WEEKLY WEATHER & CLIMATE NEWS

WEEKLY WEATHER AND CLIMATE NEWS

14-18 May 2012

Eye on the tropics -- Only one tropical cyclone was found across any of the globe's ocean basins during the last week. In the Southern Indian Ocean basin, a weak tropical storm, identified as Tropical Storm 19S, formed over the waters developed early last week over the waters of the Banda Sea northeast of Timor. Traveling to the southeast, this tropical storm was relatively short lived, as it dissipated within 18 hours. For more information and satellite images on Tropical Storm 19S, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
Hurricane season begins in the eastern North Pacific -- The 2012 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin begins on Tuesday, 15 May 2012. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will begin in two weeks on 1 June. The official hurricane seasons in both basins end on 30 November 2011. NOAA has declared the week of 27 May-2 June 2012 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
North American Safe Boating Week -- Commencing this coming Saturday, the week of 19-25 May has been declared 2012 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2012 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
Zenithal Sun -- This week marks one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents on the Big Island (on about 15 May at South Cape, and 18-19 May at Hilo), while those on Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) will experience the noon sun at the zenith in approximately one more week (25-27 May). The sun will again be over the Big Island during the last week of July. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
Hurricane re-analysis project for North Atlantic revises list for 1930s -- Scientists at NOAA's National Hurricane Center and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory are undertaking the Atlantic Hurricane Database Re-analysis Project, an effort designed to extend and revise the Center's North Atlantic hurricane database (or HURDAT) that commences in 1851. Recently they have reanalyzed the 1931 through 1935 seasons, adding 14 newly discovered tropical storms to the list and removing four existing storms. conducted a and revisiting storms in more recent years, information on tropical cyclones is revised using an enhanced collection of historical meteorological data in the context of today's scientific understanding of hurricanes and analysis techniques. [NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory]
National weather and climate reviewed for April 2012 -- Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that their analysis of preliminary data indicates the monthly average temperature for the 48 coterminous states was 3.5 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century (1901-2000) average, which made April 2012 the third warmest April since 1895 when comprehensive climate records became available nationwide. States in the southern Plains and northern New England had much above average temperatures for April. Interestingly, eight states (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia) reported statewide average April temperatures that were lower than their March temperatures, since this past March was exceedingly warm across most of this region.
April monthly precipitation across the lower 48 states was approximately 0.2 inches below the 20th-century monthly average, as states in the Mid-South and Midwest had below or much below average precipitation totals. On the other hand, the West Coast States and those across the northern Rockies and the northern Plains had above average April precipitation. The April 2012 snow cover across the 48 coterminous United States was the third smallest on record. [NCDC State of the Climate]
Many sections of the nation have been experiencing dry weather over the first four months of 2012, which has resulted in a continuation of severe to extreme drought conditions across the Southeast and the southern Plains. [NOAA Climate Services]
Canadian weather and climate in 2011 -- Scientists at Environment Canada recently reported that preliminary data indicate the national average temperature for the calendar year 2011 was 1.5 Celsius degrees (2.7 Fahrenheit degrees) above the 1961-1990 average, making the past year the eighth warmest year on record since nationwide climate records began in 1948. The warmest year on record across Canada was the previous year (2010) when the national annual temperature was 3.0 Celsius degrees above normal. Annual temperatures for 2011 across most of northern and central Canada were at least 2 Celsius degrees above normal, while sections of British Columbia and southern Alberta experienced near normal annual temperatures. Nationwide precipitation across Canada during 2011 was slightly below the long-term average, as the year was the 15th driest in the 64-year period of record. Most of northern Canada, especially across the Canadian Archipelago, the Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nunavut, had annual precipitation totals that were 20 percent below normal. Coastal sections of British Columbia, sections of southern Manitoba and the Maritimes had nearly 20 percent above average precipitation. [Environment Canada]
A study of the chemistry of thunderstorms undertaken -- Researchers from NASA's research centers and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are about to participate in the 6-week Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field campaign in Kansas to explore the impact that large thunderstorms have on the concentration of ozone and other substances in the upper troposphere. NASA's airborne DC-8 Earth Science laboratory will be used to collect atmospheric samples. [NASA Langley Research Center]
New carbon-counting instrument readied for flight -- Scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently completed construction of the science instrument that will be placed onboard NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) spacecraft to study the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. This instrument, consisting of three high resolution spectrometers, will undergo a battery of tests in Arizona. The OCO-2 spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in the summer of 2014 from Vandenberg AFB in California. [NASA JPL]
Mild Amazon fire season foreseen -- NASA scientists and their colleagues from academia have developed a new fire severity forecast model that uses data collected from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ) sensors on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites. Using guidance from this model, the scientists predict a mild fire season for 2012 over the Amazon Basin that covers parts of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. [NASA GSFC]
Satellite measurements and global climate model output brought closer together -- A recent study that was conducted by atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington indicates that a correction to the satellite temperature record of the troposphere over the last 30 years produced by the University of Alabama-Huntsville have resulted in an elimination of many of the differences between these records and the statistics generated by several well known climate models. The correction to the satellite record involved an adjustment as how the University of Alabama-Huntsville handled the NOAA-9 satellite temperature record for the mid-troposphere in the mid-1980s. [University of Washington Today]
Cuts to national observation programs could imperil weather and climate forecasts -- A new report from the National Research Council warns that a rapid decline in the nation's Earth observation capabilities could occur in the near future, which would result in less accurate weather and climate forecasts. The nation's observational capabilities could fall to only 25 percent of current levels because many of the nation's observational satellites are approaching the end of their expected lifetimes and budget shortfalls have meant that new satellite missions have been running behind schedule or remained unfunded. [Climate Central]
Warming of the Arctic appears to favor European weather extremes -- A meteorologist at Germany's GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel claims that the frequency and magnitude of recent weather extremes across Europe including summer heat waves and winter cold spells appear to be closely linked to recent Arctic warming that has accelerated the retreat of Arctic sea ice and the warming of the ocean surface. Changes in atmospheric circulation patterns could result that favor the weather extremes. [Alfred Wegener Institute]
Pumping groundwater would lead to sea level rise -- Researchers from the Netherlands and Taiwan claim that by 2050, worldwide pumping of groundwater for irrigation, public consumption and industrial uses would cause a global rise in sea level by approximately 0.8 mm per year. The researchers noted that the sea level rise attributed to groundwater pumping was countered between about 1970 and 1990 by dams that trapped water before the water returned to the oceans. [American Geophysical Union]
Poll shows drop in support for climate change action -- A new public survey conducted by Stanford University researchers have found that although the majority of Americans (62 percent) continue to support many of the federal government's actions to mitigate the effects of increasing global temperature, their support had dropped by approximately ten percentage points over the past two years, with the largest drop occurring among those who distrust climate scientists. [Stanford University News]
Martian sand movement measured -- A team at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has developed a method for data processing that has allowed scientists to measure movement of sand on the Martian surface by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The researchers found that winds are a major agent for evolution of the landscape on Mars. [CalTech Media]
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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