Weekly Water News

DATASTREME WES WEEK TWO: 29 January-2 February 2007

Water in the News

(Thurs.) Extent of contamination in Chesapeake Bay sediments is quantified -- NOAA officials recently unveiled a new online report detailing the results of a chemical contamination investigation made by NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science researchers of the sediments in the mainstem and major western tributaries of Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) Vietnam has oil spill -- An oil spill has blackened the resort beaches of central Vietnam extending out to sea. The source is unknown as authorities investigate. [ENN]
(Thurs.) Kansas salt mines cash in on icy winter -- Companies that mine underground salt deposits in Kansas have recently reported a substantial increase in business and profits due to the widespread ice storms that have coated the central and southern Plains during the last several weeks. [USA Today]
(Thurs.) California initiates ban on dry-cleaning chemical -- Regulators with the California Air Resources Board have placed a phase-out ban on the toxic and a potentially carcinogenic solvent perchloroethylene, the most common chemical used by dry cleaners. The solvent has been found to have contaminated roughly 10 percent of the wells in California. This phase-out, which will run until 2023, is the first statewide ban of the chemical in the nation. [ENN]
(Thurs.) Mercury contaminates many western fish -- Researchers at Oregon State University and the US Environmental Protection Agency have conducted a survey of more than 600 rivers and streams across twelve Western states and found widespread mercury contamination in the fish population. An atmospheric source of the mercury is suspected. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) "Smoking gun" report to be released soon -- The first phase of the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) written by more than 600 scientists from 154 countries is being released in Paris next week. Several of the participants call this report as providing evidence that human activity is the "the smoking gun" responsible for the observed increases in global temperatures during the latter 20th century. [USA Today
- The IPCC panel report indicates that rising sea levels due to melting of glaciers and the polar ice caps due to increased global temperatures would threaten low-lying land areas, such as several Pacific Islands, Bangladesh, Florida, Shanghai and Buenos Aires. [USA Today]
- However, some scientists disagree with the projections given in the report concerning the rise in sea level. [USA Today]
(Tues.) Investigating the "atmospheric teleconnections" associated with airborne dust -- Scientists with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have been using data obtained from satellites, along with sophisticated numerical models, to study how airborne dust from the deserts in northern Africa have affected the radiation balance, the temperature and hence, the climate of locales thousands of miles distant in processes that have been described as "atmospheric teleconnections". Recent research has also shown that wind-blown dust from eastern Africa has fertilized sections of the Amazon rain forest in South America. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Avalanche dangers increase in Alaska -- A combination of heavy snow and warm air spreading across south central Alaska in association with several recent storms has increased the danger of avalanches especially in the mountains on the Kenai Peninsula and around the Anchorage Bowl. [USA Today]
(Tues.) Tracking recent torrential rains in South America -- Images generated by the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis technique from data collected by sensors onboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite show the precipitation totals accumulated during a 31-day span ending last week, along with an anomaly chart depicting the differences between the recent rain and the nine-year average precipitation totals for the corresponding period. These persistent and torrential rains have caused floods and mudslides that left more than 50 people dead in southeastern Brazil and at least 16 dead in central Peru since New Year's Day. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) International cleanup of Great Lakes pondered -- The U.S. and Canadian governments are currently considering updating and strengthening the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, initially approved in 1972 and revised significantly in 1987. This agreement commits the two countries to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity" of the Great Lakes, the world's largest surface freshwater system. [US Water News Online]
A rare tropical cyclone traverses eastern South Pacific -- A visible image from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite reveals Tropical Cyclone Arthur moving southeast across the South Pacific to the east-southeast of Samoa Island last Wednesday. This cyclone, a low pressure system that is the South Pacific counterpart to a North Atlantic hurricane, took an unusual eastward track from near the International Date Line across a region of the Pacific that rarely experiences tropical cyclones because of relatively cold surface waters. [NOAA OSEI]
Detecting snow from a variety of satellite platforms -- Distinguishing the difference between clouds and snow can be difficult unless some additional cues such as recognizable snow covered landforms are visible. A visible image obtained from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite shows the snow and the clouds across the Southwest at the start of last week. Heavy snow had fallen across the region from a snowstorm. [NOAA OSEI] Compare this image, made from a geosynchronous satellite in an orbital altitude of approximately 23,000 miles, with the image made nearly four hours later from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite orbiting within 550 miles of the Earth's surface. [NOAA OSEI] Check the snow on the mountains or high plateaus that is dissected by canyons and rivers.
Submarine to space by phone -- Last Friday (26 January 2007) scientists in the submersible vehicle Alvin in the waters on the East Pacific Rise were scheduled to make a phone call to an astronaut on the International Space Station to discuss their respective observations. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Ocean temperature data are available -- The NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center recently announced that its long-term archive of global, high resolution ocean temperatures as obtained by the array of international satellites will be made available online for use by all. Currently, this archive, developed as part of the GODAE (Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment) High Resolution SST Project, is available from 2005 to present, but ultimately, the record should extend back to 1981. [NOAA News]
Air travel across Europe hit by winter weather -- A major snowstorm that moved across Europe last week curtailed air traffic as numerous airports, such as at Prague, were forced to close because of the snow. Other airports in Germany, Switzerland and Italy were also affected. [USA Today] A visible image from sensors onboard the NOAA-18 polar orbiting satellite showed the extensive snow cover across Europe at the midpoint of last week. [NOAA OSEI]
Drumlin found under ice sheet helps in study of ice-sheet behavior -- Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, Swansea University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena used time-lapse seismic surveys to find and monitor the growth of a drumlin, a mound of rock and sediment, under the Antarctic ice sheet, a discovery that could help explain ice-sheet behavior. [EurekAlert!]
Aerosols from pollutants could affect wind and precipitation -- Researchers at Stanford University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center claim that aerosols entering the atmosphere from vehicular exhaust and other sources could accumulate in the lower atmosphere, reducing the sunlight and slowing the wind, resulting in less available wind power for electricity-generating wind turbines. They also found that the increased aerosol loading also caused a reduction in the precipitation. [Stanford 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.

