8-12 August 2005

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2005 with new Ocean News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2005. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Updated hurricane season outlooks announced -- As of the beginning of August, the 2005 hurricane season for the North Atlantic Basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, has been the most active to date with eight named tropical cyclones (low pressure systems that have reached tropical storm or hurricane status). The rest of the season, which runs from 1 June through 30 November 2005, appears to show signs of continued activity as updated long range outlooks indicate:
• NOAA scientists issued an updated 2005 hurricane season outlook with a forecast of between 11 and 14 additional named tropical cyclones, which would result in a 18 to 21 cyclones for the entire 2005 season. As many as 5 to 9 major hurricanes are foreseen by these researchers. [NOAA News]
• Climatologists at Louisiana State University indicate that based upon their research of the hurricane records extending back to 1851, the updated NOAA hurricane seasonal outlook appears quite reasonable even with the record number of anticipated named systems. [Louisiana State University]
• Hurricane expert, Professor Bill Gray of Colorado State University, also updated his forecast at the start of August, increasing his expectations to 20 named tropical cyclones. [USA Today]
• Preparing for an active hurricane season -- Based upon their experiences from last year's active hurricane season, scientists with several NOAA agencies are preparing for another active season in 2005. One of their focuses is on hurricane intensity research, as indicated by the commencement of a new 5-year experiment called Intensity Forecasting Experiment. [NOAA Magazine]
• "Ocean in View" commemoratives unveiled -- The NOAA National Geodetic Survey unveiled a Commemorative Geodetic Marker that was placed and dedicated at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington State, the site of where the Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery first sighted the Pacific Ocean in 1805. The marker has the same design that appears on the reverse side of a new 5-cent coin (nickel) which the US Mint also unveiled on Friday. [NOAA News]
• Ivan produced record waves -- Hurricane experts with the Naval Research Laboratory report that pressure instruments located on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico detected an ocean wave with a height of more than 90 feet that was generated by last year's Ivan. Colleagues with the National Weather Service noted that these waves were possible, based wave height data obtained from buoys. [USA Today] [EurekAlert!]
• Another typhoon hits China and Taiwan -- Heavy rain and strong winds associated with Typhoon Matsa were reported across Taiwan and coastal mainland China on Saturday. At least one death was attributed to the typhoon, the North Pacific's counterpart to a hurricane. More than one million people were evacuated as the typhoon approached. [USA Today]
• Antarctic Ice Shelf collapse appears to be unprecedented - A team of scientists from Hamilton College (NY), Queen's University (ON), Colgate University, Montclair State University (NJ), Southern Illinois University and the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory reports that the recent collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica appears to be the largest such collapse during the last 10,000 years. Members of the team also caution that this collapse could have large-scale implications for rising sea levels associated with increases in planetary temperatures. [Hamilton College] [Queen's University]
• Separating oil and water -- An engineering team from the University of New South Whales has been demonstrating a simple tank-and-siphon separator system for removing oil from oily water. [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]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 8 August 1585...The British navigator and polar explorer, John Davis, entered Cumberland Sound in quest for the North-West Passage. (Wikipedia)
• 8 August 2000... The Confederate submarine CSS H.L. Hunley was raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor. This submarine sank in the Charleston (SC) Harbor after sinking the USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864. (Wikipedia)
• 9 August 1988...Tropical Storm Beryl deluged Biloxi with 6.32 inches of rain in 24 hours, and in three days drenched Pascagoula, MS with 15.85 inches of rain. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 10 August 1519...Five ships under the command of the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, set sail from the Spanish seaport Seville to Sanclucar be Barrameda, staying there until 21 September, when they departed to circumnavigate the globe. This expedition traveled westward and ultimately returned to Europe in September 1522. (Wikipedia)
• 10 August 1675...King Charles II laid the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. (Today in Science History)
• 10-11 August 1831...A violent hurricane devastated Barbados. Death toll was estimated to be from 1500 to 2500 people. (The Weather Doctor)
