WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

26-30 December 2016

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 23 January 2017. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the AMS DS Earth's Climate Systems Central Staff!

Ed Hopkins

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2016 Campaign is underway -- The thirteenth and last in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2017 will continue through Wednesday, 30 December. 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 (Perseus in the Northern Hemisphere and Orion in the Southern Hemisphere) 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 next and first series in the 2017 campaign is scheduled for 19-28 January 2017. [GLOBE at Night]
It's Sure Dark in the morning! -- Have you noticed that if you are an early riser, that mornings remain dark and somewhat dreary although local sunsets are becoming noticeably later during the last week? During the last week of December and the first week of January, many locations throughout the country will experience their latest sunrise times of the year, even though the winter solstice occurred during the early morning hours of Wednesday, 21 December 2016. The exact day for the latest sunrise depends upon the latitude, so you may want to check the date in your locale from the sunrise tables appearing in an on-line, interactive service available for the entire year at most cities in the United States. The reason for the late sunrise now rather than on the winter solstice is because the sun is not as precise a timekeeper as our watches. Because of a combination of factors involved with Earth's elliptical orbit about the sun and the tilt of Earth's spin axis with respect to the plane of the ecliptic, the sun appeared to "run fast" by as much as 15 minutes as compared with clock time in November. In early December, most locations experienced their earliest sunsets. However, with the approach of the winter solstice and perihelion (the smallest earth-sun distance during the mid-morning of 4 January 2017), the apparent sun slows during December and finally lags the clock by 12 minutes in February. Consequently, a noticeable and welcome trend toward later sunsets can be detected by the end of December, especially by those residents in the northern part of the country. However, the latest sunrises occur at most locales in early January, meaning a continuation of the dark and dreary mornings for another week or two.
Additional "leap second" will lengthen 2016 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that a "leap second" should be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2016. Since 1972, as many as 26 "leap seconds" have been inserted on the last day of December (15 times) and June (11 times). The most recent insertion has been on 30 June 2015. On this coming Saturday, 31 December 2016, the IERS atomic clocks will be stopped for one second just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. Tidal friction and other natural phenomena have slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. [US Naval Observatory]
Climatology of Southeast NCAA bowl games updated -- The Southeast Regional Climate Center has provided a listing of the weather history for sixteen NCAA college football bowl games that are to be played within the next two weeks across the Southeastern States. This climatology includes the warmest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days in the particular bowl's history.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

A global review of November 2016 temperatures -- Preliminary analysis of temperature data by scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) indicates that the worldwide combined ocean and land surface temperature for November 2016 was the fifth highest global November surface temperature since a sufficiently dense and reliable network began in 1880. This combined global temperature was approximately 0.73 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century (1901-2000) average November temperature. They also found that the global ocean surface temperature was the second highest for any November since 1880, while the global land surface temperature was the twelfth highest temperature reading for any November on record.
In addition, the scientists reported that the seasonal global land and ocean temperature for the three-months of September through November was approximately 0.77 Celsius degrees above the 20th century average, making this three-month average the second highest temperature departure from average on record. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]
A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for November 2016 is available from NCEI.
According to satellite data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the sea ice over the Arctic Ocean during November 2016 had the smallest areal extent for any November since satellite-derived ice records began in 1979. In addition, the sea ice around Antarctica had the smallest November ice extent on record. The Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent was the fifth largest November snow cover in the 51-year period of record that began in 1966. [NOAA/NCEI Global Snow & Ice]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

New detailed Greenland glacier data released -- NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission recently released preliminary data on the heights of Greenland coastal glaciers from its first airborne campaign in March 2016 using an instrument called the GLacier and Ice Surface Topography INterferometer (GLISTIN-A). This instrument, which is carried aboard an aircraft, dramatic increases coverage of Greenland's coastal glaciers and will provide data on glacier surface heights that is accurate to within three feet or less vertically when available to interested users by February 2017.[NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Feature]
Nation's water challenges and security addressed -- NOAA has recently released its "NOAA Water Initiative Vision and Five-Year Plan" that calls for partnerships across multiple sectors of the agency designed to collect, process and deliver water information to meet the needs of the nation during the 21st century. The six major line offices within NOAA that will be involved in this initiative are the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Weather Service (NWS), the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO ). The resources of the National Water Center will be used to provide next-generation, science-based water information and decision support services. Integrated water prediction services will be developed in collaboration with decision makers, partners, and users. [NOAA News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

