WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

22-26 January 2018

ITEMS OF INTEREST

End of a long polar night -- After being below the horizon for approximately 65 days, the Sun should rise at Barrow, the northernmost city in Alaska, for the first time this new year on this Monday, 22 January 2018, at 1:26 PM Alaska Standard Time (AKST). However, the Sun will only remain above the horizon for only 27 minutes, as it will set again at 1:53 PM. Although the Sun set for the final time last year at 1:38 PM AKST on 18 November 2017, residents of Barrow had roughly three hours of some diffuse sunlight each day that is equivalent to civil twilight, provided the cloud cover was not too thick. To check the sunrise and sunset times of Barrow or any location in the United States go to the US Naval Observatory's on-line, interactive service for the entire year.
Heads up! Some space junk falls from space -- NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service has posted an article describing the threats that "space junk" or "space debris" can pose to Earth residents. Space debris represent the collection of defunct objects in space such old satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from disintegration, erosion, and collisions. Of the more than 50,000 objects orbiting Earth, approximately 20,000 are larger than a softball and only about 1,000 are actual spacecraft. Between 200 and 400 tracked objects enter Earth's atmosphere every year, which is roughly one reentry per day. Luckily, most objects burn up and disintegrate as they pass through the atmosphere, while those that reach the Earth's surface are likely to fall into the ocean or unpopulated land areas. [NOAA NESDIS News]
Accessing and interpreting climate data -- If you would like to obtain a variety of climate data for your home town or state that are available from the National Weather Service, please read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth. This Supplemental not only identifies some of the sites to find the data, but also provides you with a brief explanation of the terminology used to identify the climate data.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Global weather and climate for 2017 reviewed -- Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported that based upon their preliminary analysis of worldwide land and ocean surface temperature data, the calendar year of 2017 was the third highest since sufficiently detailed world-wide climate records began in 1880, just behind the previous records set in the previous two years of 2016 and 2015. The average global temperature across land and ocean surface areas for 2017 was 1.51 Fahrenheit degrees (0.84 Celsius degrees) above the 20th century (1901-2000) average of 57.0 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 degrees Celsius). For comparison, the highest global temperature departure was set in 2015 with a temperature anomaly (difference between annual and 20th-century average temperatures) of 1.69 Fahrenheit degrees, followed by the 2015 temperature anomaly of 1.62 Fahrenheit degrees. Both these record years were influenced by a strong El Niño episode involving anomalously high sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The year 2017 represents the warmest year without an El Niño present.
When considered separately, annually-averaged temperature for ocean surfaces in 2017 was 1.21 Fahrenheit degrees higher than the 20th century average, which was the third highest departure for ocean temperatures behind the record set in 2016. The 2017 land surface temperature was 2.36 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average, which also was the third highest temperature over land since 1880.
Furthermore, the combined global land and ocean average surface temperature departure from average for December 2017 was the fourth highest monthly December temperature in the 138-year record.
The Arctic sea ice remained well below the long-term averages that cover the period of record beginning in 1979 when satellite surveillance of the polar ice caps began. During the winter growth season, the sea ice covering the Arctic experienced its smallest annual maximum extent, while at the end of the summer melt season, the sea ice was the eight smallest minimum summer extent on record. Sea ice extent around Antarctica also was below average. During the winter growth season, the ice around that content reached the second smallest annual maximum extent for the satellite period, while during the summer melt season, the ice extent was the smallest minimum on record. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]
NCEI also provides a map showing the Global Significant Weather and Climate Events map for 2017. A similar global extremes map is available for December 2017.
An animation produced by NCEI shows Earth's surface temperature for each year in the 1880-2017 period of record compared to the 1981-2010 average. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Using a slightly different areal averaging technique on the near-surface air temperatures from essentially the same stations as used by NCEI, scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, determined that Earth's global surface air temperatures in 2017 were the second highest since 1880, ranking only behind the annual global air temperatures in 2016. (Note: NASA compares the annual global air temperatures with respect to the 1951 to 1980 means, while NCEI makes its comparisons with the 1901-2000 averages.) [NASA Press Release] In a joint news conference held last Thursday, the director of NASA GISS and the Chief of the Monitoring Branch of NCEI announced their findings that are summarized in graphical format on 15 slides. [NASA/NOAA Press Briefing ]
Scientists at the United Kingdom's Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit also maintain a long-term global temperature dataset and they noted that 2017 was the second or third warmest year for annual global temperatures since 1850. Furthermore, the noted that 2017 was the warmest year in their record without the aid of an El Niño event. [UK Met Office News]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

