WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Nine: 24-28 March 2008

Water in the News:

(Thurs.) Hurricane preparedness message taken to our southern neighbors -- NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Reserve will host a series of public events this coming week of 23-29 March 2008 in five coastal communities in Mexico and the Caribbean to urge residents to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) Despite cold winter, Arctic remains on "thin ice" -- NASA scientists and their colleagues caution that despite an increase in the area of new sea ice in the Arctic basin due to below average temperatures during the just-concluded winter, satellite observations indicate that older, multi-year sea ice continues to decline in size. [NASA]
(Thurs.) California county's tsunami warning system test -- The tsunami warning system of Humboldt County in northern California will be tested this coming Wednesday by the National Weather Service and the California Office of Emergency Services. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) Another view of an iceberg breakup -- A sequence of images obtained from the MODIS sensors on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites between mid-January and mid-March 2008 shows the disintegration of the A53a iceberg that calved off Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf and drifted into the warmer waters of the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean off South Georgia Island. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Thurs.) Riverine microorganisms play part in nitrogen pollutant removal --- A team of 31 scientists from across the nation led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted a study of 72 streams in the US and have found that tiny organisms in streams and rivers play a powerful role in removing anthropogenic-generated nitrogen pollutants from the stream's water. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory]
(Thurs.) Pilot-less aircraft tested in Antarctica -- The first flights by autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles were conducted in Antarctica between October and December 2007 by the British Antarctic Survey and Germany's Technical University of Braunschweig to gather environmental data over Antarctica and the Weddell Sea involving the heat exchange between the lower atmosphere and sea ice. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Expanse of African flooding seen from space -- Comparisons of images obtained from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite in early February and mid March 2008 shows the increase in areal extent of the rivers and lakes in the African nation of Namibia due to recent heavy rainfall. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) North Atlantic microseisms studied -- A team of researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of California, San Diego; the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; and the Hydrologic Research Center in San Diego have identified a locale in the North Atlantic Ocean where small earth tremors called microseisms are emitted from the ocean depths due to standing waves that develop when ocean waves traveling from opposite directions interact. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Increasing coastal development in the Southeast noted -- A recent NOAA survey of land use for counties bordering the US coasts indicates that more than half of the new development between 1996 and 2001 occurred along the coast between Texas and North Carolina. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Members appointed to Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee -- Thirteen new members along with a current member were appointed by the US Department of Commerce to the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee that provides citizen input and advice to the Secretaries of the US Departments of Commerce and Interior on conserving the nation's system of marine protected areas. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Public comment invited on research area in a national marine sanctuary -- NOAA officials are inviting public comment through mid April on the creation of a special research area in the waters of the agency's Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary located off the coast of Georgia. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Climate change across Middle East could spell trouble -- The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization recently warned that changes in climate across the Middle East could result in increased temperatures, along with more drought and floods, which would result in reduced food production especially in poor countries due to more water shortages and in soil degradation. [US Water News Online]
(Tues.) Money spent on sanitation would be money well spent -- As part of the UN's World Water Day activities last week, experts declared that for every dollar invested on sanitation improvements in poor countries, up to $9 could be returned in productivity and human health. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Radar technology applied to subterranean water processes -- Researchers are employing new ground-penetrating radar techniques to monitor the properties and the movement of water in the "vadose" zone that lies between the earth's surface and the water table. [Soil Science Society of America]
Continued spring flooding anticipated -- In conjunction with last week's widespread flood conditions and the observance of Flood Safety Awareness Week, National Weather Service forecasters issued a spring seasonal outlook in which they foresaw continued above-normal flood potential across the Mississippi, Ohio and lower Missouri Valleys in the central sections of the country, as well as much of the Northeast and rivers across the West, especially in Colorado and Idaho. They also issued a drought outlook through June that indicates a general improvement of the drought conditions across the Southeast and the Great Basin, but persistent or deepening drought conditions over the Southwest and Rockies. [NOAA News]
A satellite view of deadly rains in US -- An image of the rainfall totals generated by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis of data obtained from the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite during the week of 13-20 March 2008 shows the torrential rain that fell across the Mid-South because of a slow moving storm, which resulted in flooding and the deaths of at least 13 people. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Becoming AWARE -- During this coming week of 23-29 March 2008, Ohio will conduct its Severe Weather Awareness Week. These weeks are usually scheduled before the onset of the severe weather season in that particular state. If you live in Ohio, you should take time to become familiar with the various public affairs announcements issued by your local National Weather Service Office. In upcoming weeks, other states will observe Severe Weather Awareness weeks.
The Governor of Alaska, along with NOAA, has proclaimed this coming week (23-29 March 2008) as Tsunami Awareness Week in Alaska. This start of this week coincides with the 44^th anniversary of the series of devastating tsunamis that struck southeastern Alaska following several earthquakes. [Governor's Office for State of Alaska]
World Meteorology Day celebration -- Tuesday, 25 March 2008 is World Meteorology Day. This day is designated to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 23 March 1950. The WMO is an agency within the United Nations. The theme of this year's World Meteorological Day for 2008 is "Observing our planet for a better future." The scientific and socio-economic benefits derived by from expanded and wide-ranging observations made weather, climate and water by member nations will be recognized.
Eye on the Tropics -- Tropical Cyclone Lola developed in the Indian Ocean to the northeast of La Reunion late last week. As of Sunday, this tropical storm was traveling westward toward Madagascar.
In the South Pacific, a minimal tropical cyclone, identified as Tropical Storm 24P, developed late last week near New Caledonia. However, this system was short-lived and dissipated after a day.
Water supplies in western Washington State appear adequate -- An engineering professor at the University of Washington has told water managers in the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area of western Washington that while water supplies could shrink by up to 25 percent during the next decade, new sources along with conservation measures should be able to maintain sufficient water for the next half century. [US Water News Online]
Tracking the source of iron in the North Pacific -- Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have shown that the volcanic continental margins of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands rather than windblown dust represents the source of iron that fertilizes the plankton blooms in subarctic sections of the North Pacific Ocean, often known as a High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll region. Artificial iron-fertilization schemes have been proposed as means of affecting climate change by stimulating plankton blooms that would sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. [Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory]
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.

