WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

27 June - 1 July 2022

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2022 Campaign for June concludes -- The sixth in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for the calendar year 2022 will continue through Tuesday, 28 June. 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. The constellations selected for this series are Hercules in the Northern Hemisphere and Scorpius 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 seventh series in the 2022 GLOBE campaign is scheduled for 19-38 July. [GLOBE at Night]
• Observing International Lightning Safety Awareness Day -- The Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned & Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) has declared Tuesday, 28 June 2022, to be International Lightning Safety Awareness Day, as Asia, Africa and South America have unacceptably high levels of lightning deaths, injuries and property losses. The date has been selected because 18 school pupils were killed and many others were injured by lightning in Uganda on 28 June as they took refuge in their school. [NAM S&T Centre] and [National Lightning Safety Council]
• Viewing Earth from a geosynchronous orbit on the boreal summer solstice -- NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) assembled a 1:30-minute video entitled "Earth from Orbit: Summer Solstice" showing a loop of animated natural-color satellite images obtained last Tuesday, 21 June 2022, on the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice from NOAA's GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellites that are in geosynchronous orbit around Earth (at an altitude of 22,236 miles above the Equator). Attention is directed to the orientation of the day-night terminator with respect to recognizable features on Earth's surface. Additional images are shown throughout the year to show how this terminator changes its orientation at the equinoxes and at the winter solstice. [NOAA NESDIS News]
• Change in seasons -- The beginning of July (Friday, 1 July 2022) marks the beginning of the new heating season. Traditionally, meteorologists and climatologists define the heating season to run from 1 July to 30 June of the following year. Heating degree day units are accumulated commencing on 1 July. Likewise, the snow season runs from 1 July through 30 June. Seasonal snowfall totals for this new snow season at U.S. stations will be summed starting Friday.
• High-quality maps of July 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 average air temperatures, the daily average dewpoint temperatures, precipitation totals and several solar radiation elements for June and the other 11 months across the 48 coterminous United States based upon the current 1991-2020 climate normals interval. These maps, with a 800-meter resolution, were produced using the PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) climate mapping system.
• July 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 July, 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 include: 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 current normals for 1991-2020.
• The half-way point -- Midpoint of calendar year 2022 will occur at midday (noon, local standard time) Saturday, 2 July 2022.
• "Dog days" of summer begin -- The "Dog Days" traditionally begin on the third day of July of each year and continue through the eleventh day of August. The hot weather period received its name from Sirius, the brightest visible star in the sky and known as the Dog Star. Sirius rises in the east at the same time as the sun this time of the year. (The Weather Channel)
• Using past records to assess chances of rain on the 4th of July -- An interactive map was produced by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). showing the historic probability of 0.10 inches or greater of rain falling on the 4th of July at over one thousand stations across the 48 contiguous United States. This map was produced from the 30 years of observations (1981-2010) at each of these stations. (Zoom in to any place across the nation to access more stations.) Maps of the historical chance of rain at stations in Alaska and Hawaii, along with additional information on the maps are available from the Beyond the Data blog posted by Deke Arndt, Chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch at NCEI, along with a contractor with the NOAA Climate Program Office.
• Keeping track of the record highest temperatures in all 50 states --The staff at The Weather Channel recently updated their map and list of state all-time high temperature records that they obtained from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. They noted that most states have had their all-time records during the months of July and August. However, they point to the historic heat wave that occurred in the Pacific Northwest one year ago, which resulted in state high temperature records for Washington and Oregon being established on 29 June 2021. They also mentioned that many of the western states have had record high temperatures exceeding 120 degrees. [Weather Underground News]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

• Review of global weather and climate for May 2022 -- Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) report that the recently concluded month of May was the ninth-warmest May since sufficiently dense global climate records began in 1880. They based their report on preliminary calculations of the combined global land and ocean surface temperature anomalies (temperature departures for the month from the long-term monthly) for May 2022. This temperature anomaly was 1.39 Fahrenheit degrees (0.77 Celsius degrees) above the 20th century's (1901-2000) average May temperature of 58.6 degrees Fahrenheit (14.8 degrees Celsius). For reference, the months of May 2016 and May 2020 shared the highest global May temperature anomaly (+1.69 Fahrenheit degrees) in the 143-year period of record.
  When considered separately, the global ocean surface temperature anomaly for May 2022 was 1.15 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average, which is the eighth highest May reading on record. The May 2022 land-surface temperature anomaly was 2.02 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average, which meant that the month's land-only temperature was the eleventh highest May land surface temperature in the 143-year period of record.
