Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Albuquerque Festival Tent Flattened in Surprise Microburst; Wild Hailstorms Strike Denver

Albuquerque Festival Tent Flattened in Surprise Microburst; Wild Hailstorms Strike Denver
The Weather Channel has confirmed that no severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings had been issued by the National Weather Service in Albuquerque prior to the burst of wind, which hit the festival site at approximately 2:10 p.m. The NWS office issued a "significant weather advisory" for 55-mph wind gusts and half-inch-diameter hail at 2:14 p.m. for a "strong thunderstorm 7 miles southeast of Albuquerque" affecting eastern Bernalillo and northern Valencia counties.A Weather Underground personal weather station in Hugo, Colorado, recorded a 76-mph wind gust at 5:49 p.m. MDT. Another weather observer in rural Cheyenne County, Colorado, reported an 84-mph gust to the National Weather Service at 6:10 p.m. MDT.
 
 

Strongest Storm on Earth In Route to Hong Kong

Strongest Storm on Earth In Route to Hong Kong
 

 
Super-Typhoon Usagi became the strongest storm on Earth on Thursday. Though it’s weakened since then, the storm is still churning toward Hong Kong and could create major disruptions with a likely landfall as early as Sunday.
On Thursday, Usagi measured sustained wind speeds of 160 mph. Those winds made it the strongest storm on Earth this year, besting Utor, which recorded wind speeds of 150 mph prior to making landfall in the Philippines in mid-August according to the Capital Weather Gang. NASA created a 3D satellite image of Usagi at its peak, showing an extremely well-developed eyewall.
 Measurements by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Friday morning showed that Usagi had sustained winds of 150 mph with gusts up to 184 mph. That’s still enough to classify it as a supertyphoon or make it the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. The storm is also kicking up waves as high as 45 feet.
The storm is expected to deliver a sharp blow to Taiwan on Friday and Saturday before likely heading toward Hong Kong. Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau has issued an “extremely torrential rain advisory” for the southeastern part of island. The storm could potentially drop 20-30 inches of rain on Taiwan over the next two days. That’s prompted the Defense Ministry to deploy more than 1,600 soldiers to areas most prone to landslides and flooding according to AFP.
 
http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/strongest-storm-on-earth-en-route-to-hong-kong-16508



Summer Snow: Record-Early Snowfall Hits Rapid City, South Dakota; Boulder, Colorado; North Platte, Nebraska

September snow blanketed parts of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, northern Colorado and western Nebraska, downing trees and set early snow records in some locations, 11 days before summer officially ends.
Thursday morning brought the earliest measurable snow on record to Rapid City, South Dakota, where 1.6 inches was officially measured at the National Weather Service office.
Rapid City has now had two of its three all-time heaviest snowstorms and its record earliest snow all in a 19-month span since early April 2013. Winter Storm Atlas buried the High Plains in several feet of wind-driven snow in early October 2013. 
Snow piled up to 8 inches deep in the Black Hills near Custer, South Dakota and 7 inches of snow was reported at Mt. Rushmore.
Farther west, the snow was even heavier in parts of northern Wyoming, where up to 18 inches was estimated by a SNOTEL station in the Bighorn Mountains southwest of Sheridan. Broken branches, downed trees and power outages littered streets in the city of Buffalo, Wyoming, where 7-8 inches of snow fell.
Early Friday morning, a light dusting of snow was reported in Boulder, Colorado, with a few snowflakes flying over much of the Denver metro area.
While only half an inch was reported at the NWS office in Boulder, this appears to have tied Sep. 12, 1974 for the earliest measurable snow on record in Boulder, dating to 1906. 
This early dusting of snow occurred on the one-year anniversary of the destructive Colorado floods of September 2013
North Platte, Nebraska, also saw its record earliest snow on Sept. 11, just before midnight local time, though only amounting to a trace. 
Just over one-half inch of snow was measured in both Casper and Cheyenne, Wyoming, missing their record earliest snow by less than a week. 
Tuesday, a section of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park over Logan Pass was closed by park officials due to snow. Five inches of snow was estimated to have fallen near Logan Pass, according to the National Park Service.
Great Falls, Montana, witnessed its earliest first snow of the season in 22 years Tuesday night. Only six other years since 1892 featured snow before September 9 in Great Falls, according to the National Weather Service. 
Multiple rounds of snow were reported across a large part of Canada's Alberta province Monday through Wednesday, including its largest city, Calgary, as temperatures fell below freezing at times.

