WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

9-13 March 2009

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

State and city weather extremes for February 2009 -- The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted a listing of some of the notable extremes in temperature, precipitation and other weather elements across the nation for the recently completed month of February 2009 in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for February 2009." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed. Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.
Northern Hemisphere winter snow cover displayed -- Maps of the average percentage of snow cover across the northern hemisphere for December 2008 and February 2009 were obtained from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite and show the extent of the snow during the beginning and ending months of meteorological winter. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Landsat 5 turns 25 and keeps on ticking -- NASA's Landsat 5 satellite continues to collect and transmit valuable scientific data on the Earth's surface after 25 years, much longer than its design life of three-years. The continuity of the data collected by this satellite and Landsat 7 document natural changes to the Earth's surface and show how human activity has affected the surface. [NASA Earth Observatory]
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

Mudslides from Chinese earthquake released carbon dioxide -- Researchers from the United States, China and Australia using a computer model claim that mudslides following the magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake that hit China's Sichuan Basin in May 2008 may cause a release of carbon dioxide in next several decades at a rate equivalent to approximately two percent of current annual emissions produced by fossil fuel combustion. [EurekAlert!]
High altitude smoke from Australia detected from space -- Researchers at NASA Langley Research Center studying data collected by the active lidar on the NASA Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite have found smoke from Australian bushfires have been lofting into the lower stratosphere (altitudes of approximately 12 miles), which is somewhat surprising. [NASA LRC]
Giant sand dunes could grow larger -- Researcher at Denis Diderot University in Paris and North Carolina's Duke University claim that based on aerodynamic considerations, giant sand dunes in the world's deserts could even become larger if global temperatures increase as projected. [New Scientist]
Maps show which rocks help sequester carbon dioxide -- Scientists at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the US Geological Survey have identified and produced a map of those ultramafic rocks across the United States that contain minerals that react naturally with carbon dioxide to form solid minerals. These researchers are attempting to find ways where the natural mineral carbonation processes associated with these ultramafic rock formations could be accelerated to increase the sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Some species can be buffered against climatic change -- From their research on the populations of the pea aphid, an agricultural pest, ecological researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Arizona claim that some species could be buffered against changes in climate by their potential to evolve. [University of Wisconsin News]
Drought threatens Amazon carbon sink -- A 30-year study conducted by an international team of scientists associated with the Amazon Forest Inventory Network (RAINFOR) (Rede Amazônica de Inventários Florestais, Red Amazónica de Inventarios Forestales) has found that the Amazon tropical rainforest is sensitive to drought and that this drought could cause massive carbon loss primarily through the loss of trees, resulting in increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. [EurekAlert!] This finding is echoed by the vice president of the Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network at Conservation International who warns that a warmer climatic conditions are not the only problem, but a drying climate across the Amazon region of South America and the African Congo Basin could be even more of a problem. [EurekAlert!]
Volcanic gases fuel high altitude microbial systems -- A research team from the University of Colorado at Boulder have discovered that of water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane emanating from the Socompa volcano in the high Andes appear to fuel the microbial life near 19,850 feet, which represent the highest known microbial systems on Earth. [EurekAlert!]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Connecting old tectonic plates in Oceania -- Geoscientists from Australia and the Netherlands have reconstructed sequence of events between 50 and 20 million years ago where a tectonic plate between New Zealand and Australia was subducted approximately 1100 km into the earth's crust below the Tasman Sea forming a long chain of volcanic islands. This discovery shows a geographical connection between New Zealand and New Caledonia. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Planning for climate change in Oregon -- A report produced by the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative and the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy warns that the projected changes in the regional climate across the Upper Willamette River Basin of western Oregon could threaten the basin's ecosystems and infrastructure of communities such as Eugene. The report recommends that extensive efforts should be undertaken to prepare for these potential threats. [EurekAlert!]
Money from Recovery Act to help NOAA's mission -- Officials with NOAA recently announced that the $830 million the agency would receive as part of the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 would be used for a variety of projects aimed at fulfilling NOAA's mission to protect life and property and to conserve and protect natural resources. Approximately 28% of the funds would be used to help in habitat restoration and navigation projects, 52% would be used for construction of NOAA infrastructure, including ships, satellites and improvement for weather forecasting, while the remaining 20% would be used for climate modeling activities. [NOAA News]
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:

9 March 1911…Aibonito, Puerto Rico had temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the lowest temperature recorded on that island. (The Weather Doctor)
9 March 1943...The temperature at Lac Frontiere, ME fell to 40 degrees below zero, the lowest reading ever in March in New England. (Intellicast)
9 March 1956...A whopping 367 inches of snow was measured on the ground at the Rainier Paradise Ranger Station in Washington. The snow depth was a state record and the second highest total of record for the continental U.S. (The Weather Channel)
10 March 1912...The barometric pressure reached 990.9 millibars (29.26 inches) at Los Angeles, CA, and 997.7 millibars (29.46 inches) at San Diego, CA, setting all-time records for those two locations. (David Ludlum)
10 March 1922...Dodge City, KS reported an all-time record 24-hour total of 17.5 inches of snow. (The Weather Channel)
10-11 March 1972, The temperature at Chicago, IL rose from 15 degrees on the 10th to 73 degrees on the 11th. The 58 Fahrenheit degree temperature rise tied the largest day-to-day rise on record. The city experienced a similar jump in temperature in February 1887. (The Weather Doctor)
11 March 1911...Tamarack, CA reported 451 inches of snow on the ground, a record for the U.S. (David Ludlum)
11 March 1948...Record cold followed in the wake of a Kansas blizzard. Lows of 25 degrees below zero at Oberlin, Healy, and Quinter established a state record for the month of March. Lows of 15 degrees below zero at Dodge City, 11 degrees below zero at Concordia, and 3 degrees below zero at Wichita were records for March at these locations. The low of 3 degrees below zero at Kansas City, MO was their latest subzero reading of record. (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
11 March 2006…The record run for dry days in Phoenix, AZ finally ended at 143 at 12:07 AM MST. The last measured rain in the city fell on 18 October 2005. The last time the region had significant precipitation was 2 August when 0.59 inch (15 mm) fell. Not only did the rain break the dry spell, the 1.40-inch total was a record amount for the date: The previous consecutive dry-day mark, set in 1998-99, was 101 days. (The Weather Doctor)
12-13 March 1907...A storm produced a record 5.22 inches of rain in 24 hours at Cincinnati, OH. (The Weather Channel)
12 March 1923...The record low air pressure of 971.9 millibars (28.70 inches) for Chicago, IL was set during a storm that produced heavy snow, a thick glaze, gales, and much rain that caused $800,000 damage. (Intellicast)
13-15 March 1952...The world's 5-day rainfall record was set when a tropical cyclone produced 151.73 inches of rain at Cilos, Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The 73.62 inches that fell in a 24-hour period (15^th-16^th) set the world's 24-hour rainfall record. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
13 March 1993...The "Great Blizzard of '93" clobbered the eastern US and produced perhaps the largest swath of heavy snow ever recorded. Heavy snow was driven to the Gulf Coast with 3 inches falling at Mobile, AL and up to 5 inches reported in the Florida Panhandle, the greatest single snowfall in the state's history. Thirteen inches blanketed Birmingham, AL to set not only a new 24 hour snowfall record for any month, but also set a record for maximum snow depth, maximum snow for a single storm, and maximum snow for a single month. Tremendous snowfall amounts occurred in the Appalachians. Mount Leconte in Tennessee recorded an incredible 60 inches. Mount Mitchell in North Carolina was not far behind with 50 inches. Practically every official weather station in West Virginia set a new 24-hour record snowfall. Farther to the north, Pittsburgh, PA measured 25 inches, Albany, NY checked in with 27 inches, and Syracuse, NY was buried under 43 inches. The major population corridor from Washington, DC to Boston, MA was not spared this time as all the big cities got about a foot of snow before a changeover to rain. A rather large amount of thunderstorm activity accompanied the heavy snow. Winds to hurricane force in gusts were widespread. Boston recorded a gust to 81 mph, the highest wind gust at that location since hurricane Edna in 1954. Numerous cities in the south and mid Atlantic states recorded their lowest barometric pressure ever as the storm bottomed out at 960 millibars (28.35 inches) over Chesapeake Bay. Some 208 people were killed by the storm and total damage was estimated at $6 billion-- the costliest extratropical storm in history. (Intellicast)
14 March 1944...A single storm brought a record 21.6 inches of snow to Salt Lake City UT. (The Weather Channel)
14 March 1984...A coastal storm dumped very heavy snow over northern New England. Caribou, ME received 28.6 inches of snow in 24 hours, by far its greatest 24-hour snowfall on record. (Intellicast)
15 March 1892...A winter storm in southwestern and central Tennessee produced 26 inches of snow at Riddleton, and 18.5 inches at Memphis, resulting in the deepest snow of record for those areas. (David Ludlum)
15 March 1906...The temperature at Snake River, WY dipped to 50 degrees below zero, a record for the U.S. for the month of March. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders -1987)
15 March 1952...Over 72 (73.62) inches of rain fell on Cilaos, Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean, the greatest global 24-hour total rainfall. (The Weather Doctor)
15 March 2004…Rain at Brownsville, TX broke a century-old precipitation record for the greatest daily rainfall accumulation for March with 3.23 inches . (The Weather Doctor)

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