WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Twelve: 17-21 April 2006

Water in the News:

(Thurs.) Romania and Bulgaria on flood alert -- Expected heavy rains will seriously threaten dikes and levees along the Danube as thousands have already been made homeless from flooding. The water volume of the Danube is over twice the seasonal normal and has caused some tributaries to flow backwards. [USA Today]
(Thurs.) Record ocean waves documented -- Measuring instruments onboard the British Royal Research Ship Discovery indicate that the ship encountered record-setting waves reaching heights of nearly 98 feet during a scientific expedition in the North Atlantic off Scotland in February 2000. [MC Science and Nature]
(Thurs.) Changes in Niagara Falls' mist may be due to temperature, not hotels -- Scientists at the State of New York's University at Buffalo suggest that the construction of high-rise hotels in Niagara Falls, ON does not appear to play as important a contribution to thicker and higher mist plumes over the Falls as the larger temperature differences that have developed between air and water. [University at Buffalo]
(Thurs.) New satellite system launched that will help monitor Earth's environment -- Six tiny satellites that will form a low orbit and globe-spanning constellation were successfully launched from Vandenberg AFB in California last Friday. Orbiting at an altitude of 500 miles, this fleet of satellites, called COSMIC (the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate) in the US represents a joint US-Taiwan venture designed to use the bending of GPS signals passing through the Earth's atmosphere (radio occultation) to generate vertical temperature and water vapor profiles of the atmosphere that can then be used track hurricanes and other storm systems, as well as to monitor changes in climate. [UCAR]
(Thurs.) Space heating with a toilet flush -- Residents of Oslo, Norway are asked to flush their toilets to help warm their homes and offices as an energy project has been implemented that extracts heat from raw sewage and transfer the heat to a network of hot water pipes. [ENN]
(Tues.) Satellite-derived maps used to monitor urban development along Chesapeake Bay -- Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have been using a set of high resolution images (with a spatial resolution of 30 square meters) obtained from satellites to develop maps of the land use around Chesapeake Bay in an attempt to monitor and mitigate the effects of large impervious surfaces affecting the water quality in the nation's largest estuary. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Everglades restoration project gaining ground -- More than 100,000 acres of land in Florida have been acquired recently by state water managers as part of the Kissimmee River Project designed to flood a 43-mile stretch of river that had been previously turned into a flood control canal, thereby returning more water to Lake Okeechobee and the Florida Everglades. [ENN]
(Tues.) Damaged interstate highway bridge to become a giant reef -- The 2.5-mile long I-10 bridge across Florida's Escambia Bay near Pensacola that was damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 will become an artificial reef for fish and other marine life when a replacement bridge is completed. [Ledger-Enquirer]
(Tues.) Using a vacuum on algae -- Marine researchers with the University of Hawaii have been using a modified dredging device as an underwater vacuum to suck invasive algae from some of the bays along the coast of the Aloha State. [ENN]
(Tues.) Changes in summer rain across Central America and the Caribbean foreseen -- Atmospheric scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles recently reported that their analysis of ten global climate models indicates that parts of Central America and the Caribbean could experience less summer rain by 2050, with as much as a 20-percent reduction. [EurekAlert!]
Recent NASA images of the Earth System -- As part of the Earth Observatory program, NASA has released a variety of high resolution and high quality images of various aspects of the Earth System, some that show the impact of water on the system:
- The extent of this month's flooding in central California was captured by two images obtained from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on board the Aqua satellite. [Earth Observatory NASA]
- The expansion of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan of central Asia following the completion of a dam in the summer of 2005 is documented by a pair of MODIS images on board the Terra satellite made in April 2005 and 2006. Before the dam was completed, the Aral Sea had shrunk from being the Earth's fourth largest lake because of diversions made by rivers flowing into the lake. [Earth Observatory NASA]
- The development of the Grand Omar Mukhtar, a massive water project in Libya, is documented recently by images made by the ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) instrument on the Terra satellite. [Earth Observatory NASA]
- A variety of interesting colored phenomena associated with the effects of the high evaporation rates from the salty or alkali Lake Natron in Tanzania made by astronauts onboard the International Space Station. [Earth Observatory NASA]
Level of flooded Red River of the North begins to fall -- While the flood crest on the Red River of the North progresses northward into Manitoba, the flood levels farther south in communities in the eastern Dakota and northwestern Minnesota began to decline. Although significant flooding occurred from heavy spring rain and snowmelt, the levels along the Red River in such North Dakota communities as Fargo and Grand Forks did not reach the record levels set in the disastrous spring of 1997. [NOAA News]
Flooding in Germany monitored from space -- Instruments onboard the European Space Agency's ERS-2 satellite have been monitoring the record-level flooding across northern Germany that has been caused by recent torrential rain and snowmelt. These satellite-derived images are being used for flood response and mitigation. [ESA]
Wildfires potential remains high -- A recent meeting of fire managers and meteorologists from a variety of federal agencies issued the fifth annual National Wildfire Outlook that indicated that the wildfire potential should be "significantly higher than normal" this spring and summer from Alaska to the East Coast. [USA Today] While the mountains of western Colorado have received adequate snow, the eastern sections of the Centennial State are under severe drought that could result in an "above average" risk for large wildfires. [Rocky Mountain News]
Sewage spilled into a Virgin Islands harbor -- Millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into the harbor near Christiansted on the north side of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands over one week ago, leading officials to warn local residents and tourists to stay away from the beach and water. [ENN]
A fall into sewage-contaminated waters has dire consequences -- A 34-year old healthy man who fell into a boat harbor in the Waikiki section of Honolulu, HI lost his leg and remained on life support due a reaction to the contaminated waters in the harbor following the release of large quantities of raw sewage during last month's heavy rain events. [US Water News Online]
Add another named storm to 2005 list -- Upon reviewing data obtained from an unnamed subtropical storm that formed in early October off the Azores during last year's record hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin (including the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico), scientists at the National Hurricane Center added this system as the 28th named system (including tropical storms and hurricanes) to the season's list. [USA Today] An official report of this unnamed subtropical storm from the National Hurricane Center appears in pdf format. [NHC]
The 2005 hurricane seasons reviewed -- The 2005 hurricane season in the North Atlantic was historic as numerous long-standing records were been broken by the most active hurricane season in the North Atlantic in over 150 years of record keeping. In addition to a review of this season in this basin, a review of the eastern North Pacific hurricane season was also made. [AMS DataStreme Atmosphere] [NOAA News]
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.

