WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Twelve: 14-18 April 2008

Water in the News:

(Thurs.) Deadly flooding in Brazil -- A comparison of MODIS images obtained from the NASA satellites in mid March and early last week reveals the magnitude of the flooding in northeastern Brazil from torrential rain in March and April. The floods were responsible for 21 deaths and numerous people forced from their homes. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Thurs.) Coastal air pollution worsened by sea salt -- A group of researchers have found that sunshine along with airborne sea salt in coastal regions and along shipping lanes appear to make the pollution from urban areas and shipping markedly worse. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) Seaweed in Sydney Harbor can be deadly -- A study by researchers at Australia's University of New South Whales report that seaweed in Sydney Harbor have very high levels of copper and lead contamination making them deadly to most sea creatures that feed on the seaweed. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) Massive reservoir being built to restore Everglades -- The world's largest aboveground artificial reservoir with an area of 25 square miles is being built in South Florida to help store water in an effort to restore the Everglades. [US Water News Online]
(Tues.) Two faces of a spring storm -- An image from NOAA's GOES-12 satellite shows the characteristic comma-shaped cloud associated with a classic spring storm centered over the upper Mississippi Valley late last week, along with thunderstorm clouds along a cold front to the south of the system and snow-producing clouds to the north and west. [NOAA OSEI]
(Tues.) Winter's last stand in the Canadian Maritimes -- An image obtained at the start of last week from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows sea ice remaining in eastern Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence and snow across the surrounding Canadian Maritime Provinces, Quebec and Labrador [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Pushing back the age of the Grand Canyon -- Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the California Institute of Technology using radiometric dating techniques to show that the Grand Canyon in Arizona may have formed more than 55 million years ago, which is older than previously thought. They also note that the erosion to form the Canyon had been rapid. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Clean up efforts of Biscayne Bay receives funding -- NOAA officials recently announced that the agency has provided $200,000 to aid Florida’s Miami-Dade County expand the scope of Baynanza, an annual celebration and cleanup of Biscayne Bay. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Biological activity could have influenced clouds and prehistoric climate -- Paleoclimatologists at Penn State University argue that biological productivity could have provided sufficient control on cloud formation to cause a relative warm planetary climate or "supergreenhouse" episodes in the Cretaceous Period (145 to 60 million years ago) and Eocene Epoch (56 to 34 million years ago) that predates humans. [EurekAlert!]
The 2007 hurricane season reviewed -- The 2007 hurricane season in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific is reviewed and compared to the more than 150 years of record keeping in the North Atlantic and the 40 years in the eastern North Pacific. [AMS DataStreme Atmosphere]
Hurricane forecast update -- Hurricane forecasters Dr. Philip Klotzbach and Professor William Gray from Colorado State University in Fort Collins recently issued an updated forecast of the upcoming 2008 North Atlantic hurricane season to the one they prepared last December. Their most recent April update calls for 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes, four of which could become major hurricanes. They also anticipate an above-average probability of a landfall on the mainland US. For these forecasts refer to [The Tropical Meteorology Project]
Gulf Coast hurricane awareness tour to begin -- The new Director of NOAA's National Hurricane Center and two hurricane specialists will make a five-day and five-city tour of the Gulf Coast region onboard a NOAA "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft this week to help raise public awareness of the threats associated with hurricanes. [NOAA News]
Virtual touring the National Hurricane Center -- NOAA's National Hurricane Center has unveiled a website that permits the public to take a virtual tour of the Center, with audio and text descriptions of the Center's activities in addition to the panoramic views of the facility located in Miami, FL. [NOAA News]
New radar technique adopted by hurricane forecasters -- During this upcoming summer, hurricane forecasters at NOAA's National Hurricane Center will use a new technique called VORTRAC (Vortex Objective Radar Tracking and Circulation) that was developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Naval Research Laboratory that relies on existing coastal Doppler radar units to continually monitor landfalling storms in the United States. [UCAR/NCAR] [NSF]
Listening for hurricanes -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claim that placement of underwater microphones (hydrophones) in the path of an oncoming hurricane or tropical storm could be a relatively inexpensive means of determining the intensity of the tropical cyclone by determining the wind speed from the sound produced by the wind-generated froth in the surface water. [MIT News]
Flooding on Old Man River -- A comparison of images obtained from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite in mid February and early last week shows the extent of the flooding of the lower Mississippi River due to above average rainfall across the nation's midsection, along with spring snowmelt from the Midwest. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Coping with the Mississippi flooding -- The US Army Corps of Engineers has opened more bays on the Bonnet Carre Spillway near New Orleans on Saturday to help relieve some of the water from the swollen Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain. [USA Today]
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]
Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Change in the Earth System

In 1881, Henri Louis Le Chátelier (1850-1936) formulated a general law of chemistry: "If a system at equilibrium is subjected to a stress, the equilibrium will shift in an attempt to reduce the stress." This reasoning provides insight into the behavior of systems. The interaction of subsystems within the Earth system involves the transfer of mass and energy. A stress or disturbance of a subsystem will thus affect the other subsystems to varying degrees.

The final week of the course is an appropriate occasion for us to revisit and reflect on the paradigm that guided our investigation of water in the Earth system and to consider how this system will react to stresses resulting from both natural and human disturbances.

