WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

13-17 January 2014

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 20 January 2014. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Approaching coldest time of the year -- This upcoming week is the third week of January, which for many locations across the nation typically marks the coldest week of the year, as indicated by the daily normal high and low temperatures. Usually, those stations located away from the moderating influences of the oceans reach their lowest temperatures during the third week of January, or a roughly one month after the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere receives the fewest hours of daylight and the smallest amounts of solar radiation. During that month, temperatures continue to fall to their lowest typical values as cooling continues. However, the increased length of daylight and increased sunshine during this month begins to warm the ground and overlying atmosphere as normal daily temperatures begin to rise toward their highest levels in mid to late July.
Free admission into the National Parks and Forests-- Next Monday, 20 January 2014, has been designated by the National Park Service as a fee-free day in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. This fee waiver will cover entrance and commercial tour fees in many of the national parks and monuments administered by the Park Service. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Large area of nation affected by the "polar vortex" -- An arctic air mass spread across a large section of the nation on the first weekend of 2014 and into the first full week of the year. While the core of the cold air was centered across the Upper Midwest, temperatures fell to the single digits above zero Fahrenheit across areas of the Deep South, resulting in new low temperature records. Some meteorologists claimed that this arctic outbreak was due to the "polar vortex", a large pool of cold air that extends upward through the troposphere (lowest 10 km) over the polar cap regions. On the periphery of this pool of cold air, the upper tropospheric polar jet stream circulates in a counterclockwise direction when viewed from above the North Pole, forming what appears as a vortex. One of the lobes of this vortex pushed southward across the eastern half of North America, resulting in the arctic air mass spreading across the eastern half of the United States early last week. An image from the NOAA's GOES-East satellite on 6 January 2014 shows the arctic air spreading southeastward behind a cold front. [NASA Global Climate Change]

NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews

Are Americans becoming "weather wimps?" -- An Associated Press science reporter found that despite all the media attention focused on the severity of the recent arctic air outbreak, this past Monday (6 January 2014) was only the 55th coldest day since January 1900, with an average temperature of 17.9 degrees Fahrenheit. He analyzed a dataset produced by a meteorologist at NOAA's Storm Prediction Center that contained 10,291 daily winter (December, January and February) temperatures averaged across the 48 coterminous United States beginning in January 1900 and running through last Monday. The reporter noted that this past Monday was the coldest in 17 years, the longest stretch since the last time the daily nationwide temperature fell below 18 degrees. Typically, these cold extremes have happened about once every four years since 1900. [AP The Big Story]
Brazil receives flooding rain -- A precipitation anomaly map produced by the Real-Time TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis from data collected from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite shows that southeastern Brazil experienced record precipitation during December 2013. The satellite-derived precipitation estimates were confirmed by rainfall totals collected by traditional rain gages. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Updated regional climate impacts and outlooks released -- At the end of last month, NOAA and its partners released a set of regional quarterly climate impact and outlook reports for seven regions across the United States. These reports include descriptions of major climate events that occurred during the previous three months along with climate outlooks for the first quarter of 2014. [NOAA NCDC News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Satellite shows sulfur dioxide emissions over India are increasing -- Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and colleagues have analyzed data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA's Aura satellite and found that emissions of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere from power plants across India have increased by more than 60 percent between 2005 and 2012. Sulfur dioxide is an atmospheric pollutant with both health and climate impacts. [NASA Global Climate Change]
Internal waves in ocean studied -- A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other research institutions in the US and France have been studying internal waves in the ocean and in the laboratory. These internal waves, which oscillate entirely within a stratified fluid such as the ocean, appear to affect ocean ecosystems and the Earth's climate as they travel long distances and mix water masses. These underwater waves develop along a boundary between two water masses that have density differences due to temperature and/or salinity. Some of the largest internal ocean waves are produced in the South China Sea and can have heights of several hundred feet. [MIT News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

US Climate Action Report submitted for 2014 -- On New Year's Day, the US Department of State submitted its "2014 US Climate Action Report" to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This report, which fulfills requirements under the UNFCCC, details actions that the nation is taking domestically and internationally to mitigate, adapt to, and assist other nations in addressing climate change. [US Department of State]
Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

