WEEKLY WATER NEWS

15-19 December 2008

Water in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- Tropical cyclone activity last week was limited to the western North Pacific Basin, A tropical cyclone formed to the northeast of the Federated States of Micronesia last week and traveled west toward the Philippines. As of Monday (local time), this storm had intensified to become Typhoon Dolphin. This category-1 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) wad forecast to curve to the north before it reaches the Philippines. For more information and a satellite image of Typhoon Dolphin can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
First Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season -- Last week, Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University released their first forecast for what they believe to be an active 2009 North Atlantic hurricane season. They predict that 14 named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes) will form next season, seven of which could develop into hurricanes. Three hurricanes could become intense (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity scale). They also anticipate an above-average probability that at least one major hurricane would make landfall along the coast of the continental US. Currently, they do not expect El Niño conditions to develop during the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season. Subsequent forecast updates will be issued beginning in April 2009. Details of their forecast appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colo. State Report] (Note this document is in a 27-page pdf file.)
2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season Animation -- NOAA's Environmental Visualization Program has produced a high-resolution satellite animation of the recently concluded 2008 North Atlantic hurricane season. [NHC] Note a Quicktime player is required for this animation and can be downloaded for free.
Hurricane provides ecosystem research material -- While Hurricane Ike that made landfall this past September along the upper Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston destroyed many of the dunes and marshes that a ecosystem scientist and his graduate students at Texas AgriLife Research were studying, these researchers have noted the hurricane's destruction and plan on studying the recovery of the ecosystem. [Texas A&M AgNews]
Pacific Decadal Oscillation continues to dominate -- Based upon sea surface temperatures from NOAA satellites and sea-surface height measurements from the U.S./French Jason-1 oceanography satellite, researchers claim that the Pacific Ocean basin remains locked in a strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation that has resulted in a general cooling of the basin's waters. [NASA JPL]
San Francisco is TsunamiReady™ -- NOAA's National Weather Service has recently recognized that the City of San Francisco, CA has become a TsunamiReady™ community as it NOAA's National Weather Service TsunamiReady™ recognition program, which better equipping the city to prepare and warn its citizens for tsunamis. [NOAA News]
New simulation tool to help emergency managers in Oregon's coastal communities -- The National Geophysical Data Center and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science have created four high-resolution digital elevation models of the Oregon coastline that can be used to simulate tsunamis and coastal flooding events, thereby aiding emergency managers develop life-saving plans for their coastal communities. [NOAA News]
"Gravity fingers" explained -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a mathematical explanation as to why water flows through soil at uneven rates in rivulets called "gravity fingers" that involves consideration of surface tension where water meets the soil material. [EurekAlert!]
Drought outlook is grim -- Climatologists, drought specialists and water managers are concerned that a large section of the nation has been experiencing drought conditions that could continue to worsen in the near feature, at the same time that the demand for usable water increases due to population growth and other demands. [CNN]
Ocean chemistry altered by climate change -- A team of researchers from the Carnegie Institution and the University of California, Santa Cruz who analyzed ocean core samples from the Pacific Ocean have discovered that the chemical characters of the world's oceans appears to have been less stable than previously thought and more prone to changes in climate. They cite the dramatic shifts in the ocean's calcium levels between 13 and 8 million years ago, at the time of the growth of the Antarctic ice sheets. [EurekAlert!]
Tracing evolution in ancient oceans by following the elements -- Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the distribution of key chemical elements on Earth during its early history helped define the distribution of life and the course of evolution, especially in the oceans. [EurekAlert!]
New initiative needed to monitor nutrients entering the Gulf -- A report from the National Research Council advises that the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Agriculture should jointly establish a Nutrient Control Implementation Initiative and a Mississippi River Basin Water Quality Center to investigate the effectiveness of actions designed to improve water quality throughout the Mississippi River basin and into the northern Gulf of Mexico. [EurekAlert!]
Role of humans and oceans in North American climate assessed -- The U.S. Climate Change Science Program has recently released an assessment report entitled " Reanalysis of Historical Climate Data for Key Atmospheric Features: Implications for Attribution of Causes of Observed Change" that addresses the role that human activity and the regional ocean temperatures have shaped North America's climate over the past half century. [NOAA News]
Nation's weather and climate for November 2008 reviewed -- Based upon preliminary data, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported that the average temperature for November 2008 across the coterminous United States was higher than the 1901-2000 average temperature. All states from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast experienced much above average November temperatures, while several Midwestern States and most of the Southeastern States had below to much below average monthly temperatures. Precipitation across the nation was slightly below average, with the states in the southern Plains and the mid-Mississippi Valley having below average precipitation totals for November 2008. Conversely, states along the Atlantic Seaboard, the upper Midwest and the Southwest recorded above average monthly precipitation totals. [NOAA News]
State and city weather extremes for November 2008 -- The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted a listing of some of the notable extremes in temperature, precipitation and other weather elements across the nation for the recently completed month of November 2008 in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for November 2008." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.
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]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

15 December 1965...The third cyclone of the year killed another 10,000 people at the mouth of the Ganges River, Bangladesh.
16 December 1917...An ice jam closed the Ohio River between Warsaw, KY and Rising Sun, IN. The thirty-foot high ice jam held for 58 days, and backed up the river a distance of 100 miles. (David Ludlum)
16-20 December 1978...Heavy rain that began on the evening of the 16^th eventually led to major flooding on a majority of Arizona's rivers. Up to 8.52 inches of rain fell over these five days at Palisades Ranger Station. The floods were responsible for 13 deaths, 10,0000 homeless and more than $55 million in damage. Bridges on I-17 over Agua Fria River at Black Canyon City collapsed, resulting in six deaths. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
16-17 December 1997...Torrential rain from Super Typhoon Paka fell on Guam with nearly 21 inches of rain observed at Tiyan before instrumentation failed two hours before Paka's eye passed to the south. Winds gusted to 171 mph before wind instruments failed. However, unofficial sources at Andersen Air Force Base believed that wind gusts may have reached 236.7 mph during the height of the storm. This super typhoon left major damage to 60 percent of the homes on Guam and caused $500 million in damage. Fortunately, no one was killed and only two injuries were reported. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
16 December 1999...Days of torrential rains and mudslides in Caracas and surrounding states in Venezuela left tens of thousands of people dead, missing or homeless and forced at least 120,000 to leave their homes.
16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
17 December 1884...A three-week blockade of snow began at Portland, OR. A record December total of 34 inches was received. (David Ludlum)
19 December 1967...The second heavy snow in a week brought a total of 86 inches of snow to Flagstaff, AZ with a record snow depth of 83 inches. Many homes, farm buildings and business structures collapsed from the weight of the snow. The snows inflicted great hardship on the Indian reservations. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum)
19 December 1967...The second heavy snow in a week brought a total of 86 inches of snow to Flagstaff, AZ with a record snow depth of 83 inches. Many homes, farm buildings and business structures collapsed from the weight of the snow. The snows inflicted great hardship on the Indian reservations. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum)
20 December 1990...Snow fell at Santa Maria, CA for the first time since records were kept. (Intellicast)
21 December 1892...Portland, OR was buried under an all-time record 27.5 inches of snow. (21^st-24^th) (The Weather Channel)

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