WEEKLY WATER NEWS

14-18 July 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.

• Check Zenithal Sun -- This week marks one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents on Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) (15-16 Jul), while those on the Big Island will experience the noon sun at the zenith in approximately one more week. (22-23 Jul). The other time when Honolulu experienced a zenithal sun was during the last week of May. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]

Water in the News:

• Eye on the tropics ---
  • In the North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Bertha intensified as it continued to travel to the west-northwest, becoming the first hurricane of the 2008 hurricane season at the start of last week. During the early part of the week, Hurricane Bertha had become a major hurricane, reaching category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale. By Sunday, Bertha had weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved to the northwest toward Bermuda. An image from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows the characteristic swirl of clouds surrounding Hurricane Bertha at mid-week. [NASA Earth Observatory] An image from NOAA's GOES-12 satellite shows the hurricane late last week. [NOAA OSEI] Additional information and satellite imagery for Hurricane Bertha can be found on NASA's Hurricane page.
  • In the eastern North Pacific, Tropical Storm Elida, the fifth named tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane season in that basin, formed early Saturday morning several hundred miles off the coast of Guatemala. As of late Sunday afternoon, this storm was traveling to the west-northwest offshore of the Mexican coast.
• Review of June's weather across the US -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center report that preliminary data indicates that the just concluded month of June 2008 was the 27th warmest June across the coterminous US covering the period from 1895 since a sufficiently dense climate network commenced. The southern and eastern states experienced above average temperatures, while the northern Plains and the Northwest were cooler than the long-term average. The states across the Northeast, the Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi Valley and much of the northern and central Plains reported above average June precipitation. The month of June was the second wettest across Iowa, where flooding was common. Many of the states across the Southwest and the Southeast had much below average precipitation in June 2008. The drought across the West has resulted in increased wildfire potential across this region. [NOAA News]
• What a difference a year can make -- As of early July 2008, nearly 95 percent of Texas was experiencing some stage of drought, as compared with 99 percent of the state being declared drought-free in 2007, as the first half of the current year across the Lone Star State was one of the 10 driest on record. According to the US Drought Monitor, some of sections of the Panhandle were experiencing exceptional drought conditions. [US Water News Online]
• Algae in China's coastal waters -- Images provided in late June by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the algal bloom in the coastal waters off the Chinese city of Qingdao, where the sailing venues will be held for the upcoming 2008 Summer Games to be held in early August. A local cleanup effort has commenced to deal with the algal bloom; daily updated MODIS images will be available through the games. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Changes seen in Egyptian lakes on Nile -- A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station in late May 2008 shows the some of the dunes and land exposed as Egypt's Toshka Lakes that are fed from Lake Nasser rose and fell during the last several years due to fluctuations in climate and availability of upstream river water. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Tracer experiment conducted in Florida coastal waters--Scientists from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory have injected two harmless and biodegradable chemical tracers into the outgoing treated wastewater effluent leaving the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Plant at Delray Beach, FL in an attempt to track the flow the effluent plume along the coastal waters of southeast Florida. [NOAA News]
• Environmental study of San Francisco Bay reserve fleet to be conducted -- During the next two months, NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program will test bay sediment and bivalve tissue for heavy metals and other contaminants in order to assess the potential environmental impact of more than 70 federally owned obsolete and decommissioned vessels moored in California's Suisun Bay, an arm of San Francisco Bay. [NOAA News]
• Soot from ships being studied -- Scientists from NOAA and the University of Colorado who conducted the first extensive study of the soot emissions into the atmosphere from commercial ships found that tugs produce a significantly larger amount of soot (carbon particles from combustion) than other vessels based on the amount fuel consumed, while large cargo ships generate nearly twice as much soot as previously thought. This soot emission could affect the energy budget and the climate along the commercial shipping lanes. [NOAA News]
• German U-boats off Carolina coast to be explored -- A research expedition is being conducted during the next two weeks by the superintendent of NOAA's USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary to study the wrecks of three German submarines sunk by US forces in 1942 off the coast of North Carolina during World War II's Battle of the Atlantic. [NOAA News]
• Water on the moon--A research team led by scientists at Brown University who have been studying lunar material brought back by NASA's Apollo missions has found evidence that water exists within the magma that came from the deep interior of the moon, which they believe would suggest that water may have been a part of the lunar history from nearly 4.5 billion years ago. [Brown University]
• Improved tsunami early warning through higher resolution models -- The team of researchers at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research who have been modeling tsunamis have made their high-resolution simulation program available as a German-Indonesian Early Warning System for additional testing later this year. [EurekAlert!]
• Lead remains a problem for fish and wildlife health -- Contaminants experts with the US Geological Survey and colleagues recently reported that despite the change from lead to steel shot by some hunters, spent lead shot, lost lead fishing sinkers and other fragments continue to be ingested by fish and wildlife, thereby maintaining lead contamination as a significant hazard to the wildlife. [USGS Newsroom]
• Ice bridge to Wilkins Ice Shelf is near collapse -- An animation obtained from images made by the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite from late May through early July shows the disintegration on the ice bridge connecting the Wilkins Ice Shelf and an island of Antarctica. [ESA]
• A forecast is made of Arctic sea ice cover for this summer -- Climate scientists from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute have predicted that the ice coverage of the Arctic Ocean by the end of this summer is certain to be less than in 2005, which marks the year with the second lowest sea ice extent measured. [EurekAlert!]
• Ice core is drawn from Alaskan glacier for climate reconstruction -- Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks have removed a 150-m long ice core from the McCall Glacier in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that will allow them to reconstruct the climate in this region over the last two centuries. [University of Alaska, Fairbanks]
• Water rules approved in Michigan -- The Michigan Legislature has approved and sent to the governor bills designed to strengthen regulation of large scale withdrawals of water in the state, which would mean that the Wolverine State would endorse the regional compact preventing diversion of Great Lakes water. [US Water News Online]
• The water crisis is sometimes forgotten -- Several concerned water scientists associated with the International Water Management Institute warn that despite recent attention being paid to the food and energy crises that have caused marked increases in food prices, the water crisis should not be forgotten, as usable freshwater is becoming scarce especially in developing countries. [EurekAlert!]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
• 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:

• 14 July 1886...Los Angeles had its greatest 24-hour July rainfall with 0.24 inches. (Intellicast)
• 14-15 July 1911...Baguio, Luzon, Philippines reported 46 inches of rain, which represents Asia's greatest 24-hour rainfall: (The Weather Doctor).
• 15-16 July 1916...A dying South Atlantic Coast storm produced torrential rains in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Altapass, NC was drenched with 22.22 inches of rain, a 24-hour rainfall record for the Tarheel State, and at the time, a 24-hour record for the U.S. (The current 24-hour rainfall record for the US is 43 inches set 25-25 July 1979 at Alvin, TX). Flooding resulted in considerable damage, particularly to railroads. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (NCDC)
• 15 July 1983...The Big Thompson Creek in Colorado flooded for the second time in seven years, claiming three lives, and filling the town of Estes Park with eight to ten feet of water. (The Weather Channel)
• 15 July 1989...Thunderstorms drenched Kansas City, MO with 4.16 inches of rain, a record for the date. Two and a half inches of rain deluged the city between noon and 1 PM. Afternoon thunderstorms in South Carolina deluged Williamstown with six inches of rain in ninety minutes, including four inches in little more than half an hour. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 15 July 1993...Four-inch diameter hail fell at Hot Springs, SD. In North Dakota, Jamestown recorded 6.40 inches of rain, Fargo 5.09 inches and Bismarck 4.08 inches. (Intellicast)
• 15 July 2001...Rain fell at 3.91 inches per hour in Seoul, South Korea, the heaviest amount since 1964. In total, 12.2 inches of rain fell in Seoul and Kyonggi. The rain was responsible for 40 reported fatalities. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 July 1987...Slow-moving thunderstorms caused flooding on the Guadalupe River in Texas resulting in tragic loss of life. A bus and van leaving a summer youth camp stalled near the rapidly rising river, just west of the town of Comfort, and a powerful surge of water swept away 43 persons, mostly teenagers. Ten drowned in the floodwaters. Most of the others were rescued from treetops by helicopter. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 17-18 July 1996...Heavy rains were responsible for unprecedented flooding across north central and northeast Illinois, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Aurora, IL received 16.91 inches of rain, which established a new 24-hour precipitation record for the Prairie State. Approximately 60 percent of the city's homes were affected by flooding. At Romeoville, 10.36 inches of rain fell. Interstates were closed and some towns were isolated. Rampaging floodwaters scoured out roads near Dayton, leaving gravel and sand deposits to twenty feet high. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 18 July 1889...A cloudburst in West Virginia along the small creeks in Wirt County, Jackson County and Wood County claimed twenty lives. Rockport, WV reported 19.00 inches of rain in two hours and ten minutes that Thursday evening, setting a 24-hour precipitation record for the Mountain State. Tygart Creek rose 22 feet in one hour, and villages were swept away on Tygart, Slate, Tucker, and Sandy Creeks. (The Weather Channel) (NCDC)
• 18 July 1942...A record deluge occurred at Smethport in northern Pennsylvania, with 30.70 inches in just six hours. The 24-hour rainfall total for the day was 34.50 inches, which set a maximum 24-hour precipitation for the Keystone State. The downpours and resultant flooding in Pennsylvania were devastating. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (NCDC)
• 18 July 1955...In Martinstown, England, eleven inches of rain fell in a 15-hour period on this day believed to be the 24-hour greatest rainfall for the United Kingdom. (The Weather Doctor)
