WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

30 July-3 August 2012

DataStreme Earth Climate Systems will return for Fall 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2012. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

ITEMS OF INTEREST

A celebration -- Wednesday, 1 August 2012, is the ancient Celtic holiday of Lammas that corresponds to one of the cross quarter days, lying nearly halfway between the summer solstice (20 June 2012) and the autumnal equinox (22 September 2012). This holiday, also known as "loaf-mass day", originally marked the first wheat harvest of the year in the British Isles. [Editor's note: Next Monday, 6 August 2012 represents the exact halfway point between the dates of the solstice and equinox. EJH]
In the Land of the Midnight Sun -- The sun will set at Barrow, AK early Wednesday morning (2:20 AM AKDT on 1 August 2012), marking the first time in nearly 12 weeks (since 11 May 2011) that the sun has gone below the local horizon. However, the sun remained below the horizon for slightly less than one half-hour before rising at 2:48 AM on Wednesday. On each day until mid-November, the length of night will increase at Barrow. On the afternoon of 18 November 2012, the sun will set and remain below the horizon for a stretch of two months until late January 2013.
Weather and Climatology for the Summer Olympics -- The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad, are scheduled to take place in London, England in the United Kingdom from Monday, 27 July to Sunday, 12 August 2012. The United Kingdom's Meteorological Office, the country's national weather service, has assembled a climatology of weather statistics over a 30-year span (1971-2000) for the various venues around the London metropolitan area. [UK Met Office] In addition, the UK Met Office has produced a page entitled Weather and Sport that describes how weather can have a huge impact on sports.
Five-day weather forecasts are being made available for the venues and nearby locations throughout the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

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CHECK-- 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]
State and city weather extremes for March 2011 -- 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 month of March 2011 at "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for March 2011." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

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 AND IMPACTS ON HUMAN HEALTH

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PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

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CLIMATE FORCING

CLIMATE FORECASTS

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

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CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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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:

30 July 1949...The state record temperature for Connecticut was established when the town of Greenville registered an afternoon high of 102 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
30 July 1965...The temperature at Portland, OR reached 107 degrees to equal their all-time record high. (The Weather Channel)
31 July 1861...Numerous world rainfall records were set at Cherrapunji, India as of this last day of July. These records include: 366.1 inches for a single 31-day month (during July 1861); 502.63 inches for two months (June-July 1861); 644.44 inches for three months (May-July 1861); 737.72 inches for four months (April-July 1861) and 1041.78 inches for 12 months (Aug. 1860-July 1861). (WMO, NWS)
31 July 1991...Roswell, NM closed out the month with a total of 6.68 inches of rain to set a new record for the month. (Intellicast)
31 July 1986...The temperature at Little Rock, AR soared to 112 degrees to establish an all-time record high for that location. Morrilton, AR hit 115 degrees, and daily highs for the month at that location averaged 102 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
1 August 1977...Excessive rains at Muduocaidang, China were responsible for establishing two world records, to include 33.07 inches in 6 hours and 55.12 inches in 10 hours. (WMO, NWS)
1 August 1985...A nearly stationary thunderstorm deluged Cheyenne, WY with rain and hail. Six inches of rain fell in six hours producing the most damaging flash flood of record for the state; a 24-hour precipitation record for the Cowboy State was also established with 6.06 inches. Two to five feet of hail covered the ground following the storm, which claimed twelve lives and caused 65 million dollars property damage. (Storm Data)
1 August 1993...San Francisco, CA hit 98 degrees, the hottest ever recorded for the city in August. (Intellicast)
3 August 1898...Philadelphia, PA had one of its worst thunderstorms ever when 5.84 inches fell in just 2 hours. The hydraulic pressure in the city sewers due to the force of the accumulated runoff caused overflows in toilets, basins and sinks to rise to second-floor levels in some cases. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
3 August 1914...Temperature reached an all-time August high of 96 degrees for Calgary, Alberta. (The Weather Doctor)
3 August 1970...Hurricane Celia made landfall near Port Aransas on the Texas coast, producing wind gusts to 161 mph at Corpus Christi, and estimated wind gusts of 180 mph at Arkansas Pass. Even at Del Rio, 250 miles inland, Celia produced wind gusts to 89 mph. The hurricane was the most destructive of record along the Texas coast causing 454 million dollars damage as 8950 homes were destroyed on the Coastal Bend. Celia also claimed eleven lives and injured 466 people. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
3 August 1987...Beckley, WV established an all-time record with an afternoon high of 93 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
3 August 1990...Highest temperature recorded in the United Kingdom prior to 2003 heat-wave was 98.8 degrees at Cheltenham, England: (The Weather Doctor)
3 August 1995...South Bend, IN received 4.83 inches of rain in 24 hours to set the city's greatest daily rainfall record. (Intellicast)
4 August 1881...The highest temperature recorded anywhere in Europe was 122 degrees Fahrenheit reported at Seville, Spain. (NCDC)
4 August 1930...The temperature at Moorefield, WV soared to 112 degrees to establish a state record, having reached 110 degrees the previous day. This new record for the Mountain State was subsequently tied in July 1936. (The Weather Channel)
4 August 1960...The Vostok station in Antarctica recorded a record low temperature of 127 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale, which remained the lowest recorded global temperature until 1983. (The Weather Doctor)
4 August 1961...Spokane, WA reached an all-time record high temperature of 108 degrees. Kalispell, MT set an all-time record with a reading of 105 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
5 August 1843...A spectacular cloudburst at Chester Creek, near Philadelphia, PA turned the small creeks and streams entering the Delaware River into raging torrents. As much as sixteen inches of rain fell in just three hours at Concord, which still stands as the greatest amount of precipitation in a three-hour span in the U.S. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
5 August 1961...The temperature at Ice Harbor Dam, WA soared to 118 degrees to equal the state record established at Wahluke on 24 July 1928. The afternoon high of 111 degrees at Havre, MT was an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
5 August 1988...Floods ravaged parts of Sudan during August, the result of 8.27 inches of rain that fell in Khartoum in 13 hours on the 4^th and 5^th. The previous 24-hour record at Khartoum was 3.46 inches. More than one million people were made homeless. At least 96 died in Sudan's worst flooding since 1946. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
5 August 1994...Fairbanks, AK soared to 93 degrees for the highest ever August temperature. (Intellicast)
5-6 August 1959...A bucket survey showed that thunderstorms dropped 16.70 inches of rain on parts of Decatur County, IA. The total was accepted as Iowa's 24-hour rainfall record. (The Weather Channel)
6 August 1905...Princeton, IN received 10.50 inches of rain, which established a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Hoosier State. (NCDC)
6 August 1918...Unusually hot weather began to overspread the Atlantic Coast States, from the Carolinas to southern New England. The temperature soared to an all-time record high of 106 degrees at Washington, DC, and Cumberland and Keedysville hit 109 degrees to establish a state record for Maryland. (David Ludlum)
6 August 1947...Sault Ste. Marie, MI hit 98 degrees, equaling the highest temperature ever recorded at that location. (Intellicast)
6 August 1987...Afternoon thunderstorms deluged Milwaukee, WI, breaking all previous rainfall records for the city. Among the records: 1.10 inches in 5 minutes, 3.06 inches in 1 hour, 5.24 inches in 2 hours, 6.24 in 6 hours and 6.84 inches in 24 hours. Floodwaters were four feet deep at the Milwaukee County Stadium, and floodwaters filled the basement of the main terminal at the airport. Flooding caused 5.9 million dollars damage, and claimed the life of one person. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
7 August 1918...Philadelphia, PA established an all-time record with a high of 106 degrees. New York City experienced its warmest day and night with a low of 82 degrees and a high of 102 degrees. Afternoon highs of 108 degrees at Flemington, NJ and Somerville, NJ established state records for the month of August. (The Weather Channel) (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
7 August 1949...The hottest day on record for Winnipeg, Manitoba occurred when the temperature reached 105 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
7 August 1969...Cuba's hottest day on record when the temperature reached 101.5 degrees at Guantánamo, Cuba. (The Weather Doctor)
7 August 1983...The temperature at Thunder Bay, Ontario reached an all-time record high of 104 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
7-8 August 1995...Lockington Dam, OH recorded 10.75 inches of rain, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Buckeye State. (NCDC)
7 August 2004...Iceland's hottest August day on record as the temperature at Skaftafell, Iceland reached 84.4 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)

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