WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

WEEK ONE: 21-25 January 2013

ITEMS OF INTEREST

A climatology for Presidential inaugurations -- Since the official Presidential Inauguration Day fell on Sunday (20 January 2013), the ceremonial outdoor inauguration for President Barack Obama will be held the following day on Monday at the US Capitol, followed by the Inaugural Parade along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The quadrennial Inauguration of the President and Vice President of the United States has been influenced by inclement Washington, DC weather, producing an interesting history. Because of the 20th Amendment, the Inauguration date was moved in the 1930s from the 4th of March to the 20th of January, a date selected after consultation with Washington, DC climate records. Meteorologists at the Baltimore/Washington National Weather Service Office have produced a detailed report of the "normal weather" that can be expected, along with weather extremes for past inaugurations. [Baltimore/Washington National Weather Service Office]
Free admission into the National Parks and Forests -- This coming Monday 21 January 2013 has been designated by the National Park Service as fee-free days in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. This fee waiver will cover entrance and commercial tour fees in many of the national parks and monuments administered by the Park Service. [National Park Service Fee Free Days] The US Forest Service will also waive fees in the national forests and grasslands that it administers on Monday as part of the larger federal initiative aimed at reconnecting people with the outdoors. [US Forest Service News Release] ]
Accessing and interpreting climate data -- If you would like to obtain a variety of climate data for your home town or state that are available from the National Weather Service, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth. This Supplemental not only identifies some of the sites to find the data, but also provides you with a brief explanation of the terminology used to identify the climate data.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Annual drought report for 2012 -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its 2012 annual drought report online. This report describes how the areas experiencing drought and wet conditions changed throughout the calendar year. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (a commonly used indicator of drought conditions), approximately 14 percent of the area of the coterminous United States experienced moderate to severe drought conditions at the start of January 2012, while 17 percent of the nation . By the end of December 2012, the size of the moderate to severe drought had expanded to approximately 38 percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of December, while the area with severely to extremely wet conditions had shrunk to two percent of the area. Additional drought information is also available on the December 2012 online drought report.
Global weather and climate for 2012 reviewed -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that based upon their preliminary analysis of worldwide land and ocean surface temperature data, the annual worldwide combined land and ocean surface temperature for 2012 was approximately 0.57 Celsius degrees (or 1.03 Fahrenheit degrees) above the 20th century (1901-2000) average, making the calendar year the tenth warmest for the planet since sufficiently detailed world-wide climate records began in 1880. Separately, the globally averaged land surface temperature for 2012 was 0.90 Celsius degrees above the 20th century average, or the seventh highest on record, while the globally averaged ocean surface temperature for the year was 0.45 Celsius degrees above the 20th century average, or the tenth highest on record. The scientists indicated that a weak to moderate La Niña event (an anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime favoring cool waters in the equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean) during the first three months of the year, followed by ENSO-neutral conditions (standing for El Niño/Southern Oscillation) during the remainder of the year had an effect on the annual sea surface temperatures.
The scientists also note that the preliminary global precipitation data indicate 2012 was close to long-term averages across the land areas, although some areas of the planet were exceptionally wet, while others experienced drought conditions. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
Using a slightly different methodology for averaging global surface temperatures, scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) reported that the global average temperature for 2012 was the ninth highest reading since 1880. [NASA GISS]
A description is made of the slight variations in globally averaged annual temperatures as produced by NASA's GIS, NOAA's NCDC, the United Kingdom's Met Office Hadley Centre/Climate Research Unit (CRU) and the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA). A graph of the variations in these four independent records is also available.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Monthly mean temperature records have increased by a factor of five -- A team of scientists from Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Spain's Complutense University of Madrid have found that on average, five times as many record warm months have been occurring around the world recently than could be expected without long-term increases in global temperature. Some parts of Europe, Africa and southern Asia have experienced an increase in the number of monthly records by a factor of ten. The researchers claim that 80 percent of observed monthly records would not have occurred without human influence on climate. [Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research]
New field experiment could help reshape atmospheric science -- Three teams of NASA scientists and engineers will be testing several instruments that will be carried aboard a future satellite during the Polarimeter Definition Experiment (PODEX) that will be held in Southern California later this month. These instruments, which will be flown on high altitude aircraft during PODEX, include three prototype polarimeters designed to measure the brightness and polarization of reflected light. Ultimately, the instruments, which are designed to provide extensive information on clouds and aerosols (airborne particles), will be onboard the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) mission that may be launched in 2016. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]
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

