WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

29 November-3 December 2021

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Graphical depictions of statewide annual and seasonal time series are available -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are making graphics available that depict the variations in the historical temperature averages each year or each season since 1895 for each of the 48 contiguous United States. These graphs are derived from the current nClimDiv version of the US Climate Division Database. [NOAA NCEI News]
Website helps visualize weather and climate data -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has released "Weather and Climate Toolkit" (or WCT), a free, platform independent software that allows the public to visualize and obtain weather and climate data that have been archived by NCEI. These data include traditional weather observations from surface observation networks as well as radar, satellite and model data. The WCT provides tools for background maps and animations. A "Weather and Climate Toolkit Tutorial" is also available that provides additional instructions for using WCT. [NOAA NCEI News]
Online tool is available to assess daily weather records -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has a readily accessible Daily Weather Records Data Tool that provides summaries of recent global and U.S. daily weather records with options to view monthly, annual, all-time, or selected records. This tool, which provides insight into recent weather and climate behavior, analyzes maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and snowfall records from a selected set of weather observing stations in NCEI's Global Historical Climatological Network. [NOAA NCEI News]
Online tool is available to assess daily weather records -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has a readily accessible Daily Weather Records Data Tool that provides summaries of recent global and U.S. daily weather records with options to view monthly, annual, all-time, or selected records. This tool, which provides insight into recent weather and climate behavior, analyzes maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and snowfall records from a selected set of weather observing stations in NCEI's Global Historical Climatological Network. [NOAA NCEI News]
Exploring barrier islands from the viewpoint of a kid -- Staff at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have produced a set of activities in their Earth Observatory for Kids (or EO Kids) series called "Barrier Islands: Sands & Land in Motion" that is intended to help youngsters who are between the ages of 9 and 14 learn about Earth’s changing shorelines, especially barrier islands. The youngsters can build their own model of the shores to watch erosion and deposition take place in a “DIY Science” activity: “A Model Shoreline.” [NASA Earth Observatory EO Kids]
Ocean altimetry as seen from space helps monitor sea level rise --NASA's Earth Observatory team recently posted a feature article describing how Earth-orbiting environmental satellites have been used to measure and monitor sea level rise over the last three decades. Beginning with TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 in the 1990s, these altimetry satellites have been measuring the ocean surface topography, or shapes and heights of the ocean surface peaks and valleys, using radar altimeters onboard the satellites. Currently, satellite altimetry measurements cover a significantly greater expanse of the global oceans than the more traditional tide gauges that typically are located along the coasts of the continents and islands. Comparison of the data collected by the satellites and tide gauges reveals an agreement between the two, showing that the global mean sea level has increased by 95 millimeters (3.7 inches) since the mid-1990s. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Website helps visualize weather and climate data -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has released "Weather and Climate Toolkit" (or WCT), a free, platform independent software that allows the public to visualize and obtain weather and climate data that have been archived by NCEI. These data include traditional weather observations from surface observation networks as well as radar, satellite and model data. The WCT provides tools for background maps and animations. A "Weather and Climate Toolkit Tutorial" is also available that provides additional instructions for using WCT. [NOAA NCEI News]
Investigating NOAA's "Global Climate Dashboard" -- A member of the staff at NOAA's Climate Program Office wrote a feature that helps the user navigate the NOAA "Global Climate Dashboard." This web-based app provides one-stop access to information, maps, and graphs of key indicators of the global climate. Interactive graphs deliver a system-wide view of the state of natural patterns like El Niño and the Arctic Oscillation and those linked to human-caused climate change, such as sea level rise and increases in greenhouse gases. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Beginning of meteorological winter season -- The winter meteorological season in the Northern Hemisphere starts on Tuesday (1 December). Recall that climatologists and meteorologists have elected to use a standard three-month grouping to identify each meteorological season. Hence, the months of December, January and February are considered the winter meteorological season. You will note that the winter solstice, marking the day where the length of daylight is least in the Northern Hemisphere is still more than three weeks away, falling on Tuesday, 21 December 2021. Since the lowest temperatures typically fall in mid to late January, the meteorological winter tends to be centered on the coldest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
In addition, Tuesday (30 November) marks the end of the official 2021 hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, along with the eastern and central North Pacific basins.
High-quality maps of December temperature and precipitation normals across US available -- The PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University's website has prepared high-resolution maps depicting the normal maximum, minimum and precipitation totals for December and other months across the 48 coterminous United States for the current 1981-2010 climate normals interval; the PRISM Climate Group is planning on releasing maps with the new 1991-2020 normals in December. These maps, with a 800-meter resolution, were produced using the PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) climate mapping system.
