26-31 January 2009

• Another view of global temperatures in 2008 -- Researchers at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) recently announced that their analysis of global temperatures shows that while 2008 appears to be the coolest calendar year since 2000, preliminary temperature data indicates it to be one of the tenth warmest since widespread temperature records began in 1880. Their map showing the global distribution of temperature anomalies (differences between observed and long-term average values) indicates the widespread cool surface waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean associated with an ongoing La Niña episode. [NASA Earth Observatory] The (GISS) global temperature analysis for 2008 differs slightly from that provided last week by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). [NOAA News]
• West Antarctic warming confirmed -- A climate researcher at the University of Washington and colleagues from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have analyzed data collected from NASA satellites and from ground-based weather stations long with data from to reconstruct a 50-year history of surface temperature variations across Antarctica, confirming the suspicion that West Antarctica was warming, even though East Antarctica was showing some signs of slight cooling. [NASA GSFC]
• New satellite to watch Earth's climate and weather to be launched -- NOAA officials have announced that a new polar-orbiting satellite, identified as NOAA-N Prime (with subsequent name change to NOAA-19 after it becomes operational), launched during the first week of February. This new satellite will have a variety of sensors that will monitor atmospheric and oceanic conditions that will provide data as part of the international Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to be used in support of the agency's weather and climate forecasts. Search and rescue operations will also be improved by this satellite. [NOAA News]
• Wintertime ozone levels soar near natural gas field -- Scientists at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory who have been monitoring the air quality across the West have determined that the increased and health-threatening levels of ozone found during the last several winters in the vicinity of a natural gas field in northwest Wyoming is the result of a combination of ozone producing chemicals released from the gas wells, a low level temperature profile that leads to stable atmospheric conditions, which trap these chemicals, and to the presence of a snow cover that provides sufficient amounts of reflected sunlight to help initiate the needed photochemical reactions. [NOAA News]
• Seasonal cycle arrives earlier -- Research conducted at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University indicates that human activity during the last century not only has resulted in increased global temperatures due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, but that this activity also has been responsible for a shift in the seasonal temperature cycle, with both the summer highest and winter lowest temperatures over non-tropical Northern Hemisphere land masses occurring approximately two days earlier than 100 years ago. The range between minimum and maximum temperatures also has been decreasing during the last 50 years. The researchers report that this shift in the seasons appears to be related to changes in the atmospheric circulation pattern identified as the "Northern Annular Mode." [EurekAlert!]
• Deep-sea discoveries made from a scientific sub -- An international research team from the US and Australia using Jason, an autonomous submersible vessel, operated to depths of 6000 meters from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Research Vessel Thomas G. Thompson discovered new species of marine animals and obtained more evidence of the impact of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide upon deep-sea coral during a four-week scientific expedition in ocean waters off Tasmania. [CSIRO]
• 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]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]

• "Lost" mist in Europe associated with higher temperatures -- A team of European scientists who analyzed 30 years of temperature and visibility data from across Europe have concluded that the observed increase of European temperatures by approximately 0.5 Celsius degrees per decade appears to be related to increased solar warming due to a reduction in the number of foggy days and the increased visibility across the continent. [BBC]
• An insecticide could be a potent greenhouse gas -- Chemists at the University of California, Irvine report that a termite insecticide used to fumigate buildings contains a chemical called sulfuryl fluoride that appears to be a greenhouse gas that is 4000 times more effective at blocking infrared radiation as carbon dioxide and that can reside in the atmosphere for ten times longer than previously thought. [University of California, Irvine]
• Survey assesses scientists opinion of climate change -- A survey conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois-Chicago of more than 3000 earth scientists around the world reveals that 90 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement that global average temperatures have risen from pre-1800 levels and that 82 percent agreed with the statement that human activity has been a significant factor in these changes in the global temperatures. [EurekAlert!]

• Mortality rates of Western forests rise with regional temperatures -- Forestry researchers from Northern Arizona University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Washington, Oregon State University and the US Forest Service have collected and analyzed data that indicate tree death rates in undisturbed old forests across the Western States have doubled during the last several decades, due in large extent to increased regional temperatures. [Northern Arizona University]
• Cleaner air leads to increased American life expectancy -- Researchers at Brigham Young University and the Harvard School of Public Health report that during the last several decades, the average life expectancy of residents in 51 US cities has increased by nearly three years, with approximately five months of that increase being due to cleaner air, which appears to reduce cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary disease. [EurekAlert!]
• Coral health is threatened bacterial pathogens and rising temperatures -- Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and colleagues have found that a bacterial infection known as yellow band disease has sickened coral colonies and seems to worsened as water temperatures have increased. [EurekAlert!]
• Impact of climate change on biodiversity studied -- A research expedition led by the United Kingdom's University of York recently repeated a survey of a mountain peak in Borneo conducted in 1965, finding that several species of moths had upslope in the 42 years to cope with changes in climate. [The University of York]

• Looking underground to study upper atmospheric secrets -- An international team of scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom participating in a particle physics experiment called MINOS have been studying data on high-energy cosmic rays that they have collected from a depth of a half mile in an unused iron mine in Minnesota to determine if they can use these data to obtain an understanding of the relationship of the number of cosmic rays and the atmospheric temperature structure of the stratosphere (altitudes between 6 and 30 miles), with an ultimate goal of helping improve weather and climate forecasts of the sudden changes in the stratospheric temperatures during winter. [National Centre for Atmospheric Science]