Satellites detect winter haze affecting air quality in Asia -- Recent natural-color images made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites document the extensive hazy conditions found across sections of China and that have been produced by human activity. Two of the MODIS images made by the Terra satellite show the development of one of the worst air pollution episodes in Beijing and other cities in northeastern China. Air quality measurements confirmed the exceptionally poor air quality in this region. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Another MODIS image made from the instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite shows a large plume of haze covering the Indo-Gangetic Plain of northern India and Bangladesh during the second week of January. [NASA Earth Observatory]
The persistent smog that plagued large parts of China last week resulted in a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of patients admitted to Beijing hospitals with respiratory problems. A system with high barometric pressure remained across sections of China resulting in trapped smog in a stagnant air mass. Low visibility and poor air quality resulted in what has been called one of the worst cases of air pollution in recent years. [The Guardian]
Presence of smoke or smog indicative of climate change ....-- An atmospheric scientist from the University of Washington and her collages have found that the soot or black carbon from smoke that produces smog appears to be the number two contributor to global warming, behind carbon dioxide or contributing approximately twice as much to increased temperatures than previously thought. Black carbon emissions from open burning of forests, crops and grasslands along with energy related emissions from eastern and southeastern Asia appear to have been underestimated. [University of Washington News]
Melting of Arctic sea ice accelerates with melt ponds -- Researchers at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research who have measured the light transmission through Arctic sea ice on a large scale have determined that where melt water ponds on Arctic sea ice, the ice melts more rapidly because more solar radiation penetrating into the water and ice is absorbed. [ Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Spring flowers in eastern US keep pace with warming climate -- A team of researchers from Boston and Harvard Universities and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have analyzed the phenological records maintained by naturalist Henry David Thoreau in mid-19th century Massachusetts, the noted ecologist Aldo Leopold and his daughter in mid-to late 20th century Wisconsin, finding that native plants in the eastern United States are flowering as much as a month earlier in response to a warming climate. (Phenology is the scientific study of recognizable periodic plant and animal life cycle events especially on the seasonal cycle and how these events are influenced by climate and other factors.) Their work may also help predict effects on important agricultural crops, which depend on flowering to produce fruit. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News]
Changing climate appears to have complex effects on temperate rainforests -- Researchers at the US Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station report that changing climate alter growing conditions in temperate rainforests, but not all forest plant species will be affected in the same way and the same degree. The research was conducted over a 13-year span on temperate rainforests in southeastern and south-central Alaska. [US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

New three-month seasonal weather/climate outlook released for late winter-early spring across US -- Late last week, forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) released their three month outlook across the nation for February, March and April 2013, which includes the last month of meteorological winter (the three months of December through February) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first two months of meteorological spring (May through June). In their temperature outlook, the forecasters foresee a better than equal chance for above average late winter and early spring temperatures across most of the southern half of the nation, primarily over the southern Plains and southern Rockies in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. In addition, the Northeast could also experience above average temperatures. On the other hand, they anticipate a better than even chance of below average temperatures for February through April across the Pacific Northwest and sections of the northern high Plains. Elsewhere, equal chances of either below or above average temperature were anticipated, especially across the Midwest and the Southeast.
The CPC three-month precipitation outlook calls for better than even chances for dry conditions across the southern tier of states, especially over New Mexico and adjacent sections of Arizona and Texas, along with the central Gulf Coast during the three months of February through April 2013. On the other hand, sections of the Midwest, extending from across the upper Mississippi Valley into the western Great Lakes were thought to have better than equal chances of above average February-April precipitation.
The forecasters feel that the current ENSO-neutral conditions should continue to affect the winter weather, where ENSO stands for El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime would tend to favor sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific that would remain close to the long-term average values at least through May 2013. A summary of the prognostic discussion of the outlook for non-technical users is available from CPC.
National seasonal drought outlook issued -- The forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center also issued their US Seasonal Drought Outlook that will run through April 2013. This outlook indicates that drought conditions should either persist or develop across a large section of the nation, encompassing sections of the Plains, the southern and central Rockies, the Great Basin and southern California. Drought conditions across sections of northern Florida and southern Georgia in the Southeast would persist or increase in intensity. However, marginal to significant improvement in the drought conditions were anticipated over sections of the upper Midwest, the northern Plains, the northern Rockies and the Appalachians in the Southeast and Middle Atlantic States. Note: a Seasonal Drought Outlook Discussion is included describing the forecasters' confidence.

