WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

28 May - 1 June 2018

Items of Interest:

Hurricane Awareness Week -- South Carolina will be observing its Hurricane Preparedness Week between 27 May and 1 June 2018.
European Maritime Day will be observed -- The annual European Maritime Day 2018 will be observed on 31 May and 1 June 2018 as part of the annual meeting of Europe's maritime community in Burgas, a city on the Southern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. The European Maritime Day, which is celebrated annually around 20 May with the aim to raise awareness of the importance of the sea among the European citizens. The European Maritime Day was established jointly by the European Council, the European Parliament and European Commission in 2008 as part of the European Union's (EU) maritime policy. The theme of this year's conference is "European Maritime Day 2018 - Matchmaking Event" designed to encourage international networking along with the exploration of new ideas and development of cooperation possibilities.
Change in season -- Meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the three-month span from March through May, concludes next Thursday (31 May 2018), while meteorological summer (June, July and August) will commence on the following day.
Hurricane season to begin in the North Atlantic and Central North Pacific -- The 2018 hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic Ocean basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, along with the central North Pacific will begin this Friday, 1 June 2018. The 2018 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific began two weeks ago on 15 May. The official hurricane seasons in all three basins will end on 30 November 2018.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week tropical cyclone activity was found over the tropical waters of two ocean basins in the Northern Hemisphere:
- In the North Indian Ocean basin, a tropical storm, which was originally identified as Tropical Cyclone 2A (the second tropical cyclone of the season over the Arabian Sea sector) formed last Tuesday approximately 650 miles south of Masirah Island, Oman. This tropical storm, which was renamed Mekunu, intensified as it traveled toward the north-northwest across the Arabian Sea passing across Socotra Island in the Arabian Sea on Thursday. Cyclone Mekunu became a major category 3 tropical cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) last Friday as it approached the southwestern coast of Oman. By early Saturday, Cyclone Mekunu had made landfall near the city of Salalah. This landfall was historic, as it was first category tropical cyclone to make landfall on the section of the Arabian Peninsula occupied by Oman since satellite surveillance began. Ironically, the history made by Mekunu followed that made late during the previous week by Tropical Cyclone Sagar, which made an extremely rare landfall along the northern coast of Somalia from off the Gulf of Aden; see the entry below that describes the rarity of this tropical cyclone crossing the Gulf of Aden. Strong winds, storm surge and flood-producing torrential rains accompanied Cyclone Mekunu as it made landfall near Salalah, Oman. Reports as of late Saturday indicate that at least three people were killed in Oman, while at least 40 people were missing on Socotra Island. [The National] The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery for Tropical Cyclone Mekunu.
- In the North Atlantic Basin, a broad area of low pressure that had been located over the northwestern Caribbean Sea approximately 55 miles offshore of Cozumel on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula organized to become Subtropical Storm Alberto last Friday. This subtropical cyclone, which represents the first subtropical cyclone of 2018 in the North Atlantic Basin, is a hybrid system, having both tropical and extratropical characteristics. Over the weekend, Alberto traveled northward through the Yucatan Channel, with Alberto's center passing approximately 20 miles off the western tip of Cuba, before entering the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. On Sunday, Alberto strengthened as it continued toward the north across the eastern Gulf offshore of the western coast of the Florida Peninsula, aimed toward the Florida Panhandle. As of Sunday evening, the center of Subtropical Storm Alberto was located approximately 100 miles to the south-southwest of Apalachicola, FL. At that time, maximum sustained surface winds surrounding Alberto were determined to be 65 mph. Current forecasts indicated that Alberto should continue its travels toward the northwest and make landfall on Monday along the coast of the western Florida Panhandle or Alabama, with little additional strengthening. Weakening to a tropical depression should occur by late Monday after landfall. Torrential rains and a storm surge were anticipated along a section of the northern Gulf Coast. Additional information and satellite imagery on Subtropical Storm Alberto are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Official hurricane outlooks issued -- During the last week, scientists with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) released their outlook for the upcoming 2018 hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic basin, which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and the central North Pacific basin, which lies between the 140 degree West meridian of longitude and the International Dateline.

