WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

4-8 September 2017

ITEMS OF INTEREST

September is National Preparedness Month -- The month of September has been declared National Preparedness Month (NPM), which aims to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all types of emergencies, including natural disasters. NPM is managed and sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Administration's (FEMA) Ready Campaign in conjunction with the Ad Council, A toolkit of marketing materials is provided to help promote the month and represents the lead on this campaign that was originally launched in 2004. The overarching theme for 2017 NPM is "Disasters Don’t Plan Ahead. You Can.," with an emphasis on preparedness for youth, older adults, and people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs.
Week 1 of the 2017 NPM ends this Saturday 9 September with the theme of "Make a Plan for Yourself, Family and Friends."
Week 2 of the 2017 NPM (10-16 September) has the theme "Plan to Help Your Neighbor and Community."
[FEMA's Ready.gov]
Teachers: Get real-time atmospheric and ocean sciences data for your classroom -- NOAA's Data in the Classroom Program is providing K-12 educators with great real-time data for students to better understand atmospheric and ocean sciences. The real-time ocean data can be used to explore current environmental issues, as well as to help students develop problem-solving skills employed by scientists. Accompanying curricula materials are available on El Nino, Coral Bleaching and Sea Level variations, while additional materials will be coming soon on Ocean Acidification and Water Quality. [NOAA Satellite and Information Service]
Approaching the peak in the Atlantic hurricane season -- The historic or statistical annual peak in the Atlantic hurricane season will occur near the end of this week (8-12 September), as determined as the date during the entire season with most frequent number of named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes), based upon over 100 years of record. This date corresponds closely with the time of peak sea-surface temperatures across those sections of the North Atlantic considered hurricane-breeding areas. [NWS National Hurricane Center]
One for the record books -- If you would like more background information concerning how various temperature and precipitation extremes are identified as record events from a station's climate record, please read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

CLIMATE MONITORING

Posts made from NOAA scientists headed for Arctic research expedition -- The director of NOAA's Arctic Research Program made the first blog post entitled "Why We Go North" from the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy as it heads northward from Dutch Harbor, AK with more than 20 scientists who are measuring environmental change in the Arctic Ocean basin as part of NOAA's Distributed Biological Observatory-Northern Chukchi Integrated Studies project. These scientists participating in this three-week project will track sea ice decline, increasing air and water temperature and ocean acidification. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
Analysis made of year-to-date temperature and precipitation patterns across nation -- A "Beyond the Data" feature was written last week by a physical scientist at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) that presents an analysis of the climate patterns across the 48 contiguous United States for the year 2017 to date. He points out that the nation's average temperature for the first seven months of the year ranks second highest since sufficiently dense nationwide climate records began in 1895, while at the same time, the national precipitation total for 2017 is the seventh highest in the 123-year period of record. This warm-wet pattern is contrary to the general rule of thumb of warm and dry years versus the pattern of wet and cool years. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Satellites track how Hurricane Harvey cooled the western Gulf of Mexico -- A series of maps were produced from data collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite between Wednesday, 23 August, and Wednesday, 30 August, showing how Hurricane Harvey affected the sea surface temperature (SST) patterns in the western Gulf of Mexico. Several of the maps showed SSTs across the western Gulf that were several Celsius degrees above the long-term average temperatures, as indicated by the SST anomaly maps, before Hurricane Harvey churned across the Gulf, followed by a general cooling of the surface waters following Harvey's landfall. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Satellites monitor Harvey's record rainfall and changes in soil moisture in southeastern Texas -- An animation was produced containing a series of maps showing the total rainfall that fell across southeastern Texas and adjacent sections of southwestern Louisiana between 25 and 28 August due to former Hurricane Harvey. These precipitation maps were produced from estimated rainfall measurements made by instruments onboard NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission satellite. According to these satellite-based measurements, at least 20 inches of rain fell in some locations; according to the National Weather Service, some stations near Houston received between 49.20 and 51.88 inches of rain. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A map was generated showing the changes in the soil moisture in the top five centimeters of soil across southeastern Texas during the last two weeks of August due to torrential rains that fell across the region from former Hurricane Harvey. The map was produced from data collected by sensors onboard NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite and shows the major increase in soil moisture. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Record river flooding across south-central Texas -- During the last week, field crews from the US Geological Survey (USGS) were reporting that record flooding was occurring along numerous streams and rivers in south-central Texas following the torrential rainfall that accompanied Tropical Storm Harvey. As of last Tuesday morning, 57 USGS stream gages were reporting streams that were over National Weather Service flood levels. [USGS News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Ancient global warming event driven by carbon dioxide emissions from volcanoes -- An international team of scientists recently reported that massive emissions of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere from volcanoes during the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean were responsible for an extreme global warming event approximately 56 million years ago. Apparently, the warming of the planet by at least five Celsius degrees, which led to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), was a consequence of a rapid doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide in less than 25,000 years due to volcanoes. [University of Southampton News]

