WEEKLY WEATHER & CLIMATE NEWS

WEEKLY WEATHER AND CLIMATE NEWS

9-13 July 2012

Eye on the tropics -- In the eastern North Pacific basin, a tropical depression strengthened to Tropical Storm Daniel during the middle section of last week over the waters of the eastern Pacific approximately 450 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. By this past Saturday, this tropical storm had intensified to become the third hurricane of the 2012 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific as it traveled westward. This category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) was forecast to continue traveling toward the west away from the Mexican coast and weaken. Additional information on Hurricane Daniel including satellite images appears on the NASA Hurricane Page.
A tropical depression, identified as Tropical Depression 5-E, formed to the west of the southwestern coast of Mexico on Saturday. This depression intensified to become Tropical Storm Emilia late Saturday as it moved toward the west-northwest. Emilia could become a hurricane by Monday.
Tracking the recent deadly derecho --NASA has made available a variety of satellite images including a loop from NOAA's GOES -13 satellite that shows the eastward progression of the derecho, a linear cluster of severe thunderstorms with strong and damaging straight-line winds, from the Midwest to the Middle Atlantic States on Friday, 29 June 2012. [NASA Earth] As the storm speed across northern Indiana, thunderstorm winds gusted to 91 mph. A picture of a shelf cloud was taken by an individual in Indiana that shows the leading edge of the derecho. [NASA Earth Observatory] A detailed analysis of this system has been made. [ by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Northern Indiana] The derecho caused widespread power outages from the Midwest to the Middle Atlantic States, affecting several million customers. Nighttime images from before and after the storm made by a sensor on NASA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite show the widespread power outages in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metropolitan areas. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Editor's note NOAA's Storm Prediction Center maintains a "About Derechos" site that describes detailed information on derechos, including a derecho climatology and a list of some of the noteworthy derechos of the last four decades. EJH
El Niño watch is posted -- Early last week, forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issued an El Niño watch as they foresaw a 50 percent chance of the development of El Niño conditions during the second half of 2012. An El Niño watch is issued when conditions appear favorable for the development of El Niño conditions (sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific that are at least 0.5 Celsius degrees above average for at least one month) within the next six months. Currently, equatorial sea surface temperatures (SST) have been observed to be above average in the eastern Pacific Ocean. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
Canadian seasonal climate summary for Spring 2012 -- Climate scientists with Environment Canada recently reported that the nationwide average temperature during meteorological spring 2012 (March through May) was 1.6 Celsius degrees above the 1961-1990 normal spring temperature, making this past spring the ninth warmest spring since nationwide records began in 1948. Nearly all of the nation experienced above average spring temperatures, with only British Columbia, along with the Yukon and Northwest Territories have close to average temperatures. Southern sections of Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec experienced much above average spring temperatures, with some locations experiencing positive temperature anomalies (departures from normal) that were greater than 3 Celsius degrees. Nationwide, spring precipitation across Canada was slightly above the 1961-1990 average, with Spring 2011 being the 24th wettest in 65 years. Northern and eastern Canada were relatively dry, while the Prairie Provinces and southern sections of the Yukon and Northwest Territories reported above average spring precipitation. [Environment Canada]
Radar signals cause interference with satellite data collection -- Scientists and engineers with the European Space Agency (ESA) have found that certain radar units, especially those associated with military operations over the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, have created radio interference with the signals being transmitted from ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite and from NASA's Aquarius mission. [ESA]
Incident meteorologists provide critical support to firefighters -- A group of NOAA Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) who are specially trained in wildfire meteorology and forecasting are providing valuable current observational data and timely weather forecasts to firefighters and the public in the immediate area around the wildfires that are continuing across the West. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center also issues daily fire weather outlooks. [NOAA]
Smoke from western wildfires spreads across nation --An image produced by data obtained on the Independence Day holiday from the Ozone Mapper Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite shows smoke from the western wildfires had spread eastward to the upper Mississippi Valley and the western Great Lakes. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Climate appears to be one factor in wildfires --In a recent interview, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discussed whether changing climate is playing a role in the recent wildfire outbreak across. He notes that changing climate is just one of several factors in the development of these widespread wildfires. [NASA JPL]
Last week's solar flare is monitored -- An image obtained by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft last Thursday morning shows a moderate-classified flare emanating from the Sun's surface. This flare, near a sunspot, could result in radio blackouts on Earth. A flare classification scheme is available. [NASA GSFC]
Record-breaking expanse of national drought noted --In preparing their US Drought Monitor, officials at the National Drought Mitigation Center noted that nearly 47 percent of the land area across the nation was under drought conditions during this past week. In addition, nearly 56 percent of the 48 coterminous states were in moderate to exceptional drought. This area of drought is the largest since the US Drought Monitor was begun 12 years ago. [University of Nebraska-Lincoln News Releases]
Vegetation in Colorado Rockies is changed by nitrogen pollution -- Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder report that high amounts of nitrogen compounds associated with air pollution produced by power plants, motor vehicles and agriculture appears to be changing the alpine vegetation in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. They warn that the emission of nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere could result in irreversible changes in the biodiversity and soil chemistry. [University of Colorado Boulder]
Small volcanoes could help cool climate -- Scientists from the University of Saskatchewan, Rutgers University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Wyoming have found that aerosols from a relatively small volcanic eruption can be sent sufficiently high into the atmosphere by weather systems, where these aerosols could affect global temperatures. Their conclusions were based upon their study of data collected from satellites following last year's eruption of the Nabro volcano in Eritrea in northeast Africa. University of Saskatchewan Research]
New "bottom-up" estimates made of China's carbon dioxide emissions --A team of atmospheric scientists from Harvard University and China's Nanjing University have produced the first "bottom-up" estimates of China's carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere between 2005 and 2009. The bottom-up approach involves estimating the emissions based on measurements of pollutants at the local level, rather than the often-used "top-down" technique that uses annual national energy statistics obtained from governmental sources. The new and more accurate approach contains the first statistically rigorous estimates of the uncertainties surrounding these emission estimates. [Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences]
Reduced sea ice and increased global atmospheric temperatures contribute to Arctic warming -- Researchers at Australia's University of Melbourne report that the combination of melting sea ice and increased global air temperatures is contributing to the high rate of warming in the Arctic, where temperatures have been increasing at rates that approach four times the global average. [The University of Melbourne Newsroom]
New website to offer tips on coastal flooding preparation -- NOAA's Office of Coast Survey recently announced a new website that is designed to provide the public with information necessary to protect life and property from coastal flooding. In addition to this website www.stormsurge.noaa.gov , NOAA has also created another website NOAA QuickLook that provides current water levels along the coasts during severe storms including hurricanes. [NOAA News]
Monitoring three decades of growth of metropolitan Washington, DC from space -- Comparison of images of the Washington, DC metropolitan area obtained from the Thematic Mapper onboard NASA's Landsat 5 satellite in August 1984 and in August 2011 reveal the substantial growth that has occurred in the region over the last 28 years as well as some of the different ways that various communities have attempted to regulate this growth. [NASA Earth Observatory]
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]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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