WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

2-6 January 2017

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 23 January 2017. 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

In close -- Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the sun (147.1 million kilometers or 91.2 million miles), on Wednesday, 4 January 2017 at 1418Z (9:18 AM EST, 8:18 AM CST, etc.).
Top 15 images of Earth obtained from the Space Station in 2016 are selected -- A video slide show with the title of "Incredible Earth Pics Snapped from Space Station in 2016" contains 16 digital photographs of Earth made by astronauts onboard the International Space Station during 2016that have been selected by NASA Johnson Space Center's Earth Observations team. These images show a variety of interesting features of the planet's atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. [Space.com]
Seeing beauty in clouds from space -- A feature appearing on NASA's Earth Observatory site focuses upon a variety of topics involving the viewing of clouds from satellites and upon the understanding of the processes in the formation of these clouds. A dozen satellite images of interesting clouds are provided. [NASA Earth Observatory]
High-quality maps of January 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 January and other months across the 48 coterminous United States for the current 1981-2010 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.
January 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 January, 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 current normals for 1981-2010.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

A White Christmas detected on Hawaii's snow-capped summits from space -- Detailed natural color-images obtained from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) onboard NASA's Landsat 8 satellite on this past Christmas Day show that the peaks of Hawaii's Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes were sporting a snow cover, which would qualify for a White Christmas in Hawaii, at least on the volcanic peaks that are at elevations of at least 13,600 feet. A "Kona" (or leeward side) storm one week earlier was responsible for up to two feet of snow near the summits. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Describing the December 2016 lake effect snow event downwind of the Great Lakes --A meteorologist with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center wrote an article for the ClimateWatch Magazine describing why several lake effect snowfall events have produced between two to three feet of snow downwind of several of the Great Lakes this December. The Great Lakes remain warm and have little ice cover. Cold winds from the west and northwest traveling across these lakes have produced these impressive lake-effect snow events downwind of several of the lakes, as shown by a map of the Great Lakes States. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
World Meteorological Organization claims 2016 on track to be hottest year on record -- As of late December, scientists with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) claimed that the calendar year of 2016 appears to be on track to be the hottest year on record since reliable temperatures were obtained worldwide in 1880. Average global temperature for 2016 would appear to exceed the record high temperature of 2015, in part the result of a very strong El Niño event that extended through the first half of the year. The scientists base their outlook upon projected global temperatures obtained from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast's Copernicus Climate Change Service. [World Meteorological Organization News]
New record highest significant wave height measured by a buoy is confirmed -- Slightly more than two weeks ago, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Commission for Climatology's Extremes Evaluation Committee reported that it established a new world record significant wave height of 19 meters (62.3 feet) measured on 4 February 2013 by an automated buoy that is part of the United Kingdom's Met Office Marine Automatic Weather Station network in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom. This new record height occurred as strong winds reaching 43.8 knots (50.4 miles per hour) following passage of a strong cold front across the region. This new record broke the previous record of 18.275 meters (59.96 feet) measured on 8 December 2007 in the North Atlantic. "Significant wave height" means the average of the highest one-third of waves measured by an instrument, where wave height is defined as the distance from the crest of one wave to the trough of the next. [World Meteorological Organization News]
Ice mass loss in Greenland continued during 2016 -- According to data obtained from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft, melting was especially pronounced in the southwest and northeast sections of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the 2016 melt season. This year's melt season lasted about 30 to 40 days longer than usual in the northeast and about 15 to 20 days longer along the west coast. The surface reflectivity to solar radiation or albedo in 2016 was the fifth lowest since the year 2000. [NOAA Climate.gov News]

