7-11 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.

• Eye on the Tropics -- The South Indian Ocean was the only basin that experienced tropical cyclone activity last week. Tropical Cyclone Melanie, which developed during the last weekend of 2007 off the northwest coast of Australia, continued to move southwestward into the beginning of last week. A MODIS image from NASA's Aqua satellite shows the clouds surrounding Tropical Cyclone Melanie. [NASA Earth Observatory]
  In the western South Indian Ocean, the ninth tropical storm of the season formed between Madagascar and South Africa on New Years Eve and intensified to become Tropical Cyclone Elnus. This cyclone dissipated by the end of the week. Additional information and an image from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane page.
  Tropical Cyclone Helen, the tenth named cyclone of the season in the southern Indian Ocean, formed over the Gulf of Carpentaria near Australia late last week. As of Sunday, this system was moving east toward Australia's Cape York Peninsula. Additional information can be obtained, including an AIRS image from NASA's Aqua satellite, at the NASA Hurricane page.
• Assessing Katrina's damage continues from space -- Researchers from Tulane University and the University of New Hampshire have used a variety of information including imagery from NASA's Landsat satellite and the MODIS sensors on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites to make an inventory of the damage to the Gulf Coast forests caused by Hurricane Katrina. This study also focused on the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by the damaged forests. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• A view of noctilucent clouds from space -- NASA recently released an image of the ice particle density in the high-altitude noctilucent (night-shining) clouds that form over the polar cap at altitudes of approximately 50 miles. This image was one of the first from the agency's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission designed to study these clouds that have an iridescent appearance. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• In the wake of a New Year's snowstorm -- A MODIS image from NASA's Aqua satellite made on the day after New Year's Day shows snow cover across the Midwest and Northeast in the wake of snowstorms that traveled across the Midwest and Northeast over the holidays. This image also shows convective clouds that developed across the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico and the western North Atlantic as cold air streamed to the southeast across these relatively warm waters. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Improvements designed to improve navigation accuracy -- NOAA officials recently announced that the agency's National Geodetic Survey will serve as the Analysis Center Coordinator for the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Service, by compiling and analyzing satellite orbit data from ten international centers in an effort to increase the accuracy of GPS (global positioning system) data needed for safe navigation. [NOAA News]

• Comments solicited on revised US Climate Change Science Program research plan -- The U.S. Climate Change Science Program recently posted a revised research plan summary on the Internet and in the Federal Register for public review and comment within the next two months. [NOAA News]

• Changes in North Atlantic temperatures tied to natural oscillations -- An international team of scientists reports that analysis of 50 years of water temperatures across the North Atlantic indicates that the warming of the surface waters of the Atlantic between 1950 and 2000 was not uniform and also included cooling in subpolar regions, which they explained was caused by natural cyclic changes in the wind circulation patterns called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). They did mention that increases in global temperatures could affect sea surface temperatures elsewhere. [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