• Reconstruction of past global ocean temperatures could improve climate model reliability -- A team of researchers from Italy, France, Germany and the United States have created a new quantitative tool called MARGO (Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean Surface) that reconstructs the sea surface temperature from around the globe between 23,000 and 19,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum. One of the goals of the project is to provide high resolution historical data for improved climate models. [EurekAlert!]
• Danube Delta sediments could help resolve "Noah's Flood" debate -- A geologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution along with Romanian colleagues who have analyzed sediment cores from the delta formed by eastern Europe's Danube River as it enters the Black Sea suggest that a flood which occurred approximately 9500 years ago along the Black Sea and often identified as "Noah's Flood" appears to be smaller than previously proposed by other researchers. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• Dating ancient droughts from rainmaker rituals -- Researchers from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand have concluded that ashes obtained from archaeological sites in modern-day Zimbabwe and dated by radiocarbon methods were from rainmaker rituals and can be used to help determine the dates of ancient droughts in Iron Age Africa. [New Scientist]
• Water levels on Great Lakes sensitive to climate change -- Scientists from the US and Canada have reported that their analysis of Great Lakes water levels during the Holocene (since the last Ice Age approximately 11,000 years ago) indicates that these water levels are highly sensitive to climate changes, citing the dramatically low lake levels that caused the lakes to become disconnected from various rivers between 7900 and 7500 years ago during a time of extended dry climatic conditions. [EurekAlert!]

• Dealing with scientific uncertain in climate decision making addressed -- The U.S. Climate Change Science Program recently released an assessment report entitled " Best Practice Approaches for Characterizing, Communicating and Incorporating Scientific Uncertainty in Climate Decision Making," which summaries the recommended methods and strategies that decision makers and others need to consider to characterize, analyze and confront uncertainty relating to climate change and its effects. [NOAA News]
• Better flood maps could help avert significant losses -- A report by the National Research Council conducted for NOAA and FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) indicates that more accurate FEMA flood maps containing high-accuracy and high-resolution land surface elevation data could help save lives and avoid significant damages and losses to property and infrastructure as a result of flood events. [EurekAlert!]
• Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 26 January 1884…The coldest day on Canada's Prince Edward Island occurred when the temperature at Kilmahumaig, PEI fell to 35 degrees below zero. (The Weather Doctor)
• 27 January 1940...Florida had a 3-day long freeze with the lowest temperatures ever in January. Mason, FL dropped to 8 degrees. Eleven million boxes of citrus were damaged, resulting in a 10 million-dollar loss. Further north, Georgia's record low temperature of 17 degrees below zero was set near Calhoun. (Intellicast)
• 27 January 1994...A frigid arctic air was in place over New England and New York as a massive 1052-millibar (31.06 inches of mercury) high pressure provided ideal radiational cooling. Crown Point, NY dipped to 48 degrees below zero and Shoreham, VT shivered with 46 degrees below zero, Burlington, VT broke its old record daily low by 9 degrees with a reading of 29 degrees below zero and Caribou, ME set a record low for the third day in a row with a temperature of 23 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 28 January 1925...The temperature at Pittsburg, NH fell to 46 degrees below zero, establishing a new record low temperature for the state. (Intellicast) In January 1934, this record was broken with a reading of 47 degrees below zero. (NCDC)
• 28 January 1963...The low temperature of 34 degrees below zero at Cynthiana, KY equaled the state record established just four days earlier at Bonnieville. (The Weather Channel) This all-time state record for Kentucky has since been eclipsed by a 37 degree zero reading in January 1994. (NCDC)
• 28 January 1988...Barometric pressure readings of 30.55 inches at Miami FL, 30.66 inches at Tampa, FL, and 30.72 inches at Apalachicola, FL were all-time record high readings for those locations. (National Weather Summary)
• 28 January 1989...Nome, AK reported an all-time record low reading of 54 degrees below zero. (National Weather Summary)
• 29 January 1934...The temperature at the Observatory on top of Mt. Washington, NH (the highest point in New England) fell to 47 degrees below zero, establishing a new all-time record low temperature for the state. (NCDC)
• 30 January 1966...Alabama's record low temperature of 27 degrees below zero was set at New Market. Mississippi's record low temperature of 19 degrees below zero was set near Corinth. North Carolina's record low temperature of 29 degrees below zero was set at Mount Mitchell. (Intellicast) The record for the Tarheel State has been broken with a reading of 34 degrees below zero in January 1985. (NCDC)
• 31 January 1911...Tamarack, CA was without snow the first eight days of the month, but by the end of January had been buried under 390 inches of snow, a record monthly snowfall total for the U.S. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 January 1920…The highest barometric pressure observed in the contiguous forty-eight states was recorded at Northfield, VT with a reading of 31.14 inches of mercury (1054.5 millibars). (The Weather Doctor)
• 31 January 1963...The Mt. Rose Highway Station near Reno, NV reported 7.13 inches of precipitation, which set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Nevada. (NCDC)
• 31 January 1989…The barometer rose to 31.85 inches of mercury (1079.7 millibars) at Northway, AK, establishing the all time highest reading for the North American continent. (The Weather Doctor)
• 31 January 1994...Caribou, ME recorded its coldest month ever. The average temperature for the month was a frigid 0.7 degrees below zero. The old record was 1.3 degrees set in January 1957. (Intellicast)
• 1 February 1985...The temperature at Gavial, NM dropped to a state record low of 50 degrees below zero. The state record low temperature in Colorado of 60 degrees below zero was tied at Maybell. A station at Peter's Sink, UT reported a temperature of 69 degrees below zero, which set the all-time state record. (NCDC)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.