WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

4-8 June 2018

Items of Interest:

Celebrating National Fishing and Boating Week -- The first full week of June in every year has been designated as National Fishing and Boating Week to highlight the importance of recreational boating and fishing in enhancing people's quality of life and preserving the nation's natural beauty. This year, National Fishing and Boating Week runs from Saturday 2 June through Sunday 10 June. Many states offer Free Fishing Days during this week. The director of NOAA Fisheries has written a message that this week would be "a good time to wet a line." [NOAA Fisheries]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2018 Campaign for June commences -- The sixth in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2018 will commence this Monday (4 June) and continue through Wednesday, 13 June. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. These constellations are Hercules in the Northern Hemisphere and Crux for the Southern Hemisphere. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The seventh series in the 2018 campaign is scheduled for 4-13 July 2018. [GLOBE at Night]
Celebrating National Ocean Month -- A Presidential Proclamation has designated June 2018 as National Ocean Month. NOAA's National Ocean Service has a web portal that provides links to a variety of websites containing facts, images and video designed to highlight both the beauty and importance of the nation's oceans and marine environment. [NOAA National Ocean Service]
Celebrating Capitol Hill Ocean Week -- The nation's premier annual conference examining current marine, coastal and Great Lakes policy issues is the Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW), which is scheduled to run from Tuesday 5 June through Thursday 7 June in Washington, DC at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center. This year's themes for CHOW are: (1) Vision for our Ocean and Great Lakes; (2) Restoration of Marine and Great Lakes Ecosystems; (3) Our Changing Ocean; and (4) Working Together for Sustainable Waters. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Blog] or [National Marine Sanctuaries News]
World Environment Day -- This Tuesday, 5 June 2018, is World Environment Day (WED), a day that has been created by the United Nations in an effort to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environment and to enhance political attention and action. This observance was established initially by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Various activities are being planned. This year's theme for World Environment Day is "Beat Plastic Pollution: If you can't reuse it, refuse it." The host country is India. [World Environment Day]
World Ocean Day is celebrated -- World Ocean Day or a "Celebration of the Sea" will be celebrated Friday, 8 June 2018 in an effort to increase public awareness and to foster public involvement in the management of the ocean and its resources. Although this date was created at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it had not been officially recognized by the United Nations until 2009. This year's theme is Preventing plastic pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean. The main conservation focus will be on plastic pollution prevention and cleaning the ocean of marine litter. A partial listing is provided for events across the US and other nations that will celebrate World Ocean Day. [The Ocean Project]
Early Sunrise -- Within the next week, many locations in the continental United States will experienced the date of earliest sunrise. While the longest daylight at each locale in the Northern Hemisphere will occur in over two weeks on the summer solstice (early Thursday, 21 June 2018), the occurrence of earliest local sunrise occurs before this date because the apparent sun now "leads" the clock time. This time discrepancy, which now amounts to approximately 2 minutes, occurs because of a combination of factors that result from the earth moving more slowly in its elliptical orbit because the earth presently is near its farthest point from the sun (aphelion on 6 July 2018) and the effect of the tilt of the earth's spin axis (near the summer solstice). For reference, the latest sunsets of the year will occur later in June as the apparent sun slows and by the first week of July "lags" clock time by about 4 minutes.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity was found over the tropical waters of two ocean basins in the Northern Hemisphere during the last week:
- In the North Atlantic Basin, Subtropical Storm Alberto was traveling toward the north across the eastern Gulf of Mexico at the start of last week. This subtropical cyclone was a hybrid system, having both tropical and extratropical characteristics. Alberto strengthened as it approached the coast of the Florida Panhandle, with maximum sustained surface winds reaching 65 mph. This system made landfall along the Panhandle near Laguna Beach (approximately 15 miles to the west-northwest of Panama City, FL) last Monday afternoon. Weakening quickly after landfall, Alberto weakened and was downgraded to a subtropical depression > On Tuesday morning, Subtropical Depression Alberto became a remnant low pressure system as it traveled across eastern Alabama. strengthened as it continued toward the north across central Alabama. Torrential rains and strong winds associated with Alberto spread northward and eastward across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and the Southeastern States. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery on Subtropical Storm Alberto.
- In the western North Pacific Ocean basin, Tropical Depression 5W (TD-5W) formed late this past Saturday (local time) over the waters of the South China Sea approximately 300 miles off the coast of Vietnam. Initially traveling toward the west-northwest, TD-5W took an abrupt turn toward the north-northwest late Sunday as it approached the Vietnam coast. Traveling north, TD-5W was located approximately miles from early Monday. This system was forecast to reach the Gulf of Tonkin by Wednesday --on make landfall on China's Hainan Island.
Atlantic hurricane season outlook is updated -- At the end of May, Philip Klotzbach and fellow hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, issued their updated June forecast for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season that contained changes to their early April forecast. They changed their outlook for the number of named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms with sustained surface winds of at least 39 mph) from 14 in their April outlook to 13 at the end of May because of the formation of Subtropical Storm Alberto over the Gulf of Mexico in late May; thus, the total seasonal forecast for named storms would remain the same as earlier envisioned. However, they reduced their number of anticipated hurricanes (maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or higher) from seven to six and their number of projected major hurricanes (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) would drop from three to two. A near-average probability for major hurricanes making landfall along the United States coastline and in the Caribbean is also anticipated. This update effectively changes the anticipation from slightly-above average activity to near average activity for the season. This change in their outlook is due to their anticipation that a significant El Niño would not develop during the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season and that most of the North Atlantic has anomalously cooled over the past two months. [The Tropical Storm Project]
One week ago, scientists with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center released their outlook for the Atlantic hurricane season that 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 2017. They foresee 10 to 16 named tropical cyclones, including five to nine of these tropical cyclones becoming hurricanes. As many as four of these hurricanes could become major hurricanes. [NOAA News]
Forecasters at the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office have recently produced their forecast of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season (June-November), which indicates near normal activity. These forecasters predict a 70-percent chance that 7 to 15 named tropical cyclones would form, with a most likely value of 11, or one less than the 1981-2010 average of 12. The forecasters feel that between four and eight hurricanes could form, with six being the most likely value, which equals the long-term average number. They base their estimates in part upon the calculated Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index, which measures the number of storms and their combined strength. According to their forecasts, this upcoming season would have a most-likely ACE index of 105, which compares with 1981-2010 average ACE index of 103.
Recent report on the nation's ocean and Great Lakes economy has good news -- The NOAA Office for Coastal Management's Economics recently released a 27-page report entitled "NOAA Report on the U.S. Ocean and Great Lakes Economy," which is based upon the office's 2015 Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data. A variety of infographics at the national, regional, and state levels are included in the report. According to the report, the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) from the ocean economy grew 5.7 percent between 2014 and 2015, or more than twice as fast as the U.S. economy as a whole, which grew by 2.7 percent. Tourism and recreation led other sectors of the ocean economy in jobs and economic output. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
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:

4 June 1825...A hurricane struck Long Island, NY leveling trees and causing damage to ships. The early season hurricane, which originated near Cuba, caused major damage along the Atlantic coast from Charleston, SC to New York City. Many were lost at sea. (David Ludlum)
4 June 1871...The United States' 15-minute rainfall record was set in Galveston, TX at 3.95 inches as the season's first tropical storm came onshore. Galveston would be struck by another tropical storm just five days later. (National Weather Service files)
4 June 1944...Weather conditions across the English Channel forced Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower to postpone the invasion of France that had been scheduled for 5 June. (National Weather Service files)
4 June 1976...Forty-foot waves from a tropical cyclone smashed Gogha (port), India. Excellent warnings limited the death toll to approximately 70. Dredging of the harbor at Bhavnnagar ceased for several years as storm runoff from the Kansa River washed away accumulated sand and silt. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
5 June 2001...Though Tropical Storm Allison barely reached tropical storm status, the very slow movement of the storm along the Texas coast resulted in incredible amounts of rain. Over 40 inches of rain fell near Houston, and two feet of rain drenched southern Louisiana. It was the nation's costliest tropical storm to date. (National Weather Service files)
6 June 1882...More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay, India were killed as a tropical cyclone that developed over the Arabian Sea pushed huge waves into the harbor. (Wikipedia)
7 June 1914...The first vessel, the Alliance, passed through the Panama Canal. The 51-mile long canal, which links the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans across the isthmus of Panama, was officially opened on 15 August 1914. (Today in Science History) (Wikipedia)
7 June 1924...The Oil Pollution Act was passed. It was enforced by the Coast Guard.
Protection of halibut in the North Pacific Ocean was placed under Bureau of Fisheries (Coast Guard- enforced since 1926). (USCG Historian's Office)
7 June 1972...Richmond, VA experienced its worst flood of record as rains from Hurricane Agnes pushed the water level at the city locks to a height of 36.5 feet, easily topping the previous record of thirty feet set in 1771. (The Weather Channel)
7-10 June 2001...Tropical Storm Allison made landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston early on the 6^th and drifted northward before becoming stationary as a depression later in the day near Lufkin. Later, it began to drift back southward, moving offshore over the Gulf late on the 9^th at nearly the same place as it had made landfall. Allison caused disastrous flooding across the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, especially in the Houston area where a storm total of 36.99 inches fell at Port Houston. Twenty-three people lost their lives in Texas. Damage in the region amounted to $5 billion, which included 45,000 homes, 70,000 vehicles and 2000 businesses. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
8 June 1937...Observation of the total eclipse of the sun was made by a U.S. Navy detachment commanded by Captain J. F. Hellweg, USN, which was participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expedition. (Naval Historical Center)
8-9 June 1990...The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX, the result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Two crew members were killed. Coast Guard units fought the resulting fires and recovered spilled oil. (Information Please) (USCG Historian's Office)
8 June 1992...The first World Ocean Day was celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikipedia)
9 June 1534...The French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the river that he named the St. Lawrence in present-day Quebec, Canada. (The History Channel)
9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle near Alligator Point during the evening-- the earliest land-falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. Peak sustained winds were near 90 mph. Highest winds reached 125 mph and lowest pressure 970.2 millibars (28.65 inches of mercury) were reported at the Dry Tortugas on the 8th. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 inches of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 inches established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
10 June 1909...The International Distress Call (SOS distress signal) was used for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue.
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11 June 1644...The Florentine scientist, Evangelista Torricelli described in a letter the invention of a barometer, or "torricellian tube." (Today in Science History)
11 June 1764...The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
11 June 1770...The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia when he ran aground. (Information Please)
11 June 1847...The English naval officer and an Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to locate the Northwest Passage.