17-21 January 2011

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• Approaching coldest time of the year -- This upcoming week is the third full week of January, which for many locations across the nation typically marks the coldest week of the year, as indicated by the daily normal high and low temperatures. Usually, those stations located away from the moderating influences of the oceans reach their lowest temperatures during the third week of January, or a roughly one month after the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere receives the fewest hours of daylight and the smallest amounts of solar radiation. During that month, temperatures continue to fall to their lowest typical values as cooling continues. However, the increased length of daylight and increased sunshine during this month begins to warm the ground and overlying atmosphere as normal daily temperatures begin to rise toward their highest levels in mid to late July.
• Northeastern winter storm seen from space --
A major winter storm traveled across the Northeastern States at the beginning of last week, bringing up to two feet of snow to sections of southern New England. The clouds associated with the storm, together with the snow cover left by the storm, can be seen from several satellites used by meteorologists. A visible satellite image obtained from sensors onboard NOAA's GOES-13 satellite, a geosynchronous satellite positioned approximately 23,000 miles above the equator, shows the comma-shaped cloud cover characteristic with a Northern Hemisphere midlatitude storm system. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
A visible satellite image was obtained several hours later from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite in a polar orbit approximately 400 miles above the Earth's surface. This sensor provides a higher resolution image, where the detailed structure of some of the clouds can be seen. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

• Global and national weather and climate for 2010 reviewed -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that based upon their preliminary analysis of worldwide land and ocean surface temperature data, the annual worldwide combined land and ocean surface temperature for 2010 tied 2005 for the highest annual temperature since sufficiently detailed world-wide climate records began in 1880. While the globally averaged land surface temperature for 2010 was above the third highest on record, the month's land surface temperature was tied for second highest. The scientists indicated that the moderate El Niño event (an anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime favoring warm waters in the equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean) during the first half of the year changed to a strong La Niña event (with colder than average Pacific waters) during the second half of the year. At maximum extent in March 2010, Arctic sea ice cover was the third smallest since 1979 (the beginning of satellite surveillance).
  The scientists also note that the preliminary global precipitation data indicate 2010 was the wettest year on record.
  Preliminary data also indicated that the 2010 annual temperature for the 48 coterminous United States was above the 20th-century average, with 22 states reporting above to much above statewide annual temperatures. New Hampshire had its warmest year since reliable records began in 1895.
  Precipitation across the nation in 2010 was above the 20th-century average. [NOAA News]
  Although a slightly different methodology for averaging global surface temperatures was employed by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), they also reported that the global average temperature for 2010 tied 2005 for the highest reading since 1880. [NASA GISS]
  A description is made of the slight variations in globally averaged annual temperatures as produced by NASA's GIS, NOAA's NCDC, the United Kingdom's Met Office Hadley Centre/Climate Research Unit (CRU) and the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA). A graph of the variations in these four independent records is also available.
• Canadian weather and climate in 2010 --
Scientists at Environment Canada recently reported that preliminary data indicate the national average temperature for the calendar year 2010 was 3.0 Celsius degrees (5.4 Fahrenheit degrees) above the 1951-1980 average, making the year the warmest year on record since nationwide climate records began in 1948. Annual temperatures across most of northern and central Canada were at least 4 Celsius degrees above normal, with only sections of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan along the US-Canadian border being slightly warmer than normal. Nationwide precipitation across Canada during 2010 was close to average, as the year was the 38th wettest in the 63-year period of record. Northern Nunavut, the eastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, along with southern sections of Saskatchewan and Manitoba experienced above average precipitation. On the other hand, the Canadian Rockies that include British Columbia and Alberta, southern sections of the Northwest Territories, eastern Nunavut and northern Ontario had a drier than average year. [Environment Canada]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

• NASA's Glory Satellite prepared for launch -- The Glory satellite, a spacecraft designed by NASA to monitor two quantities that play critical roles in the Earth's climate system, arrived this past week at the launch facility at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base for the scheduled launch in late February. The Glory satellite will have a Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) that will monitor the flux of solar sunlight and the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) that measures the aerosol loading in the atmosphere. [NASA Glory Mission]
• 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, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [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]

CLIMATE FORCING

• Atmosphere is currently dustier than in 19th century -- A study conducted by researchers at Cornell University using available data and computer modeling indicates the Earth's atmosphere during the 20th century was twice as dusty as during the 19th century. The increased dusty from deserts and other natural sources could affect the climate through an attenuation of sunlight reaching the surface and the influence upon the cloud and precipitation formation. In addition, ocean chemistry could also be affected by atmospheric dust. [Cornell University]
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions while increasing crop yields --
Researchers at the University of Missouri claim that they have found new farming methods that could help farmers reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, while at the same time increasing corn grain production. Some scientists claim that nitrous oxide could contribute 300 times more than carbon dioxide to global warming. [University of Missouri News Bureau]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

• Human impact on climate change could continue into next millennium -- Using various computer modeling scenarios, researchers at Canada's University of Calgary and University of Victoria warn that changes in climate associated with human activity would continue for another 1000 years even if humans immediately ceased emitting all carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. [EurekAlert!]
• Determining contribution of mountain glacier melt to future global sea level rise --
Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks who modeled future glacier melt through 2100 based upon temperature and precipitation projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claim that melting of mountain glacier and ice cap would contribute 7 to 18 centimeters (3 to 7 inches) to a rise of global sea level. [University of British Columbia]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
• Earthweek --
Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY

• Lunar "water" may have originated from comets -- Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who have discovered trace amounts of "water" (in form of a substance containing hydrogen and oxygen) on the Moon's surface, theorize that this lunar water may have originated from comets colliding with the Moon soon after its formation. They had made their discovery from mass spectrometry measurements made on lunar rock samples collected by the NASA Apollo mission. [EurekAlert!]