• 10 August 1856...The Isle Derniere (Last Island) disaster occurred off the coast of Louisiana. A storm tide drowned 140 vacationers as a five-foot wave swept over Low Island during a hurricane. (The Weather Channel) The hurricane completely devastated the fashionable hotel and pleasure resort on Last Island, 150 miles east of Cameron. Storm surge swept an estimated 400 people to their death. Today the island is just a haven for pelicans and other sea birds. (Intellicast)
• 10 August 1954...A ground breaking ceremony was held at Massena, NY for the St. Lawrence Seaway. (Wikipedia)
• 10 August 1971...President Nixon signed the Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971 considered to be most significant legislation in the long history of federal action in this field. The new act, which repealed most of the Federal Boating Act of 1958 and amended the Motorboat Act of 1940, shifted responsibility from boat operator to manufacturer. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 10 August 1980...Hurricane Allen came ashore north of Brownsville, TX dropping fifteen inches of rain near San Antonio, and up to 20 inches in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, ending a summer long drought. Winds at Port Mansfield gusted to 140 mph with a storm surge of 12 feet. Tidal flooding occurred along the South Texas coast. Hurricane Allen packed winds to 150 mph, and also spawned twenty-nine tornadoes. Total damage from the storm was estimated at 750 million dollars. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
• 10 August 1993...Three ships -- the barge Bouchard B155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255 -- collided in Florida's Tampa Bay. The Bouchard spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil into Tampa Bay. (InfoPlease)
• 11 August 1909...The liner S.S. Arapahoe was the first ship to use the S.O.S. radio distress call. Its wireless operator, T. D. Haubner, radioed for help after a propeller shaft snapped while off the coast at Cape Hatteras, NC. The call was heard by the United Wireless station "HA" at Hatteras. A few months later, Haubner on the S.S. Arapahoe received an SOS from the SS Iroquois, the second use of SOS in America. Previously, the distress code CQD had been in use as a maritime distress call, standardized by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. in 1904. The second International Radio Telegraphic Convention (1906) proposed the alternative SOS for its distinctive sound, which was ratified as an international standard in 1908. (Today in Science History)
• 11 August 1940...A major hurricane struck Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC causing the worst inland flooding since 1607. (David Ludlum)
• 11 August 1988...Moisture from what remained of Tropical Storm Beryl resulted in torrential rains across eastern Texas. Twelve and a half inches of rain deluged Enterprise, TX, which was more than the amount received there during the previous eight months. (The National Weather Summary)
• 12 August 1778...A Rhode Island hurricane prevented an impending British-French sea battle, and caused extensive damage over southeast New England. (David Ludlum)
• 12 August 1955...During the second week of August, hurricanes Connie and Diane produced as much as 19 inches of rain in the northeastern U.S. forcing rivers from Virginia to Massachusetts into a high flood. Westfield, MA was deluged with 18.15 inches of rain in 24 hours, and at Woonsocket, RI the Blackstone River swelled from seventy feet in width to a mile and a half. Connecticut and the Delaware Valley were hardest hit. Total damage in New England was 800 million dollars, and flooding claimed 187 lives. (David Ludlum)
• 12 August 1958...USS Nautilus (SSN-571) arrived Portland, England after completing the first submerged under ice cruise from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans. (Naval Historical Center)
• 13 August 1979...Fifteen yachtsmen died and 23 boats sank or were abandoned as storm-force winds, along with high seas, raked a fleet of yachts participating in an annual race between southwestern England and Fastnet Rock off southwestern Ireland. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 August 1987...Thunderstorms deluged the Central Gulf Coast States with torrential rains. Thunderstorms in Mississippi drenched Marion County with up to 15 inches of rain during the morning hours, with 12.2 inches reported at Columbia. Floodwaters swept cars away in the Lakeview subdivision of Columbia when the Lakeview Dam broke. Flash flooding caused more than three million dollars damage in Marion County. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 13 August 2004...Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 tropical low pressure system on the Saffir-Simpson scale, struck the Gulf Coast of southwest Florida, with the greatest destruction occurring at Punta Gorda near Fort Myers. Fifteen fatalities were directly attributed to the hurricane, with another 20 indirect deaths. Damage estimates were approximately $14 billion. (Wikipedia)

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Prepared by AMS DSOcean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.