CLIMATE MODELING

Scientists are running out of space for climate model output -- Climate scientists who are involved with running numerical simulations on mathematical climate models are facing a perplexing problem: these models are producing too much output statistics (also known as "data") to be saved and managed efficiently. Monetary and carbon footprint storage costs are increasing due to the increased quantity of data being stored. [Inside Science News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Canadian national seasonal outlook issued -- Forecasters with Environment Canada issued their outlooks for temperature and precipitation across Canada for September, October and November 2017, which represents meteorological autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The temperature outlook indicates that most of Canada should experience above normal (1981-2010) temperatures. Only a few areas across eastern Canada could have normal to below normal fall temperatures.
The Canadian precipitation outlook for autumn 2017 indicates below average precipitation could occur across the northern Prairie Provinces, sections of the Northwest and Nunavut Territories and areas extending from the Lakes Winnipegosis and Winnipeg in Manitoba eastward across the region of Ontario to the north of Lake Superior. On the other hand, above average precipitation could be expected across scattered areas of western, northern and eastern Canada. Elsewhere, near normal precipitation should be anticipated for these upcoming three months.
[Note for comparisons and continuity with the three-month seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation generated for the continental United States and Alaska by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC), one would need to use Environment Canada's probabilistic forecasts for temperature and precipitation.]
Improvement in sea ice predictions is sought -- As many as three dozen teams of scientists, including three from NASA, have been participating in the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) during this year at making the best prediction for the end-of-summer minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean. Initially started in 2009, different methods are being employed, including statistical analysis, dynamic models, gut feelings and combinations of techniques. Teams could submit forecasts in June, July and August based on the current sea ice conditions at those times. Each fall, the project releases an analysis of the year's submissions, reviewing lessons learned and providing guidance to future research efforts. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature]
More frequent long and severe droughts are possible in future for Jordan -- Researchers from Stanford University who have been working on a comprehensive analysis of regional drought and land-use in the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan as part of the Jordan Water Project claim that this water-poor nation could experience potentially disastrous droughts in the future unless alternate water sources, better land use and improved water-sharing agreements are considered. [Stanford University News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Concept of the Week: End of the Growing Season

As we move into autumn, we often contemplate the end of the growing season as daylight shortens and temperatures begin to fall across many areas of the nation. The length of the growing season depends upon the plant species, as well as the climate of the locale, meaning that several ways can be used to define the growing season.

Many crops, especially vegetables and fruits, are sensitive to relatively low air temperatures. In spring, when many crops are emerging and in various stages of development they are more vulnerable to air temperatures near 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But by fall, many of these plants have become hardy. Generally speaking, a killing frost would occur when the temperature around the plant would fall to a point that would kill all but the hardiest vegetation. Sometimes, other terminology is used. When air temperatures fall between 29 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit, a so-called "light freeze" occurs. While tender plants such as tomatoes, peppers, corn and cucumbers would be killed when temperatures fall to around 29 degrees, these conditions would have little destructive effect on other hardier vegetation. A "moderate freeze" typically occurs between 25 and 28 degrees, which would have a widely destructive effect upon most vegetation. For temperatures of 24 degrees or lower, a condition called a "severe freeze", heavy damage would occur with most plants that are not dormant. Apples are damaged when the temperature drops below 20 degrees. Under these conditions, the soil would have frozen solid to a depth dependent upon the duration of the freeze, as well as the soil type and soil moisture.

In most mid latitude climates, the growing season is often used synonymously with the frost-free season, loosely defined as the length of time between the last killing frost in spring and the first killing frost in the autumn. The National Centers for Environmental Information has produced climatological tables that identify those median dates (a 50 percent occurrence) during spring and fall when the temperature at a station falls to 36, 32, 28, 24 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit for the last time in spring or the first time in autumn. While the exact time span that a plant survives would vary by plant type, the growing season for climatological purposes is often related to the interval when the daily minimum temperature remains above 32 degrees. The Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC) is maintaining the MRCC Frost/Freeze Guidance Project as part of the Vegetation Impact Program (VIP) with website displaying a variety of freeze maps across the 48 contiguous United States. These maps show the 28-degree and 32-degree Freeze Climatologies as well as the current freeze statistics. Check the map showing the median date of occurrence of the first 32-degree Fahrenheit temperature in fall across the 48 coterminous United States. (The median date means that half of the occurrences of a 32-degree reading over the 30-year normal occur prior to this date, while the other half occur after this date.)