American lobster populations pushed northward by warming Atlantic waters -- An animation shows how the catch distribution of the American Lobster (Homarus americanus) has been moving northward in the coastal waters of the North Atlantic Ocean from off the Middle Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Maine in northern New England between 1967 and 2014. This northward shift in the lobster population appears to be driven by an increase in sea surface temperatures in the coastal Northeast by approximately 0.2 Celsius degrees per decade between 1982 and 2006, a rate that is nearly double the global rate. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Regional Action Plans developed to help implement NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy -- NOAA Fisheries recently released six Regional Action Plans (RAPs) that are intended to help guide implementation of its Climate Science Strategy in each of the regions stretching along the coasts of the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico the Pacific Coast, Alaska and the Pacific Islands. The NOAA Fisheries Science Centers and Regional Offices and their partners developed these RAPs that identify priority needs and specific actions to be taken in the next five years. The goal is to provide decision makers with information needed to reduce impacts and to increase resilience of valuable marine resources. [NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology]
The chief scientist for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service recently wrote a blog regarding the RAPs that describes how changes in the climate and oceans have had profound effects upon the nation's fisheries along with the communities and business that depend upon these fisheries. [NOAA News]
Temperature history of global coral reefs is examined -- Using satellite data, scientists from the NOAA Coral Reef Watch have examined the trends and variability of sea surface temperatures at over 60,000 reef locations around the world between 1985 through 2012. They found that 97 percent of these locations experienced warming conditions. These ocean temperature patterns appear to cause coral bleaching as the warmer ocean waters tends to stress coral reefs. Their analysis also indicated coral bleaching was three times more likely in recent times than at the beginning of the record in the late 1980s. [NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Updated quarterly regional climate impacts and outlooks released -- During the last week NOAA's Regional; Climate Services Directors and their partner organizations released a set of regional quarterly climate impact and outlook reports for ten regions across the United States for December 2016. These reports include descriptions of major climate events that occurred during the previous three months (September-November 2016) along with climate outlooks for the first quarter (January-March) of 2017. [NOAA NCEI News]
(Editor's note: These December reports and outlooks for the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Missouri basin are an update of outlooks for this winter made by forecasters for NOAA's Climate Prediction Center in November in which the impacts from the developing La Niña conditions upon these three regions were assessed. EJH)
UK Met Office global average temperature forecast made for 2017 -- During the last week, scientists at the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office (Met Office) released their annual global temperature forecast for the upcoming year of 2017. They anticipate the global average temperature in 2017 to be 0.44 Celsius degrees above the long-term (1981-2010) average of 14.3 degrees Celsius, with a range of uncertainty extending from 0.32 to 0.56 Celsius degrees around the central estimate. Therefore, 2017 could be a very warm year, but it would probably not be the record warmest year since comprehensive global climate records began in 1880, as a strong El Niño event was not anticipated during the year, which would create additional warming of the planet.
Using observational data running through October 2016, the scientists noted that this current year's global temperature was 0.86 Celsius degrees above the 1961-1990 average of 14.0 degrees Celsius, which compares favorably with the Met Office's forecast made last December that had a central estimate of 0.84 Celsius degrees. If this predicted temperature verified at the end of the year, 2016 would be the warmest year since 1880. [Editor's note: The statistics involved with the global temperature record are from the three main global temperature datasets compiled by: The Met Office and University of East Anglia (HadCRUT4); NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA NCEI) and NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (NASA GISS). The Met Office still uses the 1961-1990 interval for long-term averages that is accepted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), rather than the 1981-2010 interval currently used by NCEI. EJH] [UK Met Office News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Human-caused climate change appears to have intensified extreme weather events in 2015 -- A report produced by 116 scientists from 18 countries around the world claims that human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, appear to have been a quite likely influence upon specific extreme weather and climate events in 2015. These scientists investigated 24 individual extreme events of 2015 that included stifling heat waves in Australia, southern Asia, Europe, Africa and South America, wildfires in Alaska, flooding in Florida and a sunny winter in Great Britain. The heat waves helped make 2015 the warmest year on record. The researchers considered various factors that led to these extreme events, including the degree to which natural variability and human-induced climate change played a role. Their report, which is the fifth annual, is entitled "Explaining Extreme Events of 2015 From a Climate Perspective," and is published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. [NOAA NCEI News]
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]

CLIMATE AND HUMAN HEALTH

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]
A major league baseball team seeks climate data to gain competitive edge -- An undisclosed Major League Baseball team has recently contacted NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information to procure weather data at every major league baseball station. These data that include air temperature, dewpoint temperature, wind speed/direction, barometric pressure, cloud cover and precipitation are available from NCEI's Global Surface Hourly database for more than 20,000 stations. Weather can have an influence upon baseball games, such as the travel of a hit ball is affected by altitude, atmospheric pressure, humidity, air temperature and winds. Weather can also influence player performance. [NOAA NESDIS News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

