WEEKLY WATER NEWS

31 December 2007-4 January 2008

DataStreme Water in the Earth System (WES) will return for Spring 2008 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 14 January 2008. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Water News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sincerely,

Ed Hopkins and the AMS WES Central Staff

Water in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- In the South Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Melanie formed late last week off the northwest coast of Australia north of Port Hedland. As of Sunday, this tropical storm was continuing to move to the southwest offshore of Australia.
       In the eastern North Atlantic basin, the National Hurricane Center has been monitoring a surface low-pressure system that that could become a subtropical storm. This low had developed earlier in the week and has remained nearly stationary south of the Azores. As of Sunday, this system appears to become less organized due to interaction with a midlatitude front.
• Recent winter storm leads to White Christmas -- An image obtained from a sensor on the NOAA-17 satellite shows the snow cover that stretched across a large section of the nation's midsection from a major storm at the start of last week. [NOAA OSEI]
• Tracking onset of winter in Europe -- Images generated from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite show the snow cover and the land surface temperature pattern across Europe during the month of November 2007. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Monitoring volcanic lake temperatures from space -- Images of the Mt. Ruapehu Volcano on New Zealand's North Island that were obtained over a seven year span from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite can be used to monitor the surface water temperature of the lake, allowing an early warning of impending volcanic activity if the temperatures began to increase. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Chilean glacier retreat is documented -- Comparison of images of made Tyndall Glacier in the Chile's Torres del Paine National Park by a sensor on the NASA Landsat satellite in 1990 and one made by an astronaut on the International Space Station last November shows a shrinkage in the areal extent of the glacier that forms in the Patagonian Andes Mountains. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Wave clouds off the British Isles -- An image made in mid-December by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows an interesting and complex set of cloud formations over the Northern Atlantic off the British Isles, including stratocumulus clouds that were arranged in waves. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• 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]
• Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 31 December 1929...Greenland Ranch, in Death Valley, CA, went the entire year without measurable precipitation. (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1933...A 24-hour rainfall of 7.36 inches set the stage for the worst flood in Los Angeles and Orange County history. Flooding claimed 44 lives. (David Ludlum)
• 31 December 1962...Perhaps the worst blizzard in the history of the state of Maine finally ended. The storm produced 40 inches in 24 hours at Orono, and a total of 46 inches at Ripogenus Dam. Gale force winds produced snow drifts twenty feet high around Bangor. A disastrous ice storm was over Georgia and South Carolina. It ravaged the two states for days causing more than seven million dollars damage. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 31 December 1987...Torrential rains caused extensive flash flooding over eastern sections of the island of Oahu in Hawaii, resulting in many rock and mudslides. Rainfall totals ranged up to 22.89 inches in a 24-hour period, and property damage was estimated at 35 million dollars. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
• 31 December 1989...The year and decade ended on a soggy note in the eastern U.S. Thunderstorm rains pushed precipitation totals for the year to 88.32 inches at Baton Rouge, LA and to 75.37 inches at Huntsville, AL, establishing all-time records for those two locations. Dry weather continued in California. Sacramento and San Francisco finished the month without any rain or snow, and Santa Maria reported their driest year of record with just 3.30 inches of precipitation. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 January 1934...Heavy rain, which began on 30 December 1933, led to flooding in the Los Angeles Basin area of California. Flooding claimed the lives of at least 45 persons. Walls of water and debris up to ten feet high were noted in some canyon areas. Rainfall totals ranged up to 16.29 inches at Azusa, with 8.26 inches reported in Downtown Los Angeles. (The Weather Channel)
• 1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1-2 January 1992...Harsh winter weather raked the Middle East. At least 20 died when an avalanche crushed eight houses near Kuksekova, Turkey. Sixteen inches of snow fell on Jerusalem, in Israel, marking the most in 42 years. Rare flurries fell in Nicosia, Cyprus and Beirut, Lebanon.
• 1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 1 January 1999...An avalanche destroyed the wall of a school gymnasium where hundreds of people were celebrating the New Year in the Inuit village of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec. Nine people were killed. The school had been built on a site known to be susceptible to avalanches. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2 January 1910...A great flood in Utah and Nevada washed out 100 miles of railroad between Salt Lake City, UT and Los Angeles, CA causing seven million dollars damage. (David Ludlum)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1987...A winter storm moving up the Atlantic coast brought heavy snow and high winds to the northeastern U.S. Total snowfall in the storm which began on the 1^st, by the morning of the 3^rd amounted to two feet at Salem, NH and Waterboro, ME, 22 inches at Lowell, MA, 14 inches at Worcester, MA, 22 inches at Nashua, NH, and 18 inches at Portland, ME. Wind gusts reached 82 mph at Trenton, NJ and Southwest Harbor in Maine. Significant coastal flooding occurred as the storm coincided with unusually high astronomical tides. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1993...In the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, the Sugar Bowl ski patrol reported a snow depth of 90 inches at the 7000-foot level. A depth of 150 inches was measured at 7800 feet. Since 29 December 1992, a total of 72 inches had fallen at the 7000-foot elevation, with 93 inches at 8300 feet. (Intellicast)
  Cyclone Kina battered Fiji with wind gusts to 130 mph and heavy rain. Up to 21.65 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, resulting in the worst flooding in 60 years. Twenty-three people were killed and damage was estimated to be in excess of 547 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 January 1961...A three-day long ice storm was in progress over northern Idaho that produced an accumulation of ice eight inches thick, an U.S. record. Heavy fog, which blanketed much of northern Idaho from Grangeville to the Canadian border, deposited the ice on power and telephone lines causing widespread power outages. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 3 January 2006…The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 5 January 1982...A three-day rainstorm in the San Francisco area finally came to an end. Marin County and Cruz County were drenched with up to 25 inches of rain, and the Sierra Nevada Range was buried under four to eight feet of snow. The storm claimed at least 36 lives, and caused more than 300 million dollars damage. (Storm Data)
• 5 January 1988...Thunderstorms helped produce heavy lake-enhanced snow in the Lower Great Lakes Region. Snow fell at the rate of four to five inches per hour, and snowfall totals ranged up to 69 inches at Highmarket, NY, with most falling within 24 hours. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 5-6 January 1993...Winds to 100 mph toppled ice-laden power lines and transmission antennae on Mount Haleakala on Hawaii's Maui Island. Up to 18 inches of ice accumulated at the summit of the volcanic peak in this tropical paradise. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 5-10 January 1998...An ice storm devastated Montreal, Quebec and the surrounding region. During this six day interval, freezing rain or drizzle was reported for more than 80 hours, along with deposits up to 2.4 to 3.1 inches of ice, leaving 4 million people in the dark. An estimated 130 major transmission towers and 30,000 wooden utility poles were brought down by the weight of the ice. (The Weather Doctor)
• 6 January 1928...An intense low pressure system over the North Sea created a storm surge that moved upstream along the Thames River to London in England. Water rose over embankments. The rapid rise of the river resulted in 14 deaths in basements. As many as 40,000 people were left homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 6 January 1988...One of the largest snowfall episodes this century for the southern U.S. was in full swing. The storm, occurring from the 5^th to the 8^th, produced heavy snow from the Oklahoma Panhandle to Virginia. . It was a bad day for chickens. Heavy snow in Arkansas, with totals ranging up to 16 inches at Heber Springs, claimed the lives of 3.5 million chickens, and snow and ice up to three inches thick claimed the lives of another 1.75 million chickens in north central Texas. This was the largest snowstorm this century for the state of Arkansas. Up to 20 inches was reported in Macon County in western North Carolina and up to 18 inches fell in central Oklahoma, with Oklahoma City reporting a record 12 inches of snow in 24 hours. Sleet and freezing rain paralyzed areas along the southern perimeter of the snowfall zone with one inch ice accumulations reported in northern Alabama (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)

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Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.