21-25 June 2010

• Lightning Awareness Week -- The nation will celebrate its tenth annual National Lightning Safety Awareness Week, this upcoming week, 20 through 26 June 2010, as declared by the National Weather Service. On average, 66 people in the nation are killed annual by lightning and numerous more are injured. A cartoon character, Leon the Lightning Lion, is promoting the slogan "When thunder roars, go indoors!" The National Weather Service, in conjunction with other sponsors, has a "Lightning Safety" website, http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/, that has links to a variety of informational and teacher resource materials. As many as 20 states are also observing this week with statewide activities. A video can be downloaded with Quicktime software featuring a 2009 Miss America hopeful, Ellen Bryan, whose sister was struck and seriously injured by lightning. [NOAA News]

• Eye on the tropics --- During the last week some tropical cyclone activity was found in the Eastern North Pacific basin. A tropical depression, identified as Tropical Depression 2-E formed off the Mexican coast at midweek. However, this system was short-lived, as another system formed nearby. Information and satellite imagery for Tropical Depression 2-E can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  The next system was Tropical Storm Blas, the second named tropical cyclone of the 2010 hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific. This tropical storm formed off the Mexican coast late in the week and traveled toward the west-northwest. By Sunday afternoon, Blas weakened and was downgraded to a tropical depression. Check the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information concerning Tropical Storm Blas.
  A third named tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Celia formed well off the southwest coast of Mexico and traveled toward the west-southwest. By Sunday afternoon, this system had intensified into a category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale), which was the first hurricane of the season.
  A tropical wave moved westward across the North Atlantic and Caribbean over the weekend, passing across the Antilles, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. This system was identified as System 94L. For further discussion on this system, along with satellite imagery, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.

• The British anticipate an active Atlantic hurricane season -- Forecasters at the United Kingdom's Met Office recently issued their prediction of this upcoming Atlantic hurricane season. Like their American counterparts at the National Hurricane Center and at Colorado State University, the British call for an active season, with as many as 20 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms). Using their "Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index", they anticipate stronger and longer lasting tropical cyclones. [UK Met Office]
• Atlantic heating as hurricane season commences -- Scientists and forecasters have been monitoring the waters of the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season in a region that they call the "Main Development Region," which is the preferential region for hurricane development. Sea surface temperatures for the last four months have been higher than for any February through May since records began in 1850, which may result in more frequent and more intense tropical cyclones. Several reasons for these record high temperatures have been discussed, including the effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the long-term increase in global temperatures. [Discovery News]

• Canadian seasonal climate summary for Spring 2010 -- Climate scientists with Environment Canada recently reported that the nationwide average temperature during meteorological spring 2010 (March through May) was the warmest spring since nationwide records began in 1948. Nationwide, spring precipitation across Canada was slightly above average, as the Prairie Provinces, southern British Columbia and the Canadian Archipelgo had above average precipitation. On the other hand, dry conditions were found across southeastern Canada, from the Great Lakes to the Maritime Provinces, along with central Canada. [Environment Canada]

• Review of global weather and climate for May 2010 -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center who calculated the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for May 2010 from preliminary weather data have determined that the recently concluded month was the warmest May since global climate records began in 1880. Furthermore, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the highest for the last three months (March through May), considered meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere (fall in the Southern Hemisphere), and for the first five months of the calendar year 2010. The worldwide average land surface temperature for May was the highest for May since 1880, while the global ocean surface temperature was second highest on record.
  Snow cover extent across the Northern Hemisphere during May was also the smallest on record. While Arctic sea ice was the ninth smallest since satellite records began in 1979, the sea ice around Antarctica was the fourth largest for any May on record. [NOAA News]
  See also [NOAA Global State of the Climate] for additional information.

• A dry start to the year in the British Isles -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's Met Office recently released statistics indicating that the first five months (January-May) 2010 was the driest in over 40 years. This dry start to the year contrasts with areas of France and Italy that have experienced wet weather. [UK Met Office] Editor's note: The statistics and graphs for meteorological spring 2010 in the United Kingdom are available. EJH
• May drought reports -- The National Climate Data Center have posted its May 2010 drought reports online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index as a gauge, approximately two percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of May, while five percent of the area had moderate to extreme drought. On the other hand, 15 percent of the area in the Lower 48 had severely to extremely wet conditions.