  In addition, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for the last three months (March through May 2022), which is considered meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere (autumn in the Southern Hemisphere), was 1.53 Fahrenheit degrees (0.85 Celsius degrees) above the 20th century average, or the sixth highest temperature anomaly for those three months since 1880.
  The May 2022 sea ice extent data for the Arctic Ocean was the fourteenth-smallest May sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979. The sea ice cover on the waters around Antarctica in May 2022 was tied with May 2018 as being the fifth-smallest May extent since 1979.
  According to data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent for May was the seventeenth smallest in the 56-year period of record.
  A global map of "Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events: May 2022" is available from NCEI.
  [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate: Monthly Global Climate Report]
  NCEI generated a graphic that displays a comparison of Global monthly temperature anomalies with ENSO status . That is, the bar graph that displays the global monthly temperature anomaly from January 1950 through May 2022 also has colors for the individual monthly bars according to the ENSO status defined by the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI): specifically, El Niño months are in red, La Niña months in blue and ENSO-neutral months in gray. The ONI that is used in this graph is the three-month average sea surface temperature anomaly in the Niño3.4 region centered on that month. Although the trend in the monthly global temperature anomalies has been increasing for the last 50 years, those months during a warm phase El Niño month according to the ONI tend to have temperature anomalies above neighboring months, while those cold phase La Niña months tend to have temperature anomalies that were below their neighboring months.
• Mid-June catastrophic flooding closes Yellowstone National Park -- In mid-June rapid snowmelt due to warm weather and torrential rain from an atmospheric river created flood-swollen rivers that form in and around Yellowstone National Park, such as the Yellowstone, Stillwater and Clarks Fork Rivers. The resulting historically high water levels destroyed homes, roads, and bridges, isolating some of the National Park’s gateway communities. At least 10,000 visitors were evacuated from the park due to dangerous flooding conditions. Yellowstone National Park, which lies in northwestern Wyoming and adjacent sections of southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho, is celebrating its 150th anniversary as being the nation's first national park. With some areas around Yellowstone reporting 120 to 180 inches of snowfall during this past winter season, the recent warm weather resulted in between two and five inches of runoff from the snowpack. This runoff combined with the runoff from one to five inches of rain caused by an atmospheric river that pumped humid air from the tropical and subtropical North Pacific into the Pacific Northwest and then into northern Wyoming and southwestern Montana. Images obtained from the MODIS instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite and soil moisture data collected by NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite show the comparisons in snowpack and soil moisture between June 2021 and June 2022. As of last Wednesday, the west, south and east entrances to the park were reopened with limited access, while the north and northeast entrances remained closed indefinitely because of the washouts to roads and bridges. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

• Earth's ozone layer could be damaged by increased spaceflight activity -- A scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and colleagues recently published their research showing that if a ten-fold increase in the number of hydrocarbon fueled rocket launches occurred within the next two decades as projected, the protective ozone layer surrounding Earth would be damaged and atmospheric circulation patterns would be changed. The number of rocket launches have tripled in recent decades and current projections indicate accelerated growth in future years because of space tourism, Moon landings and possible interplanetary trips to Mars. These rockets currently launched from Earth are powered by kerosene-burning rocket engines that emit exhaust containing black carbon, or soot, directly into the stratosphere where the protective ozone layer of ozone is found. A climate model was used by the research team to simulate the impact of approximately 10,000 metric tons of soot pollution injected into the stratosphere over the Northern Hemisphere annually for 50 years, which is more than the current estimated 1,000 tons of rocket soot exhaust emitted annually. The researchers found that this level of activity would increase annual temperatures in the stratosphere by as much as 4 Fahrenheit degrees, which would change global circulation patterns by slowing the subtropical jet streams as much as 3.5 percent, and weaken the stratospheric overturning circulation. Furthermore, the model found changes in stratospheric temperatures and winds also caused changes in the abundance of ozone. [NOAA Research News]
