily high was 115.7 degrees that August, and the average daily low was 93.4 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
31 August 1987...Frost was reported in South Dakota. Aberdeen, SD established a record for the month of August with a morning low of 32 degrees, and Britton, SD dipped to 31 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
1 September 1914...The town of Bloomingdale, MI was deluged with 9.78 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a state record for the Wolverine State. (31^st-1^st) (The Weather Channel) (NCDC)
1 September 1955...The temperature at Los Angeles, CA soared to an all-time high of 110 degrees during an eight-day string of 100-degree weather. (David Ludlum)
2 September 1935...Perhaps the most intense hurricane ever to hit the U.S. struck the Florida Keys with sustained winds of over 155 mph with gusts exceeding 200 mph. The "Labor Day Hurricane" produced a fifteen-foot tide and waves thirty feet high. More than 400 persons perished in the storm on that Labor Day, including many World War I veterans building a bridge from the Keys to the mainland. The barometric pressure at Matecumbe Bay, FL hit a record low for the U.S. of 26.35 inches of mercury (or 892.3 millibars). (David Ludlum)
2 September 1950...The temperature at Mecca, CA soared to 126 degrees to establish the U.S. record high temperature for the month of September. The low that morning was 89 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
2 September 1961...Denver, CO received 4.2 inches of snow, the earliest measurable snow on record for this city. (Intellicast)
3 September 1953...The temperature at Erie, PA reached 99 degrees, and Stroudsburg, PA established a state record for September with a reading of 106 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
3 September 1961...Denver, CO received 4.2 inches of snow, their earliest snow of record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
3 September 1970...During the early evening hours, in the midst of a severe hailstorm at Coffeyville, KS, a stone 17.5 inches in circumference and 1.67 pounds in weight was recovered. At the time, it was the largest measured hailstone in U.S. weather records. Average stone size from the storm was five inches in diameter, with another stone reportedly eight inches in diameter. (David Ludlum) A larger, though lighter stone has since fallen in Nebraska, 22 June 2003 (The Weather Doctor)

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