Report From the Field: Lucky Greenleaf, LIT Leader from Belfast, ME, reported that on the first day of astronomical spring, northern Maine broke the total snowfall record of 181.2 inches. The parade of winter storms continued and as of late Sunday, the snowfall totals exceeded 185 inches. With deep, high-water content snowpack on the highlands and the headwaters of rivers, concern has been raised of major flooding during this year's spring runoff.

Concept of the Week: Seiche

You probably remember as a child agitating the bath water so that it sloshed back and forth in the tub. (If you never did this as a child, there's still time.) You produced a seiche, a phenomenon first studied in Lake Geneva, Switzerland in the 1700s. A seiche (pronounced "say-sh") is a rhythmic oscillation of water in an enclosed basin (e.g., bathtub, lake, or reservoir) or a partially enclosed coastal inlet (e.g., bay, harbor, or estuary). With this oscillation, the water level rises at one end of a basin while simultaneously dropping at the other end. A seiche episode may last from a few minutes to a few days.

A seiche is a standing wave. Whereas wind-driven waves (pages 181-182 in your DataStreme WES textbook) are progressive in that they propagate through a body of water, standing waves are stationary. With progressive waves, crests and troughs travel along the water surface but with standing waves, crests alternate vertically with troughs at fixed locations. For both progressive and standing waves, the restoring force is gravity.

With a typical seiche in an enclosed basin, the water level near the center does not change at all although that is where the water exhibits its greatest horizontal movement; this is the location of a node. At either end of an enclosed basin, vertical motion of the water surface is greatest (with minimal horizontal movement of water); these are locations of antinodes. The motion of the water surface during a seiche is somewhat like that of a seesaw: The balance point of the seesaw does not move up or down (analogous to a node) while people seated at either end of the seesaw move up and down (analogous to an antinode).

