WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Break Week One: 13-17 October 2008

This is the first Break Week for the Fall 2008 offering of the DataStreme WES course. This Weekly Water News will contain new information items and historical data, but the Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

Water in the News

Eye on the tropics -- Several tropical cyclones formed last week over the North Atlantic and Pacific basins:

In the Gulf of Campeche, Tropical Storm Marco formed off the eastern Mexican coast early last week, but was shorted lived as it made landfall and dissipated within two days. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional details, including satellite imagery.
At the start of this current week, Tropical Storm Nana, the fourteenth named tropical cyclone of the 2008 North Atlantic hurricane season, formed over the central tropical waters west of the Cape Verde Islands.
In the east North Pacific, Tropical Storm Marie, previously a category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale), weakened and dissipated well to the west of the Mexican coast at the start of last week. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information on Tropical Storm Marie, along with satellite images.
Another tropical cyclone, Norbert, formed off the Mexican coast early last week and intensified to become the seventh hurricane of the 2008 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific. It intensified to become a major category 4 hurricane by midweek as it traveled to the northwest. After curving toward the northeast and weakening, Hurricane Norbert made an initial landfall along Mexico's Baja California Peninsula at the start of the weekend, followed by a second landfall along the coast of mainland Mexico. Attention is directed to the NASA Hurricane Page for additional discussion of former Hurricane Norbert.
Tropical Storm Odie formed late last week off the Central American coast and traveled to the northwest along the Mexican coast before weakening and dissipating at the end of this past weekend. See the NASA Hurricane Page for images and additional information concerning Odie.

Review of national September weather -- Based on preliminary data, scientists at the National Climatic Data Center recently reported that nationwide, September 2008 was above the 20th-century average in terms of temperature and precipitation. While the Southwest, the Midwest, the Middle Atlantic and Florida reported statewide temperatures that were above average, the southern Plains along with the lower Mississippi Valley experienced below to much below average temperatures. States in the lower and mid-Mississippi Valley reported much above average precipitation, along with several coastal states in the Middle Atlantic and New England. However, California recorded its driest September since 1895 and other states across the West and the Southeast had statewide September precipitation totals that ranged from below to much below the 20th century average. [NOAA News]

Celebrate Earth Science Week -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to include the National Weather Service, along with NASA, the US Geological Survey and several professional scientific organizations such as the American Geological Institute have recognized this week (12-18 October 2008) as Earth Science Week to help the public gain a better understanding and appreciation for the earth sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth. This year's theme for the 11th annual Earth Science Week is " No Child Left Inside", designed to encourage young people to learn about the geosciences, by going outdoors, leaving behind the indoor activities involving the television or computer. [American Geological Institute]

Funding provided for development of drought and climate assessment tools -- The University of Oklahoma and Louisiana State University have received funding through NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program for a five-year program designed assess the risks of climate and drought impacts in their regions, as well as to develop tools and resources for long-range planning by local and regional community managers. [NOAA News]

Arctic storm activity affects sea ice and climate -- Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia have shown that the increased frequency and intensity of arctic storms during the last half century appears to contributed to warmer sea water that has accelerated the rate of arctic sea ice drift, an indicator of climate change. [NASA GSFC]

Reduction in Alaskan glaciers reported -- A US Geological Survey research geologist recently authored a new book, The Glaciers of Alaska, in which he claims that most glaciers across Alaska have been experiencing significant retreat, thinning or stagnation, especially glaciers at lower elevations, beginning in some places as early as the mid-18^th century. [USGS]

Satellite data indicates extreme summer snowmelt -- Using microwave brightness temperatures recorded by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager on a DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) F13 satellite, a researcher at the City College of New York (CCNY) and colleagues determined that extreme snowmelt occurred across northern sections of the Greenland ice sheet during this recent summer, with a large fraction of the area experiencing a record number of melting days. [CCNY News]

Tropical wetlands sequester more carbon than midlatitude wetlands -- Researchers at Ohio State University report that wetlands in the tropics absorb and sequester approximately 80 percent more carbon compounds than wetlands in the temperate midlatitudes. [Ohio State University Research News]

