WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

3-7 July 2017

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 21 August 2017. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

Participate in Field Photo Weekends -- The public is invited to join thousands of other citizen scientists from across the nation in the Field Photo Weekend during the Fourth of July Weekend (1-4 July 2017) by taking six digital photographs at a place that you choose and submit these photos via a smart phone app or on-line with your computer. These photos, to be taken in the four cardinal directions (North, East, South and West), upward and downward, will be placed in the Geo-Referenced Field Photo Library, which is a community- and citizen- science data portal for people to share, visualize and archive geo-referenced photos from the fields in the world. Field Photo Weekend is a partnership between CoCoRaHS, the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) and the Earth Observation and Modeling Facility (EOMF)
By taking photos this weekend along with another Field Photo Weekend later this year (Labor Day weekends), one can begin to visualize seasonal changes in the local landscape. Similar Field Photo Weekends were held earlier this year on the Presidents' Day (18-20 Feb. 2017) and the Memorial Day (27-29 May 2017) Weekends.
Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun during the midday hours of Monday, 3 July 2017 (officially at 2011Z, which is equivalent to 4:11 PM EDT or 3:11 AM CDT, etc.). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year during the early morning hours of 3 January 2018.
Weather in Philadelphia for the 4th of July 1776--This Tuesday is the 4th of July or Independence Day. Sean Potter, a consulting meteorologist who has an interest in history, wrote an article four years ago that describes the weather observations made during July 1776 in Philadelphia by Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence. [Weatherwise Magazine] Have a happy and safe 4th of July! EJH
"Warmest day of the year" approaches -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly National Climatic Data Center) has created a "Warmest Day of the Year" map for the contiguous United States based upon the highest daily maximum temperatures of the year as calculated from the 1981-2010 climate normals. Additional maps are available for Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Many places across the nation will experience their highest daily temperatures within the next two to three weeks. However, some locations in Arizona and New Mexico affected by the Southwest Monsoon reach their maximum temperatures during the last two weeks of June. On the other hand, coastal locations along the Pacific Ocean and in Hawaii would have the highest temperatures in September because of the thermal lag due to proximity of the ocean. [NOAA National Climatic Data Center News]
An AMS Education app is recognized as part of US Climate Resilience Toolkit -- The AMS Education Program Climate at a Glance Application entitled "Climate Variability or Climate Change?" https://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/ecs/cag/ has been placed in the US Global Research Program's US Climate Resilience Toolkit at https://toolkit.climate.gov/tool/climate-glance-application. (Editor's note Thanks go to Dr. Ira Geer, AMS Education Program Director Emeritus, for providing these links to this app that he helped design. EJH)
View the "Capital of Protected Places" video -- The public is invited to view the 2-minute "Earth is Blue" video entitled "Capital of Protected Places" that describes the role that the National Marine Sanctuaries play in the protection of the nation's marine heritage and in the offering of marvelous places for the public to visit, relax and recreate. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries System' Earth is Blue Series]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week two named tropical cyclones developed over the tropical waters of the North Pacific Ocean:

In eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Dora continued to travel toward the west-northwest off the southwestern coast of Mexico at the start of last week after forming over the previous weekend. As it traveled, Dora intensified to become the first eastern Pacific hurricane of 2017 early Monday morning. At that time Hurricane Dora was located approximately 170 miles to the south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Some rain associated with Dora fell across coastal sections of Mexico, while ocean swell generated by the hurricane's winds produced high surf along the immediate coast. By Tuesday afternoon Hurricane Dora had weakened to a tropical storm after passing to the north of Mexico's Socorro Island. As of Wednesday morning, Tropical Storm Dora had become a remnant low as it was located approximately 320 miles to the southwest of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. Additional information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Dora are available on the NASA Hurricane Page
In western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Nanmadol formed from a tropical depression that was located to the east of Taiwan over this past weekend. Nanmadol represents the sixth named tropical cyclone of 2017 in the western North Pacific. This tropical storm traveled northward over the weekend, spreading locally heavy rain over the Yaeyama Island group, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of late Sunday (local time), Tropical Storm Nanmadol was located approximately 275 miles to the southwest of Kadena Air Base near the city of Okinawa. Current forecasts indicate that Nanmadol would continue intensifying, while accelerating toward the northeast during the first few days of this week, before weakening and becoming an extratropical storm by the time it would pass across the Japanese island of Honshu.

