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 NOAAs 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)
Return to DataStreme ECS website
Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email
hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.