WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

9-13 May 2016

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2016 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 22 August 2016. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Use satellites to safely view Mercury's transit of the Sun -- The planet Mercury will "transit" the Sun on this Monday (9 May) morning as the planet passes between the Sun and planet Earth between 7:12 AM and 2:42 PM EDT in a relatively rare occurrence that occurs only 13 times in a century. Instruments onboard three NASA satellites are expected to collect data that should be able to generate images of the relatively small planet passing across the bright solar disk on a near-live feed. Since observing the passage of the relatively small Mercury across the Sun would require safe magnification, the public is encouraged to view the seven and a half hour transit event on a NASA Goddard Space Center website. The three satellites are: the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO (jointly operated by NASA and ESA, the European Space Agency), NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, and the Hinode solar mission, a collaboration between the space agencies of Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Caution Do not look at the Sun without adequate eye protection! [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature]
Land of the Midnight Sun -- Barring clouds, the sun should rise at Barrow, AK early next Tuesday morning (2:47 AM AKDT on 10 May 2016) after spending 48 minutes below the horizon. The sun should then remain above the local horizon for the next 12 weeks, before going below the horizon for 30 minutes on 1 August 2016 (at 2:19 AM AKDT). [US Naval Observatory]
Zenithal Sun -- The end of this upcoming week marks one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents on the Big Island on about 14 May at South Cape (Ka Lae at 18.9 deg North latitude and 155.68 degrees West longitude) and on 18-19 May at Hilo; those on Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) will experience the noon sun at the zenith in approximately two more weeks (25-27 May). The sun will again be over the Big Island during the last week of July. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
Hurricane season to begin in the eastern North Pacific -- The 2016 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin begins next Sunday, 15 May 2016. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will begin in two weeks on 1 June. The official hurricane seasons in both basins end on 30 November 2016. NOAA has declared the week of 15-21 May 2016 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Using daily high temperatures may help track climate change -- The director of the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Earth System Science Center and Alabama state climatologist recently suggested that scientists attempting to track climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions using long-term surface air temperature data would be best served by using daily high temperature readings without considering the daily low temperatures. He feels that the daytime high temperatures are less contaminated by local surface effects, such as deforestation, irrigation, construction and paving than nighttime low temperatures. He based his recommendations upon the construction of stable temperature records for three regions of interior Alabama beginning in 1883. [University of Alabama in Huntsville News]
New lightning capital of the world identified -- In a recently released study by scientists at NASA, NOAA and academic institutions in the US and Brazil, Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela was determined to be the lightning capital of the world. Using 16 years of high resolution data collected by the Lightning Imaging Sensor onboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission, the team found that Lake Maracaibo receives an average rate of about 233 flashes per square kilometer per year, which surpasses the lightning activity observed over Africa's Congo Basin, previously considered to be the world's lightning capital. The unique geography and climatology of Lake Maracaibo, which is along the Andes Mountains in northwestern Venezuela, is South America's largest lake and represents a favorable place for nighttime mountain breezes to form and converge over the lake surface in a humid and unstable environment, leading to nearly 300 nocturnal thunderstorms per annum. [NASA Marshall Space Flight Center News]
Major wildfires destroy city in northern Alberta -- During the last week a major and highly destructive wildfire was burning out of control across northern sections of Canada's Alberta province, destroying over 1600 structures in the community of Fort McMurray and surrounding areas, along with displacing 90,000 residents, which represents the largest evacuation on record in Canada. A false-color image of the fire was made just before midweek from data collected from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite. Environment Canada was releasing air quality alerts for portions of eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan because of the intense smoke from the fire. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Unseasonably high temperatures and dry weather across Alberta helped create ideal conditions for the rapid spread of the wildfire. A map of the land surface temperature anomalies (temperature differences between observed and long-term average) across the Canadian Prairie Provinces from late April into early May generated from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite indicates surface temperatures that ranged from 10 to 15 Celsius degrees above the 2000-2010 averages. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Deadly April heat wave roasts India and Southeast Asia -- Sections of southern and southeastern Asia has experienced a killer heat wave and drought conditions in April, which is part of the region's summer Pre-Monsoon season as temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. More than 150 deaths in India over the last two weeks have been blamed on the heat wave. The recent major El Niño event appears to be responsible for the heat wave and drought conditions. [Voice of America News] All-time national high temperature records were established in Cambodia (42.6°C or 108.7°F at Preah Vihea on 15 April), Laos (42.3°C or 108.1°F at Seno on 13 April), Thailand (44.6°C or 112.4°F at Mae Hong Son), Malaysia (39.2°C or 102.6°F at Batu Embun on 10 April) and Singapore (36.6°C or 97.9°F at Pulau on 17 April). [Weather Underground] In Titlagarh in the Indian state of Odisha, a temperature of 48.5°C or 119.3°F was the highest temperature reading ever in India during the month of April.
A map showing the land surface temperature anomaly (or the difference between the observed and 2000-2012 average temperatures) for the month of April 2016 made from data collected by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite across southern Asia and the Indochina Peninsula reveals that some locations had surface temperatures as much as 12 Celsius degrees (22 Fahrenheit degrees) above average. [NASA Earth Observatory]
During the past week, some welcome rain fell across the region. [CNN]