Corresponding Freeze Climatologies for the last occurrence of 32-degree or 28-degree temperatures in spring are available across the contiguous US from MRCC/VIP. A map of the median date of the last 32-degree occurrence is available on this site.

Across the continental U.S. the typical lengths of the frost-free regions (between the date of the last spring 32-degree temperature and the first32-degree occurrence in fall) range from about 120 days along the Canadian border to about 220 days in Oklahoma and north Texas and over 320 days in southern sections of Florida and California. Mountainous areas provide a complex pattern, with some higher elevations having lengths that are less than 100 days. By accessing the NOWData (NOAA Online Weather Data) feature on the Climate page of your local National Weather Service office, you can find the "first/last dates" for various climate reporting stations around your area.

Historical Events

5 September 1925...The temperature at Centerville, AL soared to 112 degrees to establish a state record. Every reporting station in Alabama was 100 degrees or above that afternoon. (The Weather Channel)
5 September 1950...Hurricane Easy produced the greatest 24-hour rainfall in U.S. weather records up to that time. The hurricane deluged Yankeetown, on the upper west coast of Florida, with 38.70 inches of rain. While this US record has since been replaced by 43 inches of rain at Alvin, TX on 25-26 July 1979, the rain at Yankeetown remains the 24-hour precipitation record for the Sunshine State. (David Ludlum) (NCDC)
5 September 1958...The heaviest hailstone recorded in Britain had a weight of 0.31 pounds (141 grams) and fell at Horsham (Sussex), Great Britain. (The Weather Doctor)
5 September 1970...Heavy rain from the remnants of a tropical system from the eastern Pacific spread across the Southwest as 11.40 inches fell in 24 hours at Workman Creek, AZ to establish a 24-hour precipitation record for the Grand Canyon State, while an estimated six inches of rain fell at Bug Point, UT, setting a 24-hour precipitation record for the Beehive State. (NCDC)
6 September 1840...The first official weather observation in Canada was taken at King's College, University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario by members of the British Royal Artillery. (The Weather Doctor)
6 September 1929...Iowa recorded its earliest snow on record as a few flakes noted in Alton at 9 AM. (The Weather Doctor)
6-7 September 1909...Topeka, KS was drenched with 8.08 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
7 September 1955...An 8-day run of 100-degree heat in Los Angeles, CA finally came to an end after causing 946 fatalities. (National Weather Service files)
8 September 1900...The greatest weather disaster in U.S. records occurred when an estimated Category 4 hurricane struck Galveston, TX. Waves fifteen feet high washed over the island demolishing or carrying away buildings, and drowning more than 6000 persons. The hurricane destroyed more than 3600 houses, and total damage was more than $30 million. Winds to 120 mph, and a twenty-foot storm surge accompanied the hurricane. Following the storm, the surf was three hundred feet inland from the former water line. The hurricane claimed another 1200 lives outside of the Galveston area. (8^th-9^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
8 September 1987...The afternoon high of 97 degrees at Miami, FL was a record for the month of September. (The National Weather Summary)
9 September 1775...The Newfoundland hurricane, also known as the Independence Hurricane, killed more than 4000 mariners, mostly off the coast of Newfoundland. It has been speculated that this storm was a turning point in the American Revolution because most lives lost were British sailors. (National Weather Service files)
9 September 1921...A dying tropical depression unloaded 38.20 inches of rain upon the town of Thrall in southeastern Texas killing 224 persons. The 36.40 inches that fell in 18 hours represents a record for the United States. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
9 September 1971...Hurricane Ginger formed, and remained a hurricane until the 5th of October. The 27-day life span was the longest of record for any hurricane in the North Atlantic Ocean. (The Weather Channel)
9 September 1994...Hurricane John become an extratropical storm in the central north Pacific Ocean, ending a 29-day life as a hurricane, the longest-lived hurricane on record. (The Weather Doctor)
9 September 2000...The Antarctic ozone hole extended to more than 11.4 million square miles over Antarctica, the single-day largest area of depletion ever measured. (The Weather Doctor)
10 September 1900...Elk Point, SD received 8.00 inches of rain that set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state. (NCDC)
10 September 1919...One of the most intense hurricanes to hit the U.S. swept through Key West, FL. Over 700 people died along the storm's track from the Lesser Antilles to Corpus Christi, TX. (National Weather Service files)
10-11 September 1963...A 24-hour rainfall record for the Northern Hemisphere was set at Paishih, Taiwan as 49.13 inches of rain fell as the result of Typhoon Gloria. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)

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