WEEKLY WATER NEWS

2-6 June 2008

Water in the Earth System will return for Fall 2008 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2008. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Water in the News:

• "Break the Grip of the Rip®" -- NOAA officials have designated this upcoming week of 1-7 June 2008 as national Rip Current Awareness Week. Using the theme, Break the Grip of the Rip®, efforts are meant to heighten public awareness of rip currents at surf beaches that claim the lives of as many as 100 people in the United States annually. [NWS Rip Current Safety]
• World Ocean Day to be celebrated -- World Ocean Day or a "Celebration of the Sea" will be celebrated next Sunday, 8 June 2008 in an effort to increase public awareness and to foster public involvement in the management of the ocean and its resources. Although this date was created at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it has not been officially recognized by the United Nations. This year's theme is "helping our climate / helping our ocean" with a special focus on coral reefs since this year has been declared he International Year of the Reef. A partial listing is provided for events across the US and other nations that will celebrate World Ocean Day. [The Ocean Project]
• Eye on the tropics -- In western North Pacific Basin, a tropical storm developed at the beginning of last week and intensified to become a super-typhoon identified as Nakri as it moved to the northwest and north-northwest over last weekend. By Sunday, the typhoon, which reached category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, was beginning to curve toward the north and northeast, with a projected track that would take it south and east of the Japanese Islands. An image obtained from the Japanese MTSAT satellite shows the signature cloud spiral and eye of Typhoon Nakri. [NOAA OSEI] An additional image of the clouds associated with Typhoon Nakri and additional information are available on the NASA Hurricane Page. [Editor's Note: The notation appearing on this webpage is incorrect as all references to "eastern" should be replaced by "western" throughout this description. EJH]
  The Eastern North Pacific began to show some activity late last week. The first named tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific formed last Thursday off the coast of Costa Rica and was named Tropical Storm Alma. This system had maximum sustained winds that reached 55 mph before coming onshore along the coast of Nicaragua on Friday. Additional information together with satellite images of Tropical Storm Alma are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
  In the North Atlantic basin, Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named tropical cyclone of the season, formed on Saturday off the coast of Belize. By late Sunday, it had made landfall along the Belize coast and was weakening as it moved inland.
• Autumnal rain decline studied Down Under -- Researchers with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) who have been studying the precipitation record for southern Victoria over the last half century claim that fluctuations in sea-surface temperatures in the waters north of Australia along with changes in the atmospheric circulation over the subtropical Indian Ocean appear to be key to declining autumnal precipitation (March to May) across the southeastern sections of the Australia. [CSIRO]
• More on the deadly flooding in Myanmar -- Flooding across a large section of Myanmar (Burma) caused by the torrential rain and the storm surge associated with Tropical Cyclone Nargis in early May has not only caused numerous deaths, but also damaged a large portion of the rice growing region in the Irrawaddy River Delta. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Drought conditions found in the Middle East -- An image of the health of the vegetative ground cover obtained from data collected by the French SPOT satellite shows drought across the Fertile Crescent of Iraq and Syria. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Comparing Martian and terrestrial permafrost -- An image from NASA's Phoenix spacecraft that landed recently in the northern section of Mars and a recent photograph of the permafrost in Spitsbergen. [Earth Observatory]
• NOAA scientist elected member of Royal Society – Susan Solomon, a senior NOAA scientist was recently elected as a Foreign Member of the prestigious Royal Society of the United Kingdom for her pioneering research on the reduction of stratospheric ozone over Antarctica and for her leadership as the co-chair of one of the working group for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report. [NOAA News]
• Improved irrigation methods could lead to premium wine grapes -- Researchers at Washington State University’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center are providing grape growers across the Interior Northwest with recommendations concerning improved drip irrigation methods that could result in premium wine grape crops. [EurekAlert!]
• Hydrothermal-like deposits found on Martian surface -- Planetary scientists who have been studying the data collected by the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit report deposits of nearly pure silica in the Gusev Crater that would appear to have been formed when hot volcanic water or steam percolated through the Martian soil. These deposits are similar to those found around hydrothermal vents in Yellowstone National Park, WY. [EurekAlert!]
• NASA's A-Train studies effect of pollution on clouds -- NASA scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center are collecting and studying data obtained from the fleet of five satellites called A-Train (Afternoon Constellation for NASA's Aqua, Aura, CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites and the French Space Agency's PARASOL satellite) in an attempt to determine how air pollution affects clouds, precipitation and ultimately the global climate. [NASA GSFC]
• Seeing through the clouds-- Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a method that would improve the accuracy of measuring the atmospheric aerosol loading from satellites on days that have partly cloudy skies. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]
• Global water cycle could be slowed by geoengineering -- Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Observatory claim that designed changes in the amount of solar radiation penetrating the atmosphere and reaching the earth's surface, such as with a sunscreen, could alter the global water cycle, with a possible reduction in the intensity of this cycle. [EurekAlert!]
• New type "paper towel" absorbs oil spills -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a mat of very thin wires called nanowires that has the appearance of paper toweling and that can be used effectively to cleanup oil and other organic pollutants from water bodies. [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.

