WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

30 June- 4 July 2014

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2014. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

• Change in seasons -- The beginning of July marks the beginning of the new heating season. Traditionally, meteorologists and climatologists define the heating season to run from 1 July to 30 June of the following year. Heating degree day units are accumulated commencing on 1 July. Likewise, the snow season runs from 1 July through 30 June. Seasonal snowfall totals for next season will be summed from Monday.
• The half-way point -- Midpoint of calendar year 2014 will occur at noon local standard time on Wednesday, 2 July 2014.
• Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun this Thursday evening (officially at 00Z on 4 July 2014, which is equivalent to 8 PM EDT or 7 PM CDT on the 3rd). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year on the morning of 4 January 2014. [US Naval Observatory]
• "Warmest day of the year" approaches -- NOAA's National Climatic Data Center recently created a new "Warmest Day of the Year" map for the contiguous United States based upon the highest daily maximum temperatures of the year as calculated from the 1981-2010 climate normals. Many places across the location will experience their highest daily temperatures within the next two to three weeks. However, some locations in Arizona and New Mexico affected by the Southwest Monsoon reach their maximum temperatures during the last two weeks of June. On the other hand, coastal locations along the Pacific Ocean would have the highest temperatures in September. [NOAA National Climatic Data Center News]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- No tropical cyclones developed over any of the major tropical ocean basins during the last week. However, a tropical depression formed this past Saturday afternoon in the eastern North Pacific basin approximately 325 miles off the coast of Mexico near Manzanillo. Identified as Tropical Depression 4E, this system formed from a weak area of low pressure. Over the rest of the weekend TD 4E traveled toward the west-northwest. This tropical depression could intensify and become Tropical Storm Douglas by early Monday.
• Predictions of " dead zone" sizes made for Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay -- A group of NOAA-supported modelers at the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and the US Geological Survey have run forecast models that indicate this summer's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic "dead" zone should be about average, while the size of the hypoxia levels in Chesapeake Bay estuary along the Middle Atlantic coast were expected to be slightly above average. Runoff of nutrients from farms in the Mississippi River Basin are responsible for the projected low oxygen levels in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. [NOAA News]
• Whale watching trip becomes an international whale rescue -- A whale watching trip made in early June by nearly 200 people on a vessel that departed from Bar Harbor, ME turned into a whale saving adventure in Canadian waters at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy. The typical four-hour trip became a seven-hour voyage as the vessel's crew remained close to a nine-year old humpback whale that had become entangled in fishing gear, passing information to the US Coast Guard and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Eventually, the whale was disentangled from the gear. [NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region News]
• Saharan Air Layer seen from space -- A natural color image obtained from data collected at the start of last week by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument onboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite shows a veil of dust being carried from the Sahara Desert of northern Africa out over the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. This dust is part of an area of dry and dusty air known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL), which can provide a hostile environment for the formation of tropical cyclones and their intensification. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• Review of global weather and climate for May 2014 -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center report that the recently concluded month of May was the warmest May since sufficiently dense global climate records began in 1880. They based their report on preliminary calculations of the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for May 2014, which was 2.03 Fahrenheit degrees (0.74 Celsius degrees) above the 20th century (1901-2000) average May temperature. When considered separately, the average May 2014 land surface temperature was also the fourth highest for any May since 1880, while the record high monthly global ocean surface temperature for May 2014 tying June 1998, October 2003 and July 2009 as the highest departure from average for any month on record. This record high temperature was reached as waters across the east and central equatorial Pacific Ocean warmed signalling a transition from the ENSO-neutral conditions that had prevailed for the last several months toward an anticipated El Niño event.
  In addition, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for the last three months (March through May), which is considered meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere (fall in the Southern Hemisphere), was the second highest since 1880. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
  The average Arctic sea ice extent for May 2014 was the third smallest extent for May since satellite records began in 1979, while the corresponding sea ice extent around Antarctica was the largest on record for May according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
  A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for May 2014 is available from NCDC.
• Regional fishery council appointments announced -- Late last week the US Department of Commerce announced the appointment of 22 members to three-year terms on the nation's eight regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries Service to manage ocean fish stocks. The eight regional councils have 72 appointed members and some of this year's appointments will be new to these councils, while others are returning members. [NOAA Fisheries News]
• Report on Southern Resident killer whales released -- During the last week NOAA Fisheries released a 28-page report entitled "Southern Resident Killer Whales: 10 Years of Research & Conservation" that highlights the accomplishments achieved in ten years of collaborative research and conservation of the endangered Southern Resident killer whale population that lives along the West Coast from British Columbia's Vancouver Island south to northern California. Scientists from NOAA Fisheries, various conservation groups and academic institutions in the Pacific Coast States and British Columbia were involved in these collaborative efforts. [NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center]
• Policy finalized to improve implementation of Endangered Species Act -- .Late last week NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a new policy designed to clarify of interpretation and to provide consistency of application of a portion of the Endangered Species Act involving decisions the listing of species as threatened or endangered. [NOAA News]
• New satellite imagery animations show of water vapor transport over Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans -- Scientists with the NASA/NOAA GOES Program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have created two new animations of water vapor channel images obtained from sensors onboard GOES-East (or GOES-13) and GOES-West (or GOES-15) satellites that show the flow of water vapor across the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Basins, respectively. The five-day animations were produced from full-disk satellite images made once every three hours. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• Pacing and intensity of ice ages may have been changed by ancient ocean currents -- Scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory report that changes in the speed and location of deep ocean currents during the last million years appears to have contributed to changes in the pace and the intensity of the Ice Ages. These researchers analyzed fossil plankton shells to reconstruct ancient ocean circulation patterns. The changes in the deep sea currents changed the transport of heat around the globe, influenced the extent of ice cover in the polar regions and affected the carbon dioxide storage in the ocean. They found that over the last 1.2 million years, the conveyor-like currents strengthened during warm periods and weakened during ice ages. In addition, ocean circulation weakened significantly about 950,000 years ago and remained weak for 100,000 years. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory 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, drought, floods, 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:

• 30 June 1886...The second destructive hurricane in nine days hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida. (David Ludlum)
• 30 June 1972...The entire state of Pennsylvania was declared a disaster area because of the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes, which claimed 48 lives, and caused 2.1 billion dollars damage. (The Weather Channel)
• 30 June 1989...The remains of tropical storm Allison dropped copious amounts of rain on Louisiana. Winnfield, LA reported 22.52 inches of rain in three days, and more than thirty inches for the month, a record for June. Shreveport received a record 17.11 inches in June, with a total for the first six months of the year of 45.55 inches. Thunderstorms also helped produce record rainfall totals for the month of June of 13.12 inches at Birmingham, AL, 14.66 inches at Oklahoma City, OK, 17.41 inches at Tallahassee, FL, 9.97 inches at Lynchburg, VA, and more than 10.25 inches at Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh had also experienced a record wet month of May. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)
• 1 July 1792...A tremendous storm (a tornado or hurricane) hit Philadelphia and New York City. Many young people were drowned while out boating on that Sunday. (David Ludlum)
• 1 July 1885...The United States terminated reciprocity and a fishery agreement with Canada. (Wikipedia)
• 2 July 1578...The British seaman and explorer, Martin Frobisher sighted Baffin Island, one of Canada's Arctic islands. (Wikipedia)
• 2-6 July 1994... Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Alberto produced major flooding across northern and central Georgia. Three-day rains exceeded 15 inches at Atlanta. An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA on the 6^th to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. Numerous road closures and bridge washouts. Thirty people were killed and 50,000 were forced from their homes, as 800,000 acres were flooded. Total damage exceeded $750 million.. (NCDC) (Intellicast)
• 3 July 1903...The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced and completed between San Francisco on the US West Coast, Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila in the Philippines. After testing, the first official message was sent the next day. A cable between San Francisco and Hawaii had been established at the beginning of the same year, with its first official message sent on 1 Jan 1903. This technological event ended Hawaii's isolation by connecting it to the mainland U.S. and the rest of the world. The cable was a mainstay of communications into the early 1950s when newer technology rendered it obsolete. (The 1902 all-British telegraph line from Canada to Australia and New Zealand was the first line to cross the Pacific Ocean.) (Today in Science History)
• 3 July 1992...At 11 PM EDT, several waves to heights of 18 feet crashed ashore at Daytona Beach, FL. Sailboats were tossed onto cars, 200 vehicles damaged and 75 minor injuries reported. While the exact cause was unknown, morning storms were moving parallel to the coast approximately 430 miles to the east. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4 July 1687...An early experience of a tropical revolving storm was made by Captain William Dampier, whose ship survived what he called a "tuffoon" off the coast of China. In New Voyage Round the World, (published in 1697) Dampier wrote that this violent whirlwind storm had a calm central eye, and its winds moved from opposite directions as the storm moved passed. This was one of the earliest known European descriptions of a typhoon, which also presented a new understanding that storms somehow move, rather than remain stationary. During his ocean travels, he kept a detailed journal, noting native cultures, and made careful descriptions of natural history which in effect made him an early contributor to scientific exploration. (Today in Science History)
• 4 July 1840...The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer, RMS Britannia, departed from Liverpool, England bound for Halifax, NS on its first transatlantic passenger cruise. (Wikipedia)
• 4 July 1903...President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first official message over the new cable across the Pacific Ocean between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. (Today in Science History)
• 5 July 1805...Robert FitzRoy, British naval officer, hydrographer and meteorologist, was born. He was also commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle aboard which Charles Darwin sailed around the world as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. FitzRoy retired from active duty in 1850 and from 1854 devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). His death on 30 April 1865 was by suicide, during a bout of depression. (Today in Science History)
• 5 July 1916...An early season hurricane produced 82-mph winds, an 11.6-foot tide, and a barometric pressure of 28.92 inches at Mobile, AL. (David Ludlum)
• 5 July 1989...Moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Allison triggered thunderstorms over the Middle Atlantic Coast Region, which deluged Wilmington, DE with a record 6.83 inches of rain in 24 hours, including 6.37 inches in just six hours. Up to ten inches of rain was reported at Claymont, northeast of Wilmington. July 1989 was thus the wettest month in seventy years for Wilmington, with a total of 12.63 inches of rain. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 6 July 1484...Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão located the mouth of the Congo River. (Wikipedia)
• 6 July 1988...The world's worst offshore accident occurred when 167 oil workers were killed by explosions and fires that destroyed the Piper Alpha drilling platform in the British sector of the North Sea.

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2014, The American Meteorological Society.