WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

6-10 August 2012

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2012. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Item of Interest:

National Lighthouse Day is celebrated -- Tuesday, 7 August 2012, is designated National Lighthouse Day, which marks the anniversary of the signing of the Act of Congress on 7 August 1789 when the Federal Government assumed responsibility for building and operating the nation's lighthouses. [American Lighthouse Foundation]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week:

In the North Atlantic basin Tropical Storm Ernesto formed midway through last week nearly 900 miles east of the southern Windward Islands. This tropical storm, the fifth named tropical cyclone of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, traveled to the west-northwest passing over the waters of the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola late over the weekend. Tropical Storm Ernesto was forecast to continue moving to the west toward northern Honduras and then to west-northwest, possibly crossing Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and into the southwestern Gulf of Mexico by midweek. For additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Ernesto, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
Another tropical storm, identified as Florence, formed farther to the east over the tropical North Atlantic waters approximately 300 miles to the west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands near the end of last week. Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Florence traveled to the west-northwest and then to the west across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic. This tropical storm was projected to continue moving to the west-northwest early this upcoming week, passing to the north of the Leeward Islands. Little additional strengthening was anticipated.
In the western North Pacific, Tropical Storm Saola traveled northward across the waters to the east of the Philippines and Taiwan, intensifying to become a category 2 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale by midweek. Typhoon Saola weakened as it made landfall along the eastern coast of China south of Shanghai. Satellite images and additional information on Typhoon Saola can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Tropical Storm Damrey, which had developed last weekend to the northeast of Iwo Jima, traveled to the west-northwest early last week. By midweek, this tropical storm intensified to become the seventh typhoon of 2012 in the western North Pacific as it passed across the islands south of Japan. Remaining a a category 1 typhoon, Damrey weakened to a tropical storm as it made landfall in China north of Shanghai. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Typhoon Damrey, including satellite imagery.
Late last week, Tropical Storm Haikui formed to the east of Okinawa and traveled to the west-northwest. Over this past weekend, this tropical storm strengthened to become a typhoon for a brief time as it approached the China coast. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Haikui.

Hurricane season outlook is updated -- Last Friday, the hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, including Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, issued their updated August forecast for the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. Their "Forecast of Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Activity and Landfall Strike Probability for 2012" calls for the remainder of the season to be slightly below average due to a slowly developing El Niño event that is anticipated to be weak and to a tropical Atlantic that appears to be less favorable for tropical cyclone development than over the last two seasons. However, they have increased their June forecast slightly, calling for a total of 14 named tropical cyclones (maximum sustained surface winds exceeding 38 mph), including the four storms that have formed before the end of July. In addition, they claim that five additional hurricanes (winds greater than 73 mph) will form following Hurricane Chris in June. Furthermore, two of these six anticipated hurricanes could become major (category 3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). They also anticipate a slightly below average probability that a major hurricane will make landfall in the continental United States and in the Caribbean. [The Tropical Storm Project]
Federal mapping tool for first responders expanded to Arctic -- NOAA and the US Department of Interior have expanded the new federal interactive online mapping tool that had been used by emergency responders during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to include the Arctic. This tool called the Environmental Response Management Application, or ERMA®, will help address those challenges in the Arctic posed by increasing ship traffic and proposed energy development. [NOAA News]
Hydrographic reconnaissance underway in the Arctic --The NOAA Ship Fairweather began a 30-day survey mission across the offshore waters of Alaska last week that will run along a 1500-nautical mile corridor extending from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians north across the Bering Sea and through the Bering Sea to the Chukchi Sea then east across the Arctic Ocean and the Beaufort Sea to the Alcan border. This mission is preliminary to subsequent charting survey projects in the Arctic and will cover sea lanes last measured by Captain James Cook, RN, in 1778. [NOAA News]
Status review of green turtles to be conducted that includes assessment of Hawaii turtles -- During the last week, officials with NOAA's Fisheries Service announced that their agency will work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a global status review of the endangered green turtles, with part of this review intended to assess whether Hawaii's green turtles should be listed as a distinct population segment. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
About half of greenhouse gases emitted by humans absorbed by Earth's oceans and ecosystems -- Scientists from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and the University of Colorado recently reported that even though carbon emissions caused by human activity have increased during the last half century, natural sinks in the oceans and land ecosystems have been able to remove approximately one half of the carbon emitted by anthropogenic means into the atmosphere. These researchers analyzed 50 years of global carbon dioxide measurements. [NOAA News]
Could "carbon eaters" be in the Black Sea? -- An image made from data collected in mid July 2012 by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows a brilliant cyan pattern across the surface layer of the Black Sea. This pattern suggests microscopic coccolithophores, which are single cell phytoplankton or algae that use carbon, calcium, and oxygen to produce tiny plates of calcium carbonate (coccoliths) and effectively remove carbon from the air and sequester it as limestone. The micro-stones produced could accelerate the ocean's biological pump. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Caffeine found in coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest -- Researchers at Portland State University and Washington State University, Vancouver have found trace amounts of caffeine in the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest, suggesting that septic tanks and sewer overflows may be the likely source of the stimulant. [NOAA Research]
Linking climate and fish sticks -- An article written by a staff member at the National Snow and Ice Center describes how unusually warm waters in the Bering Sea between 2001 and 2005 have provided scientists and the fishing industry a preview of the challenges they may face keeping Alaska Pollock, the fish used for popular fish-sticks, on the market in future years as the climate warms. [NOAA Climate Watch Magazine]
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, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

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 groundbreaking 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, making landfall north of Captiva, FL. At landfall, sustained winds of 145 mph, along with an unofficial gust of 173 mph on a medical building tower in Punta Gorda near Fort Myers. The greatest destruction occurring at Punta Gorda. Fifteen fatalities were directly attributed to the hurricane, with another 20 indirect deaths. Damage estimates were approximately $14 billion. A gust of 104 mph hit Arcadia, where a storm shelter with 1200 people inside lost a wall and part of a roof. (Wikipedia) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)