WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

9-13 June 2014

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2014. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southwest monsoon season begins -- This upcoming Sunday (15 June 2014) is the typical date when the summer monsoon season begins in the Southwestern US. At that time, a dome of warm air expands northward across Arizona and New Mexico from the plateau of northern Mexico, with an attendant shift in the wind direction. Low level winds transport humid air northward from the Gulf of California and the eastern Pacific, while mid-level winds bring humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Tucson, AZ has a webpage called "Tracking the Monsoon" that provides links to satellite imagery and climate data for the region. Arizona and New Mexico will observe "Monsoon Awareness Week" during this week, 8-13 June 2014. If you live in either of these two states, you should take time to become familiar with the various public affairs announcements issued by your local National Weather Service Office.
Climate Change Workshop links school teachers and climate scientists -- The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York hosted the Climate Change in the Classroom (CCIC) Workshop on 28 April 2014 in which 33 middle and high school teachers from New York City and Illinois met with climate researchers and education specialists to connect NASA's cutting edge climate change science with how students are learning and getting ready for the world. [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies]
Asteroid makes close pass of Earth -- The manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory claims that an asteroid designated 2014 HQ124 would safely pass Earth on this past Sunday, coming within 777,000 miles of the planet. This asteroid was identified as a "potentially hazardous asteroid," meaning that the asteroid would have a diameter of at least 460 feet (140 meters). [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Asteroid Watch]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Mapping the sea-surface temperatures at start of Northern Hemisphere hurricane season -- As the hurricane seasons begin in the eastern North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, a global map was prepared of the sea surface temperatures across the tropical ocean basins from microwave data NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Microwave Imager (TMI), the U.S. Navy's WindSAT instrument on the Coriolis satellite and the AMSR2 instrument on Japan's GCOM-W satellite. The map highlights those areas of the tropical ocean basins that have sea surface temperatures exceeding 27.8 degrees Celsius (approximately 82 degrees Fahrenheit), considered to be the threshold for tropical cyclone development. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A review made of nation's 2013 tornado season -- An article in a recent issue of the Weatherwise magazine analyzes the statistics from the 2013 tornado season in the United States. Although the 903 tornadoes were well below the ten-year (2003-2012) annual average of 1350 tornadoes, the number of tornado-related casualties (55 fatalities and over 700 injuries) was relatively high. Several major tornado outbreaks during the year were discussed. [Weatherwise]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Downward trend in Tule fog found in California's Central Valley -- Using images obtained from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite and NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution E NOAA's advanced very high resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), researchers from the University of California-Berkley have found that the number of wintertime fog days associated with the "Tule fog" in California's Central Valley have decreased by 46 percent since 1981. The "Tule fog" is a phenomenon that develops between November and February in the San Joaquin Valley following winter rain as skies clear and the air becomes saturated with respect to water vapor when nighttime temperatures fall. The decrease in fog days appears to be related to higher temperatures or drier conditions. This fog is needed by California's farmers for their fruit and nut trees. [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]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Tree rings help provide nearly a millenimum-long precipitation records along Eastern Seaboard -- Paleoscientists from several academic institutions used the growth ring width from tree ring samples collected from numerous trees along the Eastern Seaboard to develop a long-term chronology of precipitation across the region that extends back nearly 1000 years. One of the findings from this record has been the occurrence of "megadroughts" that were intense and may have lasted for decades. A drought that began in 1587 may have been responsible for the demise of the Roanoke Colony along the current North Carolina coast. On the other hand, the period between 1970 and 2013 appears to be one of the wettest periods in the most recent 500 years. [Washington Post Health & Science] (Editor's note: Thanks are extended to Dr. Bob Weinbeck of the American Meteorological Society's Education Program for providing this link. EJH)

CLIMATE FORCING

Plume from Indonesian volcano eruption seen from space -- A natural color image obtained from the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument onboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite shows the plume of volcanic dust and condensate from the significant eruption of Indonesia's Mount Sangeang volcano at the end of May 2014. Air traffic across the Indonesian archipelago was disrupted by the eruption and ash layer. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Acidification of modern ocean outpaces ancient counterpart -- Scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Observatory and colleagues claim that the current rate of acidification of the modern ocean due to human activity may be ten times more rapid than the acidification following the rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide approximately 56 million years ago during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period of relatively high global temperatures. These scientists used the chemical composition of fossils to reconstruct the acidity of surface ocean waters. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Another hurricane forecast released -- At the start of this month, scientists at Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) released their sixth annual Atlantic hurricane forecast for 2014. This COAPS forecast, which utilizes a computer model based upon individual seasonal forecasts, calls for a 70 percent probability of five to nine named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes with sustained surface winds of at least 39 mph), with two to six of these reaching hurricane strength (maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or higher). The mean forecast is for seven named storms and four hurricanes. They also calculated an average Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) of 60, which represents a measure of the strength and duration of storms accumulated during the season. Their forecast is lower than the 1995-2010 average of 14 named tropical cyclones and eight hurricanes, which reflects the recent 15-year increase in tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic Basin. Comparison is invited to the 2014 seasonal forecast made by the NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, which calls for 8 to 13 named tropical cyclones and three to six hurricanes. [Florida State University]
Changing climate would create more frequent and heavier summer rainfall events in the UK -- A joint study made by the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office, the Natural Environment Research Council and Newcastle University reports that numerical simulations run on a state-of-the art climate model has found that hourly rainfall rates could increase across the United Kingdom due to changing climate conditions, leading to more frequent occurrences of extreme summer rainfall events. [UK Meteorological Office News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

First guidelines to cut carbon pollution from nation's power plants proposed by EPA -- At the beginning of last week the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its Clean Power Plan proposal that would cut carbon pollution from existing carbon pollution from the nation's existing power plants. In addition, the proposal would move the nation toward a cleaner environment and fight climate change. This Clean Power Plan is part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan. [EPA New Releases]
New climate rules could influence upcoming elections across the US -- The recent rules proposed by the Obama Administration concerning the cutting of carbon emissions by power plants have some politicians concerned about how the public will react and how these rules will affect the outcome of the 2014 elections. [Scientific American]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle -- the earliest land falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. (Intellicast)
9 June 1988...The temperature at Del Rio, TX soared to an all-time record high of 112 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 inches of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 inches established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
10 June 1995...The temperature at Yakutat, AK soared to 87 degrees for its highest temperature on record. (Intellicast)
11 June 1877...The temperature at Los Angeles, CA reached 112 degrees during a heat wave. It would have been the all-time record for Los Angeles but official records did not begin until twenty days later. Over a century later, Los Angeles would again reach this temperature on 26 June 1990. (The Weather Channel) (The Weather Doctor)
11 June 1972...Heavy showers brought 1.64 inches of rain to Phoenix, AZ, a record for the month of June. (The Weather Channel)
12 June 1991...The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century began as Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines injected 15 to 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Global dust cloud cooled the planet, reversing for a time the global warming trend, as 1992 was globally one of the coolest since the 1970s. On the same day that Mt Pinatubo awakens from its 635-year slumber, Typhoon Yunya crossed Luzon province. Mudslides and flooding caused many deaths and added with impacts of Pinatubo leaving more than a million homeless. (The Weather Doctor)
13 June 1907...The temperature at Tamarack, CA dipped to 2 degrees above zero, the lowest reading of record for June for the U.S. The high that day was 30 degrees. Tamarack received 42 inches of snow between the 10^thand the 13^th. On the 13^th the snow depth was 130 inches. (The Weather Channel)
13 June 1977...Masirah, Oman received 16.95 inches of rain this day, a national record. (The Weather Doctor)
14 June 1876...Cherrapunji, India recorded 1036.3 mm (40.8 inches) of rain in 24 hours. (The Weather Doctor)
14 June 1961...The temperature in Downtown San Francisco, CA soared to 106 degrees to establish an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1879...McKinney, ND received 7.7 inches of rain in 24 hours, a state record. This 24-hour state precipitation record has since been broken in June 1975 with an 8.10-inch reading. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1887...Regina, Saskatchewan reported its wettest day to date as 6.31 inches rain fell. (The Weather Doctor)
15 June 1896...The temperature at Fort Mojave, CA soared to 127 degrees, the highest reading of record for June for the U.S. The low that day was 97 degrees. Morning lows of 100 degrees were reported on the 12^th, 14^th and 16^th of the month. (The Weather Channel)
15 June 1957...East Saint Louis, IL was deluged with 16.54 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state of Illinois. In July 1996, this record was broken when 16.91 inches fell. (The Weather Channel)

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