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: Water Chill

The Titanic disaster dramatically portrayed how immersion in cold water can be deadly. After abandoning ship, passengers and crew who were floating in relatively calm seas perished within a short time. Residents of cold climates are warned of the dangers posed by a combination of low air temperature and strong winds (the wind-chill). Because of the special thermal properties of water, immersion in cold water can be even more hazardous. A boating accident or a plunge through thin ice on a lake can have deadly consequences.

One of the principal hazards of cold water immersion is a lowering of body temperature due to excess heat loss. (Perhaps half of all drowning victims actually die from this effect of cold water rather than water-filled lungs.) Heat is energy that is transferred between two objects at different temperatures, always flowing from the warmer to the colder object. The human body can regulate its core temperature so that it normally varies by no more than about 2 Celsius degrees (3.6 Fahrenheit degrees) above or below 37 °C (98.6 °F). Hence, heat usually flows from the human body to its cooler surroundings. Core temperature refers to the temperature of vital organs such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys.

When immersed in cold water, a body may lose heat at such a high rate that thermoregulatory processes cannot prevent a steady drop in core temperature and the victim may exhibit symptoms of hypothermia. These symptoms set in when a person's core temperature falls below 36 °C (96.8 °F). Shivering (a natural thermoregulatory process) becomes violent and uncontrollable and the victim has difficulty speaking and becomes lethargic. If the core temperature drops below 32 °C (90 °F), shivering ceases, muscles become rigid, and coordination deteriorates. At a core temperature of 30 °C (86 °F), a person may drift into unconsciousness and death may ensue at a core temperature below 24 °C (75 °F).

A person runs a greater risk of developing hypothermia when immersed in water than air at the same temperature. Water conducts heat at a rate that is more than 20 times greater than still air and water's specific heat is almost 6 times that of dry air. Whereas the risk of hypothermia due to low air temperature primarily occurs in winter, cold water immersion is possible any time of year in many locations. Ocean or lake temperatures may remain relatively low throughout the summer months because of water's relatively great thermal inertia.

