WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

4-8 August 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

High altitude image of an Arctic melt pond -- A digital photograph made of a glacier in southeastern Alaska from NASA's ER-2 aircraft flying at an altitude of approximately 64,000 feet within the last three weeks shows summertime melt ponds that have formed on the glacier. The aircraft was conducting a test of the onboard Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar (MABEL), a laser altimeter designed to measure the elevation of glaciers, mountains, forests, and other landforms below the instrument. A similar instrument is to be used on the upcoming Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission. [NASA Earth Observatory]

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]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Lead air pollution reached South Pole more than a century before Amundsen and Scott -- An international team of scientists that includes a NASA researcher has determined that air pollution from industrial activities reached the South Pole on the Antarctic continent more than 100 years prior to the arrival of the first human explorers, Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen, in the early 20th century. The scientists' findings were based on the four-century time series of lead concentration reconstructed from 16 ice cores collected from around Antarctica. An large increase in the lead that fell across Antarctica came with the onset of the Industrial Era in the late 19th century. [NASA Earth Science News Team]
Remains of sailing ship near World Trade Center traced to Colonial era -- Tree-ring scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory assisted archeologists identify the remains of an ancient sailing ship at the site of New York City's World Trade Center. Using sophisticated tree-ring analysis techniques, the remaining timbers of this vessel, tentatively identified as a Hudson River Sloop, were determined to be from white oak trees cut from an old growth forest in the colonial Philadelphia (PA) area around 1773, just before the start of the American Revolutionary War. [Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Satellites used to trace aerosols back to their sources -- Images obtained from data collected by the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite and the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite have been used to trace a variety of aerosols including smoke and dust as they are carried by the wind away from wildfire and desert sources. Several maps were produced showing the aerosol index (AI) two weeks ago across the globe, with source regions identified in North America, Africa and Asia. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Data collected by both the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument on the NASA/CNES CALIPSO satellite were used to produce an image portraying a vertical cross-section or transect of the vertical extent of the aerosols from a wildfire over Siberia during mid-July. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Huge waves measured on Arctic Ocean for first time -- Oceanographers from the University of Washington report that large waves with heights to 16 feet have been detected for the first time on the open waters of the Arctic Ocean during a storm that moved across the basin in September 2012. These researchers suggest that the large waves were due to strong winds associated with the storm and the large expanse of open waters in the Arctic in response to higher global temperatures. Higher wind-driven surface waves should be seen on the Arctic Ocean in the future because of greater anticipated open areas of ocean. [University of Washington News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Canadian national seasonal outlook issued -- Forecasters with Environment Canada issued their outlooks for temperature and precipitation across Canada for August, September and October 2014, which represents the last month of meteorological summer and the first two months of autumn. The temperature outlook indicates that most of Canada would experience above normal (1981-2010) summer-early fall temperatures. Only few scattered areas across northern Canada and in southern areas near Lake Superior would expected to have below normal summer temperatures.
The Canadian precipitation outlook for summer and early autumn 2014 indicates that below average precipitation could be expected across scattered sections of central Canada, extending across northern Saskatchewan, southeastern Nunavut and northern Ontario. Sections of eastern Canada could have below average precipitation. On the other hand, scattered sections across the Yukon Territory and Arctic Canada could have above normal precipitation for these three months.
[Note for comparisons and continuity with the three-month seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation generated for the continental United States and Alaska by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, one would need to use Environment Canada's probabilistic forecasts for temperature and precipitation.]
"Nuisance flooding" appears to be an increasing problem along nation's coasts as sea levels rise -- NOAA's National Ocean Service recently released a report entitled "Sea Level Rise and Nuisance Flood Frequency Changes around the United States" that notes nuisance flooding along the nation's Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts has increased between 300 and 925 percent since the 1960s. Nuisance flooding is defined as inundation of coastal regions by seawater that causes public inconveniences such as frequent road closures, overwhelmed storm drains and compromised infrastructure. More than 60 years of coastal water level and local elevation data were analyzed. Of the top ten US cities identified in this report to have experienced an increase in nuisance flooding, eight are located along the East Coast. The extent of nuisance flooding depends on multiple factors, including topography and land cover. The report also notes that sea level rise projected for the rest of this century associated with changing climate will intensify nuisance flooding impacts. [NOAA News]

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Alaskan fisheries and communities shown to be at risk from ocean acidification -- Researchers from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the University of Alaska recently reported that their analysis of data collected across the 49th State indicates ocean acidification from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is driving changes in waters vital to Alaska's valuable commercial fisheries and subsistence way of life. Communities with the highest risk are found in the southeastern and southwestern sections of the state. [NOAA News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

New statistics indicate that winter is deadlier than summer across the US -- The National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report that indicated winter cold kills more than twice as many people across the United States as summer heat. The report, which was based on death certificate data from 2006 through 2010, indicated that approximately 2000 US residents died each year from weather-related causes, with 63% of these deaths attributed to exposure to excessive natural cold, hypothermia or both, approximately 31% of the deaths attributed to exposure to excessive natural heat, heat stroke, sun stroke or all and only 6% attributed to floods, severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes or lightning. However, these CDC data differ from the data produced by the National Weather Service (NWS), which finds that only about 640 people die because of weather each year with heat being the biggest killer, followed by tornadoes, hurricanes and floods; cold is only the eighth-biggest killer according to the NWS report. The NWS data are based on a 10-year average from 2004-13 and the casualty data (deaths and injuries) are considered supplementary to the weather reports. [CDC National Center for Health Statistics News Releases]
Boston's climate future discussed -- Brian Swett, the Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space for the city of Boston (MA), was recently interviewed by NOAA's Climate.gov team concerning his current work on updating the city's Climate Action Plan. The discussion focused on the climate future of the capital city of Massachusetts, with attention given to coastal flooding associated with sea level rise and storm surge and to inland flooding from heavy precipitation events. Attention was also given to community awareness and participation. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

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)
8 August 1878...The temperature at Denver, CO soars to an all-time record high of 105 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
8 August 1983...The temperature at Big Horn Basin, WY reached 115 degrees to establish a state record for the Cowboy State. (The Weather Channel)
9 August 1930...The temperature reached 113 degrees at Perryville, TN to establish an all-time maximum temperature record for the Volunteer State. (NCDC) (Intellicast)
9 August 1960...Vancouver (British Columbia) International Airport's hottest day on record as the mercury hit 91.4 degrees (The Weather Doctor)
9 August 2003...The Bavarian city of Roth, Germany had a temperature that hit 105 degrees, a new national record. (The Weather Doctor)
10 August 1898...The temperature at Pendleton, OR climbed all the way to 119 degrees to tie the state record set two weeks previously at Prineville. (The Weather Channel)
10 August 1936...The temperature soared to 114 degrees at Plain Dealing, LA, and reached 120 degrees at Ozark, AR, to establish record highs for those two states. (The Weather Channel)
10 August 1988... The temperature reached 102 degrees at Ely, NV breaking the all-time record there. (Intellicast)
10 August 2003...A heat wave continued across the British Isles. At Gravesend in southern England, a new national heat record was set as the mercury soared to 100.58 degrees. The heat forced rail service officials across Britain to limit train speeds to 60 mph because of fears the tracks could buckle. Londoners experience their hottest recorded day in the London's history when the temperature hit 100.22 degrees, which was the first ever time that the temperature went over 100 degrees at Heathrow Airport. (The Weather Doctor)

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