13 January 1862...The "Noachian flood of California" created a vast sea in the Sacramento Valley. San Francisco had a January rainfall total of 24.36 inches. (Intellicast)
13 January 1871...The mercury plunged to 41 degrees Fahrenheit at Key West, FL, the lowest reading ever at this farthest south location in the contiguous US. The mark was tied on 12 January 1993. (The Weather Doctor)
13 January 1888...The mercury plunged to 65 degrees below zero at Fort Keogh, located near Miles City, MT. The reading stood as the all-time lowest temperature record for the continental U.S. for sixty-six years. (David Ludlum)
13 January.1912...The temperature at Oakland, MD plunged to 40 degrees below zero to establish a state record. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
14 January 1863...The greatest snowstorm of record for Cincinnati, OH commenced, and a day later twenty inches of snow covered the ground. That total has remained far above the modern day record for Cincinnati of eleven inches of snow in one storm. (David Ludlum)
14 January 1863...The greatest snowstorm of record for Cincinnati, OH commenced, and a day later twenty inches of snow covered the ground. That total has remained far above the modern day record for Cincinnati of eleven inches of snow in one storm. (David Ludlum)
14 January 1972...A 24-hour temperature for the United States occurred at Loma, MT when the temperature rose from 54 degrees below zero at 9 AM on the 14th to 49 degrees on the 15th, which represented a 103-Fahrenheit degree temperature change in 24-hours. This record was not acknowledged until 2002, when it was recognized due to recommendation of the National Climate Extremes Committee. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
14 January 1979...Chicago, IL was in the midst of their second heaviest snow of record as, in thirty hours, the city was buried under 20.7 inches of snow. The twenty-nine inch snow cover following the storm was an all-time record for Chicago. (David Ludlum)
15 January 1952...A six-day snowstorm was in progress in the western U.S. The storm produced 44 inches of snow at Marlette Lake, NV, 52 inches at Sun Valley, ID and 149 inches at Tahoe CA, establishing single storm records for each of those three states. In addition, 24-hour snowfall totals of 22 inches at the University of Nevada and 26 inches at Arco, ID established records for those two states. The streamliner, City of San Francisco was snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Range, near Donner Summit. (David Ludlum)
15 January 1988...A small storm over the Atlantic Ocean produced heavy snow along the coast of North Carolina. The five inch total at Wilmington, NC was their third highest for any storm in January in 117 years of records. (National Weather Summary)
16 January 1881...The temperature at Markree Castle (County Sligo) fell to 2 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), Ireland's lowest temperature of record. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
16 January 1889...The temperature at Cloncurry, Queensland reached 128 degrees F, the highest ever reported in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
16 January 1881...The temperature at Markree Castle (County Sligo) fell to 2 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), Ireland's lowest temperature of record. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
16 January 1889...The temperature at Cloncurry, Queensland reached 128 degrees F, the highest ever reported in Australia. (The Weather Doctor)
17 January 1893...The mercury dipped to 17 degrees below zero at Millsboro, DE to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
17 January 1972...A single storm unloaded 77.5 inches of snow at Summit, MT to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
17 January 1988...A Pacific storm battered the southern coast of California. Los Angeles reported an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 29.25 inches. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
18 January 1930...The record low temperature for the state of Oregon was set at Seneca when the thermometer dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1943...The record low temperature for the state of Oklahoma was set at Watts when the mercury dipped to 27 degrees below zero. The record low temperature for the state of Idaho was set at Island Park Dam when the temperature fell to 60 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18 January 1957...The record low temperature for the state of Massachusetts was set at Birch Hill Dam when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero. This record was tied in January 1981. (Intellicast)
18 January 1977...The record low temperature for the state of South Carolina was set near Long Creek when the mercury plunged to 20 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-27 January 1980...Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced of rainfall over the 10-day period at Commerson, La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor)
19 January 1786...The temperature at Hartford, CT fell to 24 degrees below zero. Up to this time, it was the lowest ever known on a thermometer.
19 January 1925...The record low temperature for the state of Maine was set at Van Buren when the temperature fell to 48 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
19 January 1933...Giant Forest, CA received 60 inches of snow in just 24 hours, a state record, and the second highest 24-hour total of record for the U.S. (David Ludlum)
19 January 1994...An extremely cold arctic airmass set 67 new record temperature lows from Minnesota to Virginia, including 10 cities that recorded their lowest temperatures ever. The following cities set all-time record lows: Indianapolis, IN (27 degrees below zero), Akron, OH, Clarksburg, WV, and Zanesville, OH (25 below), Pittsburgh, PA, Louisville, KY, Columbus, OH and Youngstown, OH (22 below), Cleveland, OH (20 below), and Erie, PA (18 below). The mercury plunged to 36 below zero at New Whiteland, IN to set a new record low temperature for the Hoosier State. In Kentucky, a statewide record low temperature was set at Shelbyville with a reading of 37 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
19 January 1995...Columbia, MO was buried under 19.7 inches of snow in 24 hours for its greatest 24-hour snowfall and snowstorm ever. Wind gusts up to 45 mph produced blizzard conditions and thunderstorms occurred several times during the heavy snow. Interstates 70, US 63, and US 54 were closed down. The same storm produced 15 inches of snow at Moline, IL and 14 inches at Blue Jacket, OK. (Intellicast)

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