The global water cycle encompasses the flow of water, energy, and water-borne materials, as well as their interactions with organisms in the Earth system. Water's unique combination of physical and chemical properties, its co-existence as vapor, liquid, and solid within the temperature and pressure ranges found on Earth, and its role as an essential ingredient of life, places it center stage in the interactive functioning of the planet's sub-systems. As the principal atmospheric greenhouse gas, water vapor brings temperatures into the range required for life on Earth. Powered by the sun, the water cycle couples the living and non-living components of Earth into an evolving system. Human activity is an integral and inseparable part of the water cycle, impacting and impacted by both the quantity and quality of water.

The burning of fossil fuels appears to be a major contributor to the increased amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Le Chátelier would describe this anthropogenic increase as a stress on the system. By altering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, human activity may be modifying climate on a global scale. The Earth system and its various interdependent subsystems may respond to this disturbance by shifting to a new climate state. The interdependency of Earth's various subsystems and biogeochemical cycles implies that such a shift will have implications for the distribution of water within the global water cycle and for fresh water resources (e.g., changes in glacial ice cover, sea level, drought frequency).

Concept of the Week: Questions

After completing DataStreme WES, I now understand the global water cycle as a flow of [(mass) (energy) (both mass and energy)].
After completing DataStreme WES, I now understand that human activity [(may) (may not)] impact the Earth system with implications for the water cycle and water resources.

Historical Events:

14-15 April 1912...The British steamer RMS Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. The collision occurred at about 11:45 PM on 14 April and the ship sank in 2.5 hours during the early morning hours of the 15^th. Reports showed 1517 people out of 2207 onboard lost their lives in this accident. As a result of this disaster, an International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the iceberg hazards in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct much of the effort. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
14 April 1986...The world's heaviest hailstone, weighing 2.25 pounds, fell in the Gopalganj District of Bangladesh. This hailstone could have reached speeds in excess of 90 mph. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (Wikipedia)
15 April 1921...Two-mile high Silver Lake (elevation 10,220 ft) in Boulder County, Colorado received 76 in. of snow in 24 hrs, the heaviest 24-hr total of record for North America. The storm left a total of 87 in. in twenty-seven and a half hours. (David Ludlum)
16 April 1851...The famous "Lighthouse Storm" (a "nor'easter") raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed the 116-ft Minot Ledge Light at Cohasset, MA with the loss of its two keepers still inside. The lighthouse was the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean. The storm coupled with a spring tide resulted in massive flooding, great shipping losses and coastal erosion. Streets in Boston were flooded to the Custom House. (David Ludlum) (US Coast Guard Historians Office) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 April 1854...A furious storm that produced two feet of snow at New Brunswick, NJ also caused approximately 18 shipwrecks along the New Jersey coast. The immigrant ship Powhattan beached 100 yards from the shore. With rescue impossible, 340 people onboard lost their lives. "The shrieks of the drowning creatures were melancholy indeed." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 April 1987...A slow moving storm system produced heavy rain over North Carolina and the Middle Atlantic Coastal States. More than six inches of rain drenched parts of Virginia, and flooding in Virginia claimed three lives. Floodwaters along the James River inundated parts of Richmond, VA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
17 April 1942...A deluge of 8.35 in. of rain in only two hours dampened West Palm Beach, FL. (Intellicast)
17 April 1953...One of the few severe hailstorms accompanied by snow, sleet, glaze, and rain, pelted parts of Kay, Osage, Creek, Tulsa, Washington, and Rogers Counties in northeastern Oklahoma late in the day. Nearly 10,000 insurance claims were filed. (The Weather Channel)
17 April 1965...The Mississippi River reached a flood crest at Saint Paul, MN four feet higher than any previous mark. During the next two weeks record levels were reached along the upper Mississippi between Saint Paul and Hannibal, MO. Flooding caused more than $100 million in damage, but timely warnings kept the death toll down to just twelve persons. (David Ludlum)
17 April 1997...The Red River of the North crested at Fargo, ND, with a record crest of 39.6 ft, which is 22.6 ft above flood stage. This record flood, produced by several major winter storms, heavy spring rain, rapid snow melt, and ice jams, was responsible for at least 11 deaths (7 in North Dakota and 4 in Minnesota) and tremendous property damage along with large scale evacuations of residents from the Grand Forks metropolitan area. Dikes along the river gave way. Overall damage and cleanup costs have been estimated to range from $1 to $2 billion in Grand Forks, where a portion of the downtown burned as firefighters had a difficult time reaching the buildings due to the flood. [NCDC]
Editor's Note: "History repeats!" During the second week of April 2001, the Red River at Grand Forks reached a river stage of 45 ft, or approximately 17 ft above flood stage and about 7 ft below the top of the levee. In 1997 this gauge measured a record 54.35 ft. EJH
18 April 2004...A record 182 consecutive days of no measurable precipitation began in San Diego, CA on this date, which ended on 17 October 2004 with 0.09 inches of rain. This new record broke the 181-day record set the previous year. Interestingly, the rain that followed the more recent dry spell resulted in October 2004 becoming San Diego's wettest month on record (4.98 inches). (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
20 April 1952...The tankers Esso Suez and Esso Greensboro crashed in thick fog off the coast of Morgan City, LA. Only five of the Greensboro's crew survived after the ship burst into flame. (David Ludlum)