WEEKLY WEATHER & CLIMATE NEWS

WEEKLY WEATHER AND CLIMATE NEWS

15-19 January 2018

Items of Interest:

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/ Next issue 19 Dec 2017, 3 Jan 2018
[Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology]
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????State of the climate in 2016 from a "Down Under" perspective -- During the last week the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia released its "State of the Climate 2016" report describing Australia's rising temperatures, its declines in regional rainfall and more frequent wildfires. These trends, which appear to be linked to climate change induced by increased greenhouse gas emissions, are expected to continue during the next several decades. [Australian Bureau of Meteorology]
http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/updates/articles/a026.shtml
Save for supermoon in late Jan == Perigean spring tide to occur early next week with a supermoon -- The moon will reach its full moon phase on Monday evening at 9:24 PM EST, 8:24 PM CST (or officially 0224Z on 2 January 2018). This full moon will occur four hours after perigee, when the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. Since the moon will come within 221,070 miles of Earth, it is called a "supermoon," as its closeness would make the moon appear larger than usual. This early January full moon will be the closest and largest appearing full supermoon of 2018. [EarthSky] The closeness of the moon and increased gravitational pull will cause an increase in the height of ocean tides, resulting in what is called a "perigean spring tide" (or King Tide) during the first several days of this week. [NOAA National Ocean Service Facts]
Higher than normal tides will be found during the first several days of this week along the Pacific Coast from California north to Alaska; around Hawaii and the Pacific Islands; and along the Atlantic Coast, from Maine southward to the eastern coast of Florida. The Gulf Coast will not be affected by these higher than average tides. [NOAA High Tide Bulletin for Winter 2017]
<p>...Check https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/science/supermoon.html</p>
<p>For Jan 2018 full moon -- 2018 Jan 02 02:24 and again on 2018 Jan 31 13:27</p>

next week 22-26 Jan is Svr Wx Awareness week in FL.
See http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/severeweather/severewxcal.shtml
??? A contractor to NOAA's Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research and the Climate Program Office wrote a feature article for the online ClimateWatch Magazine entitled "Extreme event attribution: the climate versus weather blame game" in which she describes in relatively straight-forward terms the newly developing science of "extreme event attribution" that is aimed at detecting whether a given extreme weather and/or climate event has been caused by (or attributed to) the increases in global temperature caused by human activity. She also provides several examples and graphics in her explanation. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
check -- Identifying the nation's spring "Allergy Capitals" for 2017 -- The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recently released its annual rankings of the top 100 cities across the nation identified as the "most challenging places to live with allergies" for the spring allergy season based upon measured pollen levels (airborne grass/tree/weed pollen and mold spores), allergy medications administered per capita and the number of allergists per capita for each major city. A similar tabulation is also made for the fall allergy season. [Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America]
Check http://www.aafa.org/page/allergy-capitals.aspx
??? Nominations can be made for "Climate Adaptation Leadership Award for Natural Resources" -- An award called the "Climate Adaptation Leadership Award for Natural Resources" will be awarded to as many as seven recipients along with seven honorable mentions in recognition of their outstanding efforts to increase awareness and safeguard the nation's natural resources from the negative effects of climate change. This award is through the efforts an interagency group of federal, state, and tribal agencies that included NOAA and the US Departments of Interior and Agriculture and is part of the President's Climate Action Plan and the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy. Individuals or groups can be nominated for this through the first week of December 2016. [National Fish, Wildlife & Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy]
???NOAA's Climate Stewards Education Project Webinar features assessment of climate change impacts on food safety -- The NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project (CSEP) has arranged to have Dr. Marianne Fatica, Consumer Safety Officer at the US Food and Drug Administration, as this month's featured speaker in its Webinar that is scheduled for Monday, 5 December, at 7:30 PM Eastern Time. Dr. Fatica's topic is "Weathering Food Safety: Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Our Food." Since space is limited, reservations are needed to be made. [NOAA Climate.gov Teaching Climate Feature]
Name change NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project will be known as the NOAA Planet Stewards Education Project.in Nov 2017.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/planet-stewards/webinars.html
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check -- Ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is becoming younger and thinner -- A 1 minute, 20 second video (with sound) was produced that contains an animation produced from NOAA and NASA data showing changes in the relative amount of ice of different ages from 1990 through early November 2016. This video shows that the amount of thick, multiyear or perennial ice has declined, replaced by thinner, young ice that is created every winter. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
check -- Global sea ice in November is termed a "black swan event" -- A feature article written for the ClimateWatch Magazine calls the record small extent of the sea ice in both the Northern Hemisphere's Arctic Ocean and the waters of the South Hemisphere surrounding Antarctica during November 2016 a "black swan event", a metaphor associated with a relatively rare and unexpected or surprise event. [NOAA Climate.gov News] Additional graphics are available on the extent of the Antarctic sea ice during November 2016. [NASA Earth Observatory]
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check -- Identifying the nation's fall "Allergy Capitals" for 2016 -- The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recently released its annual rankings of the top 100 cities across the nation identified as the "most challenging places to live with fall allergies" for the recent fall allergy season. The listing is based upon measured prevalence data, seasonal pollen levels (airborne grass/tree/weed pollen and mold spores), allergy medications administered per capita and the number of allergists per capita for each major city. Jackson, MS was identified as the #1 Fall Allergy Capital for 2016. A similar tabulation is also made for the spring allergy season. [Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America]
update to early & mid of February -- fix constellations
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2018 Campaign commences -- The second in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2018 will commence this Monday (5 February) and continue through Thursday, 15 February. 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 (Orion in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The third series in the 2018 campaign is scheduled for 8-17 March 2018.
[GLOBE at Night]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2018 Campaign is underway -- The second in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2018 will continue through Thursday, 15 February. 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 (Orion in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The third series in the 2018 campaign is scheduled for 8-17 March 2018. [GLOBE at Night]
Approaching coldest time of the year -- This week is the third 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.
Free admission into the National Parks -- This Monday, 15 January 2018, has been designated by the National Park Service as a fee-free day in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. This fee waiver will cover entrance and commercial tour fees in many of the national parks and monuments administered by the Park Service. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]
Check-- 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 coming Sunday, 22 January 2017, at 1:17 PM Alaska Standard Time (AKST). However, the Sun will only remain above the horizon for only 45 minutes, as it will set again at 2:02 PM. Although the Sun set for the final time last year at 1:31 PM AKST on 18 November 2016, 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.

