WEEKLY WATER NEWS

21-25 May 2007

Water in the Earth System will return for Fall 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Water in the News:

• North American Safe Boating Week -- This week of 19-25 May has been declared 2007 National Safe Boating Week, to help launch the 2007 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
• April 2007 weather review -- Scientists at the National Climatic Data Center have determined that the temperature for the coterminous United States for the month of April 2007 was 0.3 Fahrenheit degrees below the average April monthly temperature for the entire 20th-century. The month was drier than average on a national scale, with states in the Southeast, the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and Southwest experiencing below to much below average precipitation. However, the Northeastern States from Delaware north to Maine reported much above average monthly precipitation totals, the result of a slow moving nor'easter storm system. While the April 2007 average temperature for the coterminous US was close to the long-term average, the month's globally-averaged temperature was the third highest for the record extending back to 1880. [NOAA News]
• Mixed drought outlook is given -- Meteorologists with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center and with the National Drought Mitigation Center have issued an outlook for the upcoming summer (through August 2007) that indicates the extreme drought that is found across the Southwest and northern High Plains should continue to worsen, while the drought that currently grips the Southeast and the upper Midwest could ease. [NOAA News]
• Hurricane Preparedness Week -- With the beginning of the official 2007 hurricane season for the North Atlantic Basin beginning on 1 June, this upcoming week (20-26 May) has been declared National Hurricane Awareness Week. The National Hurricane Center maintains a hurricane preparedness website that provides information and educational material for the various hurricane hazards to include storm surge, high winds, tornadoes and flooding. (A Spanish version of this website is also available.) The 2007 hurricane season has begun in the eastern North Pacific basin last Tuesday (15 May). A similar hurricane preparedness website is also maintained by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, HI with some information specific for the central Pacific basin.
  To kickoff National Hurricane Preparedness Week, NOAA officials will release their 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook at a news conference scheduled for today, Tuesday, 22 May 2007. [NOAA Media Advisory]
• Eye on the tropics -- As sea surface temperatures increase across the Northern Hemisphere several tropical cyclones (low-pressure systems over tropical waters) have developed during the last week.
  • In the western North Pacific Typhoon Yutu developed east of the Philippines and moved westward before curving to the northeast, passing near Iwo Jima on Sunday. As a western North Pacific counterpart of a hurricane, Typhoon Yutu was classified as a Category 4 typhoon on the Saffir Simpson Scale on Sunday as maximum sustained surface winds reached 140 mph. An image from the Japan Meteorological Agency's MTSAT-1 satellite shows Typhoon Yutu after it reached typhoon status near Guam. [NOAA OSEI] An earlier image shows Tropical Storm Yutu late last week near Palau. This image also shows Tropical Cyclone Pierre in the tropical South Pacific Ocean east of Papua New Guinea. [NOAA OSEI]
  • In the Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Akash moved to the north across the Bay of Bengal toward Bangladesh early last week. A MODIS image shows Akash. [NOAA OSEI]
• Approaching hurricanes to be seen in 3-D -- Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Naval Research Laboratory have developed a technique called VORTRAC (Vortex Objective Radar Tracking and Circulation) that utilizes data obtained from the existing network of National Weather Service Doppler radar units along the Southeast coast to produce detailed three-dimensional visualizations of an approaching hurricane every six minutes. Forecasters will test these detailed three-dimensional visualizations with rapid updates during the upcoming hurricane season. [UCAR/NCAR]
• Looking into a hurricane's eye -- Meteorologists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the US Naval Postgraduate School have used data collected from a landfalling hurricane during the NASA Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX) and computer simulations to study the detailed structure of the atmospheric circulation in the eye and the surrounding eyewall. They have found that this circulation provides the energy needed to maintain the hurricane. [NASA Earth Observatory] Images and graphics are found on the NASA Hurricanes page [NASA]
• Fewer hurricane hunter flights planned -- The commander of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center in Tampa, FL recently reported that fewer hurricane hunter aircraft flights will be dispatched from MacDill Air Force Base in an attempt to make the remaining missions more efficient. [USA Today]
• NOAA's 200th National Water Level Observation Station installed -- Officials from NOAA, along with other federal, state and local agencies recently marked the installation of NOAA's 200th National Water Level Observation Network station at the Port of Alabama State Docks in Mobile, AL. This network station helps provide NOAA, mariners, first responders and the public with real-time water level data. [NOAA News]
• A major haul of coin from ship wreck -- At the end of last week, deep-sea explorers disclosed that they had retrieved gold and silver coins worth an estimated $500 million from a sunken 17th-century ship that was wrecked in the North Atlantic Ocean. [ABC News]
• A final dive into the earth's deepest sinkhole for a robotic sub -- During this week, scientists from the University of Texas and Carnegie Mellon University, the Colorado School of Mines and several Mexican universities conclude the final segment of a five-year mission that involved the use of a robotic submarine called DEPTHX (Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer) to explore the bottom of Cenote Zacatón, the world’s deepest known water-filled sinkhole, located near the northeast Mexican coast. [Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas]
• Snow depths are low in the Sierras -- Hydrologists with California's Department of Water Resources who conducted the last Sierra snow survey of the season have found that the average snow depth along the Sierra mountain range is the lowest since 1988 and is approximately 29 percent of normal. [US Water News Online]
• Pre-Columbian "mega-drought" discovered in Southwest -- Dendrochronologists from the University of Arizona who developed a chronology of annual streamflow on the upper Colorado River basin dating back to AD 762 using tree-ring proxy records report that this region of the Southwest (including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) experienced a six-decade long "mega-drought" during the 12th century, which appears longer and more severe than any drought during the last century. [EurekAlert!]
