27 April-1 May 2009

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 31 August 2009. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• May is National Wetlands Month -- The US Environmental Protection Agency, along with other federal agencies and environmental groups, has announced that May has been designated as American Wetlands Month in an effort to increase public awareness of the importance of protecting and preserving the nation's wetlands. This year's observance is the 18th annual National Wetlands Month. [EPA-Wetlands]

• "Be Air Aware" -- National Weather Service and the US Environmental Protection Agency have announced that this upcoming week (27 April-1 May 2009) is Air Quality Awareness Week and they are urging Americans to "Be Air Aware." [NOAA Air Quality] Individual states and localities will have specific Air Quality Awareness Week activities

• Greenhouse gas emissions climb despite economic slump -- Scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory who computed the annual greenhouse gas index report an increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and methane during 2008 even though the world's economies have been in a downturn. [NOAA News]
• Some major rivers are experiencing dropping water levels -- Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) who have studied the streamflow of 925 of the world's major river systems for the last half century report that approximately one third of these rivers have experienced decreased flow, which appear to be related to climate change. The reduced river flow could potentially threaten future supplies of food and water especially in many developing nations. Changes in runoff can also affect the flow into the oceans. [UCAR/NCAR]
  In a related study, climate researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography warn that changes in climate could reduce the flow of the Colorado River in the American Southwest by 40 percent in the next two decades, with serious reductions by the middle of this century. [EurekAlert!]

• Monitoring sea ice in both hemispheres -- A series of maps generated from data collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite during the last seven months provides a contrast in the maximum and minimum extents of the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. [NASA Earth Observatory] The Sea Ice Factsheet was prepared by the team at the NASA Earth Observatory to describe the importance of the sea ice cover on the polar oceans in each hemisphere. Graphs showing the interannual variations over Antarctic and Arctic sea ice during the satellite era are provided. [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]

• Tropical cyclones could send water vapor into the stratosphere -- Researchers at Harvard University claim that their analysis of infrared satellite data indicates observed increases in the clouds and water vapor in the stratosphere during the last 50 years appear to have been caused by tropical cyclones. [EurekAlert!]
• An explanation provided for increased Antarctic sea ice -- With the aid of satellite imagery and computer models, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and NASA suggest that the observed increase in the extent of Antarctic sea ice since the 1970s appears to have been caused by changes in Southern Hemisphere weather patterns associated with the development of the "ozone hole", the marked reduction in stratospheric ozone levels over Antarctica during that same time interval. [British Antarctic Survey]
• Lead could affect cloud formation -- An international team of American, Swiss and German researchers report that increased amounts of atmospheric lead from human activity could cause clouds to form more easily at higher air temperatures and lower water vapor concentrations. These findings indicate that cloud and precipitation patterns could change with increased lead in the air from burring of coal, ultimately affecting global climate. [EurekAlert!]

• Hazy skies could increase carbon uptake by plants -- Researchers from the United Kingdom report that increases in hazy skies due to increased aerosol levels due to human activity during the last half century appears to have enhanced plant activity around the globe, with a corresponding increase in the amount of carbon stored in the plants and the land. [EurekAlert!]
• Plant types could override climate change on wildfire risks -- Researchers from Montana State University, the University of Washington, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Illinois who studied fire history across northern Alaska over the last 10,500 years suggest that the types of vegetation across a region could play a major role in determining the frequency of wildfires and could counteract the effects due to changes in temperature and moisture associated with climate change. [Montana State University]
• Fire-climate feedback mechanisms need to be considered -- An international team of scientists recently reported that fires must considered as playing a crucial role in climate change, citing the contribution to the emissions of carbon dioxide by intentionally set deforestation fires. These experts also called for the incorporation of fire-climate feedback mechanisms in future global models. [EurekAlert!]

• Critical turning points suspected in climate change -- Research conducted at the Niels Bohr Institute suggests that changes in the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can reach a critical turning point that can trigger dramatic climate change. Statistics generated by climate models along with deep ocean cores indicate that the carbon dioxide level help determine climate tipping points when superimposed upon the rhythmic changes in incident solar radiation associated with changes in the earth's orbital elements (the Milankovitch cycles). This evidence can be used to explain why average length of ice ages changed dramatically during the last million years from what they had been for millions of years previously. [EurekAlert!]

• Indigenous peoples discuss mitigation and adaptation to climate change -- The Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change was held last week in Anchorage, AK with more than 400 attendees from 80 nations discussed ways where traditional knowledge accrued by indigenous peoples can be used to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These peoples are seeking greater recognition in future international climate change conferences and agreements. [EurekAlert!]
• Levees will not eliminate flooding risk in Big Easy -- A report recently prepared by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council states that regardless of the size or the sturdiness, levees and floodwalls that surround New Orleans cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events, such as hurricanes and 100-year flood events. [National Academies]
• 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.

• 27 April 1915...The temperature at Washington, DC hit 92 degrees, the highest ever in April. New York City hit 92 degrees as well. (Intellicast)
• 27 April 1931...The temperature at Pahala, located on the main island of Hawaii, soared to 1 00 degrees to establish a state high temperature record. (The Weather Channel)

• 27 April 1960…The temperature at ever recorded in Thailand reached 112 degrees at Uttaradit, Thailand . (The Weather Doctor)

• 27 April 1988...Mount Washington, NH reported seven ft of snow in ten days, pushing their snowfall total for the month to 89.9 in., surpassing the previous record of 89.3 in. set in 1975. Records have been kept at the Observatory on the summit since December 1932. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)

• 27 April 2003…The largest hail storm ever recorded at Key West, FL was reported between 4:10 and 4:20 PM, hailstones ranging in size from one-half inch up to one and three-quarter inches fell. It is the eleventh recorded hail event (since 1871) at Key West. (The Weather Doctor)

• 28 April 1973...The all-time record crest of the Mississippi River at St. Louis, MO was recorded at 43.3 ft, exceeding the former 1884 mark by 1.9 ft. (Intellicast) This record has since been exceeded by a record flood level of 49.6 feet on 1 August 1993. (National Weather Service)
• 29 April 1910... The temperature at Kansas City, MO soared to 95 degrees to establish a record for the month of April. Four days earlier the afternoon high in Kansas City was 44 degrees, following a record cold morning low of 34 degrees. (The Weather Channel) (The Kansas City Weather Almanac)
  North America's deadliest rockslide was caused by snowmelt followed by temperatures near zero degrees Fahrenheit that caused water in the rock joints under Turtle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies to freeze and expand. Ninety million tons of limestone fell some 3000 ft onto Frank, AB. As many as 70 people died as the result of the rockslide. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

• 29 April 1912…The highest temperature ever recorded in Oceania was 108 degrees that occurred on this date at Tuguegarao, Philippines. (The Weather Doctor)

• 29 April 1973...The Mississippi River reached a crest of 43.4 ft at St. Louis, MO, breaking the previous record of 42 ft established in 1785. (David Ludlum)
• 30 April 1888...World's deadliest hailstorm occurred at Moradabad, India as enormous hailstones killed 230 persons and many livestock. An additional 16 people died in another town. (The Weather Doctor)
• 30 April 1991...Memphis, TN set a new monthly rainfall record for April with 17.13 inches of rain. The old record was 13.90 inches set back in 1877. (Intellicast)

• 30 April 1994…The rain finally stopped on the Kaneohe Ranch on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, ending a streak of 247 consecutive days of rain that began 27 August 1993. (The Weather Doctor)

• 1 May 1854...After 66 hours of steady rain, the Connecticut River reached a level of nearly twenty-nine feet (28 feet 10.5 inches) at Hartford, CT (the highest level of record until that time). The record height was reached in the midst of a great New England flood that followed sixty-six hours of steady rain. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
• 1 May 1935...Snow, ice and sleet brought winter back to parts of southeast Minnesota. Minneapolis received three inches of snow to tie their May record that was established in 1892. (1^st-2^nd) (The Weather Channel)
• 1 May 1954...The temperature at Polebridge, MT dipped to 5 degrees below zero to establish a state record for the month of May. (The Weather Channel)
• 2 May 1899...A storm buried Havre, MT under 24.8 inches of snow, an all-time record for that location. The water equivalent of 2.48 inches was a record 24-hour total for the month of May. (The Weather Channel)

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