WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

23-27 December 2013

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 20 January 2014. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sincerely,

Ed Hopkins and the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff

Items of Interest:

Dreaming of a White Christmas -- NOAA's National Climatic Data Center recently produced a national map showing the climatological probability (in percent) that a snow depth of at least one inch would be observed on the morning of 25 December based upon the new 1981-2010 standard 30-year climatological reference interval. This new map supersedes an older map that accompanied a report that used data collected from 340 first order stations during an earlier 1961-1990 standard 30-year climatological reference interval. This earlier report indicated that some locations across the 48 coterminous United States are almost certain to have a white Christmas. These places can be found along the Canadian border surrounding the Great Lakes, such as International Falls, MN and Marquette, MI (both with 100%) and in New England, such as at Caribou, ME (97%). Stations at higher elevations in the Rockies also have a higher probability, such as at Flagstaff, AZ with a 56%. Sites close to the oceans typically have a lower probability, as the oceans tend to be relatively warm at this time of year. Santa typically finds tough sledding on his journey to that half of the country south of latitude 40 degrees that is not mountainous, where chances of a white Christmas fall from 50% to 20% or less. You can monitor the current snow cover across North America using a snow chart that is based upon satellite data.
NOAA climate scientists make list of "Top 100 Global Thinkers" -- Three NOAA climate scientists who edited the report "Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective" that was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society this past fall have been placed on Foreign Policy Magazine's annual list of "Top 100 Global Thinkers" in the "Naturals" category These three climate scientists include Thomas Peterson and Stephanie Herring from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and Martin Hoerling from NOAA Research. [NOAA NCDC News]
Peter Stott from the United Kingdom's Met Office and who is another author on the above-mentioned report also made this list of Top Global Thinkers. [UK Met Office News]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- The South Indian Ocean basin was the only ocean basin that had tropical cyclone activity during the last week:
Early in the week, Cyclone Amara formed from a tropical depression that was located nearly 600 miles south of south of Diego Garcia. During the week this tropical cyclone traveled to the west-southwest before making a turn to the south by late in the week. As Amara turned to the south it intensified to become a major category 4 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, with maximum sustained surface winds reaching 150 mph, as it passed to the east of La Reunion Island. Over this past weekend Cyclone Amara turned to the southeast and has begun weakening. As of Sunday Amara remained a category 2 tropical cyclone as it was located approximately 600 miles to the east southeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. This cyclone could persist through the first several days of this week. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite images on Cyclone Amara.
The second tropical cyclone of last week, identified as Cyclone Bruce, formed to the northwest of Australia's Cocos Island last Monday. Bruce traveled toward the west-southwest during the course of last week and intensified to become a major category 5 tropical cyclone as maximum sustained winds reached at least 160 mph on this past Sunday (local time). By late in the day, Bruce remained a major category 3 tropical cyclone that was located approximately 900 miles to the south-southeast of Diego Garcia. This system should weaken and dissipate over the South Indian Ocean by midweek. Satellite images and more information on Cyclone Bruce can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
Public comment sought on proposal to disapprove Oregon's Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program -- During the last week officials with NOAA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the start of a 90-day period in which the public can make comments on the agencies' proposal to disapprove the State of Oregon's coastal nonpoint pollution control program. [NOAA News]
Coastal ocean aquaculture shown to be environmentally sustainable -- Scientists at the NOAA National Ocean Service's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and their colleagues have found that with proper safeguards and planning, coastal ocean aquaculture causes relatively few detrimental effects on the coastal ocean environment. After evaluating the environmental effects of finfish aquaculture, the scientists issued a report entitled "Marine cage culture & the environment." [NOAA News]
Regulations announced designed to protect marine mammals during naval exercises off California and Hawaii -- NOAA Fisheries announced early last week that regulations had been finalized requiring the United States Navy to implement protective measures designed to reduce the effects on marine mammals during training and testing activities in the coastal waters off California and Hawaii as well as on the high seas of the Pacific Ocean. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Portions of areas off New England coast closed to fishing are reopened -- Officials with NOAA Fisheries recently announced that portion of the region covering the waters of the North Atlantic off the southeastern New England coast called the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area and along Georges Bank would reopen for groundfishing through April 2014 (the remainder of fishing year 2013) after being closed since 1994. [NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office News]
Decade-long research on Fire Island available to help understand future coastal changes -- The US Geological Society (USGS) recently created a public website that makes research made for over a decade on Fire Island, NY available to the public along with coastal managers and planners. This research should be helpful for the understanding and the prediction of future change on the island. [USGS Newsroom]
Biometrics of how marine snails swim revealed -- Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Stony Brook University have studied how common Atlantic slipper shells, a species of marine snail native to the northeastern US coast, spread into new areas. [National Science Foundation News]
"Old sea ice" diminishes across the Arctic Ocean basin -- An animation (one-minute) was produced by NOAA climate.gov from data provided by the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)that shows the age of sea ice in the Arctic basin between 1987 and the end of October 2013. The amount of multi-year sea ice across the basin has decreased, with increasing amounts of the remaining ice consisting of "first-year ice" that is younger and thinner. The oldest ice is more than 9 years old. In addition to a warming trend across the Arctic basin, wind and ocean circulation patterns have helped reduce the age of the Arctic sea ice. [NOAA Climate News]
A global review of November 2013 temperatures -- Preliminary analysis of temperature data by scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center indicates that the worldwide combined ocean and land surface temperature for November 2013 ranked as the record highest global November surface temperature since a sufficiently dense and reliable network began in 1880. This combined global temperature was approximately 1.4 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century (1901-2000) average November temperature. They also found that the global land surface temperatures was the second highest readings for any November on record, while the global ocean surface temperature was the third highest since 1880. Furthermore, they reported that the combined land and ocean surface temperature for the globe during the Northern Hemisphere autumn (September-November 2013) was the second highest for all boreal autumn seasons on record, behind the corresponding three-months in 2005. ENSO-neutral conditions continued for the nineteenth consecutive month as of November 2013. These conditions could extend through Northern Hemisphere winter and into spring, thereby affecting global ocean temperatures in the upcoming months. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
UK Met Office global average temperature forecast made for 2014 -- Last week, scientists at the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office (Met Office) released their annual global temperature forecast for the upcoming year of 2014. They anticipate the global average temperature in 2014 to be 0.57 Celsius degrees above the long-term (1961-1990) average of 14.0 degrees Celsius, with a range of uncertainty extending from 0.43 to 0.71 Celsius degrees around the central estimate. Using observational data running through October 2013, the scientists also noted that this current year's global temperature has a central estimate of 0.49 Celsius degrees above the 1961-1990 average, with an uncertainty range extending from 0.39 to 0.59 Celsius degrees above the average. These preliminary statistics for 2013 not only falls within the forecast limits made by the Met Office in December 2012, but also suggests that 2013 would rank as one of the ten warmest years since comprehensive global climate records began in 1880. [Editor's note: The statistics involved with the global temperature record are from the three main global temperature datasets compiled by: The Met Office and University of East Anglia (HadCRUT4); NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NOAA NCDC) and NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (NASA GISS). The Met Office uses the 1961-1990 interval for long-term averages that is accepted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), rather than the 1981-2010 interval currently used by NCDC. EJH [UK Met Office News]
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, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