A southeastern Pacific climate study commences -- An international team of scientists from eight nations, including those from the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory are about to commence upon an international field experiment called the "Variability of the American Monsoon Systems’ (VAMOS) Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment." This experiment is over the southeastern Pacific along the Chilean coast designed to make observations of the components of the region's climate system. [Brookhaven National Laboratory]

Education grants announced -- Last week, the US Department of Commerce Secretary announced that NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) grants had been awarded to five recipients in the Pacific Northwest [NOAA News], five groups in New England [NOAA News] and five along the Gulf of Mexico coast [NOAA News]. These grants are designed to enhance local hands-on K-12 level environmental education.

Glaciologist named one of the "Heroes of the Environment" -- The well-known glaciologist, Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University, was recently named as one of Time magazine's 30 "Heroes of the Environment" for 2008 because of his studies of tropical and temperate ice caps and how they respond to global climate change. [Ohio State University Research News]

Expansion of GPS network may help benefits for atmospheric research -- NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey has recently added 43 new GPS (global positioning system) tracking sites into the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network to maintain the nation's spatial reference system. While the aviation industry is a major benefactor of the CORS network, the new stations should also help monitor the distribution of atmospheric water vapor and free electrons in the ionosphere. [NOAA News]

Public comment invited on Columbia River fisheries -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on a proposed recovery plan for the threatened steelhead salmon in the middle Columbia River between Washington State and Oregon. [NOAA News]

Assessing role of climate change on future hurricane risks -- Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have been collaborating with colleagues in federal agencies as well as the insurance and energy industries in investigating how increases in global temperatures could influence hurricanes in the next several decades. Armed with global climate and regional weather models, the project's goal is to provide information to coastal communities along with others who have interests in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. [NSF News]

High tech imaging equipment to aid in response to natural disasters -- A low-cost, high resolution imaging system has been developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute for use in assessing the need for health and humanitarian services following natural disasters, such as hurricanes. This system can be attached to low-flying helicopters. [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.

This Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

Concept of the Week: Bottled Water

During the 1990s, bottled water soared in popularity among Americans. Today, they spend more than $7 billion a year on bottled water. Although 120 to 7500 times more costly per gallon than tap water, the demand for bottled water (especially in individualized containers) continues to climb for several reasons including convenience, health concerns, and dissatisfaction with the quality and taste of municipal tap water. Furthermore, clever ad campaigns have been very successful at persuading consumers of the advantages of drinking bottled water.

Although enamored by bottled water, the U.S. consumer must navigate through a variety of different brands (more than 900), and a potentially confusing terminology on labels mostly having to do with the source of the water. According to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), bottled water is defined as drinking water that is sugar-free, calorie-free, and contains no sweeteners or chemical additives other than small amounts of flavors or extracts. Bottled water may also have trace amounts of sodium. Beverages containing 1% or more by weight of flavors or extracts are classified as soft drinks. Soda water, seltzer water, and tonic water are considered soft drinks not bottled water because they may contain sugar and are not calorie-free.

About 75% of all bottled water comes from the subsurface. Bottled water from a well that taps a confined aquifer under hydrologic pressure is artesian water or artesian well water. Mineral water is groundwater that contains at least 250 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved solids from natural sources (i.e., dissolved bedrock, and sediment). Sparkling water contains dissolved carbon dioxide undiminished in concentration from its natural source. Spring water is groundwater that flows naturally to the surface of the Earth where an aquifer intercepts the ground. Well water is bottled water withdrawn from a hole drilled or bored into an aquifer. Collectively, all bottled water from subsurface sources is called natural water.

The quality of bottled water from the subsurface benefits from natural filtration as groundwater slowly seeps through permeable Earth materials. Nonetheless, in many cases bottlers employ additional purification steps such as applying ozone and/or ultraviolet light as disinfecting agents. Bottled water producers who use municipal sources (about 25% of the supply) typically (but not in all cases) reprocess the water for improved quality and taste through distillation, reverse osmosis, deionization, filtration, and/or ozonation. Labels on their products may include the terms purified water or distilled water. These same labels may include the statement "from a community water system," or "from a municipal source" meaning tap water.