• New report focuses upon Great Lakes ice forecasts -- The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research recently published a report entitled “Scaling-up Stakeholder Engagement Efforts to Inform Better Communication & Uptake of NOAA Great Lakes Ice Forecast Information” that helps identify the Great Lakes ice information needs of end-users, and form high-level recommendations for the user interface of the upcoming ice forecast guidance from NOAA. The extent and amount of Great Lakes ice cover affect activities ranging from shipping to recreation on the lakes and in surrounding communities. Accurate forecasts are critical, but forecast products have been spatially and temporally limited. While satellite and existing model-based products provide information on Great Lakes ice conditions, they are limited in spatial and temporal extent. The next generation of NOAA’s Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS) aims to fill information gaps. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

• Mapping global tree canopy heights from space -- A research team from EcoVision Lab, a unit that does research into machine learning for environmental sciences at Switzerland's ETH Zürich, has generated a global map that shows the height of tree canopies using data obtained from satellites. The team obtained lidar data obtained from NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission that had been launched to the International Space Station in December 2018. These GEDI data provided detailed canopy height information on the height of the trees, along with the amount of vegetative material in the canopy. However, these profiles covered limited areas of the globe. Therefore, the team obtained optical imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites to provide more abundant coverage, although the Sentinel-2 satellites are not designed to measure canopy height. The researchers used the GEDI data to train a deep-learning model capable of estimating canopy heights from Sentinel-2 images anywhere on Earth. Such maps of tree canopy heights can provide a better understanding of how trees store carbon and what happens to that carbon when they are cut down or disturbed. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• NASA's SMASH project creating new ways to predict hailstorms -- A NASA-funded team of scientists are participating in a project called “Satellite Mapping and Analysis of Severe Hailstorms,” or SMASH. They are developing satellite-based tools to better understand and track where hail has most often occurred and to identify hail-damaged areas from space. A first version of the database of satellite-based hailstorm detections from January 1998 to March 2021 was released as part of this study. This database, known as "Passive Microwave Hail Climatology Data Products," represents gridded estimates of the annual frequency of severe hailstorm occurrence, as retrieved from satellite-borne passive microwave imagery using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) instruments onboard NASA's polar-orbiting TRMM and GPM satellites. The data products from this study can be useful for weather and climatological research related to severe thunderstorms, along with applications involving risk and emergency management. Willis Research Network (Willis Re) partners at NASA’s Langley Research Center and Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) created a South African Hail Catastrophe Risk Model that delivers a robust view of hail risk for the (re)insurance market. [NASA Global Climate Change News]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

• 27 June 1915...The temperature at Fort Yukon, AK soared to 100 degrees to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
• 27 June 1988...The afternoon high of 107 degrees at Bismarck, ND was a record for the month of June, and Pensacola, FL equaled their June record with a reading of 101 degrees. Temperatures in the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Valley dipped into the 40s. (The National Weather Summary)
• 27 June 1994...The temperature reached 122 degrees at the Waste Isolation Treatment Plant east of Carlsbad, NM to set the state high temperature record for New Mexico. In Oklahoma, the temperature at the mesonet station near Tipton reached 120 degrees, setting an all-time record for the Sooner State. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 28 June 1892...The temperature at Orogrande, UT soared to 116 degrees to establish a record for the Beehive State. This record was broken by one degree in July 1985. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders)
• 28 June 1954...The temperature at Camden, SC reached 111 degrees to establish an all-time high temperature record for the Palmetto State. (NCDC)
• 28 June 1960...The maximum 24-hour precipitation record for the Bluegrass State was established at Dunmor, KY when 10.40 inches fell. (NCDC)
• 28 June 1976...Temperature reached 96 degrees in Southampton, England's Mayflower Park for the highest temperature ever in June in England. (The Weather Doctor)
• 28 June 1980...The temperature at Wichita Falls, TX soared to 117 degrees, their highest reading of record. Daily highs were 110 degrees or above between the 24^th of June and the 3^rd of July. (The Weather Channel)
• 28 June 1994...Laughlin, NV reached 125 degrees, the state's all-time record high temperature. (Intellicast) The temperature at Monahans, TX reached 120 degrees to set a new high temperature record for the Lone Star State. (NCDC)
• 29 June 1931...The temperature at Monticello, FL hit 109 degrees to establish an all-time record for the Sunshine State. (The Weather Channel)
• 29 June 1975...Litchville recorded 8.10 inches of rain for North Dakota's state 24-hour precipitation record. (NCDC)
• 29 June 1988...Jackson, MS equaled their record for the month of June with an afternoon high of 105 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
• 29 June 1994...The mercury hit a scorching 128 degrees at Lake Havasu City, AZ to set a new all-time record high temperature for the Grand Canyon State. This reading also tied the one at Death Valley, CA on the same day for the US June record. The previous state record for Arizona was 127 degrees set at Parker on 7 July 1905. The temperature at Laughlin, NV reached 125 degrees, which also set an all-time record high temperature for the Silver State. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)