Welcome to DataStreme Earth's Climate System (ECS)! The Earth's Climate System website is an integral component of the DataStreme ECS (Earth's Climate System) course. The website 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 DS Climate Studies website to access and download the "Current Climate Studies" that complement your Climate Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should also be available by noon (Eastern Time) on Monday. Click the appropriate links to download and print these electronic components of the investigations as well as your Chapter, Investigations and Current Climate Studies 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 webpage.

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 "U.S. and World Weather Data." This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) page first directs you to "United States Weather" and provides channels to current weather data as well as radar graphics, weather maps, and aviation and marine weather. It then leads you to International Weather Conditions.

The second major subdivision of the course website 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. To the left of the animation, click on "What's happening today?" The page of current tropical Pacific conditions that appears shows a small map to the right. Click on that map and again anywhere on the subsequent set of map panels to get an enlarged view of the latest conditions of SST and anomalies.

The third major section of the course website 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 website 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 "US Global Change Impacts Report" to the left 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 course website 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, either a PDF or the Word version. 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.

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. The first Climate Information link, "NOAA Climate Services", shows the Global Climate Dashboard where several graphs display Earth's temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide level, sea level change, etc. with a time slider than can be set to display from [(1800)(1880)(1940)] to 2010.
2. Click the "U.S. Global Change Impacts Report" link in the Societal Interactions and Climate Policy section. On their page, click the Home tab of the Menu bar along the top. Midway down the resulting page are two selector bars that show the climate impacts in the report can be categorized by [(only regional)(only sectoral)(both regional and sectoral)] climate information.

Historical Events:

• 17 January 1893...The mercury dipped to 17 degrees below zero at Millsboro, DE to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
• 17 January 1972...A single storm unloaded 77.5 inches of snow at Summit, MT to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
• 17 January 1988...A Pacific storm battered the southern coast of California. Los Angeles reported an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 29.25 inches. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 18 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Oregon was set at Seneca when the thermometer dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 18 January 1943...The record low temperature for the state of Oklahoma was set at Watts when the mercury dipped to 27 degrees below zero. The record low temperature for the state of Idaho was set at Island Park Dam when the temperature fell to 60 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 18 January 1957...The record low temperature for the state of Massachusetts was set at Birch Hill Dam when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero. This record was tied in January 1981. (Intellicast)
• 18 January 1977...The record low temperature for the state of South Carolina was set near Long Creek when the mercury plunged to 20 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 18-27 January 1980…Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced of rainfall over the 10-day period at Commerson, La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor)
• 19 January 1786...The temperature at Hartford, CT fell to 24 degrees below zero. Up to this time, it was the lowest ever known on a thermometer.
• 19 January 1925...The record low temperature for the state of Maine was set at Van Buren when the temperature fell to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 19 January 1933...Giant Forest, CA received 60 inches of snow in just 24 hours, a state record, and the second highest 24-hour total of record for the U.S. (David Ludlum)
• 19 January 1994...An extremely cold arctic airmass set 67 new record temperature lows from Minnesota to Virginia, including 10 cities that recorded their lowest temperatures ever. The following cities set all-time record lows: Indianapolis, IN (27 degrees below zero), Akron, OH, Clarksburg, WV, and Zanesville, OH (25 below), Pittsburgh, PA, Louisville, KY, Columbus, OH and Youngstown, OH (22 below), Cleveland, OH (20 below), and Erie, PA (18 below). The mercury plunged to 36 below zero at New Whiteland, IN to set a new record low temperature for the Hoosier State. In Kentucky, a statewide record low temperature was set at Shelbyville with a reading of 37 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 19 January 1995...Columbia, MO was buried under 19.7 inches of snow in 24 hours for its greatest 24-hour snowfall and snowstorm ever. Wind gusts up to 45 mph produced blizzard conditions and thunderstorms occurred several times during the heavy snow. Interstates 70, US 63, and US 54 were closed down. The same storm produced 15 inches of snow at Moline, IL and 14 inches at Blue Jacket, OK. (Intellicast)
• 20 January 1937...The record low temperature for the state of California was set at Boca when the thermometer dropped to 45 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• 20 January 1954...The temperature at Rogers Pass, MT plunged to 69.7 degrees below zero to establish a new low temperature record for the continental U.S. (David Ludlum)
• 20 January 1977…The barometric pressure at St. Anthony, Newfoundland dropped to 940.2 millibars (27.76 inches of mercury), the lowest sea level pressure ever recorded in Canada. (The Weather Doctor)
• 21 January 1985...An all-time record low temperature of 7 degrees was set on this day at Jacksonville, FL. The coldest day ever recorded at Macon, GA was recorded on this day when the mercury dropped to 6 degrees below zero. Records began at Macon in 1899. (Intellicast) The all-time record low temperature for North Carolina was set at Mt. Mitchell with a 34 degree below zero reading, while a 19 degree below zero reading at Caesars Head in South Carolina set that state's record low temperature. (National Climatic Data Center)
• 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)

Return to DataStreme Earth Climate Systems website

Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.