Historical Events:

• 1-17 June 2001...The deadliest and costliest tropical storm in US history, Tropical Storm Allison, wandered westward across the tropical Atlantic and crossed over into the Pacific before reversing and moving back into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. On 1 June the tropical wave, which eventually evolved into TS Allison, moved into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast of Mexico after moving westward across the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean from the west coast of Africa on 21 May. On the 2^nd, a cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation developed to the south-southeast of Salma Cruz, Mexico, but the low-level circulation became ill-defined as the system moved inland on the 3^rd over southeastern Mexico and western Guatemala. This system intensified again and eventually moved northward to the Texas Gulf Coast and then eastward to the Atlantic before turning into an extratropical storm in mid-June. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2 June 1889...A great flood on the Potomac River in Washington, DC took out a span of Long Bridge, and flooded streets near the river. The flood stage was not again equaled until 1936. (David Ludlum)
• 2-4 June 1986...A tropical disturbance brought flooding rains to parts of the Greater Antilles. The flooding caused 59 deaths in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. As many as 240,000 people lost their homes to this disturbance. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 June 1905...Seattle, WA received its heaviest ever 24-hour June rainstorm with 1.42 inches falling. (Intellicast)
• 3 June 1921...A cloudburst near Pikes Peak, CO killed 120 people. A twenty-five foot crest of the Arkansas River flooded Pueblo, CO and killed 70 persons. Fourteen inches of rain was reported at Boggs Flat, where a hard surface road through nearly level country was washed out to a depth of seven feet. (The Weather Channel)
• 3 June 1959...Thunderstorms in northwestern Kansas produced up to eighteen inches of hail near Salden during the early evening. Crops were completely destroyed, and total damage from the storm was about half a million dollars. Hail fell for a record eighty-five minutes. The temperature dropped from near 80 degrees prior to the storm to 38 degrees at the height of the storm. (David Ludlum)
• 3 June 1987...Six days of flooding in South Texas culminated with five to six inch rains from Bexar County to Bandera County, and five to nine inches of rain in Gonzalez and Wilson Counties. Total crop damage was estimated at $500 million. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
• 4 June 1825...A hurricane struck Long Island, NY leveling trees and causing damage to ships. The early season hurricane, which originated near Cuba, caused major damage along the Atlantic coast from Charleston, SC to New York City. Many were lost at sea. (David Ludlum)
• 4 June 1976...Forty-foot waves from a tropical cyclone smashed Gogha (port), India. Excellent warnings limited the death toll to approximately 70. Dredging of the harbor at Bhavnnagar ceased for several years as storm runoff from the Kansa River washed away accumulated sand and silt. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4 June 1982...A four-day storm began over New England which produced up to 14 inches of rain in southern Connecticut breaching twenty-three dams and breaking two others. Damage was estimated at more than $276 million. (David Ludlum)
• 4 June 1991...Up to six feet of water raced through parts of Howells, NE as the result of nearly five inches of rain. An elderly man who ignored evacuation orders drowned when the water collapsed his basement wall after he had taken shelter because of a tornado warning. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 5 June 1908...Helena, MT was deluged with 3.67 inches of rain to establish their all-time 24-hour rainfall record. (4th-5th) (The Weather Channel)
• 5 June 1993...A strong, late season spring storm moved into California. The 0.76 inches of rain at Los Angeles set a new daily rainfall record for June. Lake Gregory was deluged with 3.24 inches of rain in 24 hours and a foot of snow fell at the Mammoth Mountain ski area. (Intellicast)