CLIMATE MONITORING

China launches carbon dioxide monitoring satellite -- On 22 December 2016 China launched its first satellite dedicated to monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide, following the lead of Japan and the United States that have satellites monitoring greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Called TanSat (or CarbonSat), the new satellite carries a hyperspectral grating spectrometer for carbon dioxide measurements and a moderate resolution polarization imaging spectrometer for cloud and aerosol observations (CAPI). [Institute of Atmospheric Physics News]
Four decades of Landsat images provide a long view of Greenland Ice Sheet -- Scientists from Germany's Institut für Planetare Geodäsie, Technische Universität Dresden and colleagues have been assembling a collection of more than 37,000 images obtained from NASA's fleet of Landsat satellites between 1972 and 2015 in order to track the changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet. The images, which are available in a new data portal, indicate an accelerated loss of mass from the ice sheet due to increasing temperatures. A monitoring system is available for area-wide flow-velocity fields of the outlet glaciers of the Greenland ice sheet. [EOS Earth & Space Science News]
Pattern of flood risk changing across the nation -- Researchers from the University of Iowa recently reported that marked regional changes in the amount of flood risks across the nation based upon their comparison of data obtained from 2042 US Geological Survey stream gauges between 1985 and 2015 and the amount of water stored in the soil obtained over a dozen years from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission satellites. The threat of flooding appears to be growing most in the northern half of the 48 contiguous US, but declining in the southern half. The Southwest and the West are experiencing decreasing flood risk due to extended drought conditions. The researchers claim that the reasons for the changing pattern in flood risk could involve shifting precipitation patterns with heavier and more frequent rainfall events in the Midwest and Plains and the amount of water in the ground. [University of Iowa News]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

Six million additional tons of fish could had if global climate target is met -- Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) argue that if countries abided by the global warming target of 1.5 Celsius degrees proposed in the Paris Agreement then potential fish catches could net an additional six million metric tons per year. They claim that some oceans are more sensitive to temperature changes and would have substantially larger gains if the warming target were achieved. [University of British Columbia News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Spike in atmospheric oxygen 500 million years ago may be linked to fossil fuel formation -- Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison claim that the sudden spike in the amount of atmospheric oxygen during the Cambrian geological time period (approximately 500 million years ago) appears to have been associated with a rapid rise in the burial of sediment containing large quantities of carbon-rich organic matter. Burial of this sediment matter blocks oxidation of the carbon, allowing for an increase in free oxygen at the same time that carbon dioxide decreases. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Canadian national seasonal outlook issued -- Forecasters with Environment Canada issued their outlooks for temperature and precipitation across Canada for the first three months of 2017, which represent the remainder of meteorological winter (January and February) and the first month of meteorological spring (March). Their temperature outlook indicates that a large section of Canada extending eastward from western Ontario to the Canadian Maritime Provinces and northward from Ontario across Hudson Bay and the Canadian Archipelago could experience above average or normal (1981-2010) temperatures for these three months. Sections of northwestern British Columbia and the southwestern Yukon Territory in the West and across southern sections of Baffin Island in eastern Canada could have below average temperatures for late winter and early spring. Elsewhere, most of British Columbia, the Prairie Provinces and the Northwest Territory could have close to average temperatures for the next three months.
The Canadian precipitation outlook for January through March 2017 indicates that a large section of the nation, running from southern British Columbia eastward across the Prairie Provinces and Ontario to the Maritime Provinces could experience above average precipitation for these three months. Sections of the Canadian Archipelago in the Arctic could also have above average precipitation. Conversely, below normal precipitation was projected for a section of southern Yukon Territory and northwestern British Columbia. Near normal precipitation was anticipated elsewhere across western and central Canada.
[Note for comparisons and continuity with the three-month seasonal outlooks of temperature and precipitation generated for the continental United States and Alaska by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, one would need to use Environment Canada's probabilistic forecasts for temperature and precipitation.]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

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

Historical Events:

2 January 1885...The lowest temperature ever recorded at Duluth, MN occurred on this date. The temperature plunged to 41 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
2 January 1893...Little Rock, AR had its greatest 24-hour snowfall, with 13 inches that covered the ground. (Intellicast)
2 January 1920...South America's highest temperature on record, 120 degrees, was measured at Villa de Maria, Argentina. (National Weather Service files)
2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice passed through the Islands of Saint Martin and Saba, battering the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded to a hurricane on 30 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean, as it spanned two calendar years. (National Weather Service files)
2 January 1960...Oodnadatta, Australia recorded the Southern Hemisphere's highest temperature on record with a reading of 123 degrees. (National Weather Service files)
2 January 1961...The lowest temperature of record for the state of Hawaii was established with a reading of 14 degrees atop Haleakala Summit. (David Ludlum) (This state record has been eclipsed in May 1979.)
3 January 1913...The barometer at Canton, NY read 28.20 inches of mercury (955.0 millibars), which is the lowest ever recorded at an inland station in the 48 contiguous United States. (Intellicast)
3 January 1961...A three-day long ice storm was in progress over northern Idaho that produced an accumulation of ice eight inches thick, an U.S. record. Heavy fog, which blanketed much of northern Idaho from Grangeville to the Canadian border, deposited the ice on power and telephone lines causing widespread power outages. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
4 January 1888...Sacramento, CA received 3.5 inches of snow, an all-time record for that location. The heaviest snow in recent history was two inches on 5 February 1976. (4th-5th) (The Weather Channel)
5 January 1904...Bitterly cold air gripped the northeastern U.S. Morning lows of 42 degrees below zero at Smethport, PA and 34 degrees below zero at River Vale, NJ established state records for both the Keystone and Garden States. (The Weather Channel)
5 January 1913...The temperature at the east portal to Strawberry Tunnel reached 50 degrees below zero to tie the Utah state record low established at Woodruff on 6 February 1899. (David Ludlum) This record was later smashed in February 1985 when the temperature at Peter's Sink fell to 69 degrees below zero. (NCDC)
5 January 1974...The temperature at Vanda Station on the Scott Coast, Antarctica reached 59 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica. (The Weather Doctor)
5 January 1999...The temperature fell to 36 degrees below zero at Congerville in central Illinois to set a new record low temperature for the state. (NCDC)
6 January 2006...Tropical Storm Zeta dissipated after having formed on 29 December, marking an end to the 2005 hurricane season. It was the 30th storm of the record-breaking season, and one of only two tropical storms on record to span two calendar years (with Hurricane Alice in 1954-55) (National Weather Service files).
7 January 1913...Tucson, AZ set its all-time record low temperature with a frigid six degrees above zero. (NWS)
7 January 1971...The temperature at Hawley Lake, located southeast of McNary, AZ, plunged to 40 degrees below zero to establish a state record low temperature for the Grand Canyon State. (The Weather Channel)
7 January 1989...Fargo, ND was in the middle of a 3-day snowstorm over which time 24.4 inches of snow fell on the city -- the greatest single storm total ever for the location. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
7 January 1992...A rare January thunderstorm rumbled over Sioux Falls, SD. This was the first January thunderstorm recorded in the city since 1939. Meanwhile, thunderstorms produced six tornadoes (one F2 and five F1) near Grand Island, NE -- the first tornadoes ever recorded in Nebraska during January. (Intellicast)
7 January 1996...The "blizzard of '96" clobbered a huge area from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast with record snows. A new snowfall record for New Jersey was set when 35 inches were measured at White House. (Intellicast)
7-8 January 1966...Torrential rain fell at Foc Foc on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, with 45 inches falling in 12 hours and 72 inches falling in 24 hours, both world precipitation records. (National Weather Service files)
8 January 1859...This is the only day New York City's temperature stayed below zero the entire day. (Intellicast)
8 January 1923...The all-time January record high temperature reading was reached at Los Angeles when the mercury climbed to 90 degrees. (Intellicast)
8 January 1937...The record low temperature for the state of Nevada was set at San Jacinto when the temperature dropped to 50 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
8 January 1966...The greatest 24-hour rainfall associated with a tropical cyclone occurred at La Reunion Island when Tropical Cyclone Denise produced 72.0 inches of rain. The storm also set the world's 12-hour rainfall record with an even 45 inches. (National Weather Service files)

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