WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

1-5 August 2016

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2016 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 22 August 2016. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

• A celebration -- Monday, 1 August 2016, is the ancient Celtic holiday of Lammas that corresponds to one of the cross quarter days, lying nearly halfway between the summer solstice (20 June 2016) and the autumnal equinox (22 September 2016). This holiday, also known as "loaf-mass day", originally marked the first wheat harvest of the year in the British Isles. [Editor's note: This coming Thursday, 6 August 2016, represents the exact halfway point between the dates of the solstice and equinox. EJH]
• In the Land of the Midnight Sun -- The sun will set at Barrow, AK early Monday morning (2:19 AM AKDT on 1 August 2016), marking the first time in nearly 12 weeks (since 11 May 2016) that the sun has gone below the local horizon. However, the sun will remain below the horizon for 30 minutes before rising at 2:49 AM on Monday. On each day until mid-November, the length of night will increase at Barrow. On the afternoon of 17 November 2016, the sun will set and remain below the horizon for a stretch of two months until late January 2017, when the sun will reappear above the horizon for slightly less than one hour.
• Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2016 Campaign is underway -- The eighth in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2016 will continue through Saturday, 6 August. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Cygnus in the Northern Hemisphere and Sagittarius in the Southern Hemisphere) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The next series in the 2016 campaign is scheduled for 25 August-2 September 2016. [GLOBE at Night]
• Coast Guard Day is celebrated -- Thursday, 4 August 2016, is designated Coast Guard Day, as the day commemorating the founding of the United States Coast Guard as the Revenue Cutter Service on 4 August 1790, by then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. A fleet of the first ten Revenue Service cutters were authorized by Congress with the responsibility for enforcement of the first tariff laws enacted by Congress under the Constitution. The Coast Guard was given its current name in 1915 when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the US Lifesaving Service. In 1939, the US Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Coast Guard. Since 2001, the US Coast Guard has been part of the US Department of Homeland Security. [US Defense Department]
• National Lighthouse and Lighthouse Preservation Day is celebrated -- Sunday, 7 August 2016, is designated National Lighthouse and Lighthouse Preservation 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 tropical cyclone activity was found across the North Pacific Ocean:
• In the central North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Darby continued its track to the west and then west-northwest at the start of last week after making landfall and traveling across Hawaii's Big Island over the previous weekend. Darby, which had been a major category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale in July over the eastern North Pacific basin, weakened to a remnant low to the west-northwest of Kauai on this past Tuesday afternoon. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite imagery and additional information on Tropical Storm/Hurricane Darby.
  
• In the eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Estelle continued traveling toward the west-northwest away from Mexico's western coast at the beginning of last week. Although Estelle had maximum sustained surface winds estimated to be 70 mph, which were just below the 75 mph threshold for a hurricane, Estelle never became a hurricane. By late in the week Estelle began weakening, becoming a post-tropical cyclone or remnant low on Friday morning as it was located approximately 1500 miles to the . on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Traveling generally to the west-northwest, Tropical Storm Frank strengthened to become the fifth hurricane of July in the eastern North Pacific last Tuesday morning as it was approximately 445 miles to the west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. For nearly 24 hours, Hurricane Frank was a category 1 hurricane. Frank then weakened to tropical depression as of Thursday morning and then a remnant low by afternoon when it was located approximately 950 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas. Additional Hurricane Georgette rapidly strengthened to a major category 4 hurricane by last Sunday evening as it traveled to the northwest approximately 1145 miles to the west southwest of Cabo San Lucas. On Monday Georgette weakened rapidly as it continued its travels slowly toward the northwest, becoming a tropical storm by early Tuesday morning. By Wednesday morning Georgette became a remnant low, which then dissipated approximately 1300 miles west of Cabo San Lucas. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for more information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Georgette.
  On this past Sunday morning the eight tropical cyclone for the month of July formed well to the southwest of Mexico from a disorganized area of low pressure. This new tropical depression was identified as Tropical Depression 9-E, which was located approximately 900 miles to the southwest of Cabo San Lucas as of mid afternoon on Sunday. Movement was to the west-northwest. Current forecasts indicate that Tropical Depression 9-E could strengthen to become Tropical Storm Howard by early Monday as it would continue traveling in the same general direction.
  
• In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Mirinae formed early last week from a tropical depression located over the waters of the South China Sea 360 miles to the south of Hong Kong. Traveling to the east-northwest, Mirinae traveled across China's Hainan Island on Tuesday and then the Gulf of Tonkin before making a second landfall in northeastern Vietnam by midweek. Satellite images along with additional information on Tropical Storm Mirinae are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
  At the end of last week Tropical Depression 6W formed over the Philippine Sea to the east of the Philippines. This tropical depression strengthened to Tropical Storm Nida as it traveled to the north and then northwest, passing just to the northwest of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. Over the weekend. Nida had intensified to a typhoon. As of Monday (local time), Typhoon Nida was located approximately 700 miles to the east-southeast of Hong Kong. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Tropical Depression 6W, which became Typhoon Nida.
• Gulf of Mexico experiences a record long stretch without a hurricane -- According to meteorologists at Weather Underground, a record has been set involving the lack of hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico. As of Saturday (30 July), 1048 consecutive days have elapsed since Hurricane Ingrid made landfall on 16 September 2013, with this "hurricane drought" record breaking the previous record of 1047 days set between 1 October 1929 and 13 August 1932. Although no hurricanes have traveled across the Gulf in nearly three years, tropical storms have, with Tropical Storm Bill in 2015 and Tropical Storms Colin and Danielle in 2016. [Weather Underground News]
• More intense tropical cyclones could be a result of increased temperatures -- Researchers from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies foresee tropical cyclones to become stronger as global temperatures continue to increase, although a trend for stronger tropical cyclones is not readily apparent at present. The scientists feel that the warming effects on tropical cyclones associated with increased concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases may be masked by air pollution containing aerosols that would reflect sunlight and cause a cooling of the climate. Climate model simulations were used to provide new calculations of the cancelling effects of aerosols and greenhouse gases on tropical cyclones worldwide. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory News]
• West Coast fish pathogens now found along the East Coast -- In research conducted by the US Geological Survey (USGS), a fish pathogen Dermocystidium, which is similar to that had been found the nation's waters in Pacific salmonids (salmon and trout species), has recently been identified for the first time along the East Coast in non-salmon species. [USGS Newsroom]
• Bloom in Washington's Hood Canal seen from land and space -- At the start of last week satellite-derived images were made of the phytoplankton bloom in the waters of western Washington's Hood Canal, a fjord that is part of Puget Sound to the west of Seattle. These natural-color images were obtained from the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite and from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite. In addition, a photograph of the bloom was made by a marine water quality specialist from Washington Sea Grant along the shore only a few feet above the water. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Climate variations affecting Atlantic cod fishery -- Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara and Columbia University report that the North Atlantic Oscillation appears to explain approximately 17 percent of the long-term decline in adult Atlantic cod off the New England coast from 1980 through 2013. Overfishing of cod is also a factor in the long-term decline of this fishery. The NAO is a periodic climatic phenomenon that causes changes in water temperatures in the North Atlantic basin. Changing climate may affect the strength and frequency of the NAO. The researchers claim that the NAO can be used as a a potential predictive tool for managing the New England cod fishery. [University of California Santa Barbara News]
• Improvements in Chesapeake Bay water quality may be driven by cleaner air -- Scientists from the University of Maryland's Center of Environmental Science have recently linked improving water quality in streams in the Upper Potomac River Basin feeding into Chesapeake Bay to enforcement of the Clean Air Act that has reduced nitrogen pollution onto the land and streams in the region. For decades, Chesapeake Bay has experienced excessive nutrient pollution and widespread hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions. Nitrogen deposition results mostly from fossil fuel combustion [University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science]
• New global weather model being developed -- During the last week NOAA officials announced the selection of a new dynamic core called Finite-Volume on a Cubed-Sphere (FV3) that is considered to be the engine of a state-of-the-art global weather forecasting model intended to replace the current U.S. Global Forecast System (GFS). The FV3, which was developed by NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, is capable of simulating atmospheric processes involving air motions, clouds and storms at higher resolution than the previous models. NOAA officials hope that this new the Next Generation Global Prediction System will be able to produce better forecasts of hurricane track and intensity; a unified system to improve forecast accuracy out to ten days; and an extension of weather forecasting through 14 days and for extreme weather events as far as three to four weeks in advance. [NOAA News]
• Importance of polar oceans seen by marine carbon sinking rates -- Scientists at the University of Washington using a new approach to assessing the fate of marine carbon on a global basis have found that the polar seas export organic carbon contained in plankton to the deep sea where the carbon can remained trapped for centuries. The researchers found that this transport of carbon to the deep polar oceans is approximately five times as efficient as in other parts of the oceans. [University of Washington News]
• Report on the state of Lake Tahoe considers effects of a changing climate -- The Tahoe Environmental Research Center associated with the University of California Davis recently released its annual report on Lake Tahoe that runs along the California-Nevada border just to the east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains; the University has been monitoring lake conditions since 1968. This 88-page document entitled "Tahoe: State of the Lake Report 2016" reported that numerous records were broken in 2015 including the lowest amount of snowfall on record during the year and the fastest rate in the rise of the lake's temperature ever. Furthermore, the lake's average surface temperature in 2015 was the highest on record at 53.3 degrees Fahrenheit, while just 6.5 percent of the annual precipitation fell as snow. These record occurrences were the result of four consecutive years of warm and dry conditions. [Tahoe Environmental Research Center/University of California Davis]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 1 August 1498...Christopher Columbus reached Venezuela, the first known European to visit that country. (Wikipedia)
• 1-3 August 1989...Hurricane Chantal made landfall along the Upper Texas coast about sunrise on the 1^st. Chantal deluged parts of Galveston Island and southeastern Texas with 8 to 12 inches of rain. Unofficial totals ranged up to twenty inches. Winds gusted to 82 mph at Galveston, and reached 76 mph in the Houston area. Tides were 5 to 7 feet high. The hurricane claimed two lives, and caused 100 million dollars damage. The remains of Hurricane Chantal also deluged north central Texas with heavy rain. Up to 6.50 inches drenched Stephens County, and Wichita Falls reported 2.22 inches of rain in just one hour on the 2^nd. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 August 2002...At the Delaware Bay buoy located 26 miles southeast of Cape May, NJ, an ocean water temperature of 83.1 degrees Fahrenheit was measured--marking the highest ocean temperature recorded at that buoy since observations began there in 1984. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2 August 1880...Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted officially by the British Parliament, selected because Greenwich had been the national center for time since 1675. GMT was originally set-up to aid naval navigation, but was not on land until transportation improved. GMT was adopted by the U.S. at noon on 18 Nov 1883 when the telegraph lines transmitted time signals to all major cities. Subsequently, GMT was adopted worldwide on 1 Nov 1884 when the International Meridian Conference met in Washington, DC, USA and 24 time zones were created. (Today in Science History)
• 2-3 August 1922...A typhoon hit the China Coast at Swatow on the night of the 2^nd. The wind and the storm surge killed as many as 50,000 of the city's 65,000 residents. Barometric pressure at landfall had dropped to at least 932.3 millibars (27.53 inches). (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 August 1492...The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, in command of three ships, embarked from the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera on a journey westward in search of a sea route to Asia. This expedition, which reached the Bahamas near North America on 12 October, was the first of four expeditions that Columbus made to the "New World". (The History Channel)
• 3 August 1864...The crew of a Union fleet witnessed a waterspout move right past their ship, causing no damage, in Albemarle Sound, NC. (National Weather Service files)
  
• 3 August 1958...At 11:15 EDT, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first ship to reach the geographic North Pole submerged, traveling at a depth of approximately 500 feet from the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow, AK on 1 August to the Greenland Sea near Spitzbergen on 5 August. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
• 3 August 1960...A severe squall line with hurricane force winds crossed Chicago and then proceeded across Lake Michigan. Two hours later a seiche caused the lake to rise as much as four feet along the Chicago shore. One man died clinging to a rope on the lake side of a filtration plant near Navy Pier. (National Weather Service files)
• 3 August 1970...Hurricane Celia made landfall near Port Aransas on the Texas coast, producing wind gusts to 161 mph at Corpus Christi, and estimated wind gusts of 180 mph at Arkansas Pass. Even at Del Rio, 250 miles inland, Celia produced wind gusts to 89 mph. The hurricane was the most destructive of record along the Texas coast causing 454 million dollars damage as 8950 homes were destroyed on the Coastal Bend. Celia also claimed eleven lives and injured 466 people. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
• 3-4 August 1978...The remnants of Tropical Storm Amelia produced up to 32 inches of rain on Schackelford County in Texas, an incredible amount of rain for a far-inland and non-mountainous area. A twenty-foot wall of water killed six during the evening of the 4^th in Albany, resulting in 89 percent of the city being covered by water. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4(?) August 1609...A tempest struck the western Atlantic Ocean scattering small British convoy headed to Virginia. Two vessels sank; another, the Sea Venture was presumed lost. However, a ship made landfall on Bermuda, shipwrecking the crew. After a ten-month stay to build two small rescue boats, they sailed to Jamestown (Virginia) Colony. Incident accounts may have provided William Shakespeare with background material for The Tempest. (The Weather Doctor)
• 4 August 1666...A violent hurricane raked the island of Guadeloupe, destroying all boats along its coast, including a 17-ship fleet with 2000 troops. The island's batteries, with 6-foot thick walls, were destroyed and the 16-pounders (large cannons) were washed away. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4 August 1858...After several unsuccessful attempts, the first trans-Atlantic cable, a 2000-mile submerged telegraph line conceived by Cyrus W. Field, was completed by USS Niagara and British ship Agamemnon. While the first messages were exchanged between President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria on 16 August, the cable ceased functioning in early September. The first permanent trans-Atlantic cable was laid in 1866. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
• 5-6 August 1959...Hurricane Dot crossed Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands producing sustained winds of 103 mph and gusts to 125 mph. Over 6 inches of rain fell there and over 9 inches on the island of Hawaii. The sugar cane crop on Kauai sustained $2.7 million in damages. (Intellicast)
• 5 August 1980...Hurricane Allen reached category five status (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) for the first of three times during its long path across the Atlantic with a pressure of 911 millibars (26.90 inches of mercury) while south of Puerto Rico. (National Weather Service files)
• 5-7 August 1997...Although far to the southwest, Hurricane Guillermo generated surf to 12-foot heights along the beaches of southern California. In Newport Beach, lifeguards made almost 300 rescues on the 5^th and 6^th. Rip currents were responsible for one death and three injuries. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 6 August 1959...Hurricane Dot crossed Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands producing sustained winds of 105 mph with gusts to 125 mph. Over 6 inches of rain fell with over 9 inches on the Big Island of Hawaii. The sugar cane crop on Kauai sustained $2.7 million in damages. (National Weather Service files)
• 6 August 1986...A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast of Australia dumped a record 12.91 inches of rain in one day on Sydney. (Wikipedia)
• 7 August 1679...The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes. The ship disappeared on the return leg of its maiden voyage from Lake Michigan. (Wikipedia)
• 7 August 1980...The central pressure of Hurricane Allen bottomed out at 899 millibars (26.55 inches of mercury) while moving through the Yucatan Channel in the southeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico. This was the second lowest pressure ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere up to that time. Allen's winds at the time were sustained at 190 mph. (National Weather Service files)

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Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.,
email hopkins@aos.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2016, The American Meteorological Society.