Their outlook for the North Atlantic basin indicates a 35 percent chance of an above-normal season, a 40 percent chance of a near-normal season, and only a 25 percent chance of a below-normal season in 2018. The forecasters predict a 70-percent likelihood of 10 to 16 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms with sustained surface winds of at least 39 mph), including five to nine of these tropical cyclones becoming hurricanes (maximum sustained surface winds of 74 mph or higher). Between one and four of these hurricanes could become major hurricanes (Category 3 hurricanes or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale). The forecasted numbers include Subtropical Storm Alberto, a pre-season system that formed over the northwestern Caribbean at the end of last week. (Based upon long-term statistics, an average Atlantic season consists of 12 named tropical cyclones per year and the six hurricanes that normally form during each year. Three of these hurricanes typically become major hurricanes.) The forecasters based their near- to above-normal forecast in the frequency of named tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic basin for 2018 upon the possibility of weak El Niño conditions developing later in the season, near- or above-average sea-surface temperatures across the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and the continuation of the high-activity era for Atlantic hurricane seasons since the mid 1990s. NOAA will update their 2018 Atlantic hurricane outlook in early August, just before the peak in the season. [NOAA News]
For comparison, hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach and colleagues at Colorado State University had released a forecast of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season in early April that called for a slightly above-average season. They envisioned fourteen named tropical cyclones, which would include seven hurricanes. Of these hurricanes, the forecasters foresee three major hurricanes. [The Tropical Meteorology Project]
The CPC outlook for the central North Pacific basin suggests that this basin should experience a 40-percent chance of a near-normal hurricane season in 2018 and a 40-percent chance of an above-normal. A 20-percent chance exists for a below average activity. Their outlook calls for possible formation of three to six tropical cyclones, as compared with the long-term average of four to five tropical cyclones. The indication of an above average season is based upon a possible transition from current ENSO-neutral to weak El Niño conditions during the hurricane season, along with near- or above-average ocean temperatures in the main hurricane formation region, and near- or weaker-than-average vertical wind shear. [NOAA News]

Assessing the rarity of a landfall of a tropical cyclone in the Horn of Africa -- A meteorologist at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center recently wrote an "Event Tracker" blog for the ClimateWatch Magazine following the landfall of Tropical Cyclone Sagar along the northern coast of Somalia slightly more than one week ago. Winds reached 60 mph as Sagar made landfall, which would make Sagar the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on record for Somalia. Sagar was responsible for 31 fatalities. He noted that Sagar was only the third tropical cyclone to have made landfall on Somalia's northern coast since quality records began. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
A global climatology is developed for tropical cyclone eyes -- A team of scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a global climatology of the sizes and locations of tropical cyclones based upon a 34-year long period of record running between 1982 and 2015. The researchers used a computer algorithm to examine over a quarter million individual infrared satellite images from the global Hurricane Satellite (HURSAT) dataset. They found that more than half of the tropical cyclones during this period had developed at least one eye and that these systems had an eye for at least 30 hours. Furthermore, half of the systems developed their first eye within two days of becoming a named tropical cyclone. Eyes were more frequent in Northern Hemisphere systems, although their Southern Hemisphere counterparts were typically larger. [NOAA NCEI News]
Software developed for better coastal maps and management -- NOAA's National Ocean Service has been developing a software tool called "VDatum" for Vertical Datum Transformation that is intended to convert geospatial elevation data from various sources into a common reference system. This program is free to the public. Currently, VDatum coverage is complete for all coastal regions of the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Development of VDatum coverage is underway for Hawaii, Alaska, and the Pacific territories. The goal is to develop a VDatum utility throughout the nation that will foster more effective sharing of elevation data and link such data through national databases. [NOAA National Oceans Service Facts]
Number of the nation's overfished stocks reaches an all-time low -- According to the recently released 2017 Status of U.S. Fisheries report to Congress, NOAA Fisheries announced that the number of domestic fish stocks listed as overfished has reached an all-time low, with three species of West Coast rockfish rebuilt to sustainable levels. [NOAA News] The head of NOAA Fisheries wrote a leadership message lauding the efforts of his agency to rebuild the fish stocks. [NOAA Fisheries]
Minke whales are threatened by melting Antarctic sea ice -- A team of scientists from NOAA, the National Science Foundation and three research universities traveled to the waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula earlier this year to study minke whales, a type of baleen whale. The scientists were investigating how the melting of the sea ice surrounding the peninsula would affect these whales. Melting sea ice associated with a warming climate threatens krill populations, which are tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans that are the main food for the minke whales. The krill feed upon algae and phytoplankton that grow on the underside of sea ice. The scientists used several new tools to measure the underwater behavior of the whales, including whale-mounted, location-tracking video cameras and echosounders that provide near-instant measures of the biomass of krill swarms consumed by the whales. [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
Operation IceBridge survey flights over the Arctic conclude for the season -- At the beginning of May, NASA's tenth annual Operation IceBridge in the Arctic was concluded after a series of 20 flights across the western basin of the Arctic Ocean and Greenland's fastest-changing glaciers during a six-week span. Operation IceBridge represents an annual airborne survey made by NASA scientists and their colleagues of the Arctic ice cover and the Greenland glaciers. These flights have been made as a temporary replacement for NASA's ICESat satellite that suffered a malfunction in 2009; this year's mission should be the final season as the ICESat-2 satellite is scheduled to be launched in September 2018. [NASA IceBridge Feature]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

