WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

16-20 February 2009

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

• Measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide from space -- A feature article details the development of the scientific mission leading to creation of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, an earth orbiting space craft developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that will be launched next week to precisely measure atmospheric carbon dioxide in across the entire globe with particular emphasis on the layer near Earth's surface. [NASA JPL]
• Nation's weather and climate for January 2009 reviewed -- Using preliminary data, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported that the average temperature for January 2009 averaged across the coterminous United States was slightly higher than the 1901-2000 average January temperature. The majority of the states from the high Plains westward to the Pacific Coast experienced above average December temperatures, with Wyoming and California reporting much above average statewide temperatures. However, much of the states in the eastern half of the nation had below average temperatures, especially across the Midwest and Northeast, with Michigan and Maine had much below average temperatures for the month. Precipitation across the nation was well below average, making the recently-concluded month the fifth driest January since a sufficiently dense and reliable climate network began in 1895. Only 15 states had average to above average precipitation for the month, while California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and New Jersey had much below average statewide precipitation. One fifth of the nation was under moderate to exceptional drought conditions, while nearly one-quarter of the coterminous US experienced moderate to extremely wet conditions. [NOAA News] The National Climatic Data Center also posted its January drought report. [NCDC]
• New state record low for Maine declared -- Upon consultation with the State Climate Extreme Committee, the National Climatic Data Center has declared that the 50-degree below zero temperature recorded by the temperature sensor operated by the US Geological Survey in Big Black River in northern Maine on 16 January can be considered the all-time lowest temperature recorded in the state of Maine; this reading ties one set in 1933 at Bloomfield, VT for the lowest temperature in New England. [AP News]
• Warming trend tracked across northwestern North America -- The former Montana State Climatologist, the deputy Director of the Western Regional Climate Center and a colleague from British Columbia recently reported that their analysis of long term weather records for locations in Montana and British Columbia indicate less frequent cold air events and a general warming trend especially in late winter and early spring. [Montana State University]
• 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]

CLIMATE FORCING

• New tool to track carbon dioxide emissions from cropland -- Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and Kansas State University have analyzed approximately 15 years of data to determine the energy consumption and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions due to fossil fuel combustion associated cropland production across the nation. They noted extreme weather events along with changes in agriculture policy have influenced crop production along with energy consumption and CO₂ emission. They claim that this information should be important for improved cropland production and management techniques as well as for carbon sequestration strategies. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory]
• Aerosols affect Australian rainfall patterns -- An atmospheric scientist with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) reports that both natural and anthropogenic aerosols appear to be exerting a greater impact on patterns of Australian rainfall as well as upon future climate change than previously thought. [CSIRO]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

• Migratory birds winter-over farther north -- The National Audubon Society recently released a report prepared by Society scientists who concluded that based upon 40 years of data from the Society's annual Christmas Bird Count, nearly 58 percent of the 305 widespread species wintering on the North American continent shifted significantly northward and inland since 1966. The scientists conclude that this shift in the wintering patterns is associated with increased global temperatures, which they argue signals a need for dramatic policy changes to combat pervasive ecological disruption. [National Audubon Society]
• Rising temperatures cause plants to change location -- Research conducted by the University of Arizona in the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains has shown that as summer temperatures across southern Arizona have increased during the last 20 years, the flowering ranges of 93 plant species moved higher in elevation. [EurekAlert!]
• Penguins become long-distance commuters because of changing oceanic conditions -- A University of Washington biologist has found that changing ocean conditions have forced the Magellanic penguins living along Argentina's Atlantic coast to swim greater distances to find food than a decade ago, the result of climate change, oil pollution and overfishing by humans. [EurekAlert!]
• High levels of carbon dioxide boosts plant respiration -- A plant biologist at the University of Illinois along with colleagues have discovered that raising levels of carbon dioxide to those predicted for the planetary atmosphere in 2050 can cause soybean leaves to accelerate their metabolism, leading to increased crop yields. [EurekAlert!]
• Climate change and fisheries impacts examined -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia, the Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia and Princeton University have provided the first calculations of the likely impact that changes in climate would have upon the distribution of more than 1000 fish species in the world oceans. They conclude that "the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity and fisheries is going to be huge." [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

• Claims made that Antarctic ice sheet collapse could affect axial tilt -- Geophysicists at the University of Toronto warn that the collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet and its ultimate melting could cause a 500-meter shift in the Earth's spin axis, thereby resulting in much higher sea levels to occur in some areas, including a migration of water into the southern Indian Ocean and toward North America from the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north. [Australia's ABC News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

• Dramatic rises in sea level found in the past record -- A research zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a geologist at North Carolina's Bald Head Island Conservancy have discovered sedimentary and fossil evidence in Bermuda that provides proof that sea level rose more than 70 feet above its current level during an interglacial period of the Middle Pleistocene approximately 400,000 years ago. Apparently, this rapid rise caused widespread effects on the ecosystems of many coastal locales. [Smithsonian Newsdesk]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• Deadly virus outbreak linked to climate variability -- A geographer with University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center was able to correctly predict the onset of the deadly Rift Valley fever in eastern Africa based upon a risk assessment map that he developed for this deadly disease based upon a combination of NASA and NOAA measurements of sea surface temperatures, precipitation, and vegetation cover. [NASA GSFC]
• Recent news items for consideration of climate change on regional and local levels -- The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs recently issued the following press releases as part of a series about necessary steps needed to address the effects of climate change at regional and local levels:
  Obama Makes Climate Change a National Priority
  Knowledge Centers Could Help Regions Cope with Climate Change
  Drought Information System Offers Early Warning, Knowledge
  U.S. Agencies Plan National Climate Service Structure, Products
• Is mass media failing in global warming coverage? Stephen Schneider, a noted climate researcher and policy analyst at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment, claims that mass media are often failing in coverage of issues concerned with increases in global temperature. In addition, he calls for academics to provide outreach and for developed nations to get greenhouse gas emissions under control. [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.