GOES-13 satellite is retired after 10 years of service -- NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) officials recently announced that their agency's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-13 satellite was retired on 8 January 2018 after more than ten years of service as the GOES-East satellite located in a geosynchronous orbit around the Earth and positioned so as to monitor the environmental conditions over the eastern half of the continental U.S., including the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Several weeks ago, the year-old GOES-16 satellite was moved into a position to become the next GOES-East satellite. [NOAA NESDIS News]
An article presents the 10-year history of NOAA's GOES-13 satellite. [NOAA NESDIS Feature]
"First light" images from new polar orbiting satellite -- The polar-orbiting NOAA-20 satellite (initially identified as Joint Polar Satellite System or JPSS-1) was launched on 18 November 2017. After initial testing, "first light" images were made that represent the first images made by an onboard sensor. On 5 January 2018, a first light image was made by the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument onboard NOAA-20 that shows the ultraviolet radiation reflected back to the sensor from the Earth's protective ozone layer. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory News]
Another first light image was made using the satellite's Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) that produces twice-daily global hyperspectral infrared observations for profiling atmospheric temperature and water vapor. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory News]
Field campaign begins to study climate effects of clouds over the Southern Ocean -- An international team of scientists is traveling to the remote Southern Ocean to participate in the six-week long field campaign called the Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol Transport Experimental Study, or SOCRATES that is designed to understand how clouds interact with aerosols, or particles suspended in the atmosphere that can be from either natural or human-made sources. The Southern Ocean is remote and stormy, with widespread clouds that can influence the amount of incoming sunlight that is absorbed, and hence, the region's climate. SOCRATES is designed to make the best observations made of clouds, aerosols, radiation, and precipitation over the Southern Ocean. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]

CLIMATE FORCING

"Ship tracks" seen from space -- A natural-color image obtained from data collected last week by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite s hows numerous "ship tracks" stretching across the eastern North Atlantic offshore of Portugal and Spain. These ship tracks are narrow clouds produced by the condensation of exhaust gases emitted by exhausts from ships traveling across the region. Particulate matter that are also emitted from the ship exhausts enhance the condensation of some of the exhaust gases. The high reflectivity of these ship tracks to solar radiation can cause a local cooling as the clouds serve as a sun screen. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Seasonal weather outlook released -- Forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center recently released their new national Seasonal Outlook for the next three months of 2018 (February-April) that includes the last month of meteorological winter (December-February) and the first two months of meteorological spring (March-May). Specific details of their outlooks include:
- Temperature and precipitation outlooks -- According to their temperature outlook, the southern tier of states, together with the Eastern Seaboard should experience a high chance of above average temperatures for these three upcoming months. The greatest probability of above average temperatures was expected in the Southwest, centered upon southern New Mexico and far west Texas. Conversely, sections of the northern tier of states extending from western Washington eastward to northern Minnesota were considered to have a better than average chance of below average late winter-early spring temperatures. The interior Northwest along with the high Plains in northern Montana would have the greatest chance of chilly weather. The outlook indicates locations situated between the areas forecasted to have below average temperatures and those with above average temperatures would have nearly equal chances of warmer or cooler than normal conditions.
  Their precipitation outlook calls for the southern tier of states extending from the southern California eastward to the Florida Peninsula and northward to the Carolinas to have a better than even chance of below average precipitation for the upcoming three months of 2018. The highest probabilities of above average precipitation were to be found across northern sections of the coterminous states, centered over the Great Lakes and Midwest, along with the northern Rockies in Idaho and Montana and the adjacent high Plains of Montana. A narrow region separating the aforementioned regions with possible below and above precipitation should have essentially equal chances of below and above average precipitation for the end of winter and the first two months of meteorological spring.
  A summary of the prognostic discussion of the 3-month outlook for non-technical users is available from CPC. These forecasts were based in part that assuming that the current La Niña conditions should across the equatorial Pacific Ocean through the remainder of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e., end of February) with an anticipated transition into an ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation)-neutral situation during meteorological spring (March-May), when neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions would prevail. This ENSO-neutral condition could continue through summer of 2018 (in the Northern Hemisphere). A description is also provided as how to read these 3-class, 3-month Outlook maps.
- Seasonal Drought Outlook -- The forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center also released their US Seasonal Drought Outlook last week that would run from mid-January through April 2018. Their outlook would call for persistence of the current extensive drought conditions across wide areas of the southern United States, primarily stretching from the southern Plains (Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas) westward across the Four Corners States (Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico). Expansion of this region of drought was also anticipated southward to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and northward into Nebraska. The drought conditions along the Gulf Coast and the Eastern Seaboard to as far north as the Middle Atlantic States should also continue or expand. Several areas in the high Plains of Montana and the Dakotas and across the mid-Mississippi Valley currently experiencing drought conditions could see improvement in drought conditions, with a many of these areas seeing sufficient improvement that they would possibly be removed from drought status. Note: a Seasonal Drought Outlook Discussion is included describing the forecasters' confidence.
Improved weather forecasts could change how water managers deal with droughts -- Water managers along the West Coast from California northward to Washington are hoping that improved forecasting of the occurrence of "atmospheric rivers" could help them decide if water can be safely stored in their reservoirs or if it needs to be released to prevent overtopping of the reservoir and downstream flooding. On the West Coast, an atmospheric river is a relatively long and narrow plume of water vapor and clouds in the lowest 20,000 feet of the atmosphere that extends across the North Pacific from the tropics and subtropics and brings abundant precipitation to the coastal areas and the Western Cordillera, including the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountain Ranges. [Mother Jones News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