28 May 1987...A robot probe found the wreckage of the USS Monitor off Cape Hatteras, NC. (Wikipedia)
29 May 1827...The first nautical school was opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin's Lancasterian School.
29 May 1914...Shallow river fog along the St. Lawrence River approximately 185 miles from Quebec City, Quebec contributed to the collision of the CP Liner Empress of Ireland and a Norwegian coal ship, The Storstad. Although the two ships had spotted each other several minutes before the collision, altered courses and confused signals contributed to the crash. In one of the worst ship disasters in history, the liner sank in 25 minutes drowning 1024 passengers of the 1477 people on board. Only seven lifeboats escaped the rapidly sinking vessel. (The Weather Doctor) (The History Channel)
29 May 1950...A Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, RCMPV St. Roch, became the first ship to circumnavigate North America, when it arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Wikipedia)
30 May 1767...The first stone of the tower for the Charleston Lighthouse on Morris Island, SC was laid on this date. (USCG Historian's Office)
30-31 May 1997...As many as 140 people had to be rescued from rip currents off Dayton Beach Shores, FL. One man died in a rip current while trying to save his wife. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
31 May 1911...The hull of the ill-fated Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, "Not even God himself could sink this ship." (Information Please)
31 May 1997...The Confederation Bridge, also dubbed the "Fixed Link," was officially opened, linking Canada's Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick. This 8-mile long bridge that crosses the Northumberland Strait is the longest bridge in the world that spans waters that freeze. (Wikipedia)
Month of June...According to a 1969 US Army technical report, the average dewpoint temperature at Ras Andahglie and Assab, Eritrea (Ethiopia) average slightly more than 84 degrees Fahrenheit. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
1-17 June 2001...The deadliest and costliest tropical storm in US history, Tropical Storm Allison, wandered westward across the tropical Atlantic and crossed over into the Pacific before reversing direction and moving back into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. On 1 June the tropical wave, which eventually evolved into TS Allison, moved into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast of Mexico after moving westward across the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean from off the west coast of Africa on 21 May. On the 2^nd, a cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation developed to the south-southeast of Salma Cruz, Mexico, but the low-level circulation became ill defined as the system moved inland on the 3^rd over southeastern Mexico and western Guatemala. This system intensified again and eventually moved northward to the Texas Gulf Coast and then eastward to the Atlantic before turning into an extratropical storm in mid-June. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
2-4 June 1986...A tropical disturbance brought flooding rains to parts of the Greater Antilles. The flooding caused 59 deaths in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. As many as 240,000 people lost their homes to this disturbance. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
3 June 1979...The world's worst oil spill occurred when an exploratory oil well, Ixtoc 1, blew out, spilling over 140 million gallons of crude oil into the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico. Although it is the largest known oil spill, it had a relatively low environmental impact. The well was finally capped in March 1980. Booms were placed along the Texas coast to protect major inlets from the oil that was carried northward by prevailing surface currents in the Gulf of Mexico. (Information Please) (Wikipedia)