WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

30 March-3 April 2009

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

A phenological event in the Cherry Blossom Watch -- Many tourists descend upon Washington, DC during the spring to view the sights, including the blossoming cherry trees that line the Tidal Basin along the Potomac River. The National Park service operates a website that reports the status of the cherry blossoms in anticipation of the 95th annual Cherry Blossom Festival that is scheduled for next two weeks (Saturday, 28 March to Sunday, 12 April 2009). This site also has a listing of the phenological observations for past bloom dates. According to a recent update, experts expect that the trees should be in peak bloom during the next few days (1 April -4 April). In a related development, an official with the Japanese meteorological agency recently declared the cherry blossom season open in Tokyo as more than 10 buds on a designated Somei-Yoshino cherry tree planted in the grounds of Yasukuni shrine, central Tokyo, came into bloom one week ago. This well-heralded phenological event appeared seven days earlier than average and one day earlier than in 2008. The earlier dates may be associated with increases in global temperature. [ABC News]
Changes in plant hardiness zone map should reflect changes in climate -- The US Department of Agriculture will soon release its new Plant Hardiness Zone Map, a revision from the last 1990 version constructed from more recent data collected by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. Comparison of this new map with the older map should provide some indication as to how changes in the temperature over the last several decades have affected the geographic location of the planting zones. [Scientific American]
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

Alaskan volcano erupts -- Mount Redoubt on Alaska's Cook Inlet erupted numerous times beginning one week ago, sending an ash plume to altitudes more than 9 miles above the earth's surface. For much of the week, Anchorage, approximately 100 miles to the northeast of the volcano was spared the ashfall although the ash plume was carried toward the northeast. [Discovery Channel] Infrared images from the MODIS instruments on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites show the ash plume. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Changes in airborne dust play important role in Atlantic ocean temperatures -- Researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus report that their analysis of satellite data indicates variations in African dust storms and tropical volcanic eruptions contribute a significant contribution to the observed changes in the sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic Ocean during the last 30 years. They report that reduced aerosols in the atmosphere have resulted in warming of the North Atlantic, which may result in increased tropical cyclone (hurricane) activity. [University of Wisconsin News]
More views of the Tonga Island eruption -- An image made early last week by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA's Terra satellite shows a more recent view of the sediments in the waters of the western South Pacific surrounding the submarine volcano that erupted near the Tonga Islands in mid March. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A "volcanic mesocyclone" is identified -- Scientists at the University of Illinois have shown that a volcanic plume of hot gases and dust can develop into a rotating columnar vortex that they called a "volcanic mesocyclone," which could trigger lightning and create waterspouts or dust devils due to the rotation. Their arguments appear to support a report from a ship captain in 1811 and recent photographs of volcanoes that describe lightning sheaths accompanying the volcanic plumes. [EurekAlert!]
New greenhouse gases growing -- An international team of scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research have found that two new greenhouse gases, nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃) and sulfuryl fluoride (SO₂F₂), are accumulating quickly. [CSIRO]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Response of coastal wetlands to climate change remains a paradox -- Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and the US Geological Survey have found that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide to levels projected at the end of the century in a wetland could cause an increase in the elevation of the wetland, serving as a counterbalance to the increased sea level associated with melting glaciers due to an increased greenhouse effect. [EurekAlert!]
Pecan orchards can be devastated by ice storms -- A study made by researchers at Oklahoma State University and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation shows the economic impact that that major ice storms have had on the pecan orchards across the Sooner State, including the losses to the orchards and to the expense for cleanup. [EurekAlert!]
Reason for fish extinction in ancient times determined -- A biologist at the University of Chicago has determined from fossil fish dating back to the last mass extinction 65 million years ago that large size fish with a fast bite could capture other fish species, resulting in an extinction of these species. He sees a similar situation occurring today in similar vulnerable species that face extinction. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Evidence of early oxygen found in deep sea rocks -- Researchers from Penn State University, Japan's Kagoshima and Kyushu Universities and the Geological Survey of Western Australia claim that the hematite-rich chert (red jasper) they obtained from 3.46 billion-year old layer in a core drilled in the bedrock craton of West Australia provides evidence that the atmosphere as well as the oceans were as oxygen rich as at present. [EurekAlert!]
Hawaiian coral beds are among world's oldest living creatures -- Researchers from Texas A&M University, the University of California-Santa Cruz and Australian National University in Canberra have discovered coral beds in coastal waters off Hawaii that they date to be more than 4200 years old, making them among the oldest living creatures on Earth. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Change in a severe weather criterion to be tested -- Starting on Wednesday 1 April, forecast offices across the National Weather Service's Central Region will change the hail size criterion used for severe thunderstorm warnings from the current ¾-inch diameter threshold to a one-inch diameter threshold based upon the results of a successful four-year demonstration across Kansas. [Quad Cities NWSFO]
Washington State's coast is tsunami ready -- The National Weather Service recently announced that since Jefferson County, a coastal county on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, has earned the NOAA National Weather Service TsunamiReady™ designation, thereby giving the Evergreen State the distinction of having its entire coast TsunamiReady™, meaning that local emergency managers are better able to prepare and warn the citizens of their counties about the threats of tsunamis. [NOAA News]
Water conservation research becomes relevant -- With extreme to exceptional drought conditions continuing across south Texas, the director of the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde recently emphasized that ongoing research on water conservation has become increasingly more relevant. [Texas A&M AgNews]
How air pollution can cause heart disease is investigated -- Medical researchers from the University of Louisville, the University of Michigan, UCLA and the Harvard School of Public Health have recently presented their research on environmental cardiology, which examines the relationship between air pollution and heart disease. They reported that in six US cities with high air pollution levels, a majority of those residents who died early were due to heart disease. [American Physiological Society]
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:

30 March 1977...Hartford, CT hit 87 degrees to establish a record for the month of March. (The Weather Channel)
31 March 1890...Saint Louis, MO received 20.4 inches of snow in 24 hours, which was the worst snowstorm of record for St. Louis. (David Ludlum)
31 March 1954...The temperature at Rio Grande City, TX hit 108 degrees, which for thirty years was the U.S. record high for the month of March. (The Weather Channel)
31 March 1992...Seattle, WA closed out its first snowless winter ever (November through March). Las Vegas, NV recorded 4.80 inches of rain during the past month, which set 2 records -- the wettest March ever (old record 1.83 inches set in 1973) and the wettest month ever (old record 3.39 inches in September 1939). The normal yearly rainfall for the city is only 4.19 inches! (Intellicast)
2 April 1970...The last snowstorm of the 1969-70 winter season came to an end at Chicago, IL as 10 .7 inches of snow fell -- a final contribution to the season's amount of 77 inches, which set a new all-time snow season record for the city. (Intellicast)
2 April 1975...A severe storm over the northeastern US began on this day and blasted the area for the next 3 days. Wind gusts reached 87 mph at West Harpswell, ME and Boston, MA recorded its lowest April pressure on record (28.68 inches). Tides along the coast ran 2 to 4 feet above normal and anywhere from 1 to 4 feet of snow fell from western New York to northern Maine with the higher elevations receiving the most. (Intellicast)
3 April 1955…Record snow fell across north-central Wyoming and south-central Montana as Sheridan WY established a 24-hour snowfall record with 26.7 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
3 April 1996...Marquette, MI recorded 12.6 inches of snow on this day to raise its seasonal snowfall to 250.8 inches -- the city's snowiest winter ever. The old record was 243.8 inches set back in 1981-82. The snowfall for the month now stood at 43.4 inches -- the snowiest April on record for the city as well. (Intellicast)
4 April 1933...Pigeon River Bridge, MN reported 28 inches of snow, which established the state 24-hour snowfall record. (4th-5th) (The Weather Channel)
4 April 1955...A severe 3-day spring snowstorm ended over north central Wyoming and south central Montana. Sheridan, WY had near blizzard conditions for 43 hours and recorded 22.7 inches of snow in 24 hours on the 3^rd to set a new 24-hour snowfall record. Billings, MT had a storm total of 42.3 inches, a new single storm snowfall record. (Intellicast)
4 April 1973...Sandia Crest, NM reported a snow depth of 95 inches, a record for the state of New Mexico. (The Weather Channel)
5 April 1926...A reported 0.65 inches of rain fell in one minute at Opid's Camp, CA (Intellicast)
5 April 1945 ...The temperature at Eagles Nest, NM plunged to 36 degrees below zero to establish an April record for the continental United States. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
5 April 1989...Unseasonably hot weather prevailed in the southwestern U.S. Afternoon highs of 100 degrees at Santa Maria, CA and 105 degrees in Downtown Los Angeles established records for the month of April. (The National Weather Summary)

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