• A plan to share Colorado River water has been submitted -- The seven states that draw water from the Colorado River (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California and Nevada) recently filed a plan with the US Department of Interior that describes how the water would be shared during times of drought. [US Water News Online]
• Ski resort impact on watershed is studied -- Researchers at the University of Vermont have studied the impact of ski resorts on water flow and water quality of mountain watersheds on the eastern slopes of Vermont's Mount Mansfield. Preliminary results indicate that ski resort development may have a greater impact than logging. [University of Vermont]
• West Antarctic snow has melted -- Using data collected from the scatterometer onboard NASA QuickScat satellite, scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder have demonstrated that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 due to relatively high temperatures. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Weakening in Southern Ocean carbon sink found -- An international research team, including scientists from the US, Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has uncovered evidence that the capability of the Southern Ocean to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide has decreased by approximately 15 percent by decade since 1981, the result of increased winds over this ocean basin attributed to human-induced climate change that has increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and depleted stratospheric ozone. [CSIRO]
• "Climate proof" cities with parks -- A study conducted at the University of Manchester indicates that increasing the amount of green space in built-up urban areas by 10 percent could lead to a reduction in the urban surface temperatures by as much as 4 Celsius degrees. [EurekAlert!]
• Changes seen over 400 years of American history -- In honor of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, VA, NASA produced an image of the site from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite. This image shows that the effects that humans have had upon the landscape of the region since the original settlement. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Salt ponds seen from space -- An image made by an astronaut on the International Space Station shows the large salt ponds in Botswana that are used to produce salt and soda ash (sodium carbonate), a major export from this African country. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• A space-age portrait of the Emerald Isle -- A recent image made from the MODIS instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite shows the lush green vegetation that covers much of Ireland, due in part to the mild maritime climate of this island. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Korean estuary changes noted from space -- A pair of images from the from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite made six years apart document the changes that have occurred along South Korea's Saemangeum estuary as a result of that nation's effort at draining and filling in the estuary. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• A pre-eruption view of an Andean volcano -- An image was made of Colombia's Nevado del Huila Volcano from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite in February 2007 approximately two months prior to the volcano's eruption. The image shows a glacier near the peak of this stratovolcano, which erupted for the first time in approximately five centuries. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 23 May 1960...Tsunami waves from Chilean earthquakes began to affect the Alaska's coast along the Gulf of Alaska from Prince of Wales Island to Montague Island for as long as one week. The tsunami waves on the 23rd were up to 14 feet high near Yakutat. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 24 May 1901...The relative humidity at Parkstone, Dorset in England at 4 PM was reported to be 9.5 percent. This low relative humidity is not typical of the British Islands, which are surrounded by ocean water and have no large high mountain barriers or plateaus. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 24 May 1894...Six inches of snow blanketed Kentucky. Just four days earlier as much as ten inches of snow had fallen across Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Six days earlier a violent storm had wrecked nine ships on Lake Michigan. (David Ludlum)
• 24 May 1940...Hail fell near Ada, OK to a depth of six to eight inches, and rainfall runoff left drifts of hail up to five feet high. (The Weather Channel)
• 24 May 1951...Northeast gales generated waves to 15 feet high in the harbor of Newport, RI. A 50-ft. Navy launch with about 142 men on board capsized. Nineteen of the men drowned in the incident. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24 May 1992...Winds up to 40 knots and seas to 18 feet in the northern Gulf of Alaska, approximately 30 miles southwest of Alaska's Cape Cleare, sent three waves crashing over the Cajun Mama. This 80-foot fishing boat sank, but the crew of five was rescued. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 25 May 1987...A man on a boat on Lake Bistineau in northwest Louisiana was struck and killed by lightning, while the other three persons in the boat were unharmed. The man reportedly stood up in the boat and asked to be struck by lightning. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 25 May 1990...Heavy thunderstorm rains produced flash flooding in central Missouri. Floodwaters swept through Washington State Park southwest of Saint Louis, and nearly one hundred persons had to be rescued from water as much as twenty feet deep. The floodwaters swept away a number of vehicles; some were carried as much as four miles away. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 25 May 1985...The Meghna River delta in Bangladesh was hit with a tropical cyclone with winds of over 100 mph that created a 15-to 20-foot high storm surge that flooded a 400-square-mile area, mainly islands located in the mouth of the river. More than 11,000 people and 500,000 head of cattle died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless because of this cyclone.
