WEEKLY WATER NEWS

7-11 July 2008

Water in the Earth System will return for Fall 2008 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2008. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Water in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- Several tropical cyclones (low-pressure systems that form over tropical waters) were detected during the last week:
  • In the eastern North Pacific, Tropical Storm Boris, which became the second named tropical cyclone of the season for that basin at the end of last week, continued westward away from the Mexican coast. By midweek, this system intensified to become the first hurricane of the eastern North Pacific hurricane season. By the end of this past week, Boris weakened to tropical depression status before dissipating. Additional information and satellite images on Hurricane Boris can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
    Tropical Storm Cristina, the third named tropical cyclone to form in the eastern North Pacific, dissipated early last week well off the western coast of central America. An image obtained from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite shows the clouds associated with Tropical Storm Boris and Tropical Depression Cristina early last week. [NOAA OSEI] An image from NASA's Aqua satellite shows a slightly different perspective of these two systems. [NASA Earth Observatory]
    The fourth tropical cyclone of the season developed into Tropical Storm Douglas off the west coast of Mexico near the midpoint of last week. This minimal tropical storm moved northwestward off the Mexican course and dissipated late last week. Additional information and satellite images are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
    Tropical Depression 5-E formed on Sunday off the Mexican coast. This system was expected to travel to the northwest offshore of Mexico.
  • In North Atlantic, the second named tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane season formed late last week off the coast of Africa and was named Tropical Storm Bertha. As of Sunday, this tropical storm was traveling westward across the central tropical Atlantic. An image from the European Meteosat-9 satellite shows the clouds associated with tropical storm Bertha at the end of last week. [NOAA OSEI]
• Response to hurricanes is readied -- Aware of the start of the hurricane season in both the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific, NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration has prepared to respond quickly to hazardous material spill incidents resulting from hurricanes and other severe storm events. Scientists from this office will work with other federal, state and local agencies to provide scientific support and assistance before, during and after hurricanes strike. [NOAA News]
• Fifteen years of changes in sea level monitored -- NASA scientists recently released a global map of the changes in sea level between 1993 and 2008 as detected by satellite-based altimeters on board the TOPEX and Jason 1 satellites. This map shows that some areas across the Western Pacific Ocean experienced an increase in sea level by nearly nine inches (225 mm) while sea level decreased by several inches across some scattered regions. Changes in sea level were caused by changes in the ice sheets as well as thermal expansion due to warming associated with increased global temperatures and the warm phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Start of melt season along coastal Greenland -- Images in natural and false colors obtained from data collected by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra Satellite in late June show the beginning of the ice melt season along the west coast of Greenland. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Dramatic seasonal changes in northern Japan and far eastern Russia -- Comparison of two images obtained by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite from early March and early June shows the rapid change from late winter to early summer across northern Japan's Shiretoko Peninsula, Russia's Kuril Islands and the nearby waters of the Sea of Okhotsk. The snow that covered the peninsula and islands, along with the ice that covered the Sea of Okhotsk in March had disappeared by June. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Continental slope shaped by internal waves -- Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have found that a class of powerful internal or invisible waves that are located beneath the ocean's surface generate intense currents that shape the submarine edges of the continents, as well as contributing to ocean mixing and the determination of climate. [EurekAlert!]
• Carbon sink in the Southern Oceans is studied -- An ocean scientist from University of East Anglia and her colleagues claim that they have found the reason for the relatively small changes in the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the Southern Oceans despite the increased amounts of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. They argue that the winds have increased between 1981 and 2004 in the Southern Hemisphere because of the "ozone hole" over the Antarctic and increased global temperatures, resulting in enhanced upwelling of deep, carbon-rich water. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Pathway for marine methane production traced -- An oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa reports finding a new pathway for methane production in the oceans involving the decomposition of an organic, phosphorus-containing compound, methylphosphonate, which may be responsible for the supersaturation of methane in ocean surface waters. This compound could affect the global climate, as methane is a highly effective greenhouse gas. [EurekAlert!]
• Gulf of Mexico viewed as "Florida's toilet" -- The director of the Clean Water Network of Florida recently reported that poorly treated sewage is being flushed into the Gulf of Mexico by Floridians, resulting in a risk of pollution to the Gulf that is two orders of magnitude worse than from offshore drilling. [US Water News Online]
• Cyclone relief efforts aided by data from space -- Nearly two months after the disaster that occurred in Myanmar (Burma) due to the landfall of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, international relief workers are continuing to rely on data collected from earth observation satellites, such as the development of damage assessment maps. [ESA]
• Call for carbon dioxide emission cuts prompted by ocean acidification -- A team of chemical oceanographers from the Carnegie Institution, the University of Hawaii, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the United Kingdom's Southampton University warn that unless more aggressive cuts in the emissions of carbon dioxide by humans than proposed are not undertaken soon, the added carbon dioxide into atmosphere and ocean could drastically alter the ocean chemistry, resulting in increased acidification that would affect marine life. [EurekAlert!]
• Geological evidence could point to possible "snowball earth" -- Geologists from the University of Florida have determined that approximately six major basins in India formed more than one billion years ago, which could remove a major argument against the "snowball earth" theory, a theory that claims that planet earth at one time was nearly covered in snow and ice. [EurekAlert!]