Concept of the Week: Change in the Earth System

In 1881, Henri Louis Le Chátelier (1850-1936) formulated a general law of chemistry: "If a system at equilibrium is subjected to a stress, the equilibrium will shift in an attempt to reduce the stress." This reasoning provides insight into the behavior of systems. The interaction of subsystems within the Earth system involves the transfer of mass and energy. A stress or disturbance of a subsystem will thus affect the other subsystems to varying degrees.

The final week of the course is an appropriate occasion for us to revisit and reflect on the paradigm that guided our investigation of water in the Earth system and to consider how this system will react to stresses resulting from both natural and human disturbances.

The global water cycle encompasses the flow of water, energy, and water-borne materials, as well as their interactions with organisms in the Earth system. Water's unique combination of physical and chemical properties, its co-existence as vapor, liquid, and solid within the temperature and pressure ranges found on Earth, and its role as an essential ingredient of life, places it center stage in the interactive functioning of the planet's sub-systems. As the principal atmospheric greenhouse gas, water vapor brings temperatures into the range required for life on Earth. Powered by the sun, the water cycle couples the living and non-living components of Earth into an evolving system. Human activity is an integral and inseparable part of the water cycle, impacting and impacted by both the quantity and quality of water.

The burning of fossil fuels appears to be a major contributor to the increased amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Le Chátelier would describe this anthropogenic increase as a stress on the system. By altering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, human activity may be modifying climate on a global scale. The Earth system and its various interdependent subsystems may respond to this disturbance by shifting to a new climate state. The interdependency of Earth's various subsystems and biogeochemical cycles implies that such a shift will have implications for the distribution of water within the global water cycle and for fresh water resources (e.g., changes in glacial ice cover, sea level, drought frequency).

Concept of the Week: Questions

After completing DataStreme WES, I now understand the global water cycle as a flow of [(mass) (energy) (both mass and energy)].
After completing DataStreme WES, I now understand that human activity [(may) (may not)] impact the Earth system with implications for the water cycle and water resources.

Historical Events:

17 April 1942...A deluge of 8.35 in. of rain in only two hours dampened West Palm Beach, FL. (Intellicast)
17 April 1953...One of the few severe hailstorms accompanied by snow, sleet, glaze, and rain, pelted parts of Kay, Osage, Creek, Tulsa, Washington, and Rogers Counties in northeastern Oklahoma late in the day. Nearly 10,000 insurance claims were filed. (The Weather Channel)
17 April 1965...The Mississippi River reached a flood crest at Saint Paul, MN four feet higher than any previous mark. During the next two weeks record levels were reached along the upper Mississippi between Saint Paul and Hannibal, MO. Flooding caused more than $100 million in damage, but timely warnings kept the death toll down to just twelve persons. (David Ludlum)
17 April 1997...The Red River of the North crested at Fargo, ND, with a record crest of 39.6 ft, which is 22.6 ft above flood stage. This record flood, produced by several major winter storms, heavy spring rain, rapid snow melt, and ice jams, was responsible for at least 11 deaths (7 in North Dakota and 4 in Minnesota) and tremendous property damage along with large scale evacuations of residents from the Grand Forks metropolitan area. Dikes along the river gave way. Overall damage and cleanup costs have been estimated to range from $1 to $2 billion in Grand Forks, where a portion of the downtown burned as firefighters had a difficult time reaching the buildings due to the flood. [NCDC]
Editor's Note: "History repeats!" During the second week of April 2001, the Red River at Grand Forks reached a river stage of 45 ft, or approximately 17 ft above flood stage and about 7 ft below the top of the levee. In 1997 this gauge measured a record 54.35 ft. EJH
18 April 2004...A record 182 consecutive days of no measurable precipitation began in San Diego, CA on this date, which ended on 17 October 2004 with 0.09 inches of rain. This new record broke the 181-day record set the previous year. Interestingly, the rain that followed the more recent dry spell resulted in October 2004 becoming San Diego's wettest month on record (4.98 inches). (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
20 April 1952...The tankers Esso Suez and Esso Greensboro crashed in thick fog off the coast of Morgan City, LA. Only five of the Greensboro's crew survived after the ship burst into flame. (David Ludlum)