26-30 May 2008

DataStreme Ocean 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.

• Eye on the tropics -- The weather across the tropical oceans was not very active during the past week. Typhoon Halong, which had become a category 1 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) passed across the Philippine Island of Luzon and then traveled northeastward over the western North Pacific. The system dissipated early last week as it passed south of Japan. Additional information and images are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Hurricane Preparedness Week -- With the beginning of the official 2008 hurricane season for the North Atlantic Basin beginning on 1 June, next week (25-31 May) has been declared National Hurricane Awareness Week. The National Hurricane Center maintains a hurricane preparedness website that provides information and educational material for the various hurricane hazards to include storm surge, high winds, tornadoes and flooding. (A Spanish version of this website is also available.) The 2008 hurricane season has begun in the eastern North Pacific basin last Tuesday (15 May). A similar hurricane preparedness website is also maintained by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, HI with some information specific for the central Pacific basin.
  Editor's Note: Based upon hurricane records that commence in 1949 for the eastern North Pacific basin, the earliest hurricane of the season for that basin was Hurricane Alma, a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, that formed on 12 May 1990 and reached hurricane status on the 15th. On the other hand, the latest hurricane of the season was Hurricane Winnie, which became a Category-1 hurricane on 6 December 1983 and dissipated a day later. EJH
• Hurricane season outlooks issued --- With the onset of the hurricane seasons in both the North Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific, forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center have released their outlooks for the upcoming hurricane seasons:
• For the North Atlantic basin, the outlook indicates a better than even chance (90 percent) of near normal to above normal hurricane activity. Specifically, the outlook calls for 12 to 16 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), including six to nine hurricanes and two to five major hurricanes (Category 3 hurricanes or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale). The forecasts point to a continuation of the warmer than average sea surface temperatures across the eastern North Atlantic and a recent trend toward more active seasons as contributing to the anticipated active 2008 season. [NOAA News] For comparison, Phil Klotzbach and Bill Gray at Colorado State University released an updated forecast of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season in early April calling for 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes, four of which could become major hurricanes. [The Tropical Meteorology Project] Long-term statistics indicate nearly 11 named cyclones, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
• For the Eastern North Pacific basin (east of 140 degrees West longitude), the outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center suggests a better than even chance (70 percent) for a below-normal hurricane season. The outlook would call for 11 to 16 named tropical cyclones, with five to eight hurricanes and one to three major hurricanes. The forecasters indicate that a combination of a lingering La Niña event and the cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation may cause a suppression of tropical cyclone activity in that basin. [NOAA News] For comparison, the long-term averages for the eastern Pacific basin include 15 to 16 tropical named cyclones, nine hurricanes and four to five major hurricanes.
• For the Central North Pacific basin (between 180 degrees and 140 degrees West longitude), Forecasters at NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center expect a season with three to four tropical cyclones, which would be slightly below average. The lower anticipated numbers could be related to the weakening La Niña conditions. [NOAA News] A long-term average of between four to five tropical cyclones for the central North Pacific includes nearly two hurricanes, two tropical storms and one or two tropical depressions.
• Future could have fewer, but more intense hurricanes -- Researchers at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory claim that the results of simulations run on a regional model indicate that fewer hurricanes could occur during the last two decades of the 21st century, but these hurricanes could be more stronger with precipitation that would be more intense. They indicate that the projected increases in greenhouse gases would have little impact upon the frequency of tropical cyclones, with changes in the large-scale circulation, such as vertical wind shear, and water vapor appearing to be the dominant factors. [NOAA News]
• "Acidified" ocean water found along West Coast -- Scientists from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory along with those from Oregon State University, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Mexico's University of Baja California who participated in last summer's North American Carbon Program West Coast Cruise found that the ocean water on the continental shelf along the west coast of North America from Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands south to Mexico's Baja California had become increasingly more acidic than anticipated. [NOAA News] In addition to the research along the Pacific Coast, European ocean scientists are conducting research into ocean acidification as part of the European Science Foundation's EUROCORES (European Collaborative Research) Programme EuroCLIMATE. [EurekAlert!]
• Key sensor is planned for new generation of satellites -- The US Naval Research Laboratory has been selected by NOAA to develop a sensor for the next generation of National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) satellites that would use microwave radiation to construct images and soundings of the atmosphere, leading to improved imagery needed for monitoring and forecasting. [NOAA News]
• A new satellite will help track global sea level -- NOAA scientists recently announced that they will be using data collected from instruments on the Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission satellite that will be launched in mid-June that will extend the 15-year record of global sea level, which commenced with the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimeter missions. This extended record would not only serve to document long-term changes in sea level due to global climatic change, but to the intensities of tropical cyclones and El Niño/La Niña events on shorter time scales. [NOAA News] [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Humpback whales making a comeback in the North Pacific -- According to a report called SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks) from a NOAA-funded study conducted by more than 400 whale researchers, the number of humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean appear to be increasing due to international and federal protection enacted during the last 40 years. [NOAA News]
• Commercial harvesting of krill to be prevented -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service issued a proposed rule to prohibit the future harvesting of krill, a shrimp-like crustacean, within 200 miles of the West Coast of the continental United States. [NOAA News]
• Sustainable fisheries leaders to be honored -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently announced the names of seven people and two organizations that will be given the agency's Sustainable Fisheries Leadership Awards for their efforts to enhance the understanding, protection, and sustainable use of U.S. ocean resources. [NOAA News]
• Bay State gets economic assistance for a fishery -- The NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently provided the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a $13 million grant to run a program designed to provide economic assistance to the state's groundfish fishermen. [NOAA News]
• "Red Tide" information site unveiled for New Englanders -- NOAA has announced that it has created a special website called the "NOAA New England Red Tide Information Center" designed to assist the local residents and the media understand the significant harmful algae blooms, commonly called "red tides" that may develop along the coast of New England during the spring and summer. [NOAA News]
• Public input for a lagoon restoration is invited -- Officials at NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary are seeking public input on the management and restoration of the Bolinas Lagoon, a tidal estuary found along the San Andreas Fault in northern California near San Francisco's Golden Gate. [NOAA News]
• Fisheries management news -- The NOAA Fisheries has recently announced management measures for:
• Summer flounder, scup and black sea bass recreational fisheries operating in the Atlantic waters from North Carolina to Maine to ensure overfishing does not occur. [NOAA News]
• Halibut catch for those fishing from charter vessels in waters of Southeast Alaska. [NOAA News]
• 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.

