Weekly Water News

DATASTREME WES WEEK ONE: 3-7 September 2007

Water in the News:

(Thurs.) Variety of volcanoes may have helped increase oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere -- Scientists at Penn State University and the University of Western Australia claim that a switch approximately 2.5 billion years ago from volcanoes that were primarily undersea to those that were also located above water appeared to assist in the development of an atmosphere containing sufficient levels of oxygen. They argue that submarine volcanoes prior to the switch were limiting the accumulation of oxygen from cyanobacteria found in the ancient oceans. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) Green ship initiative highlighted -- An article in the NOAA Magazine highlights the three large diesel-powered NOAA research vessels operated by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. These vessels, which operate on bio-based, vegetable products, are examples of NOAA's efforts at a "Green Ship Initiative." [NOAA Magazine]
(Thurs.) Cleaner waters promised -- An innovative software approach to managing storm water runoff has been developed under an Environmental Protection Agency-funded project at Virginia Tech. This application, called "Best Management Practices," is expected to provide cleaner waters by controlling the amount of pollutants entering the storm water runoff. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) Textile boom in China dooms its waterways -- The boom in the Chinese textile industry, spurred in part by increased sales to the American market, has made water quality in Chinese waterways suffer because of increased runoff of toxic chemicals used in the manufacture of textiles. [US Water News Online]
(Tues.) Tropical Update:
- Felix regains category 5 status and lands on the Nicaragua-Honduras border. Eighteen feet of storm surge was predicted accompanied by up to 8 inches of rain. As it tracks inland, dangerous landslides are anticipated. [CNN]
- Category One Hurricane Henriette is poised to make landfall on the lower Baja California peninsula Tuesday afternoon. [NOAA's NHC]
(Tues.) Higher global temperatures could mean more severe thunderstorms -- NASA scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies recently reported that based upon their new climate model, more intense severe thunderstorms and associated hazards such as tornadoes and damaging winds could result as global temperatures increase as projected. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Probing the "red tide" -- A team of chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have synthesized the chemicals that appear to be the lethal components of "red tide" toxin, a toxic algal bloom that often affects coastal waters, closing shellfish beds and beaches. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Quick-fix levees could be airlifted -- Bladder-type levees that could be airlifted are being developed by the US Departments of Defense and Homeland Security in an effort to provide New Orleans or other municipalities with expedient repair devices for breached levees. [New Scientist]
(Tues.) Record low levels on Lake Superior -- A combination of below average precipitation since early 2006 and above average temperatures since 2005 across the northern Great Lakes has helped send the lake level of Lake Superior to a record low level [NWS Forecast Office, Marquette]
(Tues.) First NOAA Open Rivers Initiative project completed -- The last dam was breached on Oregon's Calapooia River recently as part of the inaugural project of NOAA's Open Rivers Initiative, an effort involving local, state and NOAA Fisheries Services designed to remove the dams and other artificial barriers on rivers that prevent salmon traveling upstream for spawning. [NOAA News]
Eye on the tropics ---
- In the North Atlantic Basin, the sixth tropical storm of the season, Felix formed as it moved westward past the Lesser Antilles and into the eastern Caribbean at the end of last week. By late Saturday night, this tropical storm had intensified into the second hurricane of the 2007 North Atlantic hurricane season. By late Sunday afternoon it had continued to strengthen to a major Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. [USA Today]
- In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Gil formed last week and moved westward away from the Mexican coast before weakening to a tropical depression at the start of the weekend. An image from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite shows the clouds surrounding Tropical Storm Gil last Thursday morning as the sun was rising across the eastern North Pacific. [NOAA OSEI]
  The eighth named tropical cyclone (hurricane or tropical storm) of the season, Tropical Storm Henriette formed late last week off the Mexican coast and moved northwestward paralleling the coast. As of Sunday, this strong tropical storm continued to move toward the northwest. Torrential rain accompanying Tropical Storm Henriette produced mudslides and flooding that killed six people in the coastal resort city of Acapulco as of Saturday. [Reuters]
- In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Fitow (a counterpart of a hurricane west of the Dateline) developed early last week near the Northern Marianna Islands and initially moved northward before curving to the west. An image made by sensors on the Japanese MTSAT satellite shows a large swirl of clouds around a central eye, a characteristic of a tropical cyclone. [NOAA OSEI]
- An oceanographer from Chetumal, Mexico claims that while few humans were killed when Hurricane Dean, a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, made landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula last month, the hurricane caused severe damage to the ecosystem of the Mexican coast, destroying or damaging forests and killing wildlife. [New Scientist]
Lightning is a killer -- Lightning remains as one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the United States, following deaths from heat related events and flooding.
- An 18-year high school student died after being struck by lightning last Wednesday while he was on a soccer field in Spartanburg, SC. His soccer coach, who was also struck by the bolt was in fair condition at an area hospital. [USA Today]
- A 75-year old golfer was struck and killed by lightning last Monday while under a tree on a golf course in Madison, WI. His death was the fourth lightning related death in two weeks in Wisconsin's capital city, following an accident where three people were electrocuted when lightning struck and caused a power line to fall into water at a bus stop during a torrential rainstorm. [Capital Times]
Northwest Passage is nearly open -- The sea ice surrounding the Canadian archipelago that blocked efforts of explorers since the late 15th century to find the Northwest Passage between the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans appears nearly melted according to an image obtained last week from a MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite. While much of the ice may have melted, the long-sought Northwest Passage may remain difficult to navigate. [NASA Earth Observatory] An image made the previous week from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows a larger polar perspective. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Satellites indicate long-term increase in tropical rainfall -- NASA scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center who have analyzed a 27-year global record of rainfall constructed from ground-based and satellite instruments from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project have found that the wettest years in the tropics, where the majority of the world's precipitation falls, have occurred primarily since 2001, with 2005 currently being the wettest year. [NASA GSFC]
Coastal water quality monitored from space -- Scientists at the University of South Florida have found that they can monitor water quality of coastal waters on nearly a daily basis using water turbidity data collected from the SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instruments onboard NASA satellites. [NASA Earth Observatory] (images appear on the NASA GSFC news site)
A saltier North Atlantic could affect ocean currents -- A researcher at the National Oceanographic Data Center and colleagues have analyzed salinity data collected across the North Atlantic for the last half century and have determined that the upper ocean water in that basin is becoming saltier. They conclude that the increased salinity is the result of climate change involving warmer surface waters and increased evaporation and they argue that these increases could have a short-term stabilizing effect on global ocean currents. [New Scientist]
Looking for life under the ice -- A biology professor at Louisiana State University has discovered viable microbes in ice cores extracted from the Antarctic ice sheet and liquid water samples taken from lakes beneath this sheet. [EurekAlert!]
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]
Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD --

A request: If you have some water-related experience that you would like to share with other DataStreme WES participants, please send them to the email address appearing at the bottom of this document for possible inclusion in a News file. Thank you. EJH

Concept of the Week: Touring the WES Homepage

NOTE: This Concept for the Week is a repeat of that which appeared in last week's Weekly Water News.

Welcome to DataStreme Water in the Earth System (WES)! You are embarking on a unique teacher-enhancement experience that focuses on water and energy flow in the global water cycle from an Earth system perspective. Throughout this learning experience, you will be accessing the DataStreme WES website frequently to obtain and interpret a variety of environmental information, including the latest observational data. The objective of this initial Concept of the Week is to explore features of the DataStreme WES website.

On Monday of each week of the course, we will post the current Weekly Water News that includes Water in the News (a summary listing of current events related to water), Concept of the Week (an in-depth analysis of some topic related to water in the Earth system), and Historical Events (a chronology of past hydrologic events such as major floods). When appropriate, Supplemental Information will be provided on some topic related to the principal water theme of the week.

You will use the DataStreme WES website to access and download the second part of weekly Investigations A & B (plus supporting images) that begin in your DataStreme WES Investigations Manual. These materials should be available by noon (Eastern Time) on Tuesday and Thursday. Click the appropriate buttons to download and print these electronic components of the investigations as well as your Chapter Progress and Investigations Response forms.

The body of the DataStreme WES website provides links to the Earth System, Atmospheric, Oceanic (and Inland Seas), and Terrestrial Information, and extras--glossaries of terms, maps, educational links, and WES information. Following each section is a link to other sites that examine the various subsystems of the Earth system. Let's take a quick tour to become more familiar with the WES website.

Under Atmospheric Information, click on Water vapor (WV) Satellite. This is the latest satellite depiction of atmospheric water vapor at altitudes generally between 3000 and 7000 m (10,000 and 24,000 ft). Press your "back" button and then click on Latest WV Animation to view the movement of water vapor and clouds in the atmosphere. Although water vapor is an invisible gas, satellite technology makes it possible for us to "see" and follow the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere as part of the global water cycle. Bright white blotches are clouds; black indicates areas of very little or no water vapor and, at the other extreme, milky white signals a relatively high concentration of water vapor. Use the "back" button on your viewer to return to the DataStreme WES website.

The flow and transformations of energy are fundamental aspects of the global water cycle. Heat flows within the Earth system from where it is warmer to where it is colder. In this regard, it is useful to monitor temperatures remotely, by satellite. For a global view of the satellite-derived pattern of sea-surface temperatures, click on Sea Surface Temperatures under Oceanic (and Inland Seas) Information. Note that the color scale at the bottom is in degrees Celsius and temperatures are averaged over a 7-day period. (Depending on your browser, you may have to place your mouse cursor on the slide bar to the right and scroll down to view the entire image.) Return to the DataStreme WES website.

As part of the global water cycle, precipitation that reaches the ground vaporizes back into the atmosphere, runs off into rivers and streams, seeps into the ground, or is stored in lakes or glaciers. Under Terrestrial Information, click on River Flood Conditions for the recent status of river levels monitored at various gauging stations around the nation. Note that in the Map Legend, river stages are rated from "no flooding" to "major flooding" using a color code. Now return to the DataStreme WES website.

Extras include color photographs arranged by week (chapter) to supplement your study of the DataStreme WES textbook. For example, click on Chapter 1 and then click on the first thumbnail for an enlarged image with the caption, "Water in Three Phases."

Take a few minutes when you have time to browse the other data and information sources available via the DataStreme WES website. You may want to "bookmark" this page on your computer. Return frequently to get into the flow of DataStreme WES!

Concept of the Week: Questions

The latest WV Animation indicates that clouds and water vapor generally move from [(west to east)(east to west)] across the nation.
In the tropical Pacific, the highest sea-surface temperatures occur in the [(western)(eastern)] portion of the ocean basin.

Historical Events

3 September 1821...A hurricane made landfall at Long Island, near the current J.F. Kennedy Airport, then moved through western Connecticut. The hurricane produced a record high tide at New York City. (David Ludlum)
3 September 1970...During the early evening hours, in the midst of a severe hailstorm at Coffeyville, KS, a stone 17.5 inches in circumference and 1.67 pounds in weight was recovered. At the time, it was the largest measured hailstone in U.S. weather records. Average stone size from the storm was five inches in diameter, with another stone reportedly eight inches in diameter. (David Ludlum)
4 September 1939...A "Once-in-a-Hundred-Year" thunderstorm deluged Washington, DC with 4.4 inches of rain in two hours. September of that year was very dry across much of the nation, and Washington, DC received more rain in that two-hour period than most other places in the country that entire month. (David Ludlum)
4-6 September 1970...Moisture from Pacific Tropical Storm Norma led to heavy rain and severe flooding over a three-day span. Unprecedented rains caused rivers in central Arizona to rise five to ten feet per hour, sweeping cars and buildings as far as 30 to 40 miles downstream, leading to the greatest natural disaster of record for Arizona. Flooding claimed the lives of 23 persons, mainly campers, and caused millions of dollars damage. Water crested 36 feet above normal near Sunflower. Workman's Creek was deluged with 11.40 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a 24-hour precipitation record for the Grand Canyon State. An estimated six inches of rain fell at Bug Point, UT, setting a 24-hour precipitation record for the Beehive State. (The Weather Channel) (NCDC)
4 September 1997...A 15-foot deep by 150-foot wide wall of water, mud, boulders and debris flowed down Mill Creek Canyon into Forest Falls, CA, where 2.5 inches of rain fell in 45 minutes. Roads, vehicles, houses and businesses were battered, with $3.5 million in damage and two injuries. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
6 September 1667...A "Dreadful hurricane" hit Virginia with 12 inches of rain. It overturned houses, stripped the fields of crops and pushed tides 12 feet above normal. (Intellicast)
6 September 1992 (date approximate)...A downpour of rain near Bombay, India caused stampede of worshippers at a temple dedicated to Varuna, god of rain. Eleven people died. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
7 September 1970...A lightning bolt struck a group of football players at Gibbs High School in Saint Petersburg, FL, killing two persons and injuring 22 others. All the thirty-eight players and four coaches on the field were knocked off their feet by the lightning discharge. (The Weather Channel)
7-9 September 1992...Heavy rain swamped northern Pakistan, resulting in phenomenal flooding. On the 9th, 6.72 inches of rain fell in 20 hours at Islamabad. The rain and flooding led to the collapse of 2.8 million homes, with at least 1184 deaths and roughly 4 million made homeless. Rivers in Punjab widened to 20 miles. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
8 September 1900...The greatest weather disaster in U.S. records occurred when a hurricane struck Galveston, TX. Waves fifteen feet high washed over the island demolishing or carrying away buildings, and drowning more than 6000 persons. The hurricane destroyed more than 3600 houses, and total damage was more than $30 million. Winds to 120 mph, and a twenty-foot storm surge accompanied the hurricane. Following the storm, the surf was three hundred feet inland from the former water line. The hurricane claimed another 1200 lives outside of the Galveston area. (8^th-9^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
Editor's note: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) posted a webpage commemorating the Galveston, TX hurricane of 1900. This page contains links to historic photos and excerpts of an eyewitness description of storm by Isaac Cline, the chief forecaster of the Galveston U.S. Weather Bureau Office.
9 September 1921...A dying tropical depression unloaded 38.20 inches of rain upon the town of Thrall in southeastern Texas killing 224 persons. The 36.40 inches that fell in 18 hours represents a record for the United States. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)