WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Seven: 20-24 October 2008

Water in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week:
- In North Atlantic -- Omar developed over Caribbean at the start of last week and rapidly intensified into the seventh hurricane in the North Atlantic this current season as it massed close to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, reaching a category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. By the first part of the weekend, Hurricane Omar had weakened to a tropical storm as it traveled to the northeast over the central North Atlantic. An image obtained from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the clouds surrounding Hurricane Omar. [NASA Earth Observatory] Additional information concerning Omar can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Tropical depression 16 formed in the western Caribbean off the Honduras coast early in the week, but made landfall before intensifying. More information can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page
  Early in the week, Tropical Storm Nana weakened and dissipated over the eastern tropical Atlantic after three days. The NASA Hurricane Page has images and additional information on Nana.
- In western North Pacific Tropical Depression 22 formed over the Gulf of Tonkin early in the week and intensified into a tropical storm before making landfall along the coast of Viet Nam.
  Tropical Storm Bavi formed over the western Pacific over the weekend and was curving toward the northeast, passing well to the east of Japan.
- Tropical Cyclone 1S formed in the Southern Indian Ocean late last week, which is somewhat rare for this time of year in that ocean basin. As Sunday, this cyclone was traveling to the southwest.
Conservation internship program is taken to the coasts -- NOAA and the national organization of interns and volunteers called the Student Conservation Association recently signed a memorandum of agreement that would result in a program in which would talented high school and college students would serve as conservation interns who would be helping marine scientists protect some of the coastal natural resources. [NOAA News]
Ocean acidification studied by undersea lab -- Geoscientists from NOAA and several universities across the Southeast are more than midway through their 10-day mission in NOAA's Aquarius Mission, the world's only undersea research station located in the waters of the Florida Keys, in which they will study the effect of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems. [NOAA News]
Annual Arctic Report Card for 2008 is issued -- NOAA’s Climate Program Office recently issued its annual Arctic Report Card that tracks the recent environmental changes across the Arctic, focusing upon the region's atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, Greenland's ice sheet and the biology for this year. The report card notes continued temperature increases, a near-record loss of summer sea ice and a melting of surface ice in Greenland. [NOAA News]
Review of September global temperatures -- Preliminary data analyzed by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center indicated that the global average temperature for September 2008 was the ninth highest September temperature since global temperature records began in 1880. The monthly temperature of the land surface was the eleventh highest, while the ocean surface temperature for the month was the seventh highest on record. [NOAA News]
Drought spreads northward -- The exceptional drought that has plagued sections of the Southeast for over a year appears to be spreading northward into the Middle Atlantic States and the Ohio Valley. [CNN]
Some relief for a Nebraska lake -- Reports indicate that the water in Lake McConaughy, the largest reservoir in Nebraska, has increased from its lowest point of less than 20 percent of capacity to approximately 35 percent of capacity. [High Plains Regional Climate Center]:
Public comments invited -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service is seeking comments from the public through mid November involving the measures designed to protect marine mammals as part of the proposed authorization of training exercises to be conducted by the US Navy. One NOAA proposal is involved with the planned use of sonar in naval training exercise off the southern California coast [NOAA News], while another separate proposal involves sonar operations in naval exercises in the offshore waters along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines. [NOAA News]
Changes in underwater data communications are suggested -- A professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology has discovered new acoustic particle velocity channels in underwater environments and invented a technique to communicate data through these channels, allowing for faster and more reliable communications between multiple users. [EurekAlert!]
Overall of national storm water program needed -- A new report released by the National Research Council states that radical changes are needed in the US Environmental Protection Agency's storm water program to reverse the degradation of the nation's freshwater resources and to ensure compliance with the goals of fish-able and swim-able waters envisioned in the Clean Water Act. [National Academies]
Termites may have helped Katrina destroy floodwalls -- Researchers at Louisiana State University report that the Formosan subterranean termites they discovered in the seams of the floodwalls protecting New Orleans, LA five years before Hurricane Katrina struck may have contributed to the floodwall breaks that resulted in the inundation of that city following the hurricane's landfall in 2005. [Entomological Society of America]
Mental health issues studied as part of recovery from Ike disaster -- Researchers from Dartmouth University who are associated with the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research will conduct a field mission in early November to the area around Galveston, TX to study the lingering impact of Hurricane Ike upon the mental health of the residents along the upper Texas Gulf Coast following the hurricane's landfall in September. [Dartmouth University]
Origin of Antarctic mountain range may yield clues to development of its ice sheet -- Researchers from several universities in the US and from Australia, China, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom are participating in the Gamburtsev Antarctic Mountains Seismic Experiment, using sophisticated airborne radar and ground-based seismologic tools to study the Gamburtsev mountain range, which rivals the Alps, but buried under the Antarctic ice sheet. They hope to learn how these mountains formed more than 30 million years ago and how they helped develop the East Antarctic Ice Sheet [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.

