WEEKLY WATER NEWS

16-20 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.

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE! The summer solstice will occur early Friday evening (officially, 20 June 2008 at 2359 Z, or 7:59 PM EDT, 6:59 PM CDT, etc.) as the Earth's spin axis is oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest north in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical summer, the British call the day the "Midsummer Day", as the apparent sun will begin its southward descent again. For essentially all locations in the Northern Hemisphere, daylight today will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Saturday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 21 December 2008 at 1204 Z. However, because the sun is not as perfect a time-keeper as a clock, the latest sunsets of the year at many mid-latitude locations will continue through about the first week of July -- a consequence of the earth being near aphelion (on 4 July 2008) and the apparent sun moving across the sky well to the north of the celestial equator.

Water in the News:

Review of spring weather -- Scientists with the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently released their preliminary statistics for the recently concluded three-months (March through May) that are considered the meteorological spring season in the Northern Hemisphere:
- Meteorological spring season (March through May) was the 36th coolest across the coterminous US since sufficiently dense climate records began in 1895. As many as 19 states from the Pacific Northwest across the central Plains and into the upper and mid-Mississippi Valleys experienced temperatures that were below the 20th-century average. Only Texas reported an above-average statewide temperature. In addition, Pennsylvania experienced a much cooler than average month of May according to preliminary data.
  The middle Mississippi and lower Ohio Valleys had a wet spring, with Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa having statewide precipitation totals for the three months that were in the top ten for their respective states. On the other hand, California suffered through its driest spring on record, with Nevada and Utah having much below average precipitation totals. Consequently, the moderate to extreme drought continued across the Great Plains, the Southwest and the Southeast, but eased across sections of the northern Rockies. [NOAA News]
- When the combined average global land and ocean surface temperatures were calculated the three months were the seventh warmest since worldwide records commenced in 1880, with the land being the third warmest, while the ocean temperatures were the tenth highest. The La Niña event continued to weaken, with neutral ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) conditions anticipated by August. [NOAA News]
Review of May --The National Climate Data Center (NCDC) has produced a list of notable monthly weather extremes established in May 2008 at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2008/may/mayext2008.html. This page will be updated as additional data for the month are processed.
More cooperative climate research programs established -- NOAA officials recently announced the establishment of two additional collaborative research programs that will be located on university campuses. One of these Cooperative Climate Research Programs will be the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research located at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, which will focus on changes and patterns in Arctic sea ice and the issue of climate change in arctic regions. The other program will be the Cooperative Institute for Climate Science at Princeton University in New Jersey, which will contribute to the development of oceanic and atmospheric models and research on climate and biogeochemical cycling. [NOAA News]
Efforts made to reduce flooding threat in China -- Images made recently by Taiwan’s Formosat-2 satellite shows the aftereffects of Chinese efforts to relieve the flooding potential when they breached the landslide that blocked the Jiangjiang River and formed Tangjiashan Lake as a result of last month's major earthquake. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Size does make a difference in rain from tropical cyclones -- NASA researchers from the Goddard Space Flight Center report that tropical cyclones, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, are accompanied by precipitation that tends to have a greater abundance of small and mid-sized raindrops as compared with those associated with extratropical cyclones that form over land. This difference in drop-sized distribution and number can affect the incidence of flooding. [NASA Hurricane Page]
African dust forecasts used for hurricane season predictions -- Based upon their findings that African dust storms tend to suppress hurricane activity due to lower sea surface temperatures over the tropical Atlantic Ocean, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies have developed a dust storm activity forecast for Africa in order to help predict severity of the upcoming hurricane season. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News Service]
Online inventory of marine protected areas is launched -- NOAA’s National Marine Protected Areas Center, in collaboration with the US Department of the Interior, has posted an online inventory of the nation's marine protected areas, which is intended to provide researchers and the public with comprehensive information on these protected waters. [NOAA News]
Space agency data used to help disaster victims on earth -- NASA data products have been used by emergency management officials and the media during the last month in the wake of two catastrophic natural disasters (the Burmese tropical cyclone and the Chinese earthquake) to identify and locate exposed populations, resulting in improved management of the humanitarian relief efforts. [NASA]
Tree leaves control their temperature -- An investigation of forests from Canada to the Caribbean by biologists at the University of Pennsylvania indicates that photosynthesis within a healthy tree leaf appears to cause the temperature of the leaf to be less affected by large variations than previously thought. [EurekAlert!]
Rapid Arctic sea ice retreat could threaten permafrost -- Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) claim that increases in temperature across the Arctic basin that has been responsible for rapid retreats in the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean appear to result in significant thawing of the permafrost across the region, which could have serious consequences for polar ecosystems. [UCAR/NCAR]
Doubling freshwater runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet is anticipated -- A researcher at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks predicts that the amount of freshwater that runs off the Greenland Ice Sheet and into the North Atlantic could more than double by 2100, resulting in an increase in global sea level and changes in the thermohaline circulation in the global ocean. [University of Alaska, Fairbanks]
Wintertime breakup of ice shelf documented -- At the end of May, radar sensors onboard the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite captured the break-off of a large portion of the Wilkins Ice Shelf along the Antarctic Peninsula. This event is the first to be documented during austral winter. [ESA]
Squeezing water from rock -- A member of a Dutch research team declares that the energy from oil and gas flare-off in the petroleum rich desert regions could be used to heat gypsum rock and release water that has been locked in this mineral. [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:

16 June 1965...Thunderstorms dumped torrential rains along the east slopes and on the plains east of Denver, CO. Up to 14 in. fell at both Palmer Lake and Larkspur and 12 in. at Castle Rock, resulting in a wall of water down the west and east branches of Plum Creek. Damage to roads and bridges in Larkspur, Castle Rock, and Sedalia was extensive. The flood then reached the South Platte River near Littleton and proceeded through Denver. Flood waters spread to 1/2 mile or more in width and destroyed homes, trailer courts, and businesses. The flood caused $230 million damage and eight deaths along the entire South Platte River basin. (Intellicast)
16-18 June 1972...The greatest three-day rainfall in Hong Kong since 1889 produced 25.68 inches and resulted in disastrous landslides and building collapses. More than 100 people died, while thousands were made homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 June 1972...The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in North America (5,248 MW installed, expandable to 9,252 MW) was started at Churchill Falls, Labrador. (Wikipedia)
16 June 1984...Sixty-four cars parked near Westby, WI were swept 0.25 miles by a flash flood. Some people just "hung on" as they climbed on top of cars caught in trees. One person said "I had no idea anything like that ever happening around here." No deaths were reported. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
17 June 1965...Holly, CO was deluged with 11.08 inches of rain to establish a state 24-hour rainfall record. (The Weather Channel)
17 June 1987...Thunderstorms produced severe weather in the south central U.S. The Edwards Aquifer, which supplies water to San Antonio TX, reached a record level of 699.2 feet following a record 18.43 inches of rain in thirty days. Torrential rains between the mid May and mid June sent 8.8 million acre feet of water down the rivers of southern Texas, the largest volume in 100 years of records. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
17-18 June 2002...Deadly floods ravaged parts of southern Russia between the Caspian and Black Seas. Chechnya, Krasnodar and Stavropol were particularly hard hit, with more than 40,000 homes flooded and at least 200 bridges damaged or destroyed. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18 June 1875...A severe coastal storm (or possible hurricane) struck the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. Eastport, ME reported wind gusts to 57 mph. (David Ludlum)
18 June 1991...Atlanta, GA set a new record for the amount of the rain in one hour as 3.47 inches fell between 6:52 and 7:52 PM EDT. (Intellicast)
19 June 1932...A hailstorm in Honan Province, China, killed two hundred and injured thousands of people. The hail fell for two hours and damaged four hundred villages. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
19 June 1938...A cloudburst near Custer Creek, MT (near Miles City) caused a train wreck killing forty-eight persons. An estimated four to seven inches of rain deluged the head of the creek that evening, and water flowing through the creek weakened the bridge. As a result, a locomotive and seven passenger cars of the Milwaukee Road's The Olympian plunged into the swollen creek. One car, a tourist sleeper, was completely submerged. (David Ludlum) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
19 June 1969...Flash floods resulted as a rainstorm dropped 1.65 inches in 40 minutes over the mountainous terrain approximately 6 miles west-northwest of Castleford, ID. The flood cut a 40 foot deep gap at the Salmon Falls Creek road crossing. A two-foot high wall of water swept down another road. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
19-26 June 1972...Hurricane Agnes (a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) moved onshore along the Florida Panhandle near Cape San Blas and Apalachicola with wind gusts to 80 mph, and then exited Maine on the 26^th. This hurricane moved northeast and joined with an upper level disturbance, producing from 10 to 20 inches of rain along its path along the Eastern Seaboard. In the Middle Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, 24 hour rainfall amounts were generally 8 to 12 inches, with up to 19 inches in extreme southwestern Schuylkill County. At Wilkes-Barre, PA, the dike was breached destroying much of the town. Agnes was responsible for 125 deaths, mainly due to flooding from North Carolina to New York State, and total damage was estimated at more than $3 billion. Torrential rains from Hurricane Agnes resulted in one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history. Agnes caused more damage than all other tropical cyclones in the previous six years combined (which included Celia and Camille). (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
20 June 1874...Intense thunderstorm brought 8 hours of heavy rain and incredible lightning to southern Manitoba. Lightning stampeded a herd of 250 police horses. (The Weather Doctor)
20 June 1921...Circle, MT received 11.50 inches of rain in 24 hours, a record for the state. The town of Circle received a total of 16.79 inches of rain that month to establish a rainfall record for any town in Montana for any month of the year. (The Weather Channel)
21 June 1791...A hurricane, called El Temporal de Barreto - the storm of Barreto, generated a monster ocean wave that carried off the coffin of a rich, but hated, count as he lay in state in his mansion near Havana, Cuba. (The Weather Doctor)
21 June 1886...A destructive hurricane hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida on the summer solstice. Extensive damage was done in Florida and throughout the southeast by this storm, which was the first hurricane of the year. Damage was due mainly to extremely high tides. (Intellicast)
22 June 1915...A hailstorm struck the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The hailstones were pear-shaped and occasionally contained small pebbles. (Flora, Hailstorms of the United States, 1956)
22 June 1947...Twelve inches of rain fell in forty-two minutes at Holt, MO establishing a world rainfall intensity record. That record was tied on 24-25 January 1956, at the Kilauea Sugar Plantation in Hawaii, as their state record was established with 38.00 in. of rain in 24 hrs. (The Weather Channel)
22 June 1997...Thunderstorms caused flash flooding in parts of Michigan's Allegan and Ottawa Counties. Unofficially, 12 inches of rain fell on Zeeland, where 20 percent of the streets were flooded. More than 200 roads either were partially or totally washed out, with some washouts up to 8 feet deep. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
22 June 2003...The largest recorded hailstone in the United States fell on Aurora, NE. The diameter of this hailstone was 7 inches, and its circumference was 18.75 inches. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)

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