December weather calendar for a city near you -- The Midwestern Regional Climate Center maintains an interactive website that permits the public to produce a ready to print weather calendar for any given month of the year, such as December, at any of approximately 270 weather stations around the nation. (These stations are NOAA's ThreadEx stations.) The entries for each day of the month includes: Normal maximum temperature, normal minimum temperature, normal daily heating and cooling degree days, normal daily precipitation, record maximum temperature, record minimum temperature, and record daily precipitation; the normals now are for 1991-2020.
"Coldest day of the year" is on the horizon -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) produced a set of "Coldest Day of the Year" maps for the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico showing the dates of the lowest daily minimum temperatures of the year as calculated from the 1981-2010 climate normals. Many places across the West will experience their lowest daily temperatures starting during the next two to three weeks in early December. On the other hand, some areas across the West will not reach their lowest daily temperatures of the year until late January. [NOAA NCEI News]
[Notes: (1.) According to the seasonal variations in the long-term average or "normal" temperatures, many locations across the nation not along the coasts typically have their lowest normal daily high and low temperatures during the third week of January, nearly one month after the winter solstice. However, areas across the West have their lowest temperatures during the month of December, with elevation becoming an influence.
(2.) For comparison purposes, check the corresponding NCEI map for the "Warmest Day of the Year" that shows the dates of occurrence of the highest maximum temperatures. EJH]
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2021 Campaign for early December is underway -- The twelfth and final in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for the calendar year 2021 will continue through Saturday, 4 December. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of constellations with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. These constellations are Perseus in the Northern Hemisphere, along with Grus in the Southern Hemisphere in the Southern Hemisphere. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The first series in the 2022 GLOBE campaign is scheduled for 25 December 2021- 3 January 2022. [GLOBE at Night]
It's Sure Dark! -- Have you noticed that the sun is setting quite early these days? During the first ten days of December, many locations throughout the country will experience their earliest sunset times of the year. The exact day for the earliest sunset depends upon the latitude, so you may want to check the date in your locale from the sunrise tables appearing in an on-line, interactive service for many cities in the United States provided at https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa. The reason for the earliest sunsets occurring in early December rather than on the winter solstice (during early morning of Tuesday, 21 December 2021) is that the sun is not as precise a timekeeper as our watches. Because of a combination of factors involved with Earth's elliptical orbit about the sun and the tilt of Earth's spin axis with respect to the plane of the ecliptic, the sun appears to "run fast" by as much as 15 minutes as compared with clock time in November. However, with the approach of the winter solstice and perihelion (the smallest earth-sun distance during the morning hours of 4 January 2022), the apparent sun slows during December and finally lags the clock by 12 minutes in February. Consequently, a noticeable and welcome trend toward later sunsets can be detected by the end of December, especially by those residents in the northern part of the country. However, the latest sunrises occur at most locales in early January, meaning that early risers will continue seeing dark and dreary mornings for another month.
Celebrate World Soil Day -- This Sunday, 5 December 2021, has been declared to be World Soil Day, an event that is annually held on the 5th of December to focus attention upon and celebrate the importance of healthy soil as a critical component of the natural system. This year's theme for World Soil Day is "Halt soil salinization, boost soil productivity" that is designed "to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being by addressing the growing challenges in soil management, fighting soil salinization, increasing soil awareness and encouraging societies to improve soil health." [Food and Agricultural Organization of UN - World Soil Day]
Distinguishing between "global warming" and "climate change" -- The question is often asked: "What's the difference between global warming and climate change?" A blog was written several years ago explaining that "global warming" refers only to the Earth's rising surface temperature, while "climate change" includes warming and the side effects of warming. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Tracking global sea level changes since 1880 -- A contractor at NOAA's Climate Program Office wrote an "Understanding Climate" blog for the ClimateWatch Magazine that considers several questions concerning global sea level rise over the last 141 years. Global sea level has risen by about 10 inches (254 mm) since 1880, with the largest increases having occurred since the start of satellite surveillance in 1993. She describes how sea levels are measured, identifies what is causing sea level to rise, and what to expect in the future. An interactive graph of the time-series of sea level since 1880 can be used to see the annual global sea level each year. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
The Climate Explorer tool is available to help envision climate projections for climate adaptation -- An expanded and enhanced version of the research application tool entitled The Climate Explorer has been made available to the public that allows users to envision a range of potential future weather and tidal conditions, so they can consider and implement climate-smart adaptation strategies. The Climate Explorer, which is a powerful research application and integral part of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, provides historical observations and projections for climate variables for any county in the contiguous United States through 2100 in interactive graphical and map formats. [U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit]
An example of one of the variables tracked by The Climate Explorer is a graph of the number of annual days with high tide flooding at Key West, FL under two emissions scenarios. [U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

