WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

5-9 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

Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun early tomorrow morning (officially at 12Z on Tuesday, 6 July 2010, which is equivalent to 8 AM EDT or 7 AM CDT). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year on the early evening of 2 January 2011.
A new moon and solar eclipse -- A new moon will occur this coming Sunday (officially 1940Z on 11 July 2010 or 3:40 PM EDT and 2:40 PM CDT, etc.).
This new moon will also be responsible for a total solar eclipse that can be seen by those across the South Pacific Ocean and sections of South America as the moon passes in front of the solar disk. The NASA Eclipse Web Site has more particulars and maps of this solar eclipse.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

State and city weather extremes for May 2010 -- 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 in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for May 2010." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Satellite monitors carbon dioxide -- Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues have been able to use the data collected over a three-year period by the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) onboard NASA's Aura satellite to determine the concentration and distribution of atmospheric carbon dioxide gas in the upper troposphere (approximately 10 miles altitude). This instrument was not intended to detect carbon dioxide originally. [NASA JPL]
Study conducted on carbon-based aerosols -- As many as 60 scientists from NASA, the US Department of Energy and other research institutions have been conducting a field experiment called Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiation Effects Study (CARES) in California's central valley near Sacramento during the month of June to study how carbon-based ("carbonaceous")aerosols that produce the sooty haze affect the climate. These scientists used a variety of instruments along with several aircraft to sample the human generated aerosols. [NASA GISS]
European ice satellite exceeding expectations -- Scientists with the European Space Agency have found that the ice-thickness data collected by their agency's CryoSat-2 satellite have far exceeded expectations in terms of the amount of high quality information. This satellite, launched earlier this year, has a radar altimeter that measures the polar ice caps and sea ice. [ESA]
Satellite-estimated rainfall totals for deadly Chinese flooding--A graphic generated by data collected from the instruments onboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and processed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center shows the rainfall that fell across southern China during the week of 15-21 June 2010 resulting in the deaths of at least 379 people. [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

Smoke from Canadian fires tracked by satellite -- A MODIS image from NASA's Terra satellite early last week shows the thick smoke being carried by the winds from wildfires in the boreal forests of the Canadian Arctic. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Arctic may be more sensitive to climate -- Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and colleagues claim that their research indicates that the Arctic could be more sensitive to changes in climate than previously thought, even warning that the current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide could have brought the Arctic to a "tipping point." At this point, serious and irreversible changes in the Arctic ecosystems could occur due to changes in climate. [USA Today]

BIOCLIMATOLOGY

New vehicle temperature table designed to help reduce heat-related deaths in closed cars -- Researchers at the University of Georgia have produce an easy-to-use temperature table that they claim should help reduce the number of heat-related deaths, especially among children, in closed vehicles. The vehicle temperature table, which was constructed from observations along with output from a human thermal exchange model called the Man-Environment Heat Exchange Model (MENEX), shows the change in the interior temperature for a set of initial outdoor temperatures over a time intervals ranging from 5 to 60 minutes. Temperatures associated with National Weather Service heat advisories and excessive heat warnings are also indicated. [University of Georgia]

CLIMATE MODELING

NASA Center for Climate Simulation introduced -- Officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recently introduced the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS), a group that employs supercomputers along with visualization and data interaction technologies to support the climate modeling community in climate prediction research. [NASA GISS]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Ancient hunters may have contributed to global warming and cooling -- Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, CA claim that their evidence from approximately 15,000 years ago would suggest ancient hunters at that time would have reduced the number of mammoths, which would have caused a change in the surface reflectivity (or albedo) as forests invaded the grass lands in the subArctic. These albedo changes may have created conditions that led to increased global temperatures at the end of the last Ice Age. [AGU] However, another group of researchers from the University of New Mexico suggests that the extinction of the mammoths in western North American may have resulted in the generation of less methane, which eventually led to a cooling across the globe during the Younger Dryas at about 12,800 years ago. [USA Today] Scientists from UCLA and Oregon State University claim that human hunters put pressure on the ecosystem, resulting in the extinction of the mammoths and other large animals during the Pleistocene. [USA Today]

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

Historical Events:

5 July 1925…An immense hailstone weighing 227 grams (0.5 lb) fell at Plumstead in London, England, the heaviest hailstone ever recorded in the United Kingdom. (The Weather Doctor)
5 July 1936...The all-time state record high of 120 degrees was set at Gann Valley, SD. (Intellicast)
5 July 1937...The temperature at Medicine Lake, MT soared to 117 degrees to establish a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
Midale and Yellow Grass in Saskatchewan hit 113 degrees to establish an all-time record high for Canada that same day. (The Weather Channel)
5 July 1985...The temperature at St. George, UT reached 117 degrees, setting a record high temperature for the Beehive State. (NCDC)
5 July 1986...The low temperature at Boise, ID dropped to a crisp 35 degrees, the coldest ever for the month. (Intellicast)
5 July 1988...Afternoon and evening thunderstorms spawned eleven tornadoes in Montana and three in North Dakota. Baseball size hail was reported at Shonkin, MT, and wind gusts to 85 mph were reported south of Fordville, ND. Twenty cities in the north central U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date, including Fargo, ND with a reading of 106 degrees. Muskegon, MI equaled their July record with a high of 95 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
5 July 1989...Moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Allison triggered thunderstorms over the Middle Atlantic Coast Region, which deluged Wilmington, DE with a record 6.83 inches of rain in 24 hours, including 6.37 inches in just six hours. Up to ten inches of rain was reported at Claymont, northeast of Wilmington. July 1989 was thus the wettest month in seventy years for Wilmington, with a total of 12.63 inches of rain. Alamosa, CO reported an all-time record high of 94 degrees, and Pierre, SD hit 113 degrees. Denver, CO reached 101 degrees, topping 100 for the second straight day, only happened once before in 1972 (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
5 July 1993...Heavy rains deluged the Central Plains as one of the greatest floods in U.S. history began to unfold. Twenty-four hour totals included 5.90 inches at Columbia, IA, 5.15 inches at Centralia, KS and 4.80 inches at Haddam, KS. (Intellicast)
6 July 1928...A hailstorm at Potter, NE produced a stone that was 5.5 inches in diameter, and seventeen inches in circumference, weighing a pound and a half. At the time, it was the world's largest hailstone. (David Ludlum) (Wikipedia)
6 July 1921…The mercury hit 104 degrees at Ville Marie, Quebec, marking Quebec's highest temperature on record. (The Weather Doctor)
6 July 1936...Steele, ND reached 121 degrees, the state record. Moorhead, MN reached 114 degrees to set a record high temperature for the Gopher State. (Intellicast) (NCDC).
6 July 1988...Thirty-six cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Afternoon highs of 98 degrees at International Falls, MN and 101 degrees at Flint, MI equaled all-time records. Highs of 96 degrees at Muskegon, MI and 97 degrees at Buffalo, NY were records for July. (The National Weather Summary)
6 July 1994...An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. (NCDC)
7 July 1889…The greatest 20-minute rainfall ever recorded on Earth occurred when 8.1 inches of rain fell on Curtea-de-Arges, Romania. (The Weather Doctor)
7 July 1905...The mercury soared to 127 degrees at Parker, AZ to tie the state record established at Fort Mohave on 15 June 1896. (The Weather Channel)
7 July 1982…France's hottest day on record occurred at Le Luc near St. Tropez when the high reached 108.9 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
7 July 1988...Thirty-eight cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Youngstown, OH hit 100 degrees, and for the second day in a row, Flint, MI reached 101 degrees, equaling all-time records for those two cities. (The National Weather Summary)
8 July 1936...The temperature hit an all-time record high of 106 degrees at the Central Park Observatory in New York City, a record which lasted until La Guardia Airport hit 107 degrees on 3 July 1966. (The Weather Channel)
8 July 1989...Sixteen cities in the central and western U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. The high of 103 degrees at Denver, CO equaled their record for July, and a 110-degree reading at Rapid City, SD equaled their all-time record high. Denver reported a record five straight days of 100 degree heat, and Scottsbluff, NE reported a record eight days in a row of 100 degree weather. (The National Weather Summary)
8 July 2003…Dhahran, Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf, recorded a dewpoint of 95 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
9 July 1914…Finland's hottest day on record occurred when the temperature at Turku, Finland reached 96.6 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
9 July 1950...The town of York, NE was deluged with 13.15 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a record for the Cornhusker State. (The Weather Channel)
9 July 1968...Columbus, MS received 15.68 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
9 July 1988...The percentage of total area in the country in the grips of severe to extreme drought reached 43 percent, the fourth highest total of record. The record of 61 percent occurred during the summer of 1934. (The National Weather Summary)
10 July 1913...The mercury hit 134 degrees at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, CA, the highest temperature reading of record for the North American continent. Sandstorm conditions accompanied the heat. The high the previous day was 129 degrees, following a morning low of 93 degrees. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
10 July 1936...Afternoon high temperatures of 112 degrees at Martinsburg, WV, 109 degrees at Cumberland, MD and Frederick, MD, 110 degrees at Runyon, NJ, and 111 degrees at Phoenixville, PA, established all-time record highs for those four states, and marked the hottest day of record for the Middle Atlantic Coast Region. (The Weather Channel)
1 July 1888... The temperature at Bennett, CO reached 118 degrees, setting a record high temperature for the Centennial State. (NCDC)
11 July 1911…The highest temperature ever recorded in Maine was at North Bridgton, with a reading of 105 degrees. (NCDC)
11 July 1936…The temperature at St. Albans, Manitoba reached the provincial high temperature record of 112°F, while the temperature at Atikokan, Ontario peaked at 108 degrees, tying the highest temperature ever in Ontario. (The Weather Doctor)

Return to DataStreme ECS website