Weekly Water News

DataStreme WES Week Two: 8-12 September 2008

Water in the News

Eye on the tropics -- The weather across the tropical North Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific basins remained active last week. A full disk image of a large section of the Western Hemisphere obtained from the sensors onboard one of NOAA's GOES satellites at midweek shows the simultaneous occurrence of four named tropical cyclones that had formed in the Atlantic Basin and one in the eastern North Pacific. [NASA Earth Observatory]
- In the North Atlantic basin:
  Hurricane Gustav made landfall as a strong category 2 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale) along the Louisiana Gulf Coast to the southwest of the New Orleans metropolitan area, before weakening to a tropical storm and a tropical depression as it moved northward over the Mid-South. During the week, remnants of Gustav produced torrential rain across the Lower and Mid-Mississippi Valleys.
  Tropical Storm Hanna, which traveled to the west-northwest across the western North Atlantic north of Puerto Rico, intensified to a category 1 hurricane early last week as it turned southward across the southeastern Bahamas. The hurricane weakened to a tropical storm on Tuesday morning as it took an erratic and circuitous path across the Bahamas before heading to the northwest toward the Southeast US late in the week. Tropical Storm Hanna made landfall early Saturday morning along the coast near the South and North Carolina border and weakened as it curved to the north-northeast. [CNN] By early Sunday, it moving along the Middle Atlantic Coast into New England. An image with a three-dimensional perspective shows the vertical rain structure within Tropical Storm Hanna early last week as obtained from the Precipitation Radar unit on NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite early last week. [NASA Earth Observatory] Additional information concerning Hanna and a variety of satellite images are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
  The ninth named tropical cyclone of the 2008 North Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Ike, formed early last week over the central tropical Atlantic. On Wednesday afternoon, Ike was upgraded to hurricane as it traveled to the west-northwest. By late in the week Ike had intensified into a major category 4 hurricane as maximum sustained winds reached 140 mph. Over the past weekend, Hurricane Ike curved to the west-southwest and traveled across some of the islands in the southwestern Atlantic, causing significant damage to Hispaniola and other neighboring islands. [CNN] As of late Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Ike was approaching the northeast coast of Cuba as a category 3 hurricane. Evacuations along the Florida Keys were underway. A three-dimensional view of the rain falling from Hurricane Ike was created from data collected the Precipitation Radar on NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite at midweek. [NASA Earth Observatory] An image of the clouds surrounding Hurricane Ike and Tropical Storm Hanna was obtained from NOAA's GOES-12 satellite last Saturday. [NOAA OSEI] Additional images along with a detailed discussion on Ike are available on the NASA Hurricane Page
  Tropical Storm Josephine formed on Tuesday in the eastern Atlantic off the Cape Verde Islands but by the end of the week, had weakened to become a tropical depression after traveling a relatively short distance. A MODIS image made by NASA's Terra satellite shows Tropical Storm Josephine at midweek. [NASA Earth Observatory] Additional information on Josephine is available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
- In the Eastern North Pacific Tropical Storm Karina, the 11th named tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane season in that basin, formed on Tuesday morning to the southwest of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. However, 24 hours later a weakened tropical depression dissipated. Additional information plus a satellite image concerning Tropical Storm Karina can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  On Saturday night, Tropical Storm Lowell formed off the Mexican coast and was traveling to the northwest.
More imagery on Hurricane Gustav -- An image made after Hurricane Gustav passed over western Cuba by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite shows the sediment-laden coastal waters of Cuba's Golfo de Batabanó that were churned by the nearly 150 mph winds accompanying the Category 4 hurricane. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A sequence of satellite images obtained from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite at the end of August shows the track of Gustav across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. [ESA]
The track of heavy rain that accompanied Hurricane Gustav, as well as Tropical Storm Hannah, during the last week of August is displayed with an image of the rainfall estimates obtained from data collected by NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite [NASA Earth Observatory]
Two animations of Hurricane Gustav were produced by data collected by several instruments on NASA's TRMM satellite [NASA]