... [WMO Press Release]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Methodology for the updated NOAA’s Winter Outlook is explained -- The deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Mike Halpert, recently posted his annual discussion of the CPC's Winter Outlook on the ENSO blog. He described the methodology for developing the revised Winter Outlook for December 2020 through February 2021, based upon the current and anticipated La Niña conditions. He provides arrays of winter precipitation and temperature maps for the 48 contiguous United States during the 20 strongest La Niña events since 1950. These maps show the winter precipitation patterns were more consistent that the winter temperatures nationwide. Drier-than-average conditions occurred across much of the southern tier of states during most of those last 70 winters with the 20 strongest La Niña events. The Gulf Coast was the region that was the driest. A region of above average precipitation was often found across the Pacific Northwest and around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. However, these patterns were not always consistent. Some tendency existed for above-average winter temperatures across the southern U.S. during a strong La Niña . Areas along the U.S.-Canadian border had below average winter temperatures, but mainly prior to 1990. Long-term winter warming across the nation is a major reason for milder La Niña winters. Mike also discusses why the outlooks are presented using probabilities of occurrence, and how they should be interpreted. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

CLIMATE FORCING

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

CLIMATE MODELING

The Climate Explorer tool is available to help envision climate projections for climate adaptation -- An expanded and enhanced version of the research application tool entitled The Climate Explorer has been made available to the public that allows users to envision a range of potential future weather and tidal conditions, so they can consider and implement climate-smart adaptation strategies. The Climate Explorer, which is a powerful research application and integral part of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, provides historical observations and projections for climate variables for any county in the contiguous United States through 2100 in interactive graphical and map formats. [U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit]
An example of one of the variables tracked by The Climate Explorer is a graph of the number of annual days with high tide flooding at Key West, FL under two emissions scenarios. [U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

CLIMATE AND HUMAN HEALTH

CLIMATE MODELING

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

A lot about snow -- With the beginning of meteorological winter season across the Northern Hemisphere, attention is turning to snow. Several items address the topic of snow:

Viewing current snow and ice cover maps across the nation -- NOAA's Climate.gov has a snow and ice cover map viewer in its Dataset Gallery the permits the user to look at daily image maps showing the extent of snow and ice cover over the contiguous United States, Alaska, or the whole Northern Hemisphere. Sequences of daily maps show changes in snow cover as obtained by satellite observations. [NOAA Climate.gov Dataset Gallery]
National snow analysis maps include additional data -- The National Weather Service's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC) provides comprehensive information on snow observations, analyzes, data sets and map products on a real-time basis. A variety of national maps generated by NOHRSC that are available on an interactive map server display snow water equivalent, snow depth, average snowpack temperatures, snow water equivalent change, snow/non-snow precipitation, snow melt and sublimation. These maps may be of importance to water supply managers or emergency management officials. [U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit]
Exploring the role of snow cover in climate – a student activity -- An activity produced by a team of educators and content specialists from NOAA and NASA is designed to help high school (Grades 9-12) students explore the role of snow cover in shaping climate. In this activity, students download satellite images displaying land surface temperature, snow cover, and reflected short wave radiation data from the NASA Earth Observation (NEO) website. They then explore and animate these images using the free tool ImageJ and utilize the Web-based analysis tools built into NEO to observe, graph, and analyze the relationships among these three variables. [NOAA Climate.gov Teaching Climate]

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

Historical Events:

29 November 1975...Red River was buried under 34 inches of snow in 24 hours, establishing a record for the state of New Mexico. (The Weather Channel)
29 November 1985...The temperature at Bismarck, ND plunged to 30 degrees below zero to establish their record low for the month of November. The high that day was 4 degrees below zero. (The Weather Channel)
29 November 1989...Sault Ste Marie, MI finished the month of November with a record 46.8 inches of snow. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
30 November 1976...MacLeod Harbor, AK reported a precipitation total for November of 70.99 inches, which established a state record for any month of the year. (The National Weather Summary)
30 November 1991...Minneapolis, MN ended the month with 46.9 inches of snow, the most ever for November and for any month. Although the official start of winter was still 3 weeks away, the city had already surpassed the normal seasonal snowfall record with 55.1 inches since 1 October (normal for the entire winter is 49.2 inches). (Intellicast)
30 November 2001...For the first time in 122 years of weather records, Buffalo, NY finished the entire month of November without any snowfall. (National Weather Service files)
1 December 1831...The coldest December of record in the northeastern U.S. commenced. Temperatures in New York City averaged 22 degrees, with just four days above freezing, and at Burlington, VT the temperature never did get above freezing. The Erie Canal was closed the first day of December and remained closed the entire month. (David Ludlum)
1 December 1913...A six-day Front Range snowstorm began, ultimately producing 45.7 inches of snow at Denver, CO, the biggest single snowstorm on record for that city. It produced a record total of 46 inches at Denver, CO. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
3-10 December 1926...Record rain fell on Yuma, AZ over a one-week period. On the 4^th 1.10 inches of rain fell, and by the 10^th a total of 4.43 inches had fallen, to set an all-time December monthly record. The mean annual precipitation for Yuma is only 3.38 inches. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
3 December 1982...Big Fork, AR received 14.06 inches of rain, setting a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state. (NCDC)
4 December 1982...The temperature in New York City's Central Park reached 72 degrees to establish a record high for December. The month as a whole was also the warmest of record. (The Weather Channel)

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