8-13 February 2010

• Historic blizzard hits nation's capital --
A winter storm accompanied by heavy snowfall and strong winds that produced blizzard conditions moved across the Middle Atlantic States this past Friday and Saturday. This storm brought record or near record snowfall totals to numerous cities across the region, including the Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, Philadelphia, PA, Atlantic City, NJ and Pittsburgh, PA metropolitan areas. Some locations received over 30 inches of snow during the two-day span, with the 32.4 inches of snow received at Washington's Dulles International Airport establishing a new two-day snowfall record. The snowfall at Washington's Reagan National Airport (17.8 inches) and the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (24.8 inches) were reached second place in all-time two-day snowfall totals. To add to the region's woes, more snow from another winter storm was forecast for early this upcoming week. [USA Today] Graphics showing the snowfall totals and historic rankings are available. [The Weather Channel]
• Eye on the tropics ---
During the last week, several tropical cyclones (low pressure systems that form over tropical oceans) were found over the waters of the South Indian and the South Pacific Oceans:
In the South Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Storm Fami made landfall along the coast of Madagascar early last week. For additional information and satellite imagery on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the South Pacific basin, Tropical Cyclone Oli developed at the beginning of last week near the Fiji Islands and reached major category 4 cyclone status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale near Bora Bora and Tahiti as near surface winds reached 130 mph. This cyclone was moving to the south-southeast at the start of the weekend. A striking true-color image obtained from MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the characteristic swirl of clouds associated with tropical cyclones that appeared around Tropical Cyclone Oli. [NASA Earth Observatory] [Editor's note: Since this tropical cyclone is in the Southern Hemisphere, the cloud pattern is reversed from that normally seen by Northern Hemisphere counterparts, such as hurricanes. EJH] Additional satellite imagery and information about Oli can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Becoming AWARE --
In Michigan this week (7-13 February 2010) is designated to be Michigan NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Awareness Week. State residents are citizens are being urged to learn more about NOAA Weather Radio and the potentially life saving information broadcast by the National Weather Service Offices serving Michigan.
• 2010 Winter Games Weather Website is launched --
With the start of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in the Vancouver, BC metropolitan area and southern British Columbia at the end of this week, the Minister of Environment Canada announced the official Environment Canada's 2010 Winter Games weather website. In addition to current weather observations and weather forecasts, this site links to a web page provides historical weather or climate information for the region covering the months of February and March. [Environment Canada]
• Oceans sensitive to factors involved with climate change --
A famous renowned Antarctic marine biologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham claims that the research he and colleagues conducted indicates that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are not only causing climate change, but is also increasing the acidity of the world's oceans, which poses an increasing threat to the marine environment. He also notes that the Southern Oceans are especially vulnerable. [University of Alabama-Birmingham]
• Public supports climate and energy policies --
The results of a national survey recently conducted by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities that regardless of political affiliation, Americans support passage of a federal climate and energy policies. These results follow a recent poll conducted by the researchers that show a sharp drop in public concern over global warming. [George Mason University]
• Soot affects glacial melting in Himalayans --
Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that soot in the form of airborne black carbon aerosols from India appears to play a major role in the decline in snow and ice cover on the glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains. [Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory]
• White roofs could cool cities --
Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and their colleagues have used computer models along with a demonstration building to show that painting the roofs of buildings white lowers temperatures and can successfully cool urban areas. [NCAR/UCAR]
• Waterfowl and prairie potholes are vulnerable to a warming climate --
In a study conducted by the US Geological Society, the University of Idaho, South Dakota State University, University of Montana, wetlands in North America's prairie pothole region could be lost because of projected warmer and drier climate conditions. This wetland loss would negatively affect millions of waterfowl such as ducks that inhabit the region. [USGS Newsroom]
• Satellites are important in glacier-melting debate --
The European Space Agency (ESA) recently highlighted its GlobGlacier project that it started in 2007 to develop and apply necessary technologies needed to monitor and inventory the Earth's glaciers using satellite observations. To date, approximately 20,000 of the estimated 160,000 glaciers worldwide have been added to the inventory, which allow adequate tracking of the changes in glaciers over time for climate monitoring. The ESA and NASA satellites used to provide data to the GlobGlacier project are also identified. [ESA]
• New geosynchronous environmental satellite readied for launch --
Scientists and engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Boeing Company are readying the new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-P for launch on 1 March 2010. This new generation geosynchronous weather satellite will have improved image resolution from its spatial "imager" instrument, as well as improvements in image navigation. In addition to monitoring weather, sensors on this satellite will monitor ocean surface temperatures, snow and ice cover, crop conditions and "space weather" that includes monitoring solar radiation reaching the satellite. [NASA GOES-P Mission]
• Instrument to monitor space weather to be launched on Sun-studying satellite --
NASA is planning to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on Tuesday (9 February) that will have an instrument package developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder which will measure rapid fluctuations in solar output emanating in the extreme ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. These high-energy variations in solar output can have a major impact not only upon the Earth's upper atmosphere, but also upon communications systems, power grids and satellites, including astronauts. [University of Colorado at Boulder] []Editor's note: NASA has a website at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ for its SDO mission that has a countdown to launch clock and links that permit viewing the launch of the spacecraft from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. EJH]
• Explaining the global-average temperature records --
Recent controversy has developed concerning the differences between three widely quoted data sets that portray the year by year global temperature trends beginning in the mid to late nineteenth century. These independent data sets were generated from essentially the same surface temperature observations by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia (HadCRUT3) using slightly different averaging techniques. Dr. Peter Stott from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office explains the three independent primary temperature data sets used to calculate global temperature trends. [UK Met Office] [Editor's note: Additional information and access to the HadCRUT3 can be obtained from the UK Met Office site. EJH]
• British Isles experiencing a cold winter --
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UK Met Office) recently reported that Scotland recorded its coldest December-January period since 1914 when detailed records began in that country. [BBC News] They also reported that Northern Ireland had its coldest December-January period since 1962-63. [BBC News] A researcher with the UK Met Office provided information about why the British Isles were cold during the first two months of meteorological winter (December and January) while other areas of the world were warm. [BBC News]
• Radar imaging flights conducted over Central America and Hispaniola --
A research aircraft from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center made flights over Central America and Hispaniola with an onboard Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar during the second week of a three-week campaign designed to measure biomass and image volcanoes in Central America, as well as to detect earthquake faults in Hispaniola. [NASA JPL]
• Facility to study northern ecosystem response to climate change --
Researchers with the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the US Department of Agriculture have been cooperating in constructing an experimental facility in a northern Minnesota spruce, which would be used in conjunction with a multi-year experiment SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental change) to study how high-carbon spruce bogs would respond to increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory News]
• Reassessing the impact of Milankovitch cycles on climate --
A research team at the United Kingdom's University of Southampton and colleagues from Germany has been focusing on the natural cycles associated with variations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun (also known as the Milankovitch cycles). [EurekAlert!]
• 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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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.