WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

8-12 August 2016

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2016 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 22 August 2016. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

State of the Climate in 2015 report indicates record warm year -- During this past week NOAA scientists and their colleagues released a 300-page report entitled State of the Climate in 2015. This peer-reviewed study, compiled by more than 450 scientists from 62 countries, was based upon their examination of trends in temperature and precipitation, extreme weather and climate events, increases in greenhouse gas concentrations and changes in the polar sea ice around the world in 2015.
The report contained the following key points:

The global surface air temperature for 2015 across both land and ocean was the highest for any year since a reliable global weather observing network began in the mid-19th century, the result of the long-term increases of global temperatures associated with higher concentrations in greenhouse gas concentrations along with a strong El Niño event. For the first time, the global annual temperature was 1.0 Celsius degree higher than preindustrial times.
The annual carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere that was measured at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory in 2015 exceeded 400 ppm for the first time since records began in 1959.
The globally averaged sea surface temperatures were highest on record, in part because of the El Niño event.
The globally averaged upper ocean heat content was the highest on record, which occurred because the oceans absorbed over 90 percent of the planet's excess heat.
Global average sea level was the highest on record in 2015, approximately 2.75 inches above the 1993 average, which was at the start of the satellite altimeter record.

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

NOAA NCEI News

NOAA Climate.gov News

The "Dog Days" officially end on 11 August, having begun the third day in July. Superstition has it that dogs tend to become mad during that time of the year. (The Weather Channel)
A Nighttime Show -- The annual Perseid meteor shower should peak in the predawn hours of Friday (12 August 2016). The Perseids, which are associated with the some bits of Comet Swift-Tuttle, are noted for being fast and bright, and often leave persistent trains. Typically, the Perseids are usually very active for several days before and after the peaks, often producing 30 to 60 meteors per hour. This year, between 150 and 200 meteors per hour are anticipated. With a waxing gibbous moon (first quarter on 10 August) setting around midnight local time, illumination from the moon should not interfere with viewing the Perseids. If the skies are clear in your area, go to a region that has few lights and look up and to the northeast during the early morning hours.
Starting at 10:00 PM EDT on 11 August and at the same time on 12 August, a live Ustream view of the skies over NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will also be offered, weather permitting. [NASA]
Climatology for Rio 2016 Olympics -- The 2016 Summer Olympics, which officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad and unofficially as 2016 Rio Olympics, will begin on Friday, 5 August, and end on Sunday, 21 August, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 2016 Summer Paralympics, the multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, will also be held in Rio de Janeiro between 7 September and 18 September. The Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016 has provided a website that contains climate information for the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area that includes monthly maximum/minimum temperatures, average relative humidity, monthly precipitation totals and number of days with measurable precipitation. A 44-page document was produced by Brazil's National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) that provides additional weather and climate information in greater detail.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Thermal state at base of Greenland's Ice Sheet analyzed -- A team of scientists from NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory and research universities in the US and Ontario have recently produced a report that has determined the thermal state of the base of Greenland's Ice Sheet. These researchers inferred the thermal conditions under as much as two miles of ice from analysis of roughly two decades of NASA data collected from aircraft and NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites, which permitted to determine if the ice base were either thawed or frozen. According to their analysis, 43 percent of the area under the ice sheet was likely thawed, 24 percent was frozen and the state of the remainder was uncertain. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Northwest Atlantic regional climatology released -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Regional Climatology Team recently produced a new set of high-resolution long-term mean ocean temperature and salinity fields at several depths in the Northwest Atlantic in order to assess long-term climatological tendencies in this important region of the Atlantic Ocean. These objectively analyzed monthly, seasonal and annual versions of the temperature and salinity fields at over 50 separate depths that appear in this new regional climatology were obtained from the World Ocean Database archive of temperature and salinity observations spanning over more than a hundred years. The Northwest Atlantic plays a crucial role in long-term earth and ocean climate change as the region contains the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current System that are the key elements of northward heat transport and Meridional Overturning Circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. [NOAA NCEI]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Atlantic hurricane season outlook is updated -- As the month of August started at the beginning of last week, hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, including Philip Klotzbach, issued their updated August forecast for the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season. Their "Forecast of Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Activity and Landfall Strike Probability for 2016" calls for the remainder of the season to have average tropical cyclone activity, as a weak La Niña event was expected by the middle of the upcoming hurricane season, which should favor tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic basin. However, a negative phase of the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation appears to be underway with below average temperatures in the northern Atlantic that could reduce tropical cyclone activity. The forecasters foresee eleven additional named tropical cyclones (maximum sustained surface winds of 39 mph or higher) beyond Hurricane Alex and Tropical Storms Bonnie, Colin and Danielle that had formed in January and June. Consequently, a total of 15 named tropical cyclones are now forecast for the entire 2016 season. Five more of these systems could become hurricanes, resulting in a seasonal total of eight (maximum sustained surface winds greater than 73 mph) forming in the Atlantic basin. Note that Earl, the second Atlantic hurricane of 2016, formed this past Wednesday and was not part of the "observed" list appearing in the forecast update. The forecasters also anticipated two major hurricanes (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, with winds of at least 111 mph). Furthermore, they also anticipate a near-average probability of major hurricane landfalls along the coasts of the continental United States and the islands in the Caribbean. [The Tropical Meteorology Project]
Team leader who helped develop new engine for improved global weather and climate forecast model is interviewed -- Shian-Jiann Lin, Ph.D., the leader of the team at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory that created the new dynamic core for the Next Generation Global Prediction System was interviewed recently on this "engine" that will power the weather and climate forecasting model over the next several years. Comparisons were made between the current model and this new model. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Using Gulf of Mexico's sea surface temperature to help predict likelihood of summer storm activity -- Researchers at the University of Miami have demonstrated that the sea surface temperature (SST) in the Gulf of Mexico could be used to forecast whether atmospheric conditions are favorable for extreme weather events such as tornadic thunderstorms across the southern United States from May through July. These researchers used 30 years of computed convective available potential energy (CAPE) data, a measure of atmospheric instability. They found that Gulf of Mexico's SST proved to be a strong potential predictor of severe weather occurrence. The higher the SST in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in greater moisture transport and a higher CAPE, with a greater likelihood of severe storms in the US during the late spring and summer months. In addition, they found that the influence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the likelihood of severe storms is weak from May through July, These results have the potential to substantially improve seasonal forecasts of late spring and summer severe storm probabilities, which could support early emergency preparedness planning to protect at risk communities. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