• Historical Events:

• 16 February 1903...The temperature at Pokegama Dam, MN plunged to 59 degrees below zero to establish a state record. (David Ludlum) This record has since been broken with a 60 degree below reading in 1996. (NCDC)
• 16 February 1929…Britain's greatest snowfall of 70.9 inches fell in just 15 hours at Dartmoor, Great Britain. (The Weather Doctor)
• 16 February 1943...Record cold prevailed in the northeastern U.S. The morning low of 32 degrees below zero at Falls Village, CT established a state record, yet the afternoon high that day was 20 degrees above zero. In January 1961, this Connecticut record low was tied. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 16 February 1966...Heavy rain fell in Whenuapai, New Zealand, with 4.2 inches of rain falling in one hour, a new record for that time in New Zealand. (The Weather Doctor)
• 16 February 1989...A surge of arctic air produced all-time record high barometric pressure readings of 31.08 inches at Duluth, MN, 30.97 inches at Chicago, IL and 30.94 inches at South Bend, IN. Readings of 31.00 inches at Milwaukee, WI and 30.98 inches at Rockford, IL tied their all-time records. (The National Weather Summary)
• 16 February 1996...A coastal storm produced heavy snow along the East Coast to push seasonal snowfall totals to new records at several locations. The following cities set new all-time seasonal snowfall records: Lynchburg, VA (8.1 inches new, 51.3 inches seasonal total); Washington/Dulles, VA (7.5, 53.4) ; Washington/National, DC (6.8, 40.8); Baltimore, MD (9.8, 54.9); Philadelphia, PA (7.5, 55.9); Hartford/Bradley, CT (10.3, 90.2) and Providence, RI (7.0, 78.0). (Intellicast)
• 17 February 1748…The temperature at Charleston, SC fell to 10 degrees, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Colonial South. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 February 1926…A deadly avalanche, Utah's worst, demolished 14 miner's cottages and a three-story boarding house in Binham Canyon. Thirty-six are killed and 13 injured. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 February 1936...The temperature at McIntosh, SD plunged to 58 degrees below zero to establish a state record low temperature. (David Ludlum)
• 17 February 1974…Lakelse Lake, British Columbia received 46.5 inches of snow over 24 hours, Canada's greatest 24-hour snowfall on record that stood for nearly one quarter of a century until 57 inches fell in 24 hours at Tahtsa Lake, British Columbia on 11 February 1999. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17-18 February 2003…The President's Day snowstorm set a new Boston, MA record for the greatest snowstorm total snowfall: a total of 27.5 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
• 18 February 1899...While much of the central and eastern U.S. was recovering from the most severe cold wave of modern history, the temperature at San Francisco, CA soared to 80 degrees to establish a record for month of February. (David Ludlum)
• 18 February 1959...Some of the higher elevations of California were in the midst of a five-day storm that produced 189 inches of snow, a single storm record for North America. (13^th-19^th) (David Ludlum)
• 18 February 1966…The temperature at Winnipeg, Manitoba dropped to 49 degrees below zero, the city's lowest recorded temperature. (The Weather Doctor)
• 18 February 1979...The record low temperature for the state of New York was set at Old Forge when the temperature plummeted to 52 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 18 February 1996…Cuba's coldest morning on record occurred when the temperature at Bainoa, Cuba dropped to 33 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
• 19 February 1998…The temperature at Mardie, Western Australia reached 122.9 degrees, the second highest temperature ever recorded in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
• 20 February 1974…The mean wind speed at Bonilla Island, British Columbia was 89 mph, the highest sustained speed on record in British Columbia. (The Weather Doctor)
• 20 February 1995...The temperature at the Civic Center in Los Angeles, CA hit 95 degrees for the highest temperature ever recorded for the month of February. (Intellicast)
• 21 February 1918...A spectacular chinook wind at Granville, ND caused the temperature to spurt from a morning low of 33 degrees below zero to an afternoon high of 50 degrees above zero, representing a rise of 83 Fahrenheit degrees. (David Ludlum)
• 21 February 1971...Elk City, OK was buried under 36 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour snowfall record for the Sooner State. (David Ludlum)
• 21 February 1996...Very hot weather for the time of year prevailed across South Texas. All-time February high temperatures were set at Del Rio (103 degrees), San Antonio (100 degrees), Austin and College Station (99 degrees), and Waco (96 degrees). (Intellicast)
• 22 February 1936...Although heat and dust prevailed in the spring and summer, early 1936 brought record cold to parts of the U.S. Sioux Center, IA reported 42 inches of snow on the ground, a state record. (20^th-22^nd) (The Weather Channel)
• 22 February 1996...Record heat continued over the south-central states. All-time February high temperatures were set at San Angelo, TX (97 degrees), Wichita Falls, TX (93 degrees), Oklahoma City, OK (92 degrees), and Wichita, KS (87 degrees). (Intellicast)

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