Hurricane recovery efforts get an assist from NOAA -- The various line agencies and special programs within NOAA such as the National Weather Service and the National Geodetic Survey have been providing recovery assistance to other federal, state and local agencies across the Mid-South in the wake of last week's Hurricane Gustav that made landfall along the Louisiana coast on Labor Day. [NOAA News]
Disastrous flooding continues in India -- An image obtained from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite reveals part of the magnitude of the flooding of the Kosi River in northeastern India by torrential summer monsoon rains across the region. A flood map from the Dartmouth Flood Observatory provides an added prospective. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Focus upon plastic debris effects upon oceans -- The first international workshop that will focus upon the plastic debris and microplastics on the marine environment will be held this coming week at the University of Washington Tacoma. [NOAA News]
Project DEVELOP celebrates ten years -- Last month NASA celebrated the 10th anniversary of its DEVELOP student internship program, an internship that encourages students into research projects using NASA Earth-observing satellite data to address national and international policy issues with big social implications. [NASA]
California schools awarded environmental education grants -- NOAA recently announced education grants were awarded to several groups of schools and non-profit groups in California as part of NOAA’s Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program to support their environmental education projects:
- Seven education grants awarded to Santa Barbara Channel area schools and non-profit groups in southern California for work at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. [NOAA News]
- Fifteen grants to San Francisco area schools and non-profit groups in northern California for work at the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries. [NOAA News]
- Thirteen grants to Monterey Bay area schools and non-profit groups in central California for work at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. [NOAA News]
Nine students awarded NOAA marine resource conservation scholarships -- NOAA recently awarded nine graduate-level students from around the nation Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarships for their outstanding work in the fields of marine biology, coastal resource management and maritime archeology. The scholarships have been established in memory of Dr. Foster and her work in NOAA involving marine resource conservation. [NOAA News]
Public comment desired on critical habit for west coast fish species -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service desires public comment on a proposal that identifies critical habitat for the declining numbers of the distinct southern segment of North American green sturgeon that spawn in California’s Sacramento River, but migrate along the Pacific coast from Canada south to Mexico. [NOAA News]
Major flooding risk could continue in China following earthquake -- A geographer from the United Kingdom's Durham University warns that as many as 20 million people in China's Sichuan Basin could remain in danger of flooding and of major power shortages for decades following last May's major earthquake that claimed over 100,000 lives. [EurekAlert!]
Retreat of the ice shelves from the Canadian Arctic -- Comparison of the MODIS images obtained from NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites in July and August 2008 provides evidence of the retreat of Arctic ice shelves from along the coast of Canada's Ellesmere Island. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Global sea-level projections questioned -- A study conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder claims that global sea level should ride by little more than six feet by the end of the current century, much less than the earlier projections of more than a 20-foot rise. [EurekAlert!] In separate research, scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University claim that rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet could contribute to rapid sea level rise at a rate between two and three times previously estimated. They used the disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at the end of the last Ice Age as an analog. [EurekAlert!]
Stronger hurricanes linked to warmer seas -- A new study by researchers at Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison report finding that the strongest tropical cyclones are getting stronger because of increased ocean temperatures during the last 30 years. [EurekAlert!]
Mapping the unexplored Arctic seafloor begins -- The US Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada will jointly participate in a mission to map the floor of the unexplored Arctic Ocean and study the geology of the sub-seafloor in a region where both nations may have sovereign rights over natural resources. [EurekAlert!]
Role of aerosols in climate change examined -- Scientists affiliated with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme who have been studying the connections between aerosols, clouds, precipitation and climate have proposed a new framework that would more accurately account for the effects of aerosols on precipitation in climate models. [EurekAlert!]
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, including 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.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD --

A request: If you have some water-related experience that you would like to share with other DataStreme WES participants, please send them to the email address appearing at the bottom of this document for possible inclusion in a News file. Thank you. EJH

Concept of the Week: Water Chill

The Titanic disaster of April 1912 dramatically portrayed how immersion in cold water can be deadly. After abandoning ship, passengers and crew who were floating in relatively calm seas perished within a short time. Residents of cold climates are warned of the dangers posed by a combination of low air temperature and strong winds (the wind-chill). Because of the special thermal properties of water, immersion in cold water can be even more hazardous. A boating accident or a plunge through thin ice on a lake can have deadly consequences.

One of the principal hazards of cold water immersion is a lowering of body temperature due to excess heat loss. (Perhaps half of all drowning victims actually die from this effect of cold water rather than water-filled lungs.) Heat is energy that is transferred between two objects at different temperatures, always flowing from the warmer to the colder object. The human body can regulate its core temperature so that it normally varies by no more than about 2 Celsius degrees (3.6 Fahrenheit degrees) above or below 37 °C (98.6 °F). Hence, heat usually flows from the human body to its cooler surroundings. Core temperature refers to the temperature of vital organs such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys.

When immersed in cold water, a body may lose heat at such a high rate that natural thermoregulatory processes cannot prevent a steady drop in core temperature and the victim may exhibit symptoms of hypothermia. These symptoms set in when a person's core temperature falls below 36 °C (96.8 °F). Shivering (a thermoregulatory process) becomes violent and uncontrollable and the victim has difficulty speaking and becomes lethargic. If the core temperature drops below 32 °C (90 °F), shivering ceases, muscles become rigid, and coordination deteriorates. At a core temperature of 30 °C (86 °F), a person may drift into unconsciousness and death may ensue at a core temperature below 24 °C (75 °F).

A person runs a greater risk of developing hypothermia when immersed in water than air at the same temperature. Water conducts heat at a rate that is more than 20 times greater than still air and water's specific heat is almost 6 times that of dry air. Whereas the risk of hypothermia due to low air temperature primarily occurs in winter, cold water immersion is possible any time of year in many locations. Ocean or lake temperatures may remain relatively low throughout the summer months because of water's relatively great thermal inertia.

For more information on hypothermia, including expected survival time for various water temperatures, got to: http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/tourism/hypothermia.html.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Water is a [(much better)(poorer)] conductor of heat than still air.
Hypothermia is a potentially lethal [(rise)(fall)] in the temperature of the human body's vital organs.

