WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

16-20 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

Highlighting weather and climate trends across Brazil -- Since Brazil is hosting soccer's 2014 FIFA World Cup, a fact sheet on the weather and climate across the nation of Brazil by Earth Gauge, a free environmental information service. [Earth Gauge]
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought -- This Tuesday (17 June 2014) has been declared World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This year's theme is "Land Belongs to the Future, Let’s Climate Proof It" and involves ecosystem-based adaptation. In December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared that World Day to Combat Desertification would be observed on 17 June of each year; this international observance would highlight the urgent need to curb the desertification process especially in those nations in Africa experiencing serious drought and/or desertification. In addition, the goal is to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the international environmental agenda. [UNCCD]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2014 Campaign continues -- The series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2014 will continue with a 10-night campaign starting on 17 June and running through 26 June. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Hercules in the Northern Hemisphere, and Scorpius in the Southern Hemisphere) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. This campaign that will focus on Hercules will continue in July and August. [GLOBE at Night]
Happy Summer Solstice! The summer solstice will occur early Saturday morning (officially, 21 June 2014 at 1051 Z, or 6:51 AM EDT, 5:51 AM CDT, etc.). At that time, the earth's spin axis is oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest north in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical summer, the British call the day the "Midsummer Day", as the apparent sun will begin its southward descent again. For essentially all locations in the northern hemisphere, daylight on Saturday will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Sunday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 21 December 2014 at 2303 Z. However, because the sun is not as perfect a time-keeper as a clock, the latest sunsets of the year at many mid-latitude locations will continue through about the first week of July -- a consequence of the Earth being near aphelion (during the evening of 3 July 2014) and the apparent sun moving across the sky well to the north of the celestial equator.
World Hydrography Day celebration -- The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) will celebrate its annual World Hydrography Day on Saturday, 21 June 2014, the 93rd-anniversary date on which the IHO was created in 1921. The theme for this year's celebration is "Hydrography -- much more than just nautical charts." This year's theme was selected because hydrography is an activity involving numerous disciplines including the weather, ocean and climate sciences that helps maintain the so-called "global blue economy." [International Federation of Hydrographic Societies]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

National weather and climate reviewed for May and spring 2014 -- Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently reported that their analysis of preliminary data indicates that the monthly temperature averaged across the contiguous US for May 2014 was 1.0 Fahrenheit degree above the 20th-century (1901-2000) average. This nationwide temperature meant that this month was the 32nd warmest May since 1895 when comprehensive climate records became available nationwide. Seven states along the West Coast and Intermountain West, along with 12 states along the East Coast reported above to much above average temperatures, with California having a monthly temperature for May 2014 that tied its ninth warmest May in 120 years. On the other hand, the remainder of the states across the nation's midsection had monthly statewide temperatures that were generally close to their long-term averages. Louisiana had a statewide temperature that was well below average.
The nationwide average temperature for the just-concluded meteorological spring (March, April and May 2013) was the 0.2 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average, making this spring the 51st warmest since records began in 1895. Ten of the states across the western third of the nation reported above to much above average statewide spring temperatures. The spring temperature for California was tied for ninth highest, while the temperature for Oregon was twelfth highest. To the east of the Rockies, many of the states across the Mississippi Valley, the Northeast and Southeast had spring temperatures that below average, while the remainder of the states reported close to average temperatures. Louisiana and Wisconsin experienced temperatures that were the eleventh lowest on record. The nation's midsection had an unseasonably cold spring, with 14 states across the Mississippi Valley and Southeast having statewide temperatures for the three months that ranked in the ten lowest on record.
Although precipitation across the coterminous US for May 2014 was 0.15 inches above the 20th-century average, this month the 48th driest May on record. Eleven states across the West, the central Plains and sections of the mid-Mississippi Valley had below average precipitation for May. Kansas reported its sixth driest May in 120 years. Texas and Louisiana along the western Gulf Coast along with a half dozen Northeastern States had above average May precipitation.
Spring precipitation across the nation was only slightly above the 20th century average. States across the Southwest, the central Plains and the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys had below average precipitation for March through May. Kansas had its third driest spring on record, while Oklahoma had its ninth driest. States across the Northwest, the Midwest and many of those bordering the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts reported above average spring precipitation. The state of Washington had its fourth wettest spring and Florida its eleventh wettest. [NOAA NCDC State of the Climate]
May drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its May 2014 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately 20 percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of May, while nine percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
Ice lingers on Lake Superior -- Images obtained from sensors onboard the nation's fleet of orbiting environmental satellites continued to detect ice floating in the surface waters of Lake Superior into early June. An image obtained early in the second week of June from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite show some remnant ice in the Lake Superior waters off Ashland, WI. The remaining ice makes this past ice season on the upper Great Lakes the longest since satellite records began nearly 40 years ago. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Monitoring a rapid retreat of Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier from space -- Comparison of images of West Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae (or Glacier) made by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the NASA Landsat 8 satellite in early May and again in early June shows that several kilometers of ice were shed from the front of this glacier through the calving process. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Monitoring stratospheric ozone over the Arctic in Spring 2014 -- A map of the concentration of stratospheric ozone over the Northern Hemisphere's polar cap region of the Arctic obtained from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite on 1 April 2014. This date marked the occurrence of the highest average ozone concentration over the Arctic this year. [NASA Earth Observatory]
NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Satellite retired after 13 years of service -- During the last week, NOAA officials announced that they had shutdown the sensors on the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) after more than 13 years of collecting data from the Earth's atmosphere and serving as a link that saved lives in search and rescue operations. Launched in 2000, NOAA-16 was one of the agency's NOAA's longest operating spacecraft. The Suomi NPP is now NOAA's primary operational polar satellite. [NOAA News] or [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
High altitude aircraft conducts ecosystem research --One of NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft is being employed this month in the agency's Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) airborne campaign across southern sections of California and Nevada to study Earth's ecosystems and how they function. The aircraft is carrying a suite of instruments designed to gather data concerning the health of vegetation in six diverse areas in these two states. [NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center]
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]