CLIMATE FORCING

Carbon uptake in Southeast US influenced by hurricane activity -- An environmental engineer from Duke University claims that tropical cyclones moving close to the Southeastern United States can have a beneficial effect by increasing photosynthesis and growth in the region's forests, which would result in increases in carbon uptake, exceeding and counteracting the carbon emissions by all of the nation's vehicles each year. Her findings follow previous research that she made showing landfalling tropical cyclones add to the regional water supply and help mitigate drought conditions. [Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering News]
High altitude clouds pushed toward poles by expanding tropics -- A climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and his colleagues report that analysis of 30 years of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project data set indicates the observed trend of midlatitude high-altitude clouds shifting poleward is primarily the result of the expansion of the tropical atmospheric circulation regimes called the Hadley cells. [NASA Global Climate Change News]
Tracking global air pollution from space -- Efforts undertaken by NASA scientists and colleagues over the last 40 years at monitoring the various types of air pollution that are responsible for the reduction in air quality and the deaths of millions around the world are described. Several examples of these efforts, including the satellite-borne instruments, are discussed, including those involving the monitoring of ozone and particulate matter. [NASA Global Climate Change News]
Estimates of contributions by groundwater extraction to sea level rise are downsized -- Researchers from the United States, Taiwan and Singapore recently reported that water extracted from the ground along with other land water contributes approximately three times less to sea level rise than previously estimated. These results could help improve future models of sea level rise. [International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Many islands around the world could experience freshwater stress due to changing climate -- A team of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Arizona recently reported that in addition to the threat of rising sea levels associated with higher global temperatures, many island nations could experience decreased precipitation through the end of the 21st century, which would result in increased freshwater stress, compounded by population growth. Nearly three-quarters of the 80 island groups around the world that were examined could experience more arid conditions and increased water stress. Some of the nations that appear to be at a particularly high risk due to drying and population growth include the Bahamas and Lesser Antilles in North Atlantic; French Polynesia, the Solomons, American Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu in the Pacific and Comoros in the Indian Ocean. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Ecology of nation's deepest lake could be altered by warming climate -- A recently released US Geological Survey (USGS) report warns that projected increases in air temperature across the global over the next several decades would change water temperature and mixing with the water column in Oregon's Crater Lake, which would potentially impact the clarity and health of the nation's deepest lake. The scientists who wrote the report used a computer model to predict mixing events through 2100 in Crater Lake, a caldera lake in the Oregon Cascade Mountains, using six different climate scenarios. [USGS Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

8 May 1784...Eight people were killed in what may have been the U.S.'s deadliest hailstorm. Hail nine inches in circumference also killed sheep and birds when it fell along the Wateree River in South Carolina. (National Weather Service files)
10 May 1910...A meteorograph ascent of an instrumented Weather Bureau kite to 23,835 feet from Mount Weather, VA set the altitude record for the site. The ascent, which had a kite with instruments to measure atmospheric conditions aloft, used 10 kites in tandem and 8.5 miles of kite wire. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
10 May 1966...Morning lows of 21 degrees at Bloomington-Normal and Aurora established an Illinois state record for the month of May. Snow flurries were reported at Kansas City, MO and Chicago, IL (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
10-11 May 1986...Bangkok, Thailand received 15.79 inches of rain in 24-hours, which was a national record. (The Weather Doctor)
11 May 1934...A tremendous dust storm affected the Plains as the Dust Bowl era was in full swing. According to The New York Times, dust "lodged itself in the eyes and throats of weeping and coughing New Yorkers," and even ships some 300 miles offshore saw dust collect on their decks. (National Weather Service files)
11 May 1966...The 1.6 inch-snow at Chicago, IL was their latest measurable snow of record. Previously the record was 3.7 inches on the 1^stand 2^nd of May set in 1940. (The Weather Channel)
11 May 2003...A total of 4.63 inches of rain fell at Nashville, TN, breaking the previous 24-hour record for the month. (The Weather Doctor)
12 May 1916...Plumb Point, Jamaica reported 17.80 inches of rain in 15 minutes, which set a world record. (The Weather Doctor)
13 May 1930...A man was killed when caught in an open field during a hailstorm 36 miles northwest of Lubbock, TX. This event was the first, and perhaps the only, authentic death by hail in U.S. weather records. (David Ludlum)
13 May 1992...Record late season snow ended over the Tanana Valley and Yukon Uplands in Alaska. This storm set two records at Fairbanks. The 9.4 inches of snow from the storm was by far the greatest May snow on record, shattering the previous record of 4.5 inches set on 13 May 1964. The total water content of the melted snow and rain was also a new one-day record for May (0.78 Inches). Snowfall in excess of two feet occurred at elevations above 2000 feet. (Intellicast)
14 May 1834...The greatest snowstorm ever to occur in May hit the Northern Atlantic coastal states. The hills around Newbury, VT were covered with up to 24 inches of snow and the higher elevations around Haverhill, NH received up to three feet. (Intellicast)
14 May 1896...The mercury plunged to 10 degrees below zero at Climax, CO, the lowest reading of record for the U.S. during the month of May. (David Ludlum) This record has since been broken in May 1964 by a reading of 15 degrees below zero at White Mountain in California. (NCDC)
14 May 2001...A storm stalled south of Nova Scotia drenching Halifax with 3.89 inches of rain, the greatest daily May rainfall since records began in 1871. (The Weather Doctor)
15 May 1968...Only tornado of record to have ever touched down in Alaska was spotted near Anchorage. (The Weather Doctor)

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