• 7 January 1996...The "blizzard of '96" clobbered a huge area from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast with record snows. The storm began over the mid-Atlantic on the 6^th, and ended over New England on the 8^th. Low pressure developed over the southeast on the 6^th, and eventually became a 983-millibar storm center off the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula. 42.5 inches of snow was recorded at Bayard, WV while 39 inches fell at Snowshoe, WV. A new snowfall record for New Jersey was set when 35 was measured at White House. All the big cities were buried: Washington/Dulles - 24.6 inches, Baltimore - 22.5 inches, Philadelphia - 30.7 inches (biggest snowfall ever), New York City - 27.5 inches, and Boston - 18.2 inches. Other snowfall totals included 38 inches at Upper Strasburg, PA, 37 inches at Shenandoah, VA, 36 inches at Standfordville, NY, 32 inches at Great Barrington, MA, 28 inches in the Pine Mountains in KY, 27 inches at Coventry, RI, and 26 inches at Milford, CT. Cincinnati, Ohio had 14.4 inches for its greatest single storm snowfall on record. This event was the second in an unrelenting, paralyzing "siege of snowstorms" along the East Coast during a ten-day period. (Intellicast)
• 8 January 1953...A severe ice storm in the northeastern U.S. produced up to four inches of ice in Pennsylvania, and two to three inches in southeastern New York State. In southern New England, the ice coated a layer of snow up to 20 inches deep. The storm resulted in 31 deaths and 2.5 million dollars damage. (David Ludlum)
• 8 January 1973...A severe ice storm struck Atlanta, GA. The storm paralyzed the city closing schools and businesses, and damage from the storm was estimated at 25 million dollars. One to four inches of ice coated northern Georgia leaving 300,000 persons without electricity for up to a week. Between 7 PM and 9 PM on the 7^th, 2.27 inches (liquid content) of freezing rain, sleet and snow coated Atlanta, as the temperature hovered at 32 degrees. (7^th-8^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 8-11 January 1980...Winds, waves and rain pounded Hawaii, resulting in 27.5 million dollars in storm damage, which was the greatest amount to that date in the Aloha State's history. Four houses were destroyed and 40 others damaged by a possible tornado in Honolulu's Pacific Palisades area on the 8^th. Ocean waves with heights to 20 feet entered beachfront hotels along the Kona Coast of the Big Island. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 8 January 1990...During a three-hour interval in the morning, snow fell at a rate of two inches per hour at Charleston, West VA. Snowflakes with diameters between two to three inches were common, and National Weather Service personnel reported some flakes up to four inches in diameter. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 8 January 1997...Thundersnow was reported at Kodiak, AK. Thunder is a rare, warm season occurrence at Kodiak, which averages only two thunderstorm days per year. Thundersnow was once again reported on 23 February 1997. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 January 1976...Lake-effect snow squalls buried the town of Adams, NY under 68 inches of snow. (David Ludlum)
• 10 January 1800...Savannah, GA received a foot and a half of snow, and ten inches blanketed Charleston, SC. It was the heaviest snowfall of record for the immediate Coastal Plain of the southeastern U.S. (David Ludlum)
• 10 January 1949...Snow was reported at San Diego, CA for the first and only time since 1882. Snow was noted even on some of the beaches in parts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Burbank reported 4.7 inches, and Long Beach and Laguna Beach received one inch of snow. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 10 January 1962...An ice avalanche, mixed with rock, mud and debris, swept down from the north peak of Peru's highest mountain, Nevado de Huascarán. The avalanche, which moved 11 miles in 15 minutes, destroyed seven villages and one town in western Peru, leaving over 3,500 dead. The final dimensions of this avalanche were one mile wide and 15 feet deep. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 January 1852...Four inches of snow fell during the evening at New Orleans Barracks in Louisiana and remained on the ground until the 15^th, while four inches of snow also accumulated through the 13^th at Fort Barrancas (Pensacola, FL). Snow reportedly fell on the 14^th at Matamoros and as far south as Tampico on the Mexican Gulf Coast. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 January 1985...A record "snowstorm of the century" struck portions of western and south central Texas. The palm trees of San Antonio were blanketed with up to thirteen and a half inches of snow, more snow than was ever previously received in an entire winter season. Del Rio measured 5.5 inches, which was also their most snow ever in 24 hours as well as for any season. (Weather Channel) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 January 1886...A great blizzard struck the state of Kansas without warning. The storm claimed 50 to 100 lives, and eighty percent of the cattle in the state. (David Ludlum)
• 13 January 1990...A winter storm in the southwestern U.S. produced more than a twelve inches of snow in the mountains of California and Nevada. In northern California, Huntington Lake was buried under 40 inches of snow, and up to 20 inches was reported in northeastern Nevada. Heavy rain soaked some of the lower elevations of California. Gibraltar Dam CA was drenched with 5.33 inches of rain in two days. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

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