WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

15-19 June 2009

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems 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.

ITEMS OF INTEREST --

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- Wednesday 17 June 2009 has been declared World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This year, the Day's theme is "Conserving land and water=Securing our common future." In December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared that on 17 June of each year, this international observance would highlight the urgent need to curb the desertification process. In addition, the goal is to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the international environmental agenda. [UNCCD]
HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE! The summer solstice will occur early Sunday morning or late Saturday night (officially, 21 June 2009 at 0545 Z, or 1:45 AM EDT, 12:45 AM CDT, etc.) as the earth's spin axis is oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest north in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical summer, the British call the day the "Midsummer Day", as the apparent sun will begin its southward descent again. For essentially all locations in the northern hemisphere, daylight today will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Monday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 21 December 2009 at 1747 Z. However, because the sun is not as perfect a time-keeper as a clock, the latest sunsets of the year at many mid-latitude locations will continue through about the first week of July -- a consequence of the earth being near aphelion (on 3 July 2009) and the apparent sun moving across the sky well to the north of the celestial equator.
Climate change education funding opportunity announced -- NASA officials recently announced that a new funding opportunity was being made available to qualified applicants in the form of cooperative agreements for projects designed to educate students, teachers and lifelong learners about global climate change. The applications could be from higher education institutions, state agencies, local agencies, or federally recognized tribal government agencies; public school districts; and nonprofit organizations. Notices of intent for the Proposals for Global Climate Change Education: Research Experiences, Teaching and Learning are due by 2 July 2009. [NASA Headquarters]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Review of May 2009 weather and climate -- Scientists with the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently released their preliminary monthly climate statistics for May 2009, which indicates that the nationwide average temperature was 1.4 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average temperature for May. California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico had statewide monthly temperatures that were within the top ten highest May readings since relatively dense climate records began in 1895. Only Arkansas, Oklahoma and North Dakota had below average statewide temperatures. Nationwide, precipitation was slightly above the 20th century average, with Arkansas and Florida reporting their wettest May since 1895. Many states across the Mississippi Valley and the Southeast had much above average precipitation, while the states along the West Coast had above average May precipitation. However, many of the Plains states had below average precipitation, with South Dakota having the eighth driest and Montana the tenth driest May on record. [NOAA News]
State and city weather extremes for May 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 May 2009 in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for May 2009." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.
Reduction in wind speed seen across the nation -- A recent study by atmospheric scientists at Iowa State University and Indiana University indicate that average and peak wind speeds across the much of the nation have been decreasing since 1973, with some of the largest decreases in the Midwest and East, where the drop has been as much as 10 percent per decade. Whether the decrease could be due to a change in climate remained uncertain. [Houston Chronicle]
Gulf Coast meteorology is studied -- This week, scientists from NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN and students from Mississippi's Jackson State University are beginning a two-week field experiment across southern Mississippi designed to monitor how the sea breeze off the Gulf of Mexico develops and distributes pollutants. Six monitoring stations will be used along with a Doppler sodar unit. [NOAA News]
Monitoring drought conditions across southern Asia -- Areas of Asia, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Iraq, have experienced several years of drought. The MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite has been collecting data across the region, including health of the vegetation that can be displayed as Vegetation Anomaly (or NDVI) charts. The drought continues into 2009 across Iraq and neighboring areas of Southwest Asia. [NASA Earth Observatory] In Afghanistan, rains returned and the effects of the drought lessened. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Algae bloom swirl seen in Pacific off Japan -- An image obtained from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite in late May shows a swirl of variously colored waters in the western North Pacific associated with algae blooms and sediments being brought together by the warm northward flowing Kuroshio Current and the cold southward flowing Oyashio Current. [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

Forming a mathematical relationship between carbon emissions and global temperature changes -- Using a combination of historical climate data and global climate models, researchers from Canada and the United Kingdom have determined that a simple linear relationship exists between total cumulative carbon dioxide emissions and global temperature change. [EurekAlert!]
Global mass extinction was caused by ancient volcanic eruptions-- Scientists at the United Kingdom's University of Leeds claim that a heretofore unknown giant volcanic eruption in what is now southwestern China approximately 260 million years ago appears to have initiated a large lava flow into the ocean along with large explosions propelling sulfur dioxide into atmosphere, ultimately causing a mass extinction of marine life around the world. [EurekAlert!]
Greenland could be a bigger player in sea level rise -- A researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks warns that the Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than previously thought and that this ice sheet may have been responsible for approximately one-fourth of the global rise in sea level that has been observed during the last 13 years. [University of Alaska, Fairbanks]
Small raindrops could fall fast -- Physicists from Michigan Technological University and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National University of Mexico) using optical array spectrometer probes along with a particle analysis and collecting system have discovered that some smaller raindrops can fall faster than larger ones, even exceeding the theoretical "terminal speed" for their size. These researchers feel that their discovery could help improve the accuracy of precipitation measurement and weather prediction. [EurekAlert!]
Typhoons could trigger slow earthquakes -- Researchers from the Carnegie Institution and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan have discovered that typhoons appear to trigger slow earthquakes in eastern Taiwan, hypothesizing that reductions in atmospheric pressure due to the typhoons can cause movement along a fault line, resulting in the earthquake. [EurekAlert!]
Planets with life may have greater longevity -- Researchers from the California Institute of Technology hypothesize that planets with life have greater longevity due to greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane and they predict that the life-span of the Earth's biosphere could extend twice as long as previously thought since changes in the air pressure could accommodate changes in surface temperature. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Increased global temperatures could shift monsoon patterns with disastrous consequences -- Researchers from Oregon State University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Nevada's Desert Research Institute report that their analysis of oxygen isotopes from ice cores and ancient stalagmites indicates higher global temperatures could cause an abrupt change in the climate due to an equatorward shift of seasonal monsoon circulation regimes that would move much of the rain offshore leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth, including agricultural crops. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

An upcoming El Niño event is foreseen -- Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography indicate that an El Niño event, or an anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime, appeared to be forming and could result in locally heavy precipitation across California and neighboring states across the Southwest. This outlook was also echoed by those at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center and the University of Washington's Climate Impacts group. [NBC Los Angeles]
New wave model unveiled -- Researchers at Louisiana State University and its Coastal Studies Institute have developed an updated and improved version of their Wave-Current-Surge Information System for Coastal Louisiana (WAVCIS), an easy to use model that can be used by emergency management officials with information on wave heights that could occur along the Gulf Coast due to an approaching hurricane or tropical storm. [EurekAlert!]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Tree ring analysis helps track droughts and floods Down Under-- Scientists from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and the Australian National University have been able to use the annual ring growth from tropical trees in northeastern Australia as proxy indicators to determine the variations in annual precipitation across that region, marking the first time that the chronology of growth rings have been used from tropical Australia. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Climate change could add to migration -- A recent study conducted by CARE International, Columbia University and the UN University warns that changes in climate during this century could result in environmental pressures that would lead to the greatest human migration in history, with as many as 700 million people being forced to move by 2050. [Reuters]
The Peach State emerges from its drought -- David Emory Stooksbury, the Georgia State Climatologist, recently reported that heavy spring rain across his state has meant that the drought conditions that plagued the Peach State for the last three years has essentially ended. However, while emergency water restrictions have been lifted, appropriate water conservation practices should be continued. [National Hydrologic Warning Council]
Attempt made to measure impact of climate change on flood insurance -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has undertaken a study to determine what impact that changes in climate and the associated predictions of more intense precipitation events and stronger tropical cyclones (e.g., hurricanes) would have upon the nation's public flood insurance program. [National Hydrologic Warning Council]
Western fire mitigation efforts may be misplaced -- A study conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Montana and Colorado State University indicates that recent fire mitigation efforts across the western states have been misplaced, with much of the federally funded activities designed to reduce fuels and wildfire hazard being implemented far from the "wildland-urban interface," the area designated as high priority by federal wildfire policies. In addition, the researchers found that the number of forest acres burned between 1987 and 2003 was six times greater than the area burned during the previous 16 years due to increased summer temperatures, earlier snowmelt and longer fire seasons. [EurekAlert!]
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:

15 June 1879...McKinney, ND received 7.7 inches of rain in 24 hours, a state record. This 24-hour state precipitation record has since been broken in June 1975 with an 8.10-inch reading. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1887…Regina, Saskatchewan reported its wettest day to date as 6.31 inches rain fell. (The Weather Doctor)
15 June 1896...The temperature at Fort Mojave, CA soared to 127 degrees, the highest reading of record for June for the U.S. The low that day was 97 degrees. Morning lows of 100 degrees were reported on the 12^th, 14^th and 16^th of the month. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1957...East Saint Louis, IL was deluged with 16.54 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state of Illinois. In July 1996, this record was broken when 16.91 inches fell. (The Weather Channel)
Month of June...According to a 1969 US Army technical report, the average dewpoint temperature at Ras Andahglie and Assab, Eritrea (Ethiopia) average slightly more than 84ºF. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 June 1917...The temperature soared to 124 degrees at Mecca, CA climaxing the most destructive heat wave of record in California history. (David Ludlum)
17 June 1965...Holly, CO was deluged with 11.08 inches of rain to establish a state 24-hour rainfall record. (The Weather Channel)
18 June 1991...Atlanta, GA set a new record for the amount of the rain in one hour as 3.47 inches fell between 6:52 and 7:52 PM EDT. (Intellicast)
19 June 240 BC...On the summer solstice, Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
19 June 2004…An all-time record high temperature of 93 degrees was set: at Annette Island, Alaska. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 1921...Circle, MT received 11.50 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state. The town of Circle received a total of 16.79 inches of rain that month to establish a rainfall record for any town in Montana for any month of the year. (The Weather Channel)
20 June 1970…Norway's hottest day on record occurred, as the temperature at Nesbyen, Norway peaked at 96.1 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 2000…The town of Barrow on Alaska's North Slope experienced its first recorded thunderstorm, which dropped 0.16 inches (4.1 mm) of rain in just a couple minutes. (The Weather Doctor)
21 June 1942…The temperature at Tirat Tsvi, Israel reached 129 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Asia. (The Weather Doctor)

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