23 December 1811...A cold storm hit Long Island Sound with a foot of snow, gale force winds, and temperatures near zero. During the storm, many ships were wrecked, and in some cases, entire crews perished. (David Ludlum)
23 December 1854...A tsunami struck the coast of Japan, with water in the harbor of Simoda changing depth between 8 and 40 feet. Twelve hours later this giant wave reached the Pacific coast of the U.S. The newly installed self-registering tide gauges noted these waves. The information derived from this event enabled Alexander D. Bache, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, to apply a newly derived law relating ocean depth to wave speed and provide the first relatively accurate scientific estimate of the depth of an ocean between Japan and the Pacific coast of the U.S. The velocity of the sea wave from Simoda to San Francisco was 369 mph. (Today in Science History)
25 December 1492...The Santa Maria, one of the ships that Christopher Columbus used in his historic trans-Atlantic voyage, landed at the Dominican Republic.
25 December 1974...Tropical Cyclone Tracy (a hurricane in the waters surrounding Australia) made landfall near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Excellent warnings kept the death toll to between 50 and 60, with more than 20,000 people evacuated in the week following the storm. Some areas were totally devastated. Peak wind speeds reached exceeded 174 mph. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
26-31 December 1993...The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race off Australia was plagued by hurricane-force wind gusts in excess of 74 mph and 33 foot high seas. Of 104 starters, only 37 yachts finished the race. On the 28^th, one yacht owner spent five hours in the water after being swept overboard. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
26 December 2004...A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale approximately 100 miles off the western coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed. (Wikipedia)
28 December 1857...The light was first illuminated in the Cape Flattery Lighthouse, located on Washington State's Tatoosh Island at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. "Because of Indian trouble it was necessary to build a blockhouse on Tatoosh Island before even commencing the construction of the lighthouse. Twenty muskets were stored in the blockhouse, and then the lighthouse work began." (USCG Historian's Office)
28 December 1903...An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the non-contiguous territory of the Hawaiian Islands. (USCG Historian's Office)
28 December 1908...An early morning earthquake under the Straits of Messina leveled cities in Sicily and southern mainland Italy, as well as producing a tsunami with 40-foot waves that inundated coastal communities. This earthquake, estimated to by a magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, and the resulting tsunami killed an estimated 100,000 people. Long stretches of coastline sunk into the Messina Straits and disappeared from view. A steady rain also added to the woes of the survivors. (The History Channel)
29 December 1897...Congress prohibited the killing of fur seals in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)