• 18-19 July 1979...A 30-foot high tsunami wave leveled four Indonesian villages on the Sunda Islands during the night. The wave swept 1500 feet inland, causing 589 deaths among the sleeping villagers. A landslide from Mount Werung (Lomblen Island) caused the tsunami. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 18-21 July 1996...Between six and twelve inches of rain fell on an already saturated Saguenay River Valley of Quebec, producing Canada's first billion-dollar disaster ($1.5 billion). Flooding destroyed or damaged 1718 houses and 900 cottages. Ten people were killed and 16,000 were evacuated. Roads and bridges disappeared. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor) (Wikipedia)
• 18 July 1996...Aurora, IL received 16.91 inches of rain, which established a new 24-hour precipitation record for the Prairie State. (NCDC)
• 18-22 July 1997...Hurricane Danny, the only hurricane that made landfall in the continental US in 1997, moved inland into coastal Alabama at a snails pace. Radar storm total estimates of 43 inches over Mobile Bay. A torrential 32.52 inches of rain fell on 19-20 July at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Alabama. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 19 July 1886...A hurricane from the Gulf of Mexico crossed Florida causing great damage from Cedar Keys to Jacksonville. This was the third hurricane in one month to cross the Florida peninsula. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
• 19 July 1955...The Yarkon Water Project was opened to supply water to Negev desert in Israel. The Yarkon "flows" through the most densely populated areas of the country to the Mediterranean. The river has deteriorated rapidly since the 1950's due to excessive draining for irrigation by the National Water Carrier, with marked decline in water quality, animal habitats, flora and fauna. The National Water Carrier (1964), which crosses Israel from north to south, is the 81-mile main artery connecting all regional water projects in the State. (Today in Science History)
• 19 July 1974...A severe thunderstorm with winds to 80 mph and up to two inches of rain washed out four to five foot deep sections of roadway in Lake Havasu City, AZ. Three persons in a station wagon died as it was carried 3000 feet down a wash by a ten foot wall of water. (The Weather Channel)
• 19 July 1977...Thunderstorms produced torrential rains over parts of southwestern Pennsylvania. Some places in the Johnstown area received more than twelve inches in a seven-hour period. The heavy rains cause flash flooding along streams resulting in widespread severe damage, representing the "second Johnstown flood", second to the more disastrous flood in May 1889. The cloudburst flooded Johnstown with up to ten feet of water resulting in 76 deaths, countless injuries, and 424 million dollars damage. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 19 July 1994...Hurricane Emilia was the first of three Category-5 hurricanes to develop in the Central Pacific in 1994 as unusually warm sea temperatures prevailed south of Hawaii. Sustained winds reached 160 mph. (Intellicast)
• 20 July 1965...The 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Show-Me State was set at Edgarton, MO as 18.18 inches of rain fell. (NCDC)
• 20 July 1989...Showers and thunderstorms in the Middle Atlantic Coast Region soaked Wilmington, DE with 2.28 inches of rain, pushing their total for the period May through July past the previous record of 22.43 inches. Heavy rain over that three-month period virtually wiped out a 16.82-inch deficit that had been building since drought conditions began in 1985. Thunderstorms in central Indiana deluged Lebanon with 6.50 inches of rain in twelve hours. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 20 July 1997...A torrential 32.52 inches of rain fell at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Alabama. (NCDC)

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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.