A warming ocean could result in rise in a dangerous marine bacteria species -- An international team of scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy have discovered that the increasing temperatures of the near-surface waters of the North Atlantic over the past half-century appear to have played a role in the increase in the population of the Vibrio bacteria species and the emergence of human diseases caused by these pathogens. The Vibrio bacteria can cause foodborne infection, usually associated with eating undercooked seafood, with an estimated 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the United States every year due to this bacteria. Data provided by the United Kingdom’s Met Office Hadley Center show increases in the surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean between the period from 1890-1958 and the period from 2000-2011, associated with a changing global climate. [NASA Earth Observatory]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Civil War-era Navy logbooks provide a treasure trove of weather data -- The University of Washington recently received a $482,000 grant to support the digitization and analysis of historical logbooks, muster rolls and related materials from U.S. Navy vessels, focusing on the period from 1861 to 1879. These historical materials contain weather observational data that may provide modern climate and weather researchers with information on the past weather conditions around the world from the mid-19th century. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Violence in the wake of Hurricane Maria has resulted surge of murders in Puerto Rico -- During the first eleven days of January 2018, as many as 32 people have been killed in Puerto Rico, which exceeds the typical rate of 56 homicides per month. Experts suggest that this surge in murders more than 100 days following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria is reflective of a trend toward an increase in crime following storms and other disasters especially in high-poverty communities. A lack of policing in some areas appears to be occurring in areas where drug gangs are reclaiming their territory. [Earther] (Editor’s note: This article contains some inappropriate language. EJH)
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Concept of the Week: Touring the AMS Climate Studies RealTime Climate Portal

The RealTime Climate Portal is intended to deliver a wealth of climate information that is both pertinent to the course as well as being a reference site for you as you study Earth's climate system. The webpage is arranged in several sections. On Monday of each week of the course, we will post the current Weekly Climate News that includes Climate in the News (a summary listing of recent events related to climate), Concept of the Week (an in-depth analysis of some topic related to climate in the Earth system), and Historical Events (a list of past events important in the understanding of climatology). When appropriate, Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth will be provided on some topic related to the principal theme of the week.

You will use the RealTime Climate Portal along with the "Current Climate Studies" that complement your Climate Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should also be available Monday morning. Click the appropriate links to download and print these electronic components of the investigations as well as your response forms.

Beyond these course Learning Files, sections include Climate Information, Climate Variability, Climate Change, Societal Interactions and Climate Policy, and Extras. As the titles suggest, there are multiple uses for climate data and their interpretation. Here we explore some examples of the information provided in the various sections of the RealTime Climate Portal.

The Climate Information section includes access to weather data, the raw material of climate synthesis, from the United States and the world under the heading "Observations and Data." Under this heading, click on "NOAA's Climate.gov." This page displays weather and climate stories and the Dashboard shows graphs of climate information back to 1880.

The second major subdivision of the RealTime Climate Portal encompasses Climate Variability. Climatic variability refers to the fluctuations and oscillations that may occur within the climate system at temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Select the link, "NOAA El Niño Page". The page that appears provides access to a wealth of background and information on El Niño and La Niña, including the animation showing sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Pacific during recent months. The page of current tropical Pacific conditions appears on a small map.

The third major section of the RealTime Climate Portal is termed Climate Change. Here we provide links to information and analyses that primarily focus on anthropogenic (human-made) change processes and results in the climate system. That prominently includes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ("IPCC") latest classic report on atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and their effects. Also linked are modeling results ("Models") based on those studies.

The last major section of the RealTime Climate Portal is titled Societal Interactions and Climate Policy. This block contains information on the impacts of projected change on human societies around the world, beyond that listed in the IPCC report, and the international actions and debates regarding those issues. Select and click on "National Climate Assessment (NCA3) Highlights" in this section. This webpage introduces you to the latest comprehensive and authoritative report on climate change and its impacts in the United States, now and in the future. You will be directed to this report several times in this course.