• 26 May 1967...A slow moving nor'easter battered New England with high winds, heavy rain, and record late season snow on this day and into the 26^th. Winds 70 to 90 mph in gusts occurred along the coast. Over 7 inches of rain fell at Nantucket, MA with 6.57 inches falling in 24 hours to set a new 24-hour rainfall record. Severe damage occurred along the coast from very high tides. The 24.9 inches of snow that fell at Mount Washington, NH set a new May snowfall record. Other locations in New Hampshire received 10 inches of snow near Keene and 6 inches at Dublin. (Intellicast)
• 28 May 1963...A cyclone killed about 22,000 people along the coast of East Pakistan.
• 28 May 1987...A robot probe found the wreckage of the USS Monitor off Cape Hatteras, NC. (Wikipedia)
• 29 May 1827...The first nautical school was opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin's Lancasterian School.
• 29 May 1914...Shallow river fog along the St. Lawrence River approximately 185 miles from Quebec City, Quebec contributed to the collision of the CP Liner Empress of Ireland and a Norwegian coal ship, The Storstad. Although the two ships had spotted each other several minutes before the collision, altered courses and confused signals contributed to the crash. In one of the worst ship disasters in history, the liner sank in 25 minutes drowning 1024 passengers of the 1477 people on board. Only seven lifeboats escaped the rapidly sinking vessel. (The Weather Doctor) (The History Channel)
• 29 May 1950...A Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, RCMPV St. Roch, became the first ship to circumnavigate North America, when it arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Wikipedia)
• 30 May 1767...The first stone of the tower for the Charleston Lighthouse on Morris Island, SC was laid on this date. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 30-31 May 1997...As many as 140 people had to be rescued from rip currents off Dayton Beach Shores, FL. One man died in a rip current while trying to save his wife. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 31 May 1911...The hull of the ill-fated Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, "Not even God himself could sink this ship." (Information Please)
• 31 May 1997...The Confederation Bridge, also dubbed the "Fixed Link," was officially opened, linking Canada's Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick. This 8-mile long bridge that crosses the Northumberland Strait is the longest bridge in the world that spans waters that freeze. (Wikipedia)
• 1-17 June 2001...The deadliest and costliest tropical storm in US history, Tropical Storm Allison, wandered westward across the tropical Atlantic and crossed over into the Pacific before reversing direction and moving back into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. On 1 June the tropical wave, which eventually evolved into TS Allison, moved into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast of Mexico after moving westward across the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean from off the west coast of Africa on 21 May. On the 2^nd, a cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation developed to the south-southeast of Salma Cruz, Mexico, but the low-level circulation became ill-defined as the system moved inland on the 3^rd over southeastern Mexico and western Guatemala. This system intensified again and eventually moved northward to the Texas Gulf Coast and then eastward to the Atlantic before turning into an extratropical storm in mid-June. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2008, The American Meteorological Society.