QuikSCAT's Replacement, the RapidScat Ocean Wind Sensor, Installed on Space Station

In November 2009, one of the greatest success stories in the history of satellite meteorology came to an end when the venerable QuikSCAT satellite failed. Launched in 1999, the QuikSCAT satellite became one of the most useful and controversial meteorological satellites ever to orbit the Earth. It carried a scatterometer--a radar instrument that can measure near-surface wind speed and direction over the ocean. Forecasters world-wide came to rely on QuikSCAT wind data to issue timely warnings and make accurate forecasts of tropical and extratropical storms, wave heights, sea ice, aviation weather, iceberg movement, coral bleaching events, and El Niño. Originally expected to last just 2 - 3 years, QuikSCAT made it past ten, a testament to the skill of the engineers that designed the satellite. A QuikSCAT replacement called ISS-RapidScat was funded in 2011 and built in just 18 months. RapidScat was successfully launched on September 20, 2014 on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, which docked last week with the International Space Station (ISS.) This morning, RapidScat was plucked out of the Dragon and install it on the Space Station. The heaters have been turned on, and full activation of RapidScat is expected on Wednesday. In a clever reuse of hardware originally built to test parts of NASA's QuikScat satellite, RapidScat cost NASA just $30 million--80% lower than if the instrument had been built new.



ISS-RapidScat is a radar scatterometer designed to sense near-surface winds over the ocean. The instrument sends a pulse of 13.4 gigahertz microwaves towards the Earth’s surface and measures the intensity of the return pulse that reflects back from the surface. In general, strong radar return signals represent rough surfaces, while weak radar return signals represent smooth surfaces. Stronger winds produce larger waves and therefore stronger radar return signals. The return signal also tells scientists the direction of the wind, since waves line up in the same direction the wind is blowing. The ISS orbit takes the space station between 51.6°N - 51.6°S latitude, and RapidScat will not be able to "see" ocean winds at high latitudes beyond 57°. QuikSCAT measured winds in a swath 1,800 km wide centered on the satellite ground track, but RapidScat's swath will be only 900 km wide, since it is orbiting at a lower altitude (375 - 435 km high versus 800 km for QuikSCAT.) The instrument will be able to "see" with a resolution of up to 12.5 km (7.8 miles.) It completes 15.51 orbits per day, and revisits the same part of the ocean beneath it once every two days. This compares with QuikSCAT, which covered 93% of Earth's surface in 24 hours. The advertised accuracy of RapidScat winds: for wind speeds 7 to 45 miles per hour (3 to 20 meters per second), an accuracy of about 4.5 miles per hour (2 meters per second); for wind speeds of 45 to 70 miles per hour (20 to 30 meters per second), an accuracy within 10 percent; for wind direction, an accuracy of 20 degrees. Precipitation generally degrades the wind measurement accuracy, and accuracy is also reduced at the edge of the swath. Useful data from RapidScat will likely not be available for several months, to allow time for the scientists to validate and calibrate the data being taken. RapidScat's lifetime will be relatively short--just a two-year mission is planned. Scatterometer data is extremely valuable for many aspects of hurricane forecasting, providing early detection of surface circulations in developing tropical depressions, and helping define gale (34 kts) and storm-force (50 kts) wind radii. The information on wind radii from scatterometers is especially important for tropical storms and hurricanes outside the range of aircraft reconnaissance flights conducted in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins, and for the regions where there are no reconnaissance flights (Central Pacific, Western Pacific, and Indian Ocean). Accurate wind radii are critical to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC), and Guam Weather Forecast Office (WFO) watch and warning process, since they affect the size of tropical storm and hurricane watch and warning areas. Between 2003 and 2006, QuikSCAT data were used at NHC 17% of the time to determine the wind radii, 21% of the time for center fixing, and 62% of the time for storm intensity estimates.

Monster Cyclone Phailin Poses Deadly Threat to India

Monster Cyclone Phailin Poses Deadly Threat to India

  
 
One of the strongest tropical cyclones to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1980 is heading for the northeast Indian state of Odisha, packing winds of close to 160 mph and a storm surge of at least 10 feet, but possibly much higher. The storm, named Phailin — a Thai word for “sapphire” — has intensified after weakening for a time on Thursday. By some measures, it may already have become the strongest storm on record in the Indian Ocean. It is expected to make landfall in Odisha or the far northeastern corner of the Andrha Pradesh State on Saturday afternoon or early evening.
Sea level rise due to climate change will only increase the risk of low-lying areas in Bangladesh and India to cyclone-related storm surge events. As weather.com reported, one small island that was involved in a dispute between India and Bangladesh disappeared entirely in 2010 due to rising water. 
 
 
 

Severe Storms to Ignite From Texas to Minnesota Tuesday




http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/severe-storms-to-shift-east-tu-1/34889183

The same system that brought severe weather to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains on Monday will deliver another round of severe storms to the Plains on Tuesday.

Thunderstorms are set to erupt from eastern South Dakota to the Texas Panhandle on Tuesday afternoon before weakening and tracking eastward during the overnight hours.

Wind gusts exceeding 60 mph and hail as large as golf balls should be expected with thunderstorms that develop across this large swath of the Plains.

A few of the more intense storms in the northern extent of this area may spin up a few tornadoes late in the afternoon with the tornado threat diminishing during the evening.

There is a risk of a thunderstorm reaching Kansas City, Missouri, before the end of Tuesday evening, where the first wild card game of the 2014 MLB post season will take place

Pneumonia front sends temps 21-degrees lower in 2 hours Monday PM; ends warmest spell here in almost 3 weeks.

tsexplain093014
http://chicