WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

17-21 August 2009

ITEMS OF INTEREST --

Fire watch over California from space -- An image made last week from the MODIS instrument on NASA's California's Aqua satellite shows smoke plumes from large wildfires that raged in the Santa Cruz Mountains southwest of San Jose [NASA Earth Observatory] while a MODIS image from the Terra satellite showed the smoke from a fire near Santa Barbara in southern sections of the Golden State. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Western Pacific volcano erupts -- An image made by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows a volcanic plume spewing from the Rabaul Volcano on Papua New Guinea last week. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Summarizing the July 2009 weather and climate statistics across the nation and globe -- Using preliminary data for the recently concluded month of July 2009, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center have determined the following information:
- For the United States, the month of July was relatively cool, with the nationwide average temperature that was approximately 0.8 Fahrenheit degrees below the 20th century average for the month of July. Many of the states from the Plains eastward to the Atlantic Seaboard had much below average temperatures, with Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania reporting their coldest July since 1895, when the relatively reliable climate network began. Several Western states, including Arizona, New Mexico and Washington State experienced much above average statewide temperatures. Near average July precipitation totals were reported nationwide, with the New England States and Arkansas reporting much above average precipitation, while Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona had much below average statewide precipitation totals. [NOAA News]
- Across the globe, the ocean surface temperature for July 2009 was the highest July temperature since 1880, when a sufficiently dense observing network began. With the global land surface temperature being the ninth highest on record, the July 2009 combined average global land and ocean surface temperature was the fifth highest since 1880. An El Niño event was unfolding across the globe in July, helping explain the record high sea surface temperatures. [NOAA News]
State and city weather extremes for July 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 July in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for July 2009". Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.
New version of US Historic Climate Network data set released -- Last week, NOAA climatologists at the National Climatic Data Center released a new version of the US Historical Climate Network (HCN) data set that contains daily and monthly records of maximum/minimum temperature and precipitation for approximately 1200 climate stations identified as HCN stations with periods of record ranging from 50 to more than 100 years. This second version of the HCN data set have been analyzed to remove the inhomogeneity of the record associated with changes in station location, observation practice and surrounding landscape. [NCDC]
Viewing the Texas drought from space -- An image of data obtained from the MODIS sensors onboard NASA's Terra satellite shows the effects of the exceptional drought across sections of central and south Texas upon the health of the vegetation as indicated by the Vegetation Anomaly during mid and late July 2009. [NASA Earth Observatory]
More short-lived tropical weather systems detected by better observations and analyses -- A study conducted by scientists from NOAA's National Hurricane Center and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory concludes that the apparent increases in the annual numbers of tropical cyclones such as tropical storms and hurricanes during the late 19th and early 20th centuries appears to the result of better detection of short-lived tropical systems due to improvements in observations and analysis techniques. [NOAA News]
Report on shrinking glaciers in Alaska and Washington State released -- The US Department of Interior Secretary recently released a report prepared by US Geological Survey scientists that shows the changes in the mass, length and thickness of the Gulkana and Wolverine Glaciers in Alaska and the South Cascade Glacier in Washington State over the last 50 years due to changes in large-scale climate. These records are the longest such records in North America. [USGS]
Large Antarctic glacier thinning accelerates -- Researchers from the United Kingdom's University of Leeds and the University College London report that the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica has been thinning at an alarming rate during the last few years, with ice loss four times faster than several decades ago, as detected by continuous satellite measurements of the glacier over the past 15 years. [EurekAlert!]
Landsat 5 satellite suffers malfunction -- At the end of last week, the Landsat 5 satellite tumbled out of control and power had fallen to a critical level, before the USGS Landsat Flight Operations Team initiated recovery operations to stabilize the satellite that has been in orbit since 1984. This "workhorse" satellite was launched by NASA and its onboard sensors have collected enormous amounts of environmental data about the planetary surface including deforestation, floods and drought that are archived by the US Geological Survey at the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls, SD. [USGS]
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

Light rainfall reduced in eastern China by pollution -- A researcher at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has determined that high levels of air pollution in eastern China during the last 50 years has not only reduced the amount of light rainfall across northern sections of the region, but also the number of days with light rain by approximately 23 percent. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]
A warmer ocean contributes to "global warming" -- Scientists in the United Kingdom at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway London and in Germany at IFM-Geomar report that the warming of the West Spitsbergen Current during the last 30 years has triggered the release of methane from methane hydrate deposits stored in the submarine deposits found in West Spitsbergen continental margin of the Arctic basin. [EurekAlert!]
"Dance of water" revealed -- Researchers at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and their colleagues at universities in Sweden and Japan who have been studying the molecular structure of water, have found two types of molecular structures that help in the development of explanations for the somewhat anomalous nature of water that have profound effects on helping make planet Earth habitable. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Autumnal colors show geographic preferences -- Researchers from Israel's University of Haifa and Finland's University of Kuopio have advanced an evolutionary ecology theory that explains the predominance of yellow in fall coloration in Europe and red coloration in North America and east Asia. This proposed theory states that beginning 35 million years ago, an evolutionary battle between deciduous trees and insects led to red pigmentation as a tree protection mechanism in the north-south oriented mountains of North America and east Asia during periods of ice ages and dry spells. However, the east-west oriented mountains of Europe did not require any special protection. [EurekAlert!]
An unexpected relationship found between advancing tree lines and warming climate -- Researchers from New Zealand report that an assessment of tree-line sites around the world and corresponding climate records for the 20th century indicates that the tree-line locations are not advancing to increases in global temperature as expected, since the tree-lines may be affected more by winter temperatures and less by summer temperatures than earlier expected. [EurekAlert!]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

History shows hurricane seasons are becoming more active -- Scientists at Penn State University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Massachusetts who have studied sediment samples from along the North Atlantic coast and the statistical models of historic hurricane activities have developed a reconstruction of the severity of the hurricane seasons spanning the last 1500 years that shows increased frequency and strength of Atlantic hurricanes during the "Medieval Climate Anomaly." This event, approximately 1000 years ago, occurred when La Niña type episodes occurred together with high sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic. They also indicate that hurricane seasons during recent years have also increased in frequency and strength. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Geoengineering fixes could pose a drought risk -- Gabriele Hegerl of the Grant Institute at University of Edinburgh and Susan Solomon of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at Boulder, Colorado recently warned that geoengineering attempts to control climate might change large scale precipitation patterns, resulting in an increased risk of drought. They wrote "if geoengineering studies focus too heavily on warming, critical risks associated with such possible 'cures' will not be evaluated appropriately". [BBC 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]
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:

17 August 1885...Amos, CA hit 130 degrees to set the unofficial August U.S. high temperature record. (Intellicast)
18 August 1924...A record August rainfall for the United Kingdom occurred when 9.4 inches deluged Cannington (Somerset) England. (The Weather Doctor)
18 August 1927…Pressure in unnamed tropical storm fell to 887 millibars (26.18 inches of mercury) over the Pacific Ocean east of Luzon in the Philippines, one of the lowest surface measurements on record. (The Weather Doctor)
18-19 August 1935…The temperature soared to record high levels in each of the Maritime Provinces, with a 98 degree reading at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 101 degrees in Collegeville, Nova Scotia and 103 degrees in Rexton, New Brunswick. (The Weather Doctor)
18 August 1936...Iowa had its hottest ever August day with the average high temperature for 113 stations being 106.5 degrees Fahrenheit. (Intellicast)
18-19 August 2007…A cooperative observer near Hokah in southeastern Minnesota recorded 15.10 inches of rain, establishing a new 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Gopher State. (NCDC)
19 August 1939...Tuckerton, NJ received 14.81 inches of rain, which established a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Garden State. (NCDC)
19 August 1955...Rains from tropical Storm Diane fell on ground saturated from Tropical Storm Connie a week before. Westfield, MA recorded 18.15 inches in 24 hours, to set a statewide record for the Bay State, while the 24-hour precipitation record for the Nutmeg State was set at Burlington, CT with 12.77 inches. Extreme flooding occurred in all of New England. (Intellicast)
19 August 1960...The heaviest recorded 24-hour precipitation accumulation to date for the Arctic drenched Mould Bay, Northwest Territories with 1.88 inches of rain. (The Weather Doctor)
19 August 1969..."Never say die" Camille let loose a cloudburst in Virginia resulting in flash floods and landslides that killed 151 persons and cause 140 million dollars damage. Massies Hill in Nelson County, Virginia received an estimated 27 inches of rain in 24 hours. This amount is an unofficial record for the state, while the official 24-hour maximum precipitation record is 14.28 inches at Williamsburg on 16 September 1999. (David Ludlum) (NCDC)
19 August 1986...The temperature at San Antonio, TX soared to an all-time record high of 108 degrees. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders 1987)
21 August 1983...The temperature at Fayetteville, NC soared to 110 degrees to establish a state high temperature record. (The Weather Channel)
21 August 1992…The earliest recorded snowfall in Edmonton, Alberta since record keeping began in 1884. (The Weather Doctor)
21 August 2007…Hail with diameters of up to 5.25 inches fell in southeastern South Dakota, resulting in considerable damage to roofs of buildings. The largest hailstone had a circumference of 18.00 inches and weighed 1.0 pound, which represents the largest documented hailstone in South Dakota since records began in 1950. (NCDC)
22 August 1816...The growing season for corn was cut short as damaging frosts were reported from North Carolina to interior New England in the "Year-without-a-Summer". (David Ludlum)
22 August 1976…The temperature soared to record high for Newfoundland: with a 98.1-degree reading at Botwood. (The Weather Doctor)

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