26 December 1909...Philadelphia, PA had its record snow to that date with 21 inches. The Delaware state record was also broken with 24 inches. (Intellicast)
26 December 1947...New York City recorded its all-time record snow with 25.8 inches at the Battery and 26.8 inches at Central Park. A record 26.4 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, with as much as 32 inches reported in the suburbs. White Plains had 6 inches in one hour with 19 inches in just 6 hours. The heavy snow brought traffic to a standstill, and snow removal cost eight million dollars. Thirty thousand persons were called upon to remove the 100 million tons of snow. The storm claimed 27 lives. (26^th-27^th) (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
26 December 1983...Miami, FL established a December record with a morning low of 33 degrees. Just three days earlier, and again three days later, record high temperatures were reported in Florida, with daytime highs in the 80s. (The National Weather Summary)
26 December 1993...Bitterly cold air prevailed across the north central states. Sault Ste Marie, MI plunged to 31 degrees below zero to set a new December record. Tower, MN reached a frigid 50 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
26 December 2004...A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale approximately 100 miles off the western coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed. The total estimated material losses in the Indian Ocean region were $10 billion and insured losses were $2 billion. (Wikipedia) (National Weather Service files)
28 December 1897...The temperature at Dayville, OR hit 81 degrees to establish a state record for December. (The Weather Channel)
28 December 1955...Anchorage, AK was buried under 17.7 inches of snow in 24 hours, a record for that location. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
28 December 1958...Albuquerque, NM received 14.2 inches of snow to establish a 24-hour record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
29 December 1917...Washta, IA dropped to 40 degrees below zero, the record low temperature for the Hawkeye State; this record has been broken since by a 47 degree below zero reading in February 1996. (Intellicast)
29 December 1933...Ontario's coldest day on record as fourteen sites recorded their lowest-ever temperature, including Ottawa (-38?F) and Algonquin Park (-49?F). (The Weather Doctor)
29 December 1954...Fort Scott, KS was buried under 26 inches of snow in 24 hours to establish a state record. (28^th-29^th) (The Weather Channel)
29 December 1984...One hundred cities in the central and eastern U.S. reported record high temperatures. Southerly winds gusting to 50 mph helped Kansas City experience its warmest December day of record with a morning low of 60 degrees and an afternoon high of 71 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
29 December 2004...The sea-level corrected atmospheric pressure rose to an unofficial world's record for highest sea level pressure reaching 1083.8 millibars (32.01 inches) at Agata, Siberia. At the time, Agata Lake reported a temperature of -46^o C (-50.8^oF). (The Weather Doctor) This world record has superceded a reading of 1085.6 mb millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
30 December 1880...The temperature at Charlotte, NC plunged to an all-time record low reading of 5 degrees below zero, a record that was equaled on 21 January 1985. (The Weather Channel)
30 December 1917...A great cold wave set many records in the northeastern U.S. Temperatures of 37 degrees below zero at Lewisburg, WV and 32 degrees below zero at Mountain City, TN set all-time low temperature records for both the Mountain and Volunteer States. (NCDC)
30 December 1933...The temperature fell to 50 degrees below zero at Bloomfield, VT, marking the lowest reading in modern records for New England. (David Ludlum)
30 December 1955...Anchorage, AK reported an all-time record snow depth of 47 inches. (30^th-1^st) (The Weather Channel)
30 December 1968...A new record low temperature for the state of Washington was set in two towns on the same date. Mazama and Winthrop both dropped to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
31 December 1917...The temperature at Lewisburg, WV plunged to 37 degrees below zero to set a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
31 December 1929...Greenland Ranch, in Death Valley, CA, went the entire year without measurable precipitation. (The Weather Channel)
31 December 1941...Snow that began on New Year's Eve became a major blizzard on New Year's Day, burying Des Moines, IA under 19.8 inches of snow in 24 hours, an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
31 December 1968...The sea-level corrected atmospheric pressure rose to a world's record for highest sea level pressure reaching 1083.8 millibars (32.01 inches of mercury) at Agata, Siberia. At the time, Agata Lake reported a temperature of -46^o C (-50.8^oF). (The Weather Doctor) This world pressure record has since been superceded by a reading of 1085.7 millibars (32.06 inches of mercury) at Tonsontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001.
31 December 1978...Europe's lowest temperature on record was reached at Ust Schugor, Russia with a reading of 72.6 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. (National Weather Service files) (World Meteorological Organization archives)
31 December 1982...The year's total rainfall recorded at the rain gauge at Puu Kukui, at an elevation of approximately 5800 feet on the slope of the West Maui Mountains on Hawaii's Island of Kauai was 704.83 inches. This rainfall total represents the all-time greatest calendar year precipitation total in the United States. The rainfall total for that December was 42.00 inches. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
31 December 1989...The year and decade ended on a soggy note in the eastern U.S. Thunderstorm rains pushed precipitation totals for the year to 88.32 inches at Baton Rouge, LA and to 75.37 inches at Huntsville, AL, establishing all-time records for those two locations. Dry weather continued in California. Sacramento and San Francisco finished the month without any rain or snow, and Santa Maria reported their driest year of record with just 3.30 inches of precipitation. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
The highest air pressure ever recorded in United States was 1078.6 millibars (31.85 inches of mercury) at Northway, AK. (The Weather Doctor)
1 January 1886...Norway's coldest night on record occurred as the temperature at Karasjok dropped to 60.5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (The Weather Doctor).
1 January 1965...A seven-day long snowstorm finally came to an end at Wolf Creek Pass, CO, setting the state's single-storm snowfall record of 143 inches. (National Weather Service files)
1 January 1979...The temperature at Maybell, CO plunged to 60 degrees below zero to tie the state record set back in 1951 at Taylor Park. (The Weather Channel)
1 January 1999...Sydney, Australia recorded a high temperature of 111.6 degrees, the second hottest day on record here. Their highest maximum temperature on record is 113.5 degrees recorded in 1939. Records date back to 1859. Meanwhile, Sydney Airport recorded its hottest day on record reaching 113.4 degrees. (National Weather Service files)

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