18-22 July 2005

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• Another major hurricane moves across the Caribbean -- Hurricane Emily, the second major hurricane of the 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale), was moving west toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. As of early Saturday, the system was south of Jamaica after affecting some of the islands across the eastern Caribbean. [USA Today]. Earlier, as it passed over Granada, at least one fatality was attributed to the hurricane. [USA Today]
• More news on Hurricane Dennis -- Hurricane Dennis, which was the first hurricane to reach major hurricane status so early in the season, made landfall along the Gulf Coast near Pensacola, FL one week ago. More news on Hurricane Dennis include:
• NOAA posted more than 600 aerial images of the region affected by Hurricane Dennis collected by the agency's Remote Sensing Division. [NOAA News]
• Local residents in regions that lost power across the western Florida Panhandle following Hurricane Dennis have been treating utility workers helping restore power as celebrities. [USA Today]
• After touring the region hit by Hurricane Dennis, the Governor of Alabama has no regrets for ordering a mass evacuation of the city of Mobile and the neighboring coast last week as the approached. [USA Today]
• Bands of rainshowers continued to rotate around a weak area of low pressure that marked the remnants of former Hurricane Dennis for much of this past week. These bands contained some locally heavy rain that provided some much needed relief to regions in the mid Mississippi and lower Ohio Valleys experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions. [NOAA News] [USA Today]
• Hurricane Dennis helped point out the shortage in aluminum storm shutters that resulted following last year's record hurricane season. Some customers may have to wait up to one year for shutters. [USA Today]
• More hurricane activity foreseen -- With an unusually active series of tropical cyclones for the early North Atlantic hurricane season, hurricane expert Professor William Gray of Colorado State University recently warned that the current pattern of relatively warm water in the Atlantic could mean that the basin could continue to experience a more active season than normal. [USA Today]
• The Big Easy could be swamped -- A geography professor at Louisiana State University has recently authored a book that examines the efforts made by New Orleans to modify its environment and protect itself from possible inundation by a hurricane. [Louisiana State University]
• Oyster populations could become more sensitive to pollution -- A scientist from the University of North Carolina recently reported that higher temperatures could threaten the populations of eastern oysters by increasing their sensitivity to metal pollution, especially that from cadmium. [EurekAlert!]
• Documentation of early tsunamis provided by native lore -- A scientist at the University of Washington has found that art work and stories about battles between "Thunderbird and Whale" have been handed down for generations by peoples along the coast of the Pacific Northwest and can be used to study the effect of large earthquakes and their resulting tsunamis such as in AD 900 and 1700 have had on these native peoples. [EurekAlert!]
• Concern for ocean health raised -- Several marine biologists and oceanographers recently raised an alarm that increased ocean temperatures appear to have resulted in a variety of environmental problems, including dwindling plankton populations, a record number of seabird deaths and decreased juvenile salmon. [USA Today]
• 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]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 18 July 1986...Videotapes, taken by the deep-sea Alvin submersible, showing SS Titanic's remains were released. Looking like huge stalagmites, rusticles ("rust icicles") are a byproduct of the bacteria slowly converting the iron in the hull. The colony of iron-eating bacteria flourish in the anaerobic (without oxygen) environment inside the hollow multi-layered rusticles while on the outside, porous layers support oxygen-dependent bacteria. In this eerie way, there is still life on the Titanic as the ship lies deep on the ocean floor. (Today in Science History)
• 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)
• 18-22 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 1843...The first all-metal liner, the SS Great Britain, was launched from Bristol, England. Designed by I. K. Brunel, the SS Great Britain was the first of the great steamships. She was the world's first screw-propeller driven (and first iron-hulled) steamship to cross the Atlantic (1845). The six-masted, single-screw, 3,270-ton vessel is 322 feet in length overall and carried a crew of 130 including 30 stewards for her 360-seat dining room. As the world's biggest ship of the time, she embarked on a varied career, first as a luxury liner carrying passengers to New York and Melbourne, then as a ferry carrying troops to the Crimea and India, and finally as a cargo ship, before being abandoned in the Falkland Islands in 1886. She was brought back to Bristol on this day in 1970, where she is now being restored by volunteers to her original appearance at the Great Western Dock in which she was built. (Today in Science History)
• 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 1897...LT Robert E. Peary, USN, departed on a year long Arctic Expedition that made many important discoveries, including one of largest meteorites, Cape York. (Naval Historical Center)
• 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 1964...Four Navy divers entered Project SEALAB I capsule moored 192 feet on the ocean floor off Bermuda for a 11-day experiment. On the 22^nd they submerged and then surfaced on 31 July 1964. (Naval Historical Center)
• 20 July 1985...Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank approximately 40 miles off the coast of Key West, FL, in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots. (InfoPlease.com)
• 22 July 1986...Hurricane Estelle passed 120 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands creating a ten to twenty-foot surf. The large swells resulted from a combination of high tides, a full moon, and 50-mph winds. The hurricane also deluged Oahu Island with as much as 6.86 inches of rain on the 24th and 25th of the month. (Storm Data)
• 22-23 July 1996...A strong storm system centered south of Tahiti in the South Pacific was responsible for eight-foot surf along the south shores of Hawaii's Oahu Island. Water safety personnel rescued 95 people from the high surf. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 23 July 1715...Boston Light, the first lighthouse in America was authorized by the Boston Light Bill for construction at Little Brewster Island, MA. This light, located on Little Brewster Island to mark the entrance to Boston harbor, has guided ships since its lantern was first lighted just before sunset, on 14 Sep 1716. In the 1600s, treacherous rocks caused countless loss of lives. False signal fires lit in the wrong places by "wreckers" lured ships aground to plunder. Boston Light was blown up by the British in 1776, but rebuilt in 1783 by Governor John Hancock. The lighthouse was also the last remaining staffed station in the U.S. (Today in Science History)
• 23 July 1788...A weather diary kept by George Washington recorded that the center of a hurricane passed directly over his Mount Vernon home. The hurricane crossed eastern North Carolina and Virginia before moving into the Central Appalachians. Norfolk, VA reported houses destroyed, trees uprooted, and crops leveled to the ground. (David Ludlum)
• 23 July 1958...USS Nautilus (SSN-571) departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for the first submerged transit of the North Pole. (Naval Historical Center)
• 23 July 1982...The International Whaling Commission decided to end commercial whaling by 1985-86. (Wikipedia)
• 24 July 1609...A fleet of ships carrying colonists to the New World met with a hurricane near Bermuda, resulting in much loss of property but little loss of life. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 24-25 July 1979...Claudette, a weak tropical storm, deluged southeastern Texas with torrential rains. The Houston suburb of Alvin received 43.00 inches, a 24-hour precipitation record for not only the Lone Star State, but for the U.S. Freeport reported a total of 30 inches. Total damage from flooding was over $400 million. On the 27^th, a van loaded with people on their way to a church camp stopped on Texas Highway 7 due to a flooded bridge just west of Centerville. A truck rammed the van, pushing it into the flooded creek, resulting in five people drowning. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum) (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24-26 July 1996...Although thousands of miles from southern California, an intense South Pacific storm south of Tahiti produced seven to ten foot surf with some sets up to 12 feet along the southern California coast. Lifeguards participated in more than 500 rescues along the beaches. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DSOcean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
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