• La Niña watch issued -- During the first week of June, scientists at the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center issued an La Niña Watch as atmospheric and oceanic conditions around the world appeared to be favorable for a transition from El Niño conditions to La Niña conditions during Northern Hemisphere Summer (June, July and August) 2010. Since the El Niño dissipated in May, the El Niño Advisory was allowed to expire. [NWS Climate Prediction Center]

• Space-age tsunami prediction system is demonstrated -- Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently demonstrated elements of its prototype tsunami prediction system, which is designed to quickly and accurately assess large earthquakes and to estimate the size of a tsunami that could develop as a result of the earthquake. Real-time ground motion data from NASA's Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) network are used to successfully predict the size of the resulting tsunami. Tests were run on this system, using elevation data from the NASA/French Space AgencyJason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellites. [NASA JPL]
• Assessing the deadly Arkansas flooding -- Torrential rain fell across southwestern Arkansas at the end of the second week of June that resulted in a flash flood along the Little Missouri River that killed 20 people.
  A team of scientists from the US Geological Survey was deployed to the watershed to document the disaster and to study the river flow and the height of the floodwater. The USGS recently released a new service, called WaterAlert, that allows users to receive text or email updates about specific river flows, groundwater levels, water temperatures, rainfall and water quality at any of the sites where USGS collects real-time water information. This system also helps inform emergency responders and those who would be along the river of potential flooding. [USGS Newsroom]
  An image obtained from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite made five days after the flash flood shows that the Little Missouri River had returned to normal conditions. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Spring reaches the Arctic -- While meteorological summer began nearly three weeks ago, the snow and ice across the Arctic basin has begun to wane as evident from recent images made by instruments onboard NASA's satellites:
• A series of three MODIS images made by the Terra satellite over a nearly two and one half-week span in early June shows the snow disappearing from Alaska's North Slope, along with the formation of ponds from meltwater. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• A MODIS image from the Aqua satellite last week shows smoke and the location of wildfires signaling the start of the annual spring fire season in northwestern Canada's boreal forest near the Mackenzie River. This image also shows that the sea ice has retreated from the coast, leaving ice-free or open sections in the Beaufort Sea. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Winds, sand and gas emissions along the African coast -- An image made by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite last week shows the effects of easterly trade winds along the Atlantic coast of Namibia last week. Dust plumes from African deserts were being carried out over the Atlantic Ocean, while plumes of sulfur and organic sediments in the waters of the Atlantic attest to bubbles of hydrogen sulfide reaching the surface, reacting with the surface waters and organic materials. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Determining the most likely hour for summer rain -- Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County analyzed hourly precipitation data for a ten-year period across the United States to ascertain if any hours of the day had a greater chance for summer rainfall. They found that the peak rainfall occurred during the early afternoon across the Rocky Mountains, but later in the day across the Great Plains, but with the peak hour occurring during the early morning across the Midwest. The Florida Peninsula experiences its peak rainfall during the late afternoon hours. [LiveScience]
• Airplanes can punch holes in clouds and stimulate precipitation -- Atmospheric scientists, including those at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), have been studying how airplanes can seed clouds, resulting in interesting cloud formations, holes in the clouds and local precipitation tracks. [NCAR/UCAR]
• Vivid sunset from space -- A photograph taken recently by an astronaut on the International Space Station shows a spectacular sunset over the Indian Ocean. The gradation of colors gives an indication of the various layers in the atmosphere, ranging from the relatively dense troposphere near the Earth's surface up through the thin stratosphere and rarified upper atmosphere that includes the mesosphere. (Editor's note: This image shows the relative thin gaseous envelope that surrounds the planet and sustains life. EJH) [NASA Earth Observatory]

• More ocean-observing needed for monitoring Antarctic climate change -- A group of oceanographers from Rutgers University; the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA; Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; the British Antarctic Survey; California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo; and the Polar Ocean Research Group in Sheridan, MT recently called for more observations made of the Southern Oceans surrounding Antarctica, especially around the western Antarctic Peninsula in order to monitor and ascertain the effects of changing climate on Antarctica. The researchers climate that climate of the western Antarctic Peninsula is changing more rapidly than elsewhere on the continent and their proposed polar ocean observation program would be a cost-effective approach to the prediction of the impacts of climate change on all marine ecosystems. [Rutgers University]