• 6-10 June 1816...Late season snow fell across New England and eastern Canada. The editor of the Bangor (ME) Register observed that individual snowflakes that fell on Bangor during the afternoon of the 6^th covered areas up to two inches in diameter. Snow fell near Quebec City, Quebec over a 5-day period accumulating to 12 inches with "drifts reaching the axel trees of carriages" during this infamous Year Without a Summer. The Montreal Gazette reported that this "Extraordinary Season" gave snow squalls to the city on the 6^th and 8^th. On the 7^th, a famous June snow fell in the northeastern U.S. Danville, VT reported drifts of snow and sleet twenty inches deep. The Highlands were white all day, and snow flurries were observed as far south as Boston MA. Waltham, MA reported a low temperature of 33 degrees and New Haven, CT had a low of 35 degrees (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 6 June 1894...One of the greatest floods in U.S. history occurred as the Williamette River overflowed to inundate half of the business district of Portland, OR. (David Ludlum)
• 7 June 1972...Richmond, VA experienced its worst flood of record as rains from Hurricane Agnes pushed the water level at the city locks to a height of 36.5 feet, easily topping the previous record of thirty feet set in 1771. (The Weather Channel)
• 7-11 June 2001...Tropical Storm Allison made landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston early on the 6^th and drifted northward before becoming stationary as a depression later in the day near Lufkin. Later, it began to drift back southward, moving offshore over the Gulf late on the 9^th at nearly the same place as it had made landfall. On the 11th, Allison became extratropical as it moved from near Morgan City, LA across southern Mississippi. Allison caused disastrous flooding across the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, especially in the Houston area where a storm total of 36.99 inches fell at Port Houston. Twenty-three people lost their lives in Texas. Damage in the region amounted to $5 billion, which included 45,000 homes, 70,000 vehicles, and 2000 businesses. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 8 June 1960...Hail the size of chicken eggs fell for 45 minutes on Hooker, OK. Nearly four inches of rain also accompanied this storm. Much property and crop damage was reported. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 8-9 June 1991...Two days of rain at Bombay, India topped 30 inches, the heaviest in four decades for this western India city. (The Weather Doctor)
• 8-10 June 2002…Heavy snow fell across Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, with 5 to 7 feet falling at elevations above 5000 feet and 2 to 4 feet falling on the adjoining plains. Three to four feet were common in Glacier National Park. Blizzard conditions prevailed at times. Many avalanches were reported. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle near Alligator Point during the evening -- the earliest land-falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. Peak sustained winds were near 90 mph. Highest winds reached 125 mph and lowest pressure 970.2 millibars (28.65 inches) were reported at the Dry Tortugas on the 8^th. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 June 1972...A cloudburst along the eastern slopes of the Black Hills of South Dakota produced as much as 14 inches of rain resulting in the Rapid City flash flood disaster. The rains, which fell in about four hours, caused the Canyon Lake Dam to collapse. A wall of water swept through the city drowning 238 people, injuring 2932, and causing more than $100 million in property damage. (David Ludlum)
• 9 June 1989...Severe weather abated for a day; however, showers and thunderstorms continued to drench the eastern U.S. with torrential rains. Milton, FL was deluged with 15.47 inches in 24 hours. Record heat and prolonged drought in south central Texas left salt deposits on power lines and insulators near the coast, and when nighttime dew caused arcing, the city of Brownsville was plunged into darkness. (The National Weather Summary)
• 9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 in. of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 in. established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
• 10 June 1752...This day is believed to when Benjamin Franklin narrowly missed electrocution while flying a kite during a thunderstorm to determine if lightning is related to electricity. (David Ludlum)
• 10 June 1967...Fergus, Ontario received 3.4 in. of rain in one hour. (The Weather Doctor)
• 10 June 1990...Rains of between 0.75 to more than 1.5 in. in less than one hour caused flash flooding in Las Vegas, NV. Every underpass and most city streets were flooded. Two people died because of the floods, with one woman in a vehicle swept one mile down a concrete wash. A four-foot wall of water swept a bus with 15 people to within 40 feet of Flamingo Wash. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2008, The American Meteorological Society.