• Soil water simulation model could lead to improved crop management -- Researchers at the University of Missouri and the USDA-ARS (Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit) have developed and tested a version of a soil water model called the Simple Inverse Yield Model (SIYM) that estimates the plant-available water capacity for a field using a water budget algorithm and pertinent weather conditions. [American Society of Agronomy]
• Pesticides persevere in groundwater -- Scientists at the US Geological Survey have found that a high pesticide residue that has percolated downward into the soil, resulting in increased contamination of the ground water and the unsaturated zone above. [American Association of Agronomy]
• Olympic sailing could be helped by new technology -- In anticipation of the need for real-time wind data for the sailing venue at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing, researchers from the Ocean University of China have developed a mobile lidar (light detection and ranging) station that can accurately measure wind speed and direction over a large area. [EurekAlert!]
• Volcanoes found to shape Mercury's surface -- Scientists studying imaging data obtained by NASA's MESSENGER (short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) probe report that volcanoes appear to have played a more extensive role in shaping the surface of Mercury than previously thought. [Arizona State University]
• 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, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (Has) and coral bleaching. [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]
• Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 7 July 2001...Six people were injured by lightning in Rogaland, Norway, disproving the myth that polar latitudes have few lightning hazards. (NWS and 45th Weather Squadron, USAF).
• 8 July 1788...Hail fell at Canterbury, CT to a depth of 34 inches. Serious flooding resulted when it melted. (Intellicast)
• 8 July 1935...Ten inches of rain at Cortland, NY in 48 hours caused damaging floods on the Susquehanna and Hudson River Valleys. (Intellicast)
• 8 July 2001...Flash flooding produced 5 to 9-foot deep water that eventually wiped out most of downtown Mullens, WV. People trapped in their homes by the flooding saw caskets from the local funeral home floating down various streets. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 July 1950...The town of York, NE was deluged with 13.15 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a record for the Cornhusker State. (The Weather Channel)
• 9 July 1968...Columbus, MS received 15.68 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
• 9 July 1988...The percentage of total area in the country in the grips of severe to extreme drought reached 43 percent, the fourth highest total of record. The record of 61 percent occurred during the summer of 1934. (The National Weather Summary)
• 11 July1988...Thunderstorms produced heavy rain in southern Texas, with totals ranging up to 13 inches near Medina. Two men drowned when their pickup truck was swept into the Guadalupe River, west of the town of Hunt. (Storm Data)
• 11 July 1990...Most costly hailstorm in U.S. history battered the Colorado Front Range from Estes Park to Colorado Springs. A supercell dropped a swath of hail the size of baseballs which dented tens of thousands of cars, defoliated thousands of trees, knocked out power and phone service for thousands. Denver was hardest hit. Total damage reached $625 million. (Intellicast)
• 11 July 1992…Thunderstorms moving across Nevada contained torrential rain that resulted in flooding. Hawthorne, which normally receives 4.46 inches of precipitation annually and 0.26 inches in July, received 1.70 inches of rain in 20 minutes, ending at 4:05 PM. By 4:20 PM, all roads in and out of the city were closed due to flooding. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 July 1892...A hidden lake burst out of a glacier on the side of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain, flooding the valley below and killing around 200 villagers and holiday-makers in Saint Gervais. (Wikipedia)
• 12 July 1951...The Kaw River flood occurred. The month of June that year was the wettest of record for the state of Kansas, and during the four days preceding the flood much of eastern Kansas and western Missouri received more than ten inches of rain. Flooding in the Midwest claimed 41 lives, left 200 thousand persons homeless, and caused a billion dollars in property damage. Kansas City was hardest hit. The central industrial district sustained $870 million property damage. (The Kansas City Weather Almanac)
• 12 July 1988...Evening thunderstorms produced severe weather over the Dakotas, including baseball size hail at Aberdeen, SD and softball size hail near Monango and Fullerton, ND. Thunderstorms produced heavy rain in Arkansas and northeastern Texas, with 6.59 inches reported at Mesquite, TX in just an hour and fifteen minutes. Garland, TX reported water up to the tops of cars following a torrential downpour. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 12 July 1989...Early morning thunderstorms over eastern Kansas deluged McFarland with more than six inches of rain. Afternoon thunderstorms in Wyoming produced up to eighteen inches of dime size hail near Rock Springs, along with torrential rains, and a three foot high wall of mud and water swept into the town causing one death and more than 1.5 million dollars damage. Evening thunderstorms produced severe weather in Oklahoma and Arkansas, deluging Dardanelle, AR with 3.50 inches of rain in less than twenty minutes. About seventy cows were killed when lightning struck a tree in Jones County, TX. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 12 July 1996...Up to three inches of rain fell in one hour near Buffalo Creek, CO on forestland denuded by a May wildfire. The resulting 20 foot high wall of water uprooted trees and utility poles, buildings were moved from their foundations and bridges destroyed. Two people were killed when vehicles were washed away. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 July 2001...A nearly stationary supercell thunderstorm dropped large hail and between 3 and 6 inches of rain during one hour southeast of Cohagen, MT. Hail drifts up to ten feet deep were measured in coulees. Four days later, golf ball sized hail was still embedded in the mud and straw, along with drifts to four feet deep. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 July 1975...Dover, DE was deluged with 8.50 inches of rain to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state. (The Weather Channel)
• 13 July 1996...Heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Bertha caused roads to washout in the Camden, ME area. Two people were hurt when they drove into a 600-pound boulder that had fallen onto the roadway due to the heavy rain. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

Return to DataStreme WES Webpage

Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2008, The American Meteorological Society.