Advisories posted for potential tropical cyclones may provide more-timely warnings -- An article was recently posted by the Branch Chief of the Hurricane Specialist Unit of NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) on "Inside the Eye", the official blog of NHC, that discusses how a change in policy this year now provides NHC the option to issue "Potential Tropical Cyclone" advisories. These "Potential Tropical Cyclone" advisories, watches, and warnings would be issued for tropical disturbances that have not yet become a tropical cyclone, but which pose the threat of bringing tropical storm or hurricane conditions to land areas within 48 hours. NHC issued potential tropical cyclone advisories in advance of the development of Tropical Storms Bret and Cindy earlier in June. [NOAA National Hurricane Center Official Blog]
Search to start for new director of National Hurricane Center -- NOAA will be making a nationwide search for a new director of its National Hurricane Center (NHC), to replace Dr. Rick Knabb, who has retired to return to serve as the tropical weather expert at The Weather Channel. As of this summer, NHC has had ten directors since 1955. Additional historical information on NHC is available. [National Weather Service News]
Regional fishery council appointments for 2017 announced -- Early last week the US Department of Commerce announced the appointment of 22 members to three-year terms on the nation's eight regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries Service to manage ocean fish stocks. The eight regional councils have 72 appointed members and some of this year's appointments will be new to these councils, while others are returning members. The terms for the recently appointed members begins on 12 August 2017. [NOAA News] or [NOAA Fisheries News]
A "GulfCorps" program is funded for ecological restoration along Gulf of Mexico coastline -- NOAA Fisheries recently awarded The Nature Conservancy $7 million from the RESTORE Act grant to establish a GulfCorps program that will contribute to ecological restoration across the Gulf states. The GulfCorps will provide labor for on-the-ground restoration projects benefiting coastal habitats and water quality. [NOAA Habitat Conservation]
Loggerhead sea turtles released into Atlantic following test of turtle-safe fishing gear -- NOAA scientists and their colleagues at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently released 215 loggerhead sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. These sea turtles were used to test the effectiveness of Turtle Excluder Devices in shrimp trawls, which are turtle friendly fishing gear used in commercial fisheries. [NOAA Video]
Upgrade of global weather and ocean observing system is planned -- In late May, NOAA officials met with ocean observations experts from six nations and 13 global organizations to plan for the redesign of the Tropical Pacific Observing System by the year 2020 (TPOS 2020). TPOS is an ocean-based monitoring network comprised of a variety of observing technologies, operated by NOAA and other foreign partners, designed to provide ocean data needed to understand important environmental phenomenon and to develop weather and climate forecasts for the US and countries around the world. The proposed enhancements to TPOS involve an optimization of buoy locations, the encouragement of more voluntary ship and research cruise observations, and the incorporation of new, more affordable ocean observing technologies. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
Satellite detects gamma rays emitted by tropical weather systems -- An image was produced from data collected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) onboard NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST) that shows a terrestrial gamma ray flash emanating from a cloud surrounding a tropical depression that eventually became Hurricane Julio in August 2014. Gamma ray flashes are short bursts of electromagnetic radiation that is not visible to the human eye. The gamma ray flash could be produced by high-energy events that would be generated in thunderstorms, such as in a tropical cyclone. [NASA Earth Observatory]
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:

3 July 1903...The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced and completed between San Francisco on the US West Coast, Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila in the Philippines. After testing, the first official message was sent the next day. A cable between San Francisco and Hawaii had been established at the beginning of the same year, with its first official message sent on 1 Jan 1903. This technological event ended Hawaii's isolation by connecting it to the mainland U.S. and the rest of the world. The cable was a mainstay of communications into the early 1950s when newer technology rendered it obsolete. (The 1902 all-British telegraph line from Canada to Australia and New Zealand was the first line to cross the Pacific Ocean.) (Today in Science History)
3 July 1992...At 11 PM EDT, several rouge waves to heights of 18 feet crashed ashore at Daytona Beach, FL. Sailboats were tossed onto cars, 200 vehicles damaged and 75 minor injuries reported. While the exact cause was unknown, morning storms were moving parallel to the coast approximately 430 miles to the east. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
4 July 1687...An early experience of a tropical revolving storm was made by Captain William Dampier, whose ship survived what he called a "tuffoon" off the coast of China. In New Voyage Round the World, (published in 1697) Dampier wrote that this violent whirlwind storm had a calm central eye, and its winds moved from opposite directions as the storm moved passed. This was one of the earliest known European descriptions of a typhoon, which also presented a new understanding that storms somehow move, rather than remain stationary. During his ocean travels, he kept a detailed journal, noting native cultures, and made careful descriptions of natural history which in effect made him an early contributor to scientific exploration. (Today in Science History)
4 July 1840...The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer, RMS Britannia, departed from Liverpool, England bound for Halifax, NS on its first transatlantic passenger cruise. (Wikipedia)
4 July 1903...President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first official message over the new cable across the Pacific Ocean between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. (Today in Science History)
5 July 1805...Robert FitzRoy, British naval officer, hydrographer and meteorologist, was born. He was also commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle aboard which Charles Darwin sailed around the world as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. FitzRoy retired from active duty in 1850 and from 1854 devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). His death on 30 April 1865 was by suicide, during a bout of depression. (Today in Science History)
5 July 1916...An early season hurricane produced 82-mph winds, an 11.6-foot tide, and a barometric pressure of 28.92 inches at Mobile, AL. (David Ludlum)
5 July 1989...Moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Allison triggered thunderstorms over the Middle Atlantic Coast Region, which deluged Wilmington, DE with a record 6.83 inches of rain in 24 hours, including 6.37 inches in just six hours. Up to ten inches of rain was reported at Claymont, northeast of Wilmington. July 1989 was thus the wettest month in seventy years for Wilmington, with a total of 12.63 inches of rain. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
6 July 1484...Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão located the mouth of the Congo River. (Wikipedia)
6 July 1988...The world's worst offshore accident occurred when 167 oil workers were killed by explosions and fires that destroyed the Piper Alpha drilling platform in the British sector of the North Sea.
7 July 1901...First three-day weather forecast issued for the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
7 July 1952...The liner SS United States made the fastest-ever eastbound crossing of the Atlantic of 3 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes on her maiden voyage from Nantucket Light Ship off New York's Long Island to Bishop Rock Lighthouse in western England.
7 July 1994...The remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto finally departed, having drowned parts of Alabama, Georgia and Florida under several feet of water. Enterprise, AL recorded an incredible 21.58 inches of rain from 1-7 July. At its peak, flood waters covered a total of 900,000 acres. (National Weather Service files)
8 July 1497...The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, set sail from Lisbon, Portugal with four ships on the first direct European voyage to India, first rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and reaching Calicut on India's southwest coast on 20 May 1498. (Wikipedia)
8 July 1879...The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, CA.
9-10 July 1979...Hurricane Bob was born in the Gulf of Mexico, becoming the first Atlantic Hurricane to be given a male name by the 10th. It brought up to 5" to Indiana as the remnants moved across southern parts of the Hoosier State. (National Weather Service files)