WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

28 June-2 July 2010

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 30 August 2010. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The halfway point -- Midpoint of calendar year 2010 occurs at noon local standard time on Friday, 2 July 2010.
"Dog days" of summer begin -- The "Dog Days" traditionally begin on the third day of July of each year and continue through the eleventh day of August. The hot weather period received its name from Sirius, the brightest visible star in the sky and known as the Dog Star. Sirius rises in the east at the same time as the sun this time of the year. (The Weather Channel)
"State of the Coasts" website unveiled -- NOAA's Ocean Service recently unveiled its "State of the Coast" website (http://stateofthecoast.noaa.gov/) that is intended to provide current tabular and graphical information to the public along with coastal managers and officials at local, state and federal levels on the ecological and economical health of the nation's 95,000 miles of coastline. A section on this webpage addresses the potential impacts that projected changes in climate could have upon the human and natural assets found along the nation's coasts, due especially to potential rises in sea level. [NOAA News ]
Authors named for next IPCC Report – In anticipation of the scheduled release of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014, the selection of 311 lead authors for various sections of the report was announced recently. Several American scientists were named among the lead authors, including two scientists from the US Geological Survey. [ USGS Newsroom ]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Satellite indicates a La Niña is replacing an El Niño-- Scientists at NASA's JPL recently confirmed that the sea surface data collected by the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 oceanography satellite indicates the waters of the eastern equatorial Pacific have cooled during the last several months, suggesting that the warm phase El Niño event is being replaced by a cold phase La Niña event. This evidence confirms the findings of other scientists. [ NASA JPL ]
Global temperature anomalies for May 2010 -- Researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies produced an image that shows the global distribution of the monthly temperature anomalies (arithmetic differences between observed and long-term 1951-1980 average temperatures) for the month of May 2010. While a large section of the Northern Hemisphere, especially over the Arctic and much of Eurasia and Africa, experienced May temperatures that were well above average, some locations in western North America, South America and Antarctica had below average monthly temperatures. [ NASA Earth Observatory ]

CLIMATE MONITORING

Contract awarded for launching new carbon observatory satellite-- NASA officials recently awarded a contract to Orbital Sciences Corp. for the scheduled February 2010 launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite. This mission, which will replace the OCO-1 that failed to reach orbit in 2009, is dedicated to the monitoring of 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 --

NCDC

CLIMATE FORCING

A solar storm is captured by a spacecraft -- An animated series of images of the solar corona were produced from data collected from sensors on NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observations (STEREO) Ahead spacecraft. These images show a series of four coronal mass ejections from the Sun in late May 2010. [ NASA Earth Observatory ]
Seeing southern lights from space -- A photograph of the aurora australis (southern lights) was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station late last month. This aurora probably was caused by the mass ejections from the Sun. [ NASA Earth Observatory ]

CLIMATE IMPACT ON THE BIOSPHERE

Large climate change experiment to be conducted in Alaska -- Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their colleagues at other national laboratories are planning a large experiment that is designed to test the effects of increased global temperatures on the arctic permafrost in Alaska. [ Oak Ridge National Laboratory ]

BIOCLIMATOLOGY

Hot cars can be dangerous for youngsters -- A researcher at San Francisco State University recently warned that his analysis of statistics from the media indicates an increasing number of infants and youngsters who die from hyperthermia because they were in vehicles where the interior temperatures have reached over 100 degrees. He said that as of mid June 2010, eighteen children have died this year to date. During the last several years, 34 fatalities per year are attributed to children by being left unattended in hot vehicles. [ USA Today ]

CLIMATE and SOCIETY

Increased frequency in hot days seen for sprawling cities – A team of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology reported on their research into the changes in the frequency of "very hot days" per year in urban areas across the nation over the last 50 years. "Very hot days" were based upon the heat stress index specified for each urban area by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center based on air temperature and humidity. They found that the annual number of very hot days increased by nearly 15 days in sprawling cities, while those cities with less sprawl increased by slightly less than 6 days. The researchers attributed the urban heat island effect as being responsible for much of the increase. [ USA Today ]
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:

28 June 1892...The temperature at Orogrande, UT soared to 116 degrees to establish a record for the Beehive State. This record was broken by one degree in July 1985. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders)
28 June 1954...The temperature at Camden, SC reached 111 degrees to establish an all-time high temperature record for the Palmetto State. (NCDC)
28 June 1960...The maximum 24-hour precipitation record for the Bluegrass State was established at Dunmor, KY when 10.40 inches fell. (NCDC)
28 June 1976...Temperature reached 96 degrees in Southampton, England's Mayflower Park for the highest temperature ever in June in England. (The Weather Doctor)
28 June 1980...The temperature at Wichita Falls, TX soared to 117 degrees, their highest reading of record. Daily highs were 110 degrees or above between the 24^th of June and the 3^rd of July. (The Weather Channel)
28 June 1994...Laughlin, NV reached 125 degrees, the state's all-time record high temperature. (Intellicast) The temperature at Monahans, TX reached 120 degrees to set a new high temperature record for the Lone Star State. (NCDC)
29 June 1931...The temperature at Monticello, FL hit 109 degrees to establish an all-time record for the Sunshine State. (The Weather Channel)
29 June 1975...Litchville recorded 8.10 inches of rain for North Dakota's state 24-hour precipitation record. (NCDC)
29 June 1988...Jackson, MS equaled their record for the month of June with an afternoon high of 105 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
29 June 1994...The mercury hit a scorching 128 degrees at Lake Havasu City, AZ to set a new all-time record high temperature for the Grand Canyon State. This reading also tied the one at Death Valley, CA on the same day for the US June record. The previous state record for Arizona was 127 degrees set at Parker on 7 July 1905. The temperature at Laughlin, NV reached 125 degrees, which also set an all-time record high temperature for the Silver State. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia: was a 9.4 degree below zero reading at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales, Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
30 June 1912…The deadliest tornado in Canadian history struck Regina, Saskatchewan, as 28 people were killed. (The Weather Doctor)
30 June 1983…Tasmania's coldest night on record was observed as the temperature at Shannon dropped to 8.6 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
30 June 1989...The remains of tropical storm Allison dropped copious amounts of rain on Louisiana. Winnfield, LA reported 22.52 inches of rain in three days, and more than thirty inches for the month, a record for June. Shreveport received a record 17.11 inches in June, with a total for the first six months of the year of 45.55 inches. Thunderstorms also helped produce record rainfall totals for the month of June of 13.12 inches at Birmingham, AL, 14.66 inches at Oklahoma City, OK, 17.41 inches at Tallahassee, FL, 9.97 inches at Lynchburg, VA, and more than 10.25 inches at Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh had also experienced a record wet month of May. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)
Month of July 1861...The greatest one-month of precipitation ever measured globally (366 inches) was recorded at Cherrapunji, India. Total rainfall for the period 1 August 1860 to 31 July 1861 was the greatest rainfall in one year ever recorded (1041.78 inches). (The Weather Doctor)
Month of July 1931...The July- August 1931 flood in the Yangtze basin of China affected over 51 million people or one-quarter of China's population. As many as 3.7 million people perished from this great 20^th century disaster due to disease, starvation or drowning. (The Weather Doctor)
1 July 1911...The high temperature of just 79 degrees at Phoenix, AZ was their lowest daily maximum of record for the month of July. The normal daily high for 1 July is 105 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
1 July 1915...Pawtucket, RI received a deluge with 5.1 inches of rain in 24 hours. (Intellicast)
1 July 1979...It snowed almost half a foot (5.8 inches) at Stampede Pass, WA, a July record. (The Weather Channel)
1 July 1988...Twenty-six cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date --an unusual cool spell in what turned out to be one of the hottest summers on record. Lows of 48 degrees at Providence, RI, 48 degrees at Roanoke, VA, 49 degrees at Stratford, CT, and 48 degrees at Wilmington, DE, were records for the month of July. Boston, MA equaled their record for July with a low of 50 degrees. Barre Falls, MA dropped to 34 degrees. Five inches of snow whitened Mount Washington, NH. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)
1 July 1987...Lake Charles, LA was drenched with a month's worth of rain during the early morning. More than five inches of rain soaked the city, including 2.68 inches in one hour. (The National Weather Summary)
2 July 1908…The temperature at Dumfries, Scotland reached 91 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Scotland. (The Weather Doctor)
2 July 1942...The temperature at Portland, OR hit 107 degrees, an all-time record for the city. This record was subsequently reached on three other occasions. (ThreadEx) (Intellicast)
2 July 1989...Midland, TX reported an all-time record high of 112 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
2 July 1998….Italy's highest recorded temperature was 108.5 degrees, set at Catania, Italy: (The Weather Doctor)
2-6 July 1994...Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Alberto produced major flooding across northern and central Georgia. Three-day rains exceeded 15 inches at Atlanta. An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA on the 6^th to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. Numerous road closures and bridge washouts. Thirty people were killed and 50,000 were forced from their homes, as 800,000 acres were flooded. Total damage exceeded $750 million... (NCDC) (Intellicast)
3 July 1975…Shangdi, Nei Monggol, China received 401 mm (15.78 inches) of rain, the greatest 1-hour rainfall ever recorded on Earth: (The Weather Doctor)
3 July 1966...The northeastern U.S. was in the midst of a sweltering heat wave. The temperature at Philadelphia reached 104 degrees for a second day. Afternoon highs of 102 degrees at Hartford, CT, 105 degrees at Allentown, PA, and 107 degrees at La Guardia Airport in New York City established all-time records for those two locations. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
3 July 1995…The lowest temperature ever recorded in New Zealand was 6.9 degrees below zero at Ophir, New Zealand. (The Weather Doctor)
4 July 1911...The northeastern U.S. experienced sweltering 100-degree heat. The temperature soared to 105 degrees at Vernon, VT and North Bridgton, ME, and to 106 degrees at Nashua, NH, to establish all-time records for those three states. Afternoon highs of 104 degrees at Boston, MA, 104 at Albany, NY, and 103 at Portland, ME, were all-time records for those three cities. (The Weather Channel)
4 July 1956...A world record for the most rain in one minute was set at Unionville, MD with a downpour of 1.23 inches. (The Weather Channel) (The National Severe Storms Forecast Center)
4 July 1989...Independence Day was "hot as a firecracker" across parts of the country. Nineteen cities, mostly in the north central U.S., reported record high temperatures for the date, including Williston, ND with a reading of 107 degrees. In the southwestern U.S., highs of 93 at Alamosa, CO, 114 at Tucson, AZ, and 118 at Phoenix, AZ, equaled all-time records for those locations. (The National Weather Summary)
4 July 2007, St. George, Utah: The temperature at St. George, UT hit an unofficial temperature reading of 118 degrees, which would have topped the state’s all-time record of 117°F (47.2°C), set in St. George in 1985.

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