Historical Events

8 September 1900...The greatest weather disaster in U.S. records occurred when a hurricane struck Galveston, TX. Waves fifteen feet high washed over the island demolishing or carrying away buildings, and drowning more than 6000 persons. The hurricane destroyed more than 3600 houses, and total damage was more than $30 million. Winds to 120 mph, and a twenty-foot storm surge accompanied the hurricane. Following the storm, the surf was three hundred feet inland from the former water line. The hurricane claimed another 1200 lives outside of the Galveston area. (8^th-9^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
Editor's note: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) posted a webpage commemorating the Galveston, TX hurricane of 1900. This page contains links to historic photos and excerpts of an eyewitness description of storm by Isaac Cline, the chief forecaster of the Galveston U.S. Weather Bureau Office.
9 September 1921...A dying tropical depression unloaded 38.20 inches of rain upon the town of Thrall in southeastern Texas killing 224 persons. The 36.40 inches that fell in 18 hours represents a record for the United States. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
10 September 1900...Elk Point, SD received 8.00 inches of rain that set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state. (NCDC)
10 September 1919...A hurricane struck the Florida Keys drowning more than 500 persons. (David Ludlum)
10-11 September 1963...A 24-hour rainfall record for the Northern Hemisphere was set at Paishih, Taiwan as 49.13 inches of rain fell as the result of Typhoon Gloria. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
10 September 1965...Hurricane Betsy slammed Louisiana with wind gusting to 130 mph at Houma, resulting in 58 deaths and over 17,500 injured. The storm surge and flooding from torrential rains made Betsy the first billion-dollar hurricane with losses exceeding $1.4 billion.
10 September 1976...Kathleen was the first tropical cyclone to hit southern California since 1939. A wall of water cut a 700-foot wide gap some 40-foot deep at the Myer Creek Bridge on I-8. The 4 to 6-foot wall of water also destroyed 70% of the homes in Ocotillo. Five people were killed and more than $160 million in damage were sustained. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
11 September 1900...The remnants of the Great Galveston Hurricane moved across southern Ontario. In the Niagara Peninsula and along the Lake Erie shore, apples, pears and peaches ready for harvest were ripped from the trees; half the crop, about $1 million in value, was destroyed. (The Weather Doctor)
11 September 1961...Very large and slow moving Hurricane Carla made landfall near Port Lavaca, TX. Carla battered the central Texas coast with wind gusts to 175 mph, and up to 16 inches of rain, and spawned a vicious tornado (F4 on the Fujita tornado intensity scale) which swept across Galveston Island killing eight persons and destroying 200 buildings. A storm surge of up to 18.5 feet inundated coastal areas and Bay City was deluged with 17.1 inches of rain. The hurricane claimed 45 lives, and caused $300 million damage. The remnants of Carla produced heavy rain in the Lower Missouri Valley and southern sections of the Upper Great Lakes Region. (David Ludlum) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
11 September 1970...A steam yacht on the Gulf of Venice in Italy was sunk by a tornado near the Isle of Santa Elena. Of the 60 on board, 36 died. The same tornado destroyed a campsite on the lagoon border in Iesolo, with 11 deaths. (Accord Weather Calendar)
11 September 1976...Up to five inches of rain brought walls of water and millions of tons of debris into Bullhead City, AZ via washes from elevations above 3000 feet. Flooding caused more than $3 million in damage. Chasms up to forty feet deep were cut across some roads. (The Weather Channel)
11 September 1997...An all-day rain with 0.4 inches in 9 minutes fell over the Boise Mountains in Idaho. A 15-foot high wall of mud and debris breached six flood-control dams and washed over a golf course in the north end of Boise. Most of the damage was to roads and the golf course, with some damage to 12 homes. In the Grand Canyon country of Arizona, two people died in flash flooding as they attempted to cross Phantom Creek. A German couple was injured by lightning while they were watching a thunderstorm at an isolated point overlooking the Grand Canyon. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
11-12 September 1976...Japan's 24-hour rainfall record was set as 44.80 inches of rain fell at Hiso in Tokuhima Prefecture as a result of Typhoon Fran, which also was responsible for 167 deaths in Japan. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
12 September 1775...The Independence Hurricane caught many fishing boats on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland killing 4000 seamen, most from Britain and Ireland. (The Weather Doctor)
12 September 1857...The S.S. Central America sank while in the midst of a hurricane off the North Carolina coast after beginning to take on water the previous day (11^th). Approximately 400 people onboard were lost, the greatest single loss from a commercial ship due to a hurricane. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
12 September 1960...Hurricane Donna made landfall on central Long Island and then tracked across New England. Wind gusts reached 140 mph at the Blue Hills Observatory in Milton, MA and 130 mph at Block Island, RI. MacDowell Dam in New Hampshire recorded 7.25 inches of rain. Although a record tide of 6.1 feet occurred at the Battery in New York City, elsewhere fortunately the storm did not make landfall at the high tides so its effects were minimized. This was the first hurricane to affect every point along the East Coast from Key West, FL to Caribou, ME. (Intellicast)
12 September 1979...Hurricane Frederick smashed into the Mobile Bay area of Alabama packing 132-mph winds. Wind gusts to 145 mph were reported as the eye of the hurricane moved over Dauphin Island, AL, just west of Mobile. Frederick produced a fifteen-foot storm surge near the mouth of Mobile Bay. Winds gusted to hurricane force at Meridian, MS although the city is 140 miles inland. The hurricane was responsible for five fatalities and at the time was the costliest in U.S. history with $2.3 billion damage. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
13-16 September 2004….Hurricane Ivan affected coastal Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle with landfall near Gulf Shores, AL early on the 16th. Before breaking loose of its mooring, a buoy just south of the Alabama coastal waters reported a peak wave height of 52 feet on the 15th. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
14 September 1988...Pressure in the eye of Hurricane Gilbert moving across the Caribbean Sea fell to 885 millibars (26.17 inches of mercury), the lowest recorded barometric pressure in the Western Hemisphere. Ultimately, 318 died in seven countries across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.