• African drought affected by climate change over North Atlantic -- An international research team from Israel's University of Haifa, the French National Meteorological Service, Columbia University and the University of San Diego recently reported on their findings indicating that cyclic changes in the sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean along with the atmospheric pressure over this basin appear to affect the drought across Africa's sub-Sahara region called the Sahel. Low sea surface temperatures resulted in drought in the Sahel, while warmer waters would result in rain. In addition, drought coincided with weaker Atlantic hurricanes. The researchers found two "natural climate signals" in the sea surface temperature and the sea-level pressure: a multi-decadal signal with a periodicity exceeding 40 years and a quasi-decadal signal with periodicity ranging between 8 and 14 years. [University of Haifa]
• Rethinking the ocean conveyor belt model is needed -- An oceanographer at Duke University recently called for reexamination of the giant ocean conveyor belt model that has been used to describe the large scale transport of ocean waters from pole to pole, along with its effect upon climate. The theory has invoked the concept of overturning driven by density differences due to temperature and salinity variation. She claims that an in-depth consideration of the role of eddies and the wind field is needed. [EurekAlert!]
• Climate-induced ocean changes may impact millions of residents-- Marine scientists from Australia's University of Queensland, the University of Maine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill warn that current changes in global climate have resulted in changes in the Earth's oceans at unprecedented rates, which could potentially lead to dire consequences for hundreds of millions of the planet's residents. [EurekAlert!]
• Water has more than three phases -- At "normal" temperatures and pressures, water (H₂O) exists in three phases: ice, liquid and vapor. However, as many as 15 phases have been identified under extreme temperatures and pressures. Recently, University of Utah chemists have found the coexistence of ice and liquid at very low temperatures (-90 degrees Celsius) in the upper atmosphere even after water molecules crystallize. This research may have implications on the formation of clouds that regulate global radiation and hence, global climate. [EurekAlert!]
• Solution for easing one environmental problem worsens another -- Several researchers claim that the use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as replacements for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to minimize damage to the stratospheric ozone layer appears to have created at least two new environmental problems. HCFCs appear to be "super greenhouse gases" that are 4500 times more potent than carbon dioxide and that these molecules could undergo photodissociation in the atmosphere, forming oxalic acid, one of the components in acid rain. [EurekAlert!]
• Volcanic emissions used to study past atmospheric conditions -- A geology professor at Louisiana State University and NOAA colleagues have used computer models and geological data to simulate the effects of volcanic eruptions on the atmospheric conditions across the northern high Plains of North America due to massive volcanic eruptions that injected sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. They modeled the sulfur gas oxidation chemistry. [EurekAlert!]
• Flowers help make tropics wetter and cooler -- Using a computer model to simulate past climates, researchers at the University of Chicago have found that flowering plants appear to have made the tropics wetter and cooler than non-flowering plants. The researchers point to the importance of flowering-plant physiology to climate regulation in wet rainforests. [University of Chicago]
• Alpine hazard risk increasing with climate change -- A team of researchers from the United Kingdom's University of Exeter and Austrian colleagues have found that two extreme weather events in the Eastern European Alps – the 2003 heat wave and the 2005 floods – appear to be associated with the changing climate and that these type of events could increase in frequency, resulting in increased risk of hazards in alpine regions. [EurekAlert!]

• Global warming slowed by high-yield agriculture -- Earth scientists at Stanford University have determined that advances in high-yield agriculture since the 1960s have substantially reduced the amount of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere by the equivalent of 590 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, thereby resulting in a slowing of the rise in global temperature. Part of the reduction has been in the lower need for conversion of forests to farmland. [Stanford University]

• Link found between air pollution, increased temperature and sleep-disordered breathing -- Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health who conducted the three-year Sleep Heart Health Study that included more than 6000 participants report that they have established the first link between air pollution and sleep-disordered breathing, a known cause of cardiovascular diseases. Their analysis included EPA air pollution monitoring data from seven metropolitan areas across the US. [EurekAlert!]
• Leaded gasoline represented a major source of lead exposure in 20th century -- Researchers from Case Western Reserve University claim that leaded gasoline was the dominant source of lead exposure to residents of large metropolitan areas during the last 60 years of the 20th century. The lead was ingested and inhaled from water and air pollution. Other sources included lead paint and lead soldering in food cans. While the health threat from lead affects children the most, the effects appear to continue well into adulthood. [EurekAlert!]
• 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, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.