WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

20-24 July 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 --

Check Zenithal Sun -- Residents of Hawaii's Big Island will experience a noontime sun that would be directly overhead during this week (22-23 Jul). This occurrence of a zenithal sun is one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents of Hilo and elsewhere on the Big Island. approximately one more week.. The other time when the Big Island experienced a zenithal sun was in mid May. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
A new moon and solar eclipse -- A new moon will occur this evening (officially 0235Z on 22 July 2009 or 10:35 PM EDT and 9:35 PM CDT, etc. on Monday).
Since lunar perigee (closest approach of the Moon to the Earth) of the year occurs only six hours before new moon, extremely high astronomical tides are predicted for large water bodies.
This new moon will also be responsible for a total solar eclipse for those located in parts of China and across the western Pacific Ocean, as the moon passes in front of the solar disk. The NASA Eclipse Web Site has more particulars and maps of this solar eclipse.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the "Giant Leap" -- This coming week marks the 40th Anniversary when Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface after the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. NASA is celebrating this anniversary with a variety of features on their home page. [NASA] A recent image from NASA's Earth-Observing satellite shows Launch Pad 39A at Florida's Kennedy Space Center where the Apollo 11 mission was launched. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A group of 29 noted scientists at universities across the nation and representing various disciplines were asked by The Science Coalition to proved their perspectives of how this historic lunar landing affected their disciplines and on what efforts are needed to meet the challenges of the next frontier of science. [EurekAlert!]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

State and city weather extremes for June 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 June 2009 in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for June 2009." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.
June drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its June 2009 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately eight percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of June, while 13 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
Record warm global ocean waters reported in June 2009 -- Analysis of preliminary average global land and ocean surface temperature data for the recently concluded month of June 2009 has led researchers at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center to conclude that the world's ocean surface temperature was the highest for June since the start of worldwide records in 1880. They also noted that the global land surface temperature was the sixth highest in the last 130 years, making the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for June 2009 was the second highest on record. [NOAA News]
Increasing sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean has lead NOAA scientists at NCDC and the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) to conclude that El Niño conditions have returned. Therefore, CPC has declared an El Niño Advisory, indicating that El Niño conditions are now being observed and are expected to persist. [NOAA/NCEP Climate Prediction Center]
Monthly and seasonal outlooks posted -- Forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center recently released their outlook for the month of August 2009, which suggests that residents across the Midwest could experience a better than even chance of below average monthly temperatures, while those along the West Coast, the Southwest and across the Gulf Coast in the South and Southeast would have a good chance for above average temperatures. Elsewhere across the Rockies and the Northeast, equal chances of below and above average temperatures were anticipated. The central high Plains were thought to have a better than equal chance of above average August precipitation, while the western Gulf Coast would have a high probability of drier than average conditions in August. [NOAA/NCEP Climate Prediction Center]
These forecasters anticipate that El Niño conditions should persist through the upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter of 2009-10. [NOAA/NCEP Climate Prediction Center] They also issued their three-month outlook running through October 2009. The Upper Midwest would appear to have a better than even chance of below average temperatures for these three month, while the southern tier of states from Arizona eastward to Florida were thought to stand a good chance of above average temperature. The high Plains and the Florida Peninsula could have greater than equal chance of higher than average precipitation for the three months running through October, while the Pacific Northwest could be drier than normal. [NOAA/NCEP Climate Prediction Center]
NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are also monitoring sea surface altimetry data obtained the Jason-2 satellite, looking for the spread of warm water across the equatorial Pacific. NASA JPL
A seasonal drought outlook running through October 2009 was also released by CPC that indicated various degrees of improvement to drought conditions were anticipated across the Lower and Upper Mississippi Valleys along with the southern Plains, while drought would persist across southern Texas, California and the interior Northwest.
Satellite imagery captures recent tropical floods and drought --
- An image from the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s EO-1 satellite shows some of the worst flooding in more than a half century along the Amazon and Negro Rivers in Brazil near Manaus. [NASA Earth Observatory]
- An image of the health of vegetation generated from data collected by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer onboard the NOAA-17 satellite, along with an a image of the precipitation deficit produced from satellite and land based data, document the widespread drought in Africa's Sahel. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Contract awarded for a satellite solar irradiance sensor -- NASA officials recently awarded a contract to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado-Boulder for development of the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor, an instrument that will be placed on a future National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System to measure the solar radiation National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System incident on the top of the earth's atmosphere. [NASA]
Arctic sea ice campaign is underway-- A new NASA-sponsored scientific field campaign called CASIE-09 (Characterization of Arctic Sea Ice Experiment 2009) is currently being conducted under the auspices of the International Polar Year (IPY) to study sea ice roughness and break-up in the Arctic and high northern latitudes. A variety of remote sensing methods will be utilized, including satellites and uninhabited aerial vehicles. [NASA ESPO] [NASA ARC] [EurekAlert!]
Declassification of arctic images should proceed to help in climate change examination -- A new report, entitled "Scientific Value of Arctic Sea Ice Imagery Derived Products," from the National Research Council requests that arctic images obtained from classified data sources should be declassified and made available to scientists and others for studies that involve detailed melting and freezing processes in the Arctic basin, which would be extremely useful studying the effects of climate change on sea ice and habitat. [National Academies]
Detecting tsunamis from space -- Scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences recently reported tracking a tsunami propagating across the open ocean using satellite-borne radar units to detect changes in sea surface texture along the leading edge of the wave. These scientists feel that this information obtained by orbiting satellites could be used to aid in improved tsunami detection and warning. [NOAA News]
NASA's Aura satellite turns five -- This past week marked the fifth anniversary of the launch of NASA's Aura spacecraft that contains a Microwave Limb Sounder and Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and designed to remotely measure stratospheric and tropospheric ozone, along with the vertical temperature, pressure and composition profiles of various atmospheric gases. [NASA JPL]
Report issued on failed launch of OCO -- A Mishap Investigation Board headed by the deputy director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recently issued a report on the unsuccessful launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base in February 2009, identifying four potential causes for the failure of a fairing on the Taurus launch vehicle to separate on command. NASA's OCO satellite was intended to study atmospheric carbon dioxide. [NASA JPL]
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

Research flights measure aerosols across the Plains -- During the last month, NASA Langley Research Center's B200 aircraft took flights across the Plains of Oklahoma and Texas, collecting data on aerosols using an airborne polarimeter called the Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) and a lidar called the High Spectral Resolution Lidar. One of the flights flew under the track of NASA's CALIPSO satellite to gather "ground truth" or validation data. [NASA LRC]
New isotope cluster could help in understanding the carbon cycle -- Researchers from the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Miami and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have discovered an unexpectedly large concentration of a carbon dioxide isotopologue (a molecule of a chemical species that differs in isotopic composition from other molecules) identified as ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁸O at high altitudes in the stratosphere. These researchers believe that their discovery could have implications for studying the carbon cycle and its response to climate change. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Demise of salt marshes may be linked to climate change -- Research conducted at Brown University indicates that increased atmospheric temperatures could place major stresses on several types of plants that inhabit pannes, or waterlogged, low-oxygen zones of salt marshes, in New England. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

New seasonal hurricane forecast model unveiled -- Scientists at Florida State University's Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies have developed a new "dynamical" computer model designed to predict the frequency of hurricane occurrence during a given season with unprecedented accuracy. Using this model, they forecast a below-average season in the Atlantic Ocean due in part on emerging El Niño conditions. [EurekAlert!]
Predictions on global warming may be incorrect -- Researchers from Rice University, the University of Hawaii and the University of California-Santa Cruz warn that based on their analysis of the rapid warming associated with the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), the current predictions about future global warming may be incorrect, as climate models used in these predictions underestimate only half the warming experienced during PETM accompanying the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. [Rice University] [EurekAlert!]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Gradual changes in North Atlantic currents are indicated -- A geosciences professor at Oregon State University claims that one of the longest experiment of its type ever run on a general circulation model to simulate the Earth's climate for the last 21,000 years indicates that major changes occur in the important ocean current systems since the height of the last Ice Age, but these changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may take place more slowly and gradually than had been suggested. [EurekAlert!]
An earlier formation of Arctic sea ice suspected -- An international team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Norway who have been analyzing oceanic sediment cores collected by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition from the floor of the central Arctic Ocean basin have concluded that ice may have initially formed in the Arctic between 47.5 and 46 million years ago, earlier than previously thought. [EurekAlert!]
Looking back at ancient life -- Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory conclude that some of the most ancient stromatolites were built with the assistance of mat-like microorganism communities approximately 3.4 billion years ago. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND 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]
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]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

20 July 1930...The temperature at Washington, DC soared to an all-time record of 106 degrees. The next day Millsboro reached 110 degrees to set a record for the state of Delaware. July 1930 was one of the hottest and driest summers in the U.S., particularly in the Missouri Valley where severe drought conditions developed. Toward the end of the month, state records were set for Kentucky with 114 degrees and Mississippi with 115 degrees. (David Ludlum)
20 July 1934...The temperature at Keokuk, IA soared to 118 degrees to establish an all-time record high temperature for the Hawkeye State. (The Weather Channel)
20 July 1965...The 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Show-Me State was set at Edgarton, MO as 18.18 inches of rain fell. (NCDC)
20 July 1997...A torrential 32.52 inches of rain fell at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Alabama. (NCDC)
20 July 1986...The temperature at Charleston, SC hit 104 degrees for the second day in a row to tie their all-time record high. (The Weather Channel)
20 July 1988...The temperature at Redding, CA soared to an all-time record high of 118 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
20 July 1994...Seattle-Tacoma, WA sizzled at 100 degrees, the highest ever temperature recorded there. (Intellicast)
20 July 1997...A torrential 32.52 inches of rain fell at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Alabama. (NCDC)
21 July 1911...The temperature at Painter, WY dipped to 10 degrees to equal the record low for July for the continental U.S. (The Weather Channel)
21 July 1930...The record high temperature for Delaware was set with 110 degrees at Millsboro. (Intellicast)
21 July 1934...The temperature reached 109 degrees at Cincinnati, OH to cap their hottest summer of record. The state record for Ohio was established that day with a reading of 113 degrees near the town of Gallipolis. (David Ludlum)
21 July 1983…The temperature at Vostok, Antarctic (elevation 11,220 ft) fell to 129 degrees below zero, establishing the all time lowest temperature ever recorded at a surface station on earth, as well as for the Antarctic continent. (NCDC)
21 July 1991...Windsor Locks, CT hit 101 degrees, the third day in a row with temperatures over 100 degrees. Providence RI reached 102 degrees, their second day of 100-degree readings, very rare for this location. (Intellicast)
22 July 1926...The temperature at Troy, NY reached 108 degrees to set a high temperature record for the Empire State. The record high temperature for Connecticut was set at Waterbury with 105 degrees; this record for the Nutmeg State was broken by one degree in July 1995 at the same city. (Intellicast)
22 July 1972...Fort Ripley, MN received 10.84 inches of rain, to establish a new 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Gopher State. (NCDC)
22 July 1987...Barrow, AK received 1.38 inches in 24 hours on the 21^st and 22^nd, an all-time record for that location. The previous record was the 1.00 inch water equivalent in a 15 inch all-time record snowfall of 26 October 1926. The average annual precipitation for Barrow is just 4.75 inches. (The National Weather Summary) (The Weather Channel) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
23 July 1923...Sheridan, WY was drenched with 4.41 inches of rain, an all-time 24-hour record for that location. (22^nd-23^rd) (The Weather Channel)
23 July 1987...Thunderstorms produced a record ten inches of rain in six and a half-hours at Minneapolis, MN, including 5.26 inches in two hours. Flash flooding claimed two lives and caused 21.3 million dollars damage. Streets in Minneapolis became rushing rivers, parking lots became lakes, and storm sewers spouted like geysers. A tornado hit Maple Grove, MN causing five million dollars damage. Baseball size hail was reported at Olivia, MN. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
24 July 1928...Wahluke, WA hit a high temperature of 118 degrees, which tied a record high for the state. In August 1961, this all time state record high was tied at Ice Harbor Dam. (Intellicast)
24 July 1936...Record high temperature for Kansas was tied at 121 degrees near Alton. The record high for Nebraska was also tied at Minden with 118 degrees.
24 July 1942...The temperature at Las Vegas, NV hit 117 degrees to set an all- time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
24 July 1952...The temperature at Louisville, GA soared to 112 degrees to establish a state record. This record for the Peach State was tied in August 1983. (The Weather Channel) (NCDC)
24-25 July 1979...Claudette, a weak tropical storm, deluged southeastern Texas with torrential rains. The Houston suburb of Alvin received 43.00 inches, a 24-hour precipitation record for not only the Lone Star State, but for the U.S. Freeport reported a total of 30 inches. Total damage from flooding was over $400 million. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum) (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
25 July 1979...Tropical Storm Claudette produced phenomenal rainfall totals in southeast Texas. Thirty to forty inches fell in 24 hours around Alvin. Freeport reported a total of 30 inches. Total damage from flooding was over $400 million. (Intellicast)
25 July 1987...Sixteen cities in the eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Beckley, WV equaled their all-time record high of 91 degrees, established just the previous day. It marked their fourth day in a row of 90-degree heat, after hitting 90 degrees just twice in the previous 25 years of records. The water temperature of Lake Erie at Buffalo, NY reached 79 degrees, the warmest reading in 52 years of records. (The National Weather Summary)
26 July 1943...Tishomingo, OK baked in the heat as the mercury soared to 121 degrees, a Sooner State record high temperature. (The Weather Channel)
26 July 1960...The temperature at Salt Lake City, UT hit 107 degrees, an all-time record high for that location. (The Weather Channel)

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