Go to the University of Delaware's Seiche Calculator at http://www.coastal.udel.edu/faculty/rad/seiche.html. Set the "Modal Number" to 1 and then press "Calculate" for a graphical simulation of a seiche in an enclosed basin.

Partially enclosed basins usually have a node located at the mouth (rather than near the center) and an antinode at the landward end. Go to the Seiche Calculator, set the "Modal Number" to 0.5 and then press "Calculate" for a simulation of a seiche in a basin open to the right. Furthermore, some basins are complex and have multiple nodes and antinodes; these can be simulated on the Seiche Calculator by selecting different values of "Modal Number" greater than one.

A seiche can be induced by wind, regional differences in air pressure, earthquakes, or tidal forces. For example, wind blowing persistently in the same direction down the long axis of a bay causes water to pile up at the downwind end of the bay. When the wind slackens, the water oscillates (as a seiche) back-and-forth from one end of the bay to the other until eventually the water calms to a horizontal surface. A line of thunderstorms moving eastward from Wisconsin in late May 1998 produced a seiche in Lake Michigan that killed several people by drowning at the southern end of the lake. Previous seiches have produced 8 to 10 ft waves on Lake Michigan. A tsunami generated a seiche in the harbor of Hilo, HI following a major earthquake in the Aleutian Islands on 1 April 1946.

The natural period of a seiche depends on the length and depth of the basin and generally ranges from minutes to hours: The period is directly proportional to basin length. For example, the natural period of a seiche in a small pond is considerably shorter than its period in a large coastal inlet. In addition, for the same basin, the natural period is inversely proportional to water depth; that is, the period shortens as water deepens. Using the Seiche Calculator, you may wish to experiment with different values of basin length and depth. Conversely, one can estimate the average depth of a lake by determining the period of the seiche and the length of the lake.

Usually a seiche in a lake or harbor is of little concern because the changes in water level are minor--often only a few centimeters. Under certain circumstances, however, a seiche may grow to great heights with serious consequences including flooding and damage to moored vessels. A seiche grows as a consequence of resonance, that is, when the period of the disturbance (e.g., wind, earthquake) matches the natural oscillation period of a specific basin. Recall again your youthful bathtub experience. By timing your rhythmic disturbance of the water to match the natural period of the tub (about one second), you were able to cause the seiche to build until the water splashed out of the tub and onto the floor. Through resonance, vibrations from the 1994 Northridge, CA earthquake caused swimming pools to overflow throughout Southern California. In bays open to the ocean, if the period of tidal forcing matches the natural period of the bay, resonance can greatly increase the tidal range.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Seiches are [(standing) (progressive)] waves.
The natural period of a seiche [(depends on) (is independent of)] the size of an enclosed basin.

Historical Events:

24 March 1888...Snowflakes measuring 3.75 in. in diameter and 0.25 in. thick reportedly fell "like plates" on Chepstow, England. The flakes fell for approximately 2 minutes and covered the ground to a depth of 2 in. The liquid content of 0.33 in. would give a liquid accumulation rate of 9.90 in. per hour. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
24 March 1989...The tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef in Prince William Sound, AK, spilling 10.1 million gallons of crude oil, resulting in the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Coast Guard units responded and prevented the entire cargo from spilling, cleaned up the oil which did spill, and conducted an investigation into the causes of the accident. The spill provided the impetus for the passage of the Oil Protection Act in 1990. (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
25 March 1961...The fifth major snowstorm of the month prompted the provincial government of Prince Edward Island to declare a state of emergency. Snowdrifts of at least 33 feet reached overhead power lines. (The Weather Doctor)
25 March 2000...A rouge wave near Shelter Cove, CA swept a lady from a Canadian school group into the ocean. Four members of the group tried to rescue her, but were overcome by the waves and currents. A fishing vessel and the US Coast Guard rescued two of the rescuers. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
26 March 1913...The Ohio River Basin flood reached a peak. Ten-inch rains over a wide area of the Ohio River Basin inundated cities in Ohio, drowning 467 persons, and causing $47 million in damage. The Miami River at Dayton reached a level 8 feet higher than ever before. The flood, caused by warm weather and heavy rains, was the second mostly deadly on record for the nation. (David Ludlum)
26 March 1997...Mudslide wiped out 164 feet of Canadian National rails in Fraser Canyon, British Columbia causing an eastbound freight train to plunge from the tracks. Two crewmen died and fears of chemical spill abound. (The Weather Doctor)
27-28 March 1964...The most powerful earthquake in US history, the Good Friday Earthquake, rocked south central Alaska, killing 125 people and causing $311 million in property damage, especially to the city of Anchorage. The earthquake in Prince William Sound, which had a magnitude of 9.2 on the Richter scale, caused some landmasses to be thrust upward locally as much as 80 feet, while elsewhere land sank as much as 8 feet. This earthquake and submarine landslides also created a tsunami that produced extensive coastal damage. A landslide at Valdez Inlet in Alaska generated a tsunami that reached a height of 220 feet in the inlet. A major surge wave that was approximately 100 ft above low tide caused major damage to Whittier (where 13 died) and other coastal communities in Alaska. The first wave took more than 5 hours to reach the Hawaiian Islands where a 10-foot wave was detected, while a wave that was 14.8 feet above high tide level traveled along portions of the West Coast, reaching northern California 4 hours after the earthquake. Nearly 10,000 people jammed beaches at San Francisco to view the possible tsunami, but no high-amplitude waves hit those beaches. Tsunami damage reached Crescent City in northern California. Tens of thousands of aftershocks indicated that the region of faulting extended about 600 miles. The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center was established in the wake of this disaster, with a mission to warn Alaskan communities of the threat from tsunamis. [See the 1964 Prince William Sound Tsunami page from the University of Washington.] (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
27 March 1980...Waves to 20 ft and winds to 58 mph in the North Sea southwest of Stavanger, Norway led to the collapse of an oil rig accommodation platform. The deaths of 123 of the 212 people on the platform represents the world's worst drilling catastrophe. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
28 March 1902...McMinnville, TN (elevation 900 ft) received 11.00 in. of precipitation, setting a 24-hour precipitation record for the Volunteer State. (National Climate Data Center).
28 March 1980...Although springtime was starting in the Rocky Mountains, the snow just kept on coming! One foot or more of snow fell over portions of eastern Colorado, southwest Nebraska, northwest Kansas and southeastern Wyoming. Winds reached 40 mph and Valentine, NE received 13 in. of snow. North Platte, NE checked in with 15 in. (Intellicast)
28 March 1998...Three Boy Scout troop members died when their sport utility vehicle was swept away as they tried to cross a running wash just north of Sunflower, AZ. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
29 March 1886...Atlanta, GA was drenched with a record 7.36 in. of rain in 24 hours. (The Weather Channel)
29 March 1920...Clear Spring, MD received 31 inches of snow in 24 hours to establish a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
29 March 1980...Heavy rains produced mudslides in Natchez, MS. The slides covered two buildings on Silver Street, killing three people and injuring four. (Intellicast)
29 March 1989...Thunderstorms produced torrential rains in northeastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas. Longview, TX reported 14.16 in. of rain. More than 11 in. of rain at Henderson, TX caused a dam to give way, and people stranded in trees had to be rescued by boat. Total damage in northeastern Texas was estimated at $10 to $16 million. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
29-31 March 1848...An ice dam at the neck of Lake Erie and the entrance to the Niagara River between Fort Erie, ON and Buffalo, NY caused by wind, waves and lake currents stopped flow of water over Niagara Falls for 30 hours, commencing during the late hours of the 29^th. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)