While efforts at quality control of bottled water are designed to protect public health, a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published in March 1999 raised some questions about whether enough is being done. The NRDC tested the quality of 1000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water and found that not all the tested water was of high quality and some samples contained contaminants (http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp). Although the industry has strict standards and both federal and state governments regulate bottled water quality, the NRDC argues that existing regulations are not adequate. The NRDC recommends that the Food and Drug Administration set strict limits for contaminants in bottled water and that bottled water standards be at least as strict as those applicable to municipal (tap) water supplies.

Concept of the Week: Questions

By convention, bottled water is drinking water that is both sugar-free and calorie-free. [(True)(False)]
The source of most water in bottled water is [(subsurface)(surface)] reservoirs.

Historical Events:

14 October 1755...Red dust that was likely transported from the Sahara Desert spread across Europe. Red rain fell at Locarno, Switzerland, while red snow fell on the higher elevations of the Alps. (Accord Weather Calendar)
14 October 1957...Floodwaters roared through a migrant labor camp near the town of Picacho, AZ flooding fifty cabins and a dozen nearby homes. Some 250 migrant workers lost their shelter. The month was one of the wettest Octobers in Arizona weather history. (The Weather Channel)
15 October 1947...A hurricane made a hairpin turn off the Georgia coast after being seeded with dry ice. The storm moved over Savannah and into Georgia. (Intellicast)
15 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel struck the Carolina coastline near Cape Fear, NC. The hurricane (a category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) demolished every pier along a 170-mile stretch from Myrtle Beach, SC to Cedar Island, NC, and obliterated rows of beach homes. At Long Beach, 300 homes vanished; no debris remained. Hurricane Hazel also destroyed 1500 homes as it moved inland with 17-foot tides. Winds between Myrtle Beach, SC and Cape Fear, NC gusted to 150 mph. Later, the remnants of Hazel moved northward into Ontario and became the most remembered storm in Canadian history. Winds gusted to 75 mph and as much as 7.2 inches of rain fell. Eighty people died, mostly from flooding in the Toronto area (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (The Weather Doctor)
15 October 1965...Fort Lauderdale, FL was deluged with 25.28 inches of rain in a 48-hour period causing considerable road and street damage and inundating numerous homes and recently planted vegetable fields. (Intellicast)
15 October 1999...A waterspout (a tornado over water) moved onshore at Fort Lauderdale Beach, FL and blew out a plate glass window in a bar, injuring 8 patrons. The waterspout also overturned a vehicle and caused other significant damage on Los Olas Blvd. (Accord Weather Calendar)
16 October 1880...A blizzard struck eastern South Dakota and southern Minnesota blocking railroads. Snowdrifts persisted throughout the following very hard winter. (Intellicast)
17-20 October 2004…Humid air from a former typhoon east of Japan helped deepen low pressure to 941 mb over the Gulf of Anadry west of Nome, AK (18th). Winds between 50 and 80 mph, with an unofficial gust to 114 mph at Red Dog Mine on the 19th, raked western Alaska. Storm surges reached approximately 11 feet. As much as $19.9 million in damage resulted from this storm. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
18 October 1910...Northeasterly winds as high as 70 mph (from a hurricane moving northward up the Florida peninsula) carried water out of Tampa Bay and the Hillsboro River. The water level lowered to nine feet below mean low water. Forty ships were grounded. (The Weather Channel)
18 October 2004…San Diego, CA received 0.09 inches of rain, the first measurable rainfall since 18 April 2004, thereby ending the record 182 consecutive days without measurable rain. The welcome rain was accompanied by a waterspout from off the Pacific at Oceanside shortly after 6 AM. The resulting F0 tornado damaged the roof of an elementary school. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
19 October 1844...The famous "Lower Great Lakes Storm" hit the Buffalo, NY and Toronto, Ontario area. Barometric pressure at Toronto fell to 977 millibars (28.86 inches of mercury). Southwesterly winds were at hurricane force for five hours, driving lake waters into downtown Buffalo, NY. The storm drowned 200 persons. (David Ludlum)