  The lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia was a 9.4-degree below zero reading at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales, Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
• 29 June 2021...A heat wave across the Pacific Northwest in late June resulted in a new all-time high temperature record being established for the state of Washington (120 degrees at Hanford) and an earlier state high temperature being tied in Oregon (119 degrees at Pelton Dam and Moody Farms Agrimet) (NCEI State Climate Extremes Committee)
• 30 June 1912...The deadliest tornado in Canadian history struck Regina, Saskatchewan, as 28 people were killed. (The Weather Doctor)
• 30 June 1983...Tasmania's coldest night on record was observed as the temperature at Shannon dropped to 8.6 degrees. (The Weather Doctor)
• 30 June 1989...The remains of tropical storm Allison dropped copious amounts of rain on Louisiana. Winnfield, LA reported 22.52 inches of rain in three days, and more than thirty inches for the month, a record for June. Shreveport received a record 17.11 inches in June, with a total for the first six months of the year of 45.55 inches. Thunderstorms also helped produce record rainfall totals for the month of June of 13.12 inches at Birmingham, AL, 14.66 inches at Oklahoma City, OK, 17.41 inches at Tallahassee, FL, 9.97 inches at Lynchburg, VA, and more than 10.25 inches at Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh had also experienced a record wet month of May. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)
• 30 June 1999...Mount Baker, Washington closed out a record snowfall season both for the United States and the verifiable world record as the seasonal total from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999 finished with 1,140 inches. (National Weather Service files)
• Month of July 1861...The greatest one-month of precipitation ever measured globally (366 inches) was recorded at Cherrapunji, India. Total rainfall for the period 1 August 1860 to 31 July 1861 was the greatest rainfall in one year ever recorded (1041.78 inches). (The Weather Doctor)
• Month of July 1931...The July- August 1931 flood in the Yangtze basin of China affected over 51 million people or one-quarter of China's population. As many as 3.7 million people perished from this great 20^th century disaster due to disease, starvation or drowning. (The Weather Doctor)
• 1 July 1911...The high temperature of just 79 degrees at Phoenix, AZ was their lowest daily maximum of record for the month of July. The normal daily high for 1 July is 105 degrees. (The Weather Channel)
• 1 July 1915...Pawtucket, RI received a deluge with 5.1 inches of rain in 24 hours. (Intellicast)
• 1 July 1931...The summer flood along the Yangtze River during July and August 1931 was the most severe in history, with over 51 million Chinese affected. 3.7 million people perished from this greatest disaster of the century due to disease, starvation or drowning. This flood was preceded by a prolonged drought in China during the 1928-1930 period. (National Weather Service files)
• 1 July 1979...Nearly half a foot (5.8 inches) of snow fell at Stampede Pass, WA, a July record. (The Weather Channel)
• 1 July 1988...Twenty-six cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date --an unusual cool spell in what turned out to be one of the hottest summers on record. Lows of 48 degrees at Providence, RI, 48 degrees at Roanoke, VA, 49 degrees at Stratford, CT, and 48 degrees at Wilmington, DE, were records for the month of July. Boston, MA equaled their record for July with a low of 50 degrees. Barre Falls, MA dropped to 34 degrees. Five inches of snow whitened Mount Washington, NH. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)
• 1 July 1987...Lake Charles, LA was drenched with a month's worth of rain during the early morning. More than five inches of rain soaked the city, including 2.68 inches in one hour. (The National Weather Summary)
• 2 July 1908...The temperature at Dumfries, Scotland reached 91 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Scotland. (The Weather Doctor)
• 2 July 1942...The temperature at Portland, OR hit 107 degrees, an all-time record for the city. This record was subsequently reached on three other occasions. (ThreadEx) (Intellicast)
• 2 July 1989...Midland, TX reported an all-time record high of 112 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
• 2 July 1998...Italy's highest recorded temperature was 108.5 degrees, set at Catania, Italy: (The Weather Doctor)
• 2-6 July 1994...Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Alberto produced major flooding across northern and central Georgia. Three-day rains exceeded 15 inches at Atlanta. An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA on the 6^th to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. Numerous road closures and bridge washouts. Thirty people were killed and 50,000 were forced from their homes, as 800,000 acres were flooded. Total damage exceeded $750 million. (NCDC) (Intellicast)
• 3 July 1975...Shangdi, Nei Monggol, China received 401 mm (15.78 inches) of rain, the greatest 1-hour rainfall ever recorded on Earth: (The Weather Doctor)
• 3 July 1966...The northeastern U.S. was in the midst of a sweltering heat wave. The temperature at Philadelphia reached 104 degrees for a second day. Afternoon highs of 102 degrees at Hartford, CT, 105 degrees at Allentown, PA, and 107 degrees at La Guardia Airport in New York City established all-time records for those two locations. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 3 July 1995...The lowest temperature ever recorded in New Zealand was 6.9 degrees below zero at Ophir, New Zealand. (The Weather Doctor)