• 26-27 May 1771...A famous Virginia flood occurred as heavy rains in the mountains brought all rivers in the state to record high levels. As many as 150 lives were lost in the Richmond, VA area in the great James River Flood. (Intellicast) (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders -1987)
• 26 May 1967...A slow moving nor'easter battered New England with high winds, heavy rain, and record late season snow on this day and into the 26^th. Winds 70 to 90 mph in gusts occurred along the coast. Over 7 inches of rain fell at Nantucket, MA with 6.57 inches falling in 24 hours to set a new 24-hour rainfall record. Severe damage occurred along the coast from very high tides. The 24.9 inches of snow that fell at Mount Washington, NH set a new May snowfall record. Other locations in New Hampshire received 10 inches of snow near Keene and 6 inches at Dublin. (Intellicast)
• 26 May 1984...Thunderstorms during the late evening and early morning hours produced 6 to 13 inches of rain at Tulsa, OK in six hours (8.63 inches at the airport). Flooding claimed 14 lives and caused $90 million in property damage. As many as 4600 cars, 743 houses, and 387 apartments were destroyed or severely damage in the flood. (Storm Data) (The Weather Channel)
• 26 May 1987...Thunderstorms in southwest Iowa spawned five tornadoes and produced up to ten inches of rain. Seven inches of rain at Red Oak forced evacuation of nearly 100 persons from the town. Record flooding took place in southwest Iowa the last twelve days of May as up to 17 inches of rain drenched the area. Total damage to crops and property was estimated at $16 million. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 26 May 1990...Flash flooding occurred along Mineral Fork in Missouri's Washington State Park shortly after local midnight. Approximately 100 people had to be rescued from water up to 20 feet deep. Some vehicles washed four miles downstream. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 26 May 2001...The 2000-2001 snowfall season finally came to an end in St John's, Newfoundland, during which time a grand total of 255.3 inches of snow fell. The total snow, which broke a century-old mark, was estimated to have weighed 500 million tons! (The Weather Doctor)
• 27 May 1755...The first municipal water pumping plant in America was installed at Bethlehem, PA., by Hans Christopher Christiansen. The city was supplied from a 70-foot high tank that was filled with water pumped from a spring through wooden pipes. Although Boston, MA, had built a piped municipal water supply from a spring to a 12-foot square reservoir, the installation at Bethlehem was the first to use a pumping plant. (Today in Science History)
• 27 May 1984...Thunderstorms unloaded 8.63 inches of rain on Tulsa, Oklahoma in only 6 hours. The resultant flash flooding killed 14 people and total damage was $89.6 million. (Intellicast)
• 27-31 May 1987...Thunderstorms produced torrential rains in Oklahoma and northern Texas. Five days of flooding commenced in Oklahoma, as thunderstorms produced 10 to 13 inches of rain in central Oklahoma. Up to six inches of rain caused flooding in north central Texas. Oklahoma City reported 4.33 inches of rain in six hours on the 27^th. On the 28^th, Lake Altus, OK was deluged with nine inches of rain. Up to eight inches drenched northern Texas, and baseball size hail was reported north of Seminole and at Knickerbocker. The flooding during the last five days of May in central Oklahoma resulted in an estimated $65 million damage and forced several thousand persons to evacuate their homes, many by boat or helicopter. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

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Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.