For more information on hypothermia, including expected survival time for various water temperatures, got to: http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/tourism/hypothermia.html.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Water is a [(much better)(poorer)] conductor of heat than still air.
Hypothermia is a potentially lethal [(rise)(fall)] in the temperature of the human body's vital organs.

Historical Events

29-30 January 1966...A hurricane that struck Samoa was responsible for 50 deaths, destroyed more than one-third of the homes and damaged the remainder. As many as 50,000 people were left homeless. Swains Island was leveled by the hurricane. Winds gusted to 100 mph at Pago Pago. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
29 January 1983...A series of Pacific coast storms finally came to an end. The storms, attributed in part to the anomalous ocean-atmosphere phenomenon, "El Niño," produced ocean swells 15 to 20 feet high that ravaged the beaches of southern California. Much of the damage was to homes of movie stars in the exclusive Malibu Colony. (The Weather Channel)
29 January 1993...Africa's worst weather-related disaster during 1993 occurred as rains produced floods across the southeast lowlands of Kenya. A railroad bridge across the swollen Ngai Nedithya River collapsed as a train crossed, causing 104 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) 30 January 1996...A snowfall of 6.4 inches on this day pushed the seasonal snowfall to 180 inches at Sault Ste Marie, MI. This set a new seasonal snowfall record for the city. The old record was 178.6 inches set in 1976-77. (Intellicast)
30 January 1997...Surf up to 12 feet, with sets to 15 feet, pounded the north and west shores of Hawaii. A wave swept eight people into the ocean at Keane Point on Maui. Four tourists who were taking pictures of the waves drowned. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
31 January to 4 February 1814...Floes of ice in England's Thames River backed ice up behind the London Bridge, then froze together. The ice was sufficiently strong to support refreshment and entertainment stands for 5 days. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
31 January 1911...Tamarack, CA was without snow the first eight days of the month, but by the end of January had been buried under 390 inches of snow, a record monthly snowfall total for the U.S. (The Weather Channel)
31 January to 9 February 1947...A memorable blizzard crippled Saskatchewan. All highways into Regina were blocked. Railway officials declared this blizzard as producing the worst conditions in Canadian rail history. A train was buried in a snowdrift 0.6 mile long and 37 feet deep. (The Weather Doctor)
31 January 1963...Heavy rains fell across the Sierra. The Mt. Rose Highway Station near Reno, NV reported 7.13 inches of precipitation, which set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Nevada. This rain, combined with snowmelt, produced 3 to 4 feet of water that covered 30 blocks of downtown Reno. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
1 February 1936...A rainfall of three inches in several minutes was followed by a hailstorm of jagged pieces of ice that killed 19 people in the Northern Transvaal area of South Africa. Hail was reported to accumulate to a depth of 3 feet. Some of those killed had to be dug out of the hail. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
1 February 1953...An intense low-pressure system of 966 millibars (29.52 inches of mercury) swept across the North Sea. Wind speeds at Aberdeen, Scotland exceeded 125 mph. A storm surge of 13 feet, aided by a high spring tide, breached the dams in as many as 100 places along the Zuider Zee in The Netherlands, flooding 3.95 million acres or one-sixth of the country. More than 1800 deaths were attributed to drowning and 50,000 people were evacuated. In addition, this storm was responsible for the loss of 100,000 poultry, 25,00 pigs and 35,000 cattle. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
2 February 1952...The only tropical storm of record to hit the U.S. in February moved out of the Gulf of Mexico and across southern Florida. It produced 60-mph winds, and two to four inches of rain. (2nd-3rd) (The Weather Channel)
2 February 1976...Groundhog Day Storm, one of the fiercest Maritimes storms ever battered Bay of Fundy region around Saint John, New Brunswick with winds clocked at 118 mph, generating 39 foot waves with swells of 32.5 feet. (The Weather Doctor)
3 February 1997...Portions of the Thames River in England froze over for the first time since World War II. (The Weather Doctor)