WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

27 April- 1 May 2015

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2015 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 24 August 2015. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Evolution of global view of planet Earth from a satellite prospective seen over 50 years -- On Earth Day 2015, NASA released an interesting comparison of how composite images of the entire globe made by its fleet of environmental satellites has evolved over the last 50 years. A global view composite satellite image of Earth made by the sensor onboard NASA's polar-orbiting TIROS-IX (Television Infrared Observation Satellite) spacecraft in mid-February 1965 is compared with a corresponding natural color image made by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite 50 years to the date later in February 2015. The 1965 image was one of the early composite satellite images to be assembled with a global perspective. Comparison of these images shows the increased resolution in satellite imagery that has taken place over the last half century. A description of early weather satellite observations is also provided. [NASA Earth Observatory]
The NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory has also provided a sequence of visible satellite images over an eight-hour span made on the first Earth Day (22 April 1970) by the sensor onboard the NASA/NOAA Applications Technology Satellite-3 (ATS-3), which was in geosynchronous orbit over equatorial South America. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory ]
"Be Air Aware" -- National Weather Service and the US Environmental Protection Agency have announced that this upcoming week (27 April-1 May 2015) 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. Air quality curriculum resources, activities and materials are available in Tools for Teachers.
National Science Bowl set for next weekend -- The US Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl®, a nationwide academic competition for middle and high school students will be held later this week and through next weekend (30 April -4 May 2015) in Washington, DC. This event will test students' knowledge in all areas of science and is meant to encourage high school students to excel in science and math and to pursue careers in those fields. [DOE Office of Science]
Between equinox and solstice -- Next Friday (1 May 2015) will be May Day, which had its origins as a great Celtic festival Beltane. This date is close to the traditional "cross quarter" day, roughly halfway between the vernal equinox (20 March 2015) and the summer solstice (21 June 2015). (Note that Wednesday 6 May 2015 is closer to the halfway point between the equinox and solstice. EJH)
Kentucky Derby climatology -- With the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby set for next Saturday (2 May 2015), the National Weather Service's Louisville (KY) Forecast Office has posted a climatology for Derby Day, including the historical weather extremes. [Louisville NWSFO]
High-quality maps of May temperature and precipitation normals across US available -- The PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University's website has prepared high-resolution maps depicting the normal maximum, minimum and precipitation totals for May and other months across the 48 coterminous United States for the current 1981-2010 climate normals interval. These maps, with a 800-meter resolution, were produced using the PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) climate mapping system.
May weather calendar for a city near you -- The Midwestern Regional Climate Center maintains an interactive website that permits the public to produce a ready to print weather calendar for any given month of the year, such as May, at any of approximately 270 weather stations around the nation. (These stations are NOAA's ThreadEx stations.) The entries for each day of the month includes: Normal maximum temperature, normal minimum temperature, normal daily heating and cooling degree days, normal daily precipitation, record maximum temperature, record minimum temperature, and record daily precipitation; the current normals for 1981-2010.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Spring comes to interior Alaska -- The ice on the Tanana River at Nenana officially went out on the afternoon of Friday, 24 April 2015 at 2:25 PM, Alaska Standard Time). This date represents the sixth earliest breakup on record in the famous 98-year old Nenana Ice Classic Ice Classic, occurring two years after the latest breakup on record (20 May 2013). The earliest breakup occurred on 20 April 1998. The median date for ice-breakup is 5 May. [Nenana Ice Classic] The jackpot for this year's annual Nenana Ice Classic of $330,330 was to be shared by several winners who had not been identified as of this weekend. [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner] NOTE: A graph of the date of ice-out for each year since the Classic was started in 1917 has been plotted by this editor. EJH

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Famous Mauna Loa record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations named National Historic Chemical Landmark -- In a ceremony to be held this Thursday (30 April) at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii, the American Chemical Society will designate the famous "Keeling Curve" as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. This Keeling Curve, named for the late geochemist Charles David Keeling of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, represents the nearly continuous plot of monthly atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that he started at the newly established US Weather Bureau observatory at an elevation 11,135 feet above sea level in March 1958. The curve showing increasing levels of carbon dioxide has been used one of the most widely recognized icons of the human impact of the planetary climate. The 158,000-member of the American Chemical Society established the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program to recognize seminal events in the history of chemistry [NOAA News]
New iceberg discovered drifting off Antarctica -- In early March 2015, scientists at the US National Ice Center using NASA satellite images discovered a new iceberg, which has been identified as B-34, to be floating off the coast of West Antarctica. This 17-mile long iceberg apparently broke off the Getz Ice Shelf and floated out into the Amundsen Sea. Melting of these small icebergs can add cold, freshwater to the saltwater Southern Ocean, affecting ocean currents. A sequence of MODIS images from NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites is provided. [NASA Earth Observatory ]
First global soil moisture maps produced by recently launched satellite -- Once the antenna onboard NASA's new Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory began spinning at full speed, the first global SMAP radar image was produced that shows the soil moisture across the continents and the conditions of the planet's oceans and sea ice. The first maps were made from data collected between 31 March and 3 April 2015. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]
Mountains warming at faster than expected rate -- An international team of scientists including those from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder have found that the higher elevations of the mountainous regions of the globe have been warming at a rate faster than expected because of changing global climate. This rapid warming of the mountains could result glacial melt and vegetation change. Over the past 20 years temperatures above elevations of 13,000 ft have risen nearly 75 percent faster than temperatures in areas below 6,500 ft. The team calls for more rigorous monitoring of temperature patterns across the world's mountain regions. [University of Colorado Boulder News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Eruption of Chilean volcano seen by satellites -- A set of natural-color and infrared images obtained from the MODIS instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and the infrared and day-night images from the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite shows a volcanic ash plume following last Wednesday's (22 April 2015) eruption of southern Chile's Calbuco volcano. Erupting for the first time since 1972, this volcano produced an ash cloud that rose to an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet. This plume could have an impact not only on the local region, but also upon the weather and climate patterns over a large area of the Southern Hemisphere. [NASA Earth Observatory]
[NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

First nationwide atlas of airborne microbes produced -- Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and North Carolina State University have recently produced the first atlas of airborne microbes across the 48 contiguous United States based upon outdoor dust samples that were subjected to species identification by a DNA sequencing technique. This new atlas could help in understanding health and disease in crops, animals and humans. Several geographic patterns in the microbial communities were detected across the nation. [University of Colorado Boulder News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Resilient Lands and Waters Initiative announced to prepare natural resources for climate change at four locations -- Early last week, the US Department of Interior, NOAA and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the "Resilient Lands and Waters Initiative" that involves the building of partnerships with local groups to conserve and restore important lands and waters, making them more resilient to a changing climate. Sites in southwest Florida, Hawaii, Washington and the Great Lakes were selected to showcase this climate resilience approach that are vulnerable to climate change such as sea level rise, drought, wildfire and invasive species. [NOAA News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

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 100 degrees to establish a state high temperature record. (The Weather Channel)
27 April 1960...The highest temperature 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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