New method developed to measure energy of a lightning strike -- Scientists at the University of South Florida have used "fossilized" sand cylinders or "fulgurites" created by cloud-to-ground lightning strikes to measure the amount of energy released in a lightning strike. Some of the more than 250 fulgurites that were collected may be over one thousand years old and can be used to measure the lightning strike history in the region of central Florida near Tampa and Orlando. The researchers estimated that a bolt of lightning can carry extremely high voltage and heat the air temperature around the strike to more 30,000 kelvins, with some of the lightning strikes peaking at levels greater than 20 mega Joules per meter. [University of South Florida News Channel]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Hidden water pollution along nation's coasts is mapped -- Researchers at Ohio State University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have mapped the nation's coastal waters and near-shore groundwater supplies, find that more than 20 percent of the coastlines along the 48 contiguous United States are vulnerable to contamination from previously hidden underground transfers of water between the oceans and land. The researchers produced the first-ever map of the underground flows connecting fresh groundwater beneath the continental United States and seawater in the surrounding oceans by combining US topographic data and NASA climate models. They also examined rainfall, evaporation rates and the amount of known surface runoff to calculate the missing portion of water that was running out below ground. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Feature]
National study on use of social science to improve weather response is commissioned -- NOAA Research and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently requested the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to conduct a major study designed to create a research agenda for conducting and applying social and behavioral science to improve weather forecasting, weather preparedness and response. Academia along with the public and private sectors are encouraged to participate in this study. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events:

8 August 1878...The temperature at Denver, CO soars to an all-time record high of 105 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
8 August 1983...The temperature at Big Horn Basin, WY reached 115 degrees to establish a state record for the Cowboy State. (The Weather Channel)
9 August 1930...The temperature reached 113 degrees at Perryville, TN to establish an all-time maximum temperature record for the Volunteer State. (NCDC) (Intellicast)
9 August 1960...Vancouver (British Columbia) International Airport's hottest day on record as the mercury hit 91.4 degrees (The Weather Doctor)
9 August 2003...The Bavarian city of Roth, Germany had a temperature that hit 105 degrees, a new national record. (The Weather Doctor) The temperature reached 100.2 degrees in London, England, which was an all-time record for England. (National Weather Service files)
10 August 1898...The temperature at Pendleton, OR climbed all the way to 119 degrees to tie the state record set two weeks previously at Prineville. (The Weather Channel)
10 August 1936...The temperature soared to 114 degrees at Plain Dealing, LA, and reached 120 degrees at Ozark, AR, to establish record highs for those two states. (The Weather Channel)
10 August 1988... The temperature reached 102 degrees at Ely, NV breaking the all-time record there. (Intellicast)
10 August 2003...A heat wave continued across the British Isles. At Gravesend in southern England, a new national heat record was set as the mercury soared to 100.58 degrees. The heat forced rail service officials across Britain to limit train speeds to 60 mph because of fears the tracks could buckle. Londoners experience their hottest recorded day in the London's history when the temperature hit 100.22 degrees, which was the first ever time that the temperature went over 100 degrees at Heathrow Airport. (The Weather Doctor)
11 August 1914...The temperature at Northwest River, Labrador soared to an all-time Labrador record high of 107 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
11 August 1933...The unofficial shade temperature at San Luis, Mexico reached 58 degrees Celsius (136.4 degrees Fahrenheit), for share of the world record with Aziziyah, Libya. (The Weather Doctor)
11 August 1944...The temperature at Burlington, VT soared to an all-time record high of 101 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
11 August 2003...The temperature at Turin, Italy hit 107 degrees, marking the hottest day in over the 250 years that temperature readings have been recorded. (The Weather Doctor)
11 August 2004...The temperature at Reykjavík, Iceland reached 76.6 degrees, the hottest day ever recorded in the city where record have been kept since the 19th century. (The Weather Doctor)
11 August 2007...Dutch Harbor/Unalaska Airport, AK set its all-time high temperature with a reading of 81 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
12 August 1891...An 80-minute deluge, possibly related to a tropical storm system, pelted Vampo, CA with between 11.5 and 11.8 inches of rain. The observer measured, then emptied the rain gauge several times as it filled. No other U.S. storm has come close to producing this much precipitation in an 80-minute span. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
12 August 1933...The temperature at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, CA hit 127 degrees to establish the officially recognized U.S. record for the month of August. (The Weather Channel)
12 August 1936...The temperature at Seymour, TX hit 120 degrees to establish a state record. This Lone Star State record was later tied in June 1994. (The Weather Channel)
12 August 1985...With the span of two hours, 17.32 inches of rain fell at Gajo, Gansu, China, marking a worldwide record rainfall event for such a length of time. (NWS)
12 August 2001...The temperature at Osoyoos, British Columbia: rocketed to an all-time August record high for the province of 107 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
13 August 1991...The first rainfall recorded on this date in Stockton, CA since weather records began in 1906, when 0.05 inches of rain fell. (The Weather Doctor)
13-14 August 1987...Slow-moving thunderstorms deluged northern and western suburbs of Chicago, IL with torrential rains. O'Hare Airport reported 9.35 inches in 18 hours, easily exceeding the previous 24-hour record of 6.24 inches. The airport was closed due to extensive flooding, the first time ever for a non-winter event. Flooding over a five-day period resulted in 221 million dollars damage. It was Chicago's worst flash flood event, particularly for northern and western sections of the city. Kennedy Expressway became a footpath for thousands of travelers to O'Hare Airport as roads were closed. The heavy rains swelled the Des Plaines River above flood stage, and many persons had to be rescued from stalled vehicles on flooded roads. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
14 August 1936...Temperatures across much of eastern Kansas and western Missouri soared above 110 degrees. Kansas City, MO hit an all-time record high of 113 degrees. It was one of sixteen consecutive days of 100-degree heat for Kansas City. During that summer there were a record 53 days of 100-degree heat, and during the three summer months Kansas City received just 1.12 inches of rain. (The Kansas City Weather Almanac)
14-17 August 2003...Residents of Bismarck, ND wilted under a record string of four consecutive days with temperatures greater than 100 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)

Return to DataStreme ECS RealTime Climate Portal