Weather and Climate News Items:

Eye on the tropics --- The weather across the tropical and subtropical ocean basins in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere remained relatively quiet during the last week. However, the only activity was found in the western North Pacific basin where the the first tropical depression of 2017 identified as Tropical Depression 1W (or TD 1W) weakened as it moved out over the South China Sea at the start of last week after traveling across the central Philippines over the previous weekend. However, remnants of TD 1W continued to travel west across the South China Sea toward the coast of Vietnam. Over this past weekend, the remnants of TD 1W strengthened and became a tropical depression as it came close to the coast. As of late Sunday night (local time) the center of TD 1W was located approximately 160 miles to the east-southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Current forecasts have TD 1W making landfall along the Mekong Delta and crossing southern Vietnam by late Monday before exiting out over the Gulf of Thailand on Tuesday. A slow weakening of this tropical depression was anticipated. Additional information and satellite imagery for TD 1W is available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Atmospheric river called the "Pineapple Express" continues to soak parched California -- An animated sequence of images generated from data collected by NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite over a four-day span last week (7-10 January) shows a large area of precipitation moving to the northeast across the eastern North Pacific and spreading across a large area of California, with some of the heaviest precipitation falling across the central areas of the Golden State along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. [NASA Earth Observatory] This welcome precipitation fell in areas that had been experiencing five years of drought and was part of an atmospheric river or plume of humid air originating over the tropical and subtropical North Pacific near the Hawaiian Islands. Hence, this atmospheric river is often dubbed the "Pineapple Express." A wider view of the areas experiencing above average precipitation from this system has been produced by data collected by the GPM satellite. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
Inspection of the status of the drought across California from the recently released US Drought Monitor (data through Tuesday, 10 January 2017) shows the areal extent in California experiencing any drought conditions (D0 through D4) has dropped from 100 percent in early October 2016 to approximately 65 percent as of the recent summary. Similarly, the area of exceptional drought (D4) has dropped from 21 percent three months ago to only 2 percent early last week.
Review of national weather and climate for December 2016 and for the 2016 calendar year -- Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) have released reports based upon their preliminary analysis of temperature and precipitation data collected through the end of December 2016 from across the nation. Based upon the data processed through late last week, they report:

December 2016 had near average temperatures and above average precipitation -- The nationwide average December temperature across the contiguous United States was 32.9 degrees Fahrenheit, which was only 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century (1901-2000) average. States across the Northwest and the northern and central Plains reported below to much below average temperatures, with Oregon having a statewide average temperature that was the eleventh lowest December reading since a sufficiently dense national climate observing network was established in 1895. Conversely, the southern tier of states running from Arizona eastward to Florida, as well as northward along the Atlantic Coast from Florida to New Hampshire. The December 2016 statewide average temperature for Florida was the fourth highest in 122 years. States across the Midwest and across the West had average temperatures that were close to long-term average.
The nationwide precipitation total for December 2016 across the "Lower 48 states" was 2.69 inches or 0.34 inches above the 20th century average. As many as 21 states scattered across the Rocky Mountains, the Intermountain West, the northern Plains, the Upper Midwest, the Southeast and New England reported above to much above average precipitation totals. Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Nevada had statewide December precipitation totals that ranked in the top 10 for that month. Four states in the center of the nation and in the Pacific Northwest had December precipitation that were below average. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]
Calendar year of 2016 was second warmest across nation -- The preliminary average temperature for the coterminous United States during the recently concluded 2016 was 54.9 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 2.9 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average. As a result, 2016 was the nation's second warmest year since 1895, following behind the warmest year of 2012, which had a national average annual temperature of 55.3 degrees. All states reported annual statewide temperatures that were within the top six on record for each state. Georgia reported its warmest year in 122 years. While the average maximum (afternoon) temperature across the nation was the third highest on record, the average minimum (or predawn) national temperature was the highest on record.
The nationwide average precipitation across the 48 contiguous states for 2016 was 31.70 inches, or 1.76 inches above the 20th century average. Therefore, the year the 24th wettest year on record since 1895. Eleven states across the Northeast and the Southeast reported below to much below average annual precipitation totals. Connecticut and Massachusetts in the Northeast along with Alabama and Georgia in the Southeast had annual precipitation totals that ranked within the lowest 11 years on record. . On the other hand, 20 states that were primarily across the central and western sections of the nation had above to much above average annual precipitation. Minnesota and Wisconsin experienced their second wettest years in the last 122 years, while North Dakota, Michigan and Louisiana had annual totals that ranked in the top 12. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]
NOTE: A description is provided of the climatological rankings employed by NCDC for their monthly, seasonal and annual maps. [NOAA/NCEI]
A feature was posted that described the record or near-record warmth during the calendar year 2016 in Alaska.
[NOAA Climate.gov News]

Annual national drought report for 2016 -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information has posted its 2016 annual drought report online. This report describes how the areas experiencing drought and wet conditions changed throughout the last calendar year. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (a commonly used indicator of drought conditions), approximately 3 percent of the area of the contiguous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the start of January 2016. Although the areal extent of the drought expanded during the spring and summer, reaching to nearly 22 percent of the nation in late August, widespread precipitation in December caused drought conditions to shrink during December to 13.2 percent of the "Lower 48 states" at the end of the year.
Extreme weather/climate events in US during 2016 -- Last week NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported that according to preliminary data, 15 weather and climate disaster events occurred during 2016 across the nation that each produced at least $1 billion in losses. These events included a drought event, four flooding events, eight severe convective (thunderstorm) events, a tropical cyclone event and a wildfire event. Furthermore, these 15 events appear to have caused 138 deaths across the nation. Note that the 15 "billion-dollar" events in 2016 were more than than the 10 weather and climate extreme events that occurred during 2015 claiming 155 lives, but less than the record number of 16 events in one year (since 1980) that was set in 2011 when 764 people were killed by these events. Further updates to this tentative list for 2016 will be made in the next several months. [NOAA NCEI News]
Updated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & El Niño advisory outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their La Niña advisory, although they were expecting a transition to an ENSO-neutral situation with neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions beginning in February and continuing through the remainder of the first half of 2017. Below-average sea surface temperatures (SST) had been found across the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean in December 2016, a sign of the continuation of a weak La Niña. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies values across these sections of the equatorial Pacific were on the order of 0.5 Celsius degrees below normal. In addition to the pattern of sea surface temperature anomalies, the atmosphere patterns were also consistent with the weak La Niña in terms of the location of atmospheric convection and the low-level winds. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] A blog written by a contractor scientist from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center describing the development of La Niña conditions early in Northern Hemisphere autumn and peaking in late November. Attention was also paid to the global precipitation and temperature patterns for last fall (October through December 2016) and how they compared with other La Niña events. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
New state climate summaries provide local information on assessing climate change -- An assessment team from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the North Carolina State University's Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites-North Carolina has recently released two to four-page NOAA State Summaries for each of the 50 states that are meant to provide the public with assessments of climate change on the state level. This downloadable set of climate summaries were produced in response to demand for state-level information pertaining to the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3) and consist of observed and projected climate change information based upon a synthesis of historical and plausible future climate conditions focusing upon the characteristics of the individual state's physical climate and coastal issues. [NOAA NCEI News]
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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]

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