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

New Antarctic geological timeline seen to aid future sea-level predictions -- A team of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and Norway's University of Tromsø have studied the average rate of glacial retreat in the Amundsen Sea region of West Antarctica since the end of the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago using mud samples collected from the sea floor of the continental shelf in the Amundsen Sea. The radiocarbon dates of tiny fossilized marine animals obtained from these samples were used to generate a new timeline for the ice loss and glacier retreat in that region. The team concludes that the rapid changes observed by satellites over the last two decades at Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers may be exceptional and are unlikely to have happened more than three or four times during the last 10,000 years. The researchers believe that their new timeline can be used to help forecast future sea level rises associated with glacial retreat and ice loss. [British Antarctic Survey Press Release]
Multicellular marine organisms triggered "Great Oxidation Event" -- Evolutionary biologists from the Universities of Zurich and Gothenburg have shown that the development of cyanobacteria, or multicellular organisms capable of producing oxygen in ancient oceans, occurred as early as 2.3 billion years ago or shortly before the rise in free oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. This increase in atmospheric and oceanic oxygen has been called the "Great Oxidation Event." Thus the multicellularity of cyanobacteria appears to have played a significant role for development of current life on Earth. The researchers claim that since oxygen was poisonous for large numbers of anaerobic organisms, many of the anaerobic types of bacteria were eliminated, opening ecological 'niches' to many new types of multicellular cyanobacteria. [University of Zurich]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Grant awards help address impacts of climate change on two Southwestern states -- Arizona and New Mexico will receive $3.5 million in grants from NOAA over five years to help them prepare for and adapt to climate variability and change. Seven smaller grants for one- and two-year projects were also awarded this week to RISA research teams in other sections of the nation. [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]

COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY

Trail of minerals indicating early water on Martian surface tracked by Curiosity Rover -- Researchers from the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory and the French Space Agency have analyzed data collected by the laser instrument as part of the Mars Science Laboratory's ChemCam onboard NASA's Curiosity Rover indicate a trail of minerals that indicated prior presence of water near the Curiosity Rover site on Mars. These minerals appeared to include gypsum and bassinite, or types of hydrated calcium sulfate. The Rover also had found alluvial flow patterns previously, which would also indicate water flow. [Los Alamos National Laboratory]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD --

A request: If you have some climate-related experience that you would like to share with other DataStreme Earth's Climate System participants, please send them to the email address appearing at the bottom of this document for possible inclusion in a News file. Thank you. EJH

Concept of the Week: Touring the DataStreme Earth's Climate System Website

NOTE: This Concept for the Week is a repeat of that which appeared in last week's Weekly Climate News.

Welcome to DataStreme Earth's Climate System (ECS)! The Earth's Climate System website is an integral component of the DataStreme ECS (Earth's Climate System) course. The website is intended to deliver a wealth of climate information that is both pertinent to the course as well as being a reference site for you as you study Earth's climate system. The webpage is arranged in several sections. On Monday of each week of the course, we will post the current Weekly Climate News that includes Climate in the News (a summary listing of recent events related to climate), Concept of the Week (an in-depth analysis of some topic related to climate in the Earth system), and Historical Events (a list of past events important in the understanding of climatology). When appropriate, Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth will be provided on some topic related to the principal theme of the week.

You will use the DS Climate Studies website to access and download the "Current Climate Studies" that complement your Climate Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should also be available by noon (Eastern Time) on Monday. Click the appropriate links to download and print these electronic components of the investigations as well as your Chapter, Investigations and Current Climate Studies Response forms.

Beyond these course Learning Files, sections include Climate Information, Climate Variability, Climate Change, Societal Interactions and Climate Policy, and Extras. As the titles suggest, there are multiple uses for climate data and their interpretation. Here we explore some examples of the information provided in the various sections of the webpage.

The Climate Information section includes access to weather data, the raw material of climate synthesis, from the United States and the world under the heading "Observations and Data." Under this heading, click on "U.S. and World Weather Data." This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) page first directs you to "United States Weather" and provides channels to current weather data as well as radar graphics, weather maps, and aviation and marine weather. It then leads you to International Weather Conditions.

The second major subdivision of the course website encompasses Climate Variability. Climatic variability refers to the fluctuations and oscillations that may occur within the climate system at temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Select the link, "NOAA El Niño Page". The page that appears provides access to a wealth of background and information on El Niño and La Niña, including the animation showing sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Pacific during recent months. To the left of the animation, click on "What's happening today?" The page of current tropical Pacific conditions that appears shows a small map to the right. Click on that map and again anywhere on the subsequent set of map panels to get an enlarged view of the latest conditions of SST and anomalies.