Concept of the Week: Dams and Ecological Integrity

Although there are many positive aspects to dams (e.g., flood control, recreation, hydropower generation), dams also can disrupt the natural seasonal fluctuations in the flow of rivers and streams with potentially serious consequences for the integrity of aquatic ecosystems. For one, dams interfere with the upstream and downstream migration of fish. Storage of water in reservoirs behind dams reduces the downstream discharge of water, sediment, and nutrients. These and other alterations of fluvial habitats threaten or endanger more than 20% of all freshwater species.

The ecological impact of dams is extensive because these structures affect so much runoff. Worldwide, almost 3000 dams have a reservoir storage capacity exceeding 25 billion gallons-a combined volume roughly equivalent to all the water in Lakes Michigan and Ontario. The more than 70,000 dams in the U.S. can store half of the annual flow of all the nation's rivers and streams.

The continuity of the global water cycle implies that disruption of river and stream flow by dams can also impact marine and lacustrine (lake) ecosystems. In the Pacific Northwest, for example, only about 5% of juvenile salmon survive passage through dams and reservoirs on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Salmon are anadromous, that is, they spawn in freshwater streams, but spend most of their adult life in the ocean. After hatching, young salmon (smolts) swim downstream to the Pacific Ocean, where they mature and then return to the same streams to spawn. But the 56 major dams in the Columbia River watershed are formidable obstacles to salmon migration. Largely ineffective are fish ladders designed to help the salmon move upstream and other structures that guide them downstream around hydroelectric turbines. (These turbines have been likened to giant food processors for smolt attempting to swim through them.) Furthermore, smolts on their downstream passage are held up in reservoirs where they are exposed to predators, pathogens (disease-producing organisms), and water that is too warm. Atlantic salmon have a similar fate. More than 900 dams on New England and European rivers prevent most Atlantic salmon from reaching their freshwater spawning grounds. Consequently, their population has declined to less than 1% of historical levels.

Traditionally, dam operators regulate stream and river flow for flood control and to supply water for electric power generation and irrigation. But recently, in response to greater awareness of the adverse impacts of dams on aquatic ecosystems, has come a growing interest in operating dams in ways that recreate the river's natural seasonal flow pattern and habitats. For example, this type of management is employed on the Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River in Utah to protect sensitive habitats for endangered species including chubs and squawfish. The dam operator simulates spring floods of the pre-dam era by releasing a surge of water in May that facilitates fish spawning.

Controlled flooding has been used on the segment of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon in an attempt to help restore landforms and aquatic habitats downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam. Before the dam first came into operation in 1956, natural floods regularly delivered sediment from the tributaries of the Colorado River. Sand and silt built sandbars and created backwaters that provided habitat for a variety of native plant and fish species such as the humpback chub and razor sucker. The humpback chub, for example, prefers the warmer and murkier waters associated with sandbars. With the dam in full operation, sand and silt was trapped in the reservoir upstream from the dam and the sandbars and backwater habitats were gradually destroyed. The number of humpback chub in the Grand Canyon declined from about 8300 in 1993 to about 2000 today and the species is close to extinction. In an attempt to restore downstream habitats, in March 1996 a huge gusher of water was released from the Glen Canyon Dam and a fresh influx of sediment built new beaches and sandbars. But these landforms and habitats disappeared within a few months. Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is proposing a new flood plan based on lessons learned from the 1996 flood. The plan is to release floodwaters from the Glen Canyon Dam for a shorter period of time (2.5 days instead of the 7-day 1996 flood) and only after a sufficient buildup of sediment so that floodwaters construct sandbars and beaches rather than washing them away.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Alteration of aquatic habitats by dams [(is)(is not)] a reason why some fish species become threatened or endangered.
Anadromous species of fish spawn in [(the ocean)(freshwater rivers and streams)].

Historical Events:

20 October 1999...A flash flood roared down the normally placid Palikea Stream in Hawaii's Haleakala National Park, causing the stream to rise 15 to 20 feet in one minute. Twelve tourists swimming in Palikea's lower pools clung to cliff sides and were eventually rescued. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
20 October 2004...Rain at two stations in Nevada broke the state's previous 24-hour maximum precipitation record of 7.13 inches set previously at Mt. Rose Highway Station (31 January 1963). The new state record of 9.78 inches was established at Mt. Charleston, while Kyle Canyon also broke the old record with 8.75 inches. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
21 October 1938...The Hector Glacier crashes to the valley floor northeast of Lake Louise, Alberta. The valley is buried under a 1.2-mile wide by 2.5-mile long pile of ice rubble. The wind created by the falling avalanche blows down all trees on the opposite side of the valley. (The Weather Doctor)
21 October 1996...Portland, ME received 13.32 inches of rain to set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Pine Tree State. (NCDC)
21 October 1998...A tropical depression formed over the southwestern Caribbean Sea about 360 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica. It would intensify over the next few days to become Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, on the 24^th. (The Weather Doctor)
22 October 1987...Yakutat, AK surpassed their previous all-time yearly precipitation total of 190 inches. Monthly records were set in June with 17 inches, in September with 70 inches, and in October with more than 40 inches. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
22 October 1988...A "nor'easter" swept across the coast of New England. Winds gusted to 75 mph, and large waves and high tides caused extensive shoreline flooding. Heavy wet snow blanketed much of eastern New York State, with a foot of snow reported in Lewis County. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
23-24 October 1918...The Canadian steamship Princess Sophia carrying miners from the Yukon and Alaska became stranded on Vanderbilt Reef along coastal British Columbia:. A strong northerly gale hampered rescue attempts, and the next day, the ship sank with the loss of the 268 passengers and 75 crewmen onboard. (The Weather Doctor)
24 October 1785...A four-day rain swelled the Merrimack River in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to the greatest height of record causing extensive damage to bridges and mills. (David Ludlum)
24 October 1933...A "high fog" settled over London, England causing "midnight at mid-day" as a temperature inversion forms over the city, trapping fog and smoke beneath it. The sun turned yellow, red and sometimes disappeared. (The Weather Doctor)
25 October 1859...The Royal Charter Storm, named after the loss of the fully rigged ship Royal Charter off the coast of Anglesey, England, drowned about 500 people, along with the loss of gold bullion. The ship was one of over 200 vessels wrecked between 21 October and 2 November, with the loss of around 800 lives, and led to the introduction of gale warnings in June 1860. (The Weather Doctor)
25-26 October 1980...The combination of unusually high tides and southeasterly winds gusting to 75 mph generated waves with heights to 25 ft, resulting in serious flooding, beach erosion and sea wall damage along the Maine coast. Wind damage was considerable and as many as 100,000 homes were without power for up to 40 hrs. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
26 October 1998...Hurricane Mitch, a category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) for 33 hours, finally dissipated after becoming the strongest October hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin. Estimated rainfall totals of up to 75 inches caused devastating flooding and mudslides in Honduras and Nicaragua for days. Estimated death toll from this hurricane was more than 11,000, the greatest loss of life from a tropical cyclone since 1780. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)