Completing the RealTime Climate Portal is the Extras section of additional handy information for the course and individual study such as dictionaries of terms, maps and materials. Choose and examine one of the Climate Literacy links. This document has recently been developed and released by NOAA to provide an overview of general concepts and information the general public and especially students should be aware of regarding the climate and the climate debate.

Historical Events:

22 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Illinois was set at Mount Carroll as the mercury dipped to 35 degrees below zero. This state record has since been broken in 1999. (Intellicast)
22 January 1961...The all-time record low temperature for Connecticut was tied when the temperature fell to 32 degrees below zero at Coventry. (National Climate Data Center)
22 January 1943...Chinook winds during the early morning hours caused the temperature at Spearfish, SD to rise 49 Fahrenheit degrees from 4 degrees below zero to 45 degrees above zero in just two minutes (between 7:30 and 7:32 AM), the most dramatic temperature rise in world weather records. An hour and a half later the mercury plunged from 54 degrees above zero to 4 degrees below zero in twenty-seven minutes. Plate glass windows cracked as a result of the quick thermal expansion and contraction. (David Ludlum)
22-23 January 1943...Hoegees Camp, at an elevation of 2760 feet in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, received 26.12 inches of precipitation in a 24-hour span, setting the Golden State's 24-hour precipitation record. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
22 January 1985...Mountain Lake Biological Station in Virginia reported a temperature of 30 degrees below zero, which established the all-time record low temperature for the state. (National Climate Data Center)
23-24 January 1916...The temperature at Browning, MT plunged 100 Fahrenheit degrees in just 24 hours, from a relatively mild 44 degrees above zero to a bone-chilling 56 degrees below zero. This 24-hour temperature drop is a US record. (National Weather Service files)
24 January 1857...The coldest weather in pre-U.S. Weather Bureau history occurred with temperatures of 50 degrees below zero reported in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero in Boston, MA and 11 degrees below zero on Nantucket Island. (Intellicast)
24 January 1922...The all-time record low temperature for the state of Wisconsin was set at Danbury when the temperature dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (This record has been broken by one degree in February 1996) (National Climate Data Center)
24 January 1956...Thirty-eight inches of rain deluged the Kilauea Sugar Plantation of Hawaii in 24 hours, including twelve inches in just one hour. The 38.00 inches remains the Aloha State's 24-hour maximum precipitation record. (David Ludlum)
25 January 1821...People were able to walk across the frozen Hudson River between Hoboken and New York City. Entrepreneurs sold coffee on the river to warm pedestrians. (National Weather Service files)
25-26 January 1956...The U.S. record for rainfall in one hour was set at Kilauea, HI, with exactly one foot of rain (this tied the record set at Holt, MO on 22 June 1947). The observer noted, however, that his gauge overflowed several times during the heavy rain (which continued into the following day) and the true total amount may have been even higher. (National Weather Service files)
25 January 1965...Alta, UT was in the midst of a storm that left the town buried under 105 inches of snow establishing a record for the state. (David Ludlum)
26 January 1884...The coldest day on Canada's Prince Edward Island occurred when the temperature at Kilmahumaig, PEI fell to 35 degrees below zero. (The Weather Doctor)
27 January 1940...Florida had a 3-day long freeze with the lowest temperatures ever in January. Mason, FL dropped to 8 degrees. Eleven million boxes of citrus were damaged, resulting in a 10 million-dollar loss. Further north, Georgia's record low temperature of 17 degrees below zero was set near Calhoun. (Intellicast)
27 January 1994...A frigid arctic air was in place over New England and New York as a massive 1052-millibar (31.06 inches of mercury) high pressure provided ideal radiational cooling. Crown Point, NY dipped to 48 degrees below zero and Shoreham, VT shivered with 46 degrees below zero, Burlington, VT broke its old record daily low by 9 degrees with a reading of 29 degrees below zero and Caribou, ME set a record low for the third day in a row with a temperature of 23 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
28 January 1925...The temperature at Pittsburg, NH fell to 46 degrees below zero, establishing a new record low temperature for the state. (Intellicast) In January 1934, this record was broken with a reading of 47 degrees below zero. (NCDC)
28 January 1963...The low temperature of 34 degrees below zero at Cynthiana, KY equaled the state record established just four days earlier at Bonnieville. (The Weather Channel) This all-time state record for Kentucky has since been eclipsed by a 37-degree below zero reading in January 1994. (NCDC)
28 January 1988...Barometric pressure readings of 30.55 inches at Miami FL, 30.66 inches at Tampa, FL, and 30.72 inches at Apalachicola, FL were all-time record high readings for those locations. (National Weather Summary)
28 January 1989...Nome, AK reported an all-time record low reading of 54 degrees below zero. (National Weather Summary)

Return to RealTime Climate Portal