The third major section of the course website is termed Climate Change. Here we provide links to information and analyses that primarily focus on anthropogenic (human-made) change processes and results in the climate system. That prominently includes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ("IPCC") latest classic report on atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and their effects. Also linked are modeling results ("Models") based on those studies.

The last major section of the website is titled Societal Interactions and Climate Policy. This block contains information on the impacts of projected change on human societies around the world, beyond that listed in the IPCC report, and the international actions and debates regarding those issues. Select and click on "US Global Change Impacts Report" to the left in this section. This webpage introduces you to the latest comprehensive and authoritative report on climate change and its impacts in the United States, now and in the future. You will be directed to this report several times in this course.

Completing the course website is the Extras section of additional handy information for the course and individual study such as dictionaries of terms, maps and materials. Choose and examine one of the Climate Literacy links, either a PDF or the Word version. This document has recently been developed and released by NOAA to provide an overview of general concepts and information the general public and especially students should be aware of regarding the climate and the climate debate.

Concept of the Week: Questions

The first Climate Information link, "NOAA Climate Services", shows the Global Climate Dashboard where several graphs display Earth's temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide level, spring snow cover, etc. with a time slider than can be set to display from [(1800)(1880)(1940)] to the latest data in 2010.
Under the Societal Interactions and Climate Policy section, click the "U.S. Global Change Research Program" link. On their page, click the Home tab of the Menu bar along the top. Midway down the resulting page are two selector bars that show the climate impacts in the report are categorized by [(only regional)(only sectoral)(both regional and sectoral)] climate information.

Historical Events:

21 January 1985...An all-time record low temperature of 7 degrees was set on this day at Jacksonville, FL. The coldest day ever recorded at Macon, GA was recorded on this day when the mercury dropped to 6 degrees below zero. Records began at Macon in 1899. (Intellicast) The all-time record low temperature for North Carolina was set at Mt. Mitchell with a 34 degree below zero reading, while a 19 degree below zero reading at Caesars Head in South Carolina set that state's record low temperature. (National Climatic Data Center)
22 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Illinois was set at Mount Carroll as the mercury dipped to 35 degrees below zero. This state record has since been broken in 1999. (Intellicast)
22 January 1961...The all-time record low temperature for Connecticut was tied when the temperature fell to 32 degrees below zero at Coventry. (National Climate Data Center)
22 January 1943...Chinook winds during the early morning hours caused the temperature at Spearfish, SD to rise 49 Fahrenheit degrees from 4 degrees below zero to 45 degrees above zero in just two minutes (between 7:30 and 7:32 AM), the most dramatic temperature rise in world weather records. An hour and a half later the mercury plunged from 54 degrees above zero to 4 degrees below zero in twenty-seven minutes. Plate glass windows cracked as a result of the quick thermal expansion and contraction. (David Ludlum)
22-23 January 1943...Hoegees Camp, at an elevation of 2760 feet in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, received 26.12 inches of precipitation in a 24-hour span, setting the Golden State's 24-hour precipitation record. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
22 January 1985...Mountain Lake Biological Station in Virginia reported a temperature of 30 degrees below zero, which established the all-time record low temperature for the state. (National Climate Data Center)
24 January 1857...The coldest weather in pre-U.S. Weather Bureau history occurred with temperatures of 50 degrees below zero reported in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero in Boston, MA and 11 degrees below zero on Nantucket Island. (Intellicast)
24 January 1916...The temperature at Browning, MT plunged 100 Fahrenheit degrees in just 24 hours, from 44 degrees above zero to 56 degrees below zero. It was a record 24-hour temperature drop for the U.S. (Weather Channel) (National Severe Storms Forecast Center)
24 January 1922...The all-time record low temperature for the state of Wisconsin was set at Danbury when the temperature dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast) (This record has been broken by one degree in February, 1996)
24 January 1956...Thirty-eight inches of rain deluged the Kilauea Sugar Plantation of Hawaii in 24 hours, including twelve inches in just one hour. The 38.00 inches remains the Aloha State's 24-hour maximum precipitation record. (David Ludlum)
25 January 1965...Alta, UT was in the midst of a storm that left the town buried under 105 inches of snow establishing a record for the state. (David Ludlum)
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)

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