CLIMATE FORCING

Assessing how extreme events are affected by climate change -- NOAA recently released a new fact sheet entitled "Interpreting How Climate Change Affects Extreme Events" that is designed to provides a good background on how climate science addresses this issue through the use of observations and a variety of models. As an example, the expectations that heat waves and excessive rainfall events will continue to increase in frequency with climate change are addressed. [NOAA]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Hurricane season outlook is updated -- At the start of June Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, issued their updated June forecast for the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season. They foresee a season that would have below-average activity, as the tropical Atlantic Ocean remains slightly cooler than average and an El Niño event was beginning to develop. Therefore, they modified their April forecast slightly, now calling for 10 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), with four potentially becoming hurricanes. At least one of these hurricanes could become severe, reaching category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. They also anticipate a below-average probability of a major Atlantic hurricane making landfall somewhere along the coast of the coterminous US and in the Caribbean. [The Tropical Storm Project]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Historical Events:

Month of June...According to a 1969 US Army technical report, the average dewpoint temperature at Ras Andahglie and Assab, Eritrea (Ethiopia) average slightly more than 84 degrees F. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 June 1917...The temperature soared to 124 degrees at Mecca, CA climaxing the most destructive heat wave of record in California history. (David Ludlum)
17 June 1965...Holly, CO was deluged with 11.08 inches of rain to establish a state 24-hour rainfall record. (The Weather Channel)
18 June 1991...Atlanta, GA set a new record for the amount of the rain in one hour as 3.47 inches fell between 6:52 and 7:52 PM EDT. (Intellicast)
19 June 240 BC...On the summer solstice, Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
19 June 2004...An all-time record high temperature of 93 degrees was set: at Annette Island, Alaska. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 1921...Circle, MT received 11.50 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state. The town of Circle received a total of 16.79 inches of rain that month to establish a rainfall record for any town in Montana for any month of the year. (The Weather Channel)
20 June 1970...Norway's hottest day on record occurred, as the temperature at Nesbyen, Norway peaked at 96.1 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 2000...The town of Barrow on Alaska's North Slope experienced its first recorded thunderstorm, which dropped 0.16 inches (4.1 mm) of rain in just a couple minutes. (The Weather Doctor)
21 June 1942...The temperature at Tirat Tsvi, Israel reached 129 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Asia. (The Weather Doctor)
22 June 1947...Heavy rains deluged Holt, MO as a foot of rain fell in 42 minutes, still a world's record rainfall rate for the fastest foot of rain accumulation. (The Weather Doctor)
22 June 1987...Thunderstorms in New York State produced 5.01 inches of rain in 24 hours at Buffalo, an all-time record for that location.
The temperature at Fairbanks, AK soared to 92 degrees, establishing a record for the date. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
22 June 1988...Tucson, AZ reported an all-time record high of 114 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 112 degrees established a day earlier. Highs of 98 degrees at Pittsburgh, PA and 100 degrees at Baltimore, MD tied records for the month of June. (The National Weather Summary)
22 June 2003...The largest recorded hailstone in the United States fell on Aurora, NE. The diameter of this hailstone was 7 inches, and its circumference was 18.75 inches. (Northern Indiana NWSFO) The National Weather Service reported this hailstone was the largest ever documented in the U.S. by size, but the second largest hailstone by weight.
The mercury peaked at 95 degrees in the northern community of Moosonee, Ontario, the hottest June day ever recorded here. (The Weather Doctor)

Return to DataStreme ECS website