11-15 July 2011

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2011 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2011. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Zenithal Sun -- Residents of Honolulu will experience a noontime sun that would be directly overhead during this week (15-17 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 Honolulu and the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The other time when the Oahu experienced a zenithal sun was in late May. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
• An historic haboob travels across Arizona's Valley of the Sun -- On 5 July 2011, a massive dust storm called its Arabic name, a haboob, traveled across the Phoenix (AZ) metropolitan area, reducing visibility to near zero. Winds associated with strong to severe thunderstorms produced the haboob and knocked out power in several communities. [NWSFO Phoenix] This haboob was captured on a video produced by a local television news crew [USA Today]
• Heavy snow falls in South American desert -- Early last week, between 20 to 30 inches of snow fell in Chile's Atacama Desert, arguably the world's driest climate. This region of coastal South America had not received significant snowfall in over 20 years. Traffic was impeded. [BBC News]

• Review of US weather and climate for June 2011 -- Scientists with the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently released their preliminary monthly climate statistics for June 2011, which indicates that the nationwide average temperature was 1.4 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century (1901-2000) average temperature for June. In fact, this past June was the 26th warmest June since relatively dense and reliable climate records began in 1895. Above average to much above statewide temperatures were reported from the Southwest to the Southeast and into sections of the Middle Atlantic States. Louisiana and Oklahoma reported statewide June temperatures that ranked the second highest in 117 years. On the other hand, sections of Northwest, especially Oregon and Washington, and the northern Plains experienced below much below average temperatures. The nationwide average June precipitation was 0.41 inches below the 20th-century value, which made June 2011 the 19th driest since 1895. The Southwest, extending from southeastern California eastward to the Southeastern States had below to much below average June rainfall. New Mexico had its driest June on record; Arizona and Oklahoma had their fourth driest, while Texas reported its fifth driest June. Conversely, California had its wettest June in 117 years and various regions in the Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys had much above average June precipitation. [NOAA News]

• An ice island floats off Labrador -- An image obtained in late June from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows a 97-square mile ice island floating in the Labrador Sea between Labrador and Greenland. This ice island had broken off the Petermann Glacier along the northwestern coast of Greenland last August. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Seasonal changes in carbon storage by plants seen from space -- Images generated from data obtained by the MODIS instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite show the net primary productivity of land and marine plants. The net primary productivity represents the difference in the amount of carbon that plants absorb due to photosynthesis and what they release because of respiration. The images were made in August 2010 during the height of the growing season in the Northern Hemisphere and in December 2010 during the Southern Hemisphere's growing season. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• A trend toward less rainfall seen in southern Australia -- A climate scientist at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) recently reported that autumn and winter rainfall has decreased across southern Australia over the last 50 years because of a decrease in the average intensity of storms that travel across the region. She also foresees a continuation of this trend over the next 50 years. [CSIRO]
• Sounding rockets to study interaction of space winds with upper atmosphere -- Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are planning to launch four rockets from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during July 2011 that will collect data on charged particles in the Earth's ionosphere and how particles carried by the solar wind affect the movement of air in the ionosphere. [NASA GSFC]
• 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]

• Future fires and climate studied -- A researcher at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) claims that wildfires and intentional biomass burning could become an increasingly important driver of climatic change as global temperatures increase, as fire represents one of nature's primary carbon-cycling mechanisms. She envisions increased frequency and intensity of the fires in the future. [CSIRO]
• Faster Arctic ice melt due to less snow and more rain -- A scientist from Australia's University of Melbourne reported that increased temperatures across the Arctic basin throughout the year has resulted in less formation of snow, which would decrease the protection of the ice cover and accelerate the rate of Arctic ice melt. [The Melbourne Newsroom]

• Changing climate could threaten Canadian plants -- In research conducted at the University of Alberta, researchers have found that changes in climate across Alberta over the last 70 years have resulted in earlier bloom times for native wildflowers and trees, but these earlier dates have made the vegetation more vulnerable to damaging frosts. [University of Alberta]
• Gray whales may have changed their diets to survive the Ice Ages -- Paleontologists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Smithsonian Institution claim that gray whales may have survived numerous episodes of global warming and cooling over the last several million years by exploiting a diet that was more varied than what they have today. These researchers also found evidence that the populations of California gray whales along the Pacific Coast may have been between two to four times larger prior to arrival of humans. [UC Berkley News Center]

• Widespread flood threat continues across nation's midsection -- Forecasters with the National Weather Service recently reported that with many rivers in the northern Plains and upper Midwest remaining above flood stage, the threat for additional flooding was expected to continue through much of the summer. They based their forecast on above average precipitation that was anticipated across the region in the next few weeks. In addition, they warned that this summer's flooding could rival the Great Flood of 1993. [NOAA News]
• Cold winters could occur in the UK -- A group of researchers from the United Kingdom's University of Reading suggest that with the Sun possibly entering a period of low solar activity over the next half-century, the United Kingdom could experience a somewhat greater frequency of cold winters. They compare the anticipated low solar activity with a period of similar low activity during the Maunder minimum at the end of the 17th century. [Institute of Physics]
• Warm ocean layers are undermining polar ice sheets -- Researchers from the University of Arizona, NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have found that the warming of the ocean's subsurface layers should melt underwater portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets during this century at a rate faster than previously thought. They base their outlook upon the results generated from 19 state-of-the-art climate models. The researchers feel that this melting would increase the sea level more than already projected. [University of Arizona News]

• Determining Earth's temperatures during an ancient warm episode -- Researchers at Syracuse and Yale Universities have been studying a fossil record in attempt to determine the Earth's temperature during the early Eocene Epoch (approximately 50 million years ago) when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were thought to have been higher than at present. They found subtropical water temperatures during the Eocene to have been approximately 27 degrees Celsius, slightly higher than modern readings along the US Gulf Coast. [Syracuse University]

• 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.

• 11 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 degrees Fahrenheit, while the temperature at Atikokan, Ontario peaked at 108 degrees, tying the highest temperature ever in Ontario. (The Weather Doctor)
• 12 July 1900...The record high state temperature reading of 114 degrees in Wyoming was reached at Basin. This record has since been eclipsed in 1983 by a 115-degree reading. (Intellicast)
• 12 July 1910...Cherrapunji in India's northeastern Meghalaya State -- one of the rainiest places on Earth -- recorded 839 mm (33 inches) of rainfall on this day. (The Weather Doctor)
• 12-14 July 1936...The hottest three-day period in US history was recorded, with average temperatures of 88.5 degrees Fahrenheit; the second warmest such period had occurred three days earlier. (The Weather Doctor)
• 13 July 1975...Dover, DE was deluged with 8.50 inches of rain to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state. (The Weather Channel)
• 13 July 1996...Heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Bertha caused roads to washout in the Camden, ME area. Two people were hurt when they drove into a 600-pound boulder that had fallen onto the roadway due to the heavy rain. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14 July 1886...Los Angeles had its greatest 24-hour July rainfall with 0.24 inches. (Intellicast)
• 14-15 July 1911...Baguio, Luzon, Philippines reported 46 inches of rain, which represents Asia's greatest 24-hour rainfall: (The Weather Doctor).
• 15-16 July 1916...A dying South Atlantic Coast storm produced torrential rains in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Altapass, NC was drenched with 22.22 inches of rain, a 24-hour rainfall record for the Tarheel State, and at the time, a 24-hour record for the U.S. (The current 24-hour rainfall record for the US is 43 inches set 25-25 July 1979 at Alvin, TX). Flooding resulted in considerable damage, particularly to railroads. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (NCDC)
• 15 July 1983...The Big Thompson Creek in Colorado flooded for the second time in seven years, claiming three lives, and filling the town of Estes Park with eight to ten feet of water. (The Weather Channel)
• 15 July 1989...Thunderstorms drenched Kansas City, MO with 4.16 inches of rain, a record for the date. Two and a half inches of rain deluged the city between noon and 1 PM. Afternoon thunderstorms in South Carolina deluged Williamstown with six inches of rain in ninety minutes, including four inches in little more than half an hour. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 15 July 1993...Four-inch diameter hail fell at Hot Springs, SD. In North Dakota, Jamestown recorded 6.40 inches of rain, Fargo 5.09 inches and Bismarck 4.08 inches. (Intellicast)
• 15 July 2001...Rain fell at 3.91 inches per hour in Seoul, South Korea, the heaviest amount since 1964. In total, 12.2 inches of rain fell in Seoul and Kyonggi. The rain was responsible for 40 reported fatalities. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 July 1987...Slow-moving thunderstorms caused flooding on the Guadalupe River in Texas resulting in tragic loss of life. A bus and van leaving a summer youth camp stalled near the rapidly rising river, just west of the town of Comfort, and a powerful surge of water swept away 43 persons, mostly teenagers. Ten drowned in the floodwaters. Most of the others were rescued from treetops by helicopter. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 17-18 July 1996...Heavy rains were responsible for unprecedented flooding across north central and northeast Illinois, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Aurora, IL received 16.91 inches of rain, which established a new 24-hour precipitation record for the Prairie State. Approximately 60 percent of the city's homes were affected by flooding. At Romeoville, 10.36 inches of rain fell. Interstates were closed and some towns were isolated. Rampaging floodwaters scoured out roads near Dayton, leaving gravel and sand deposits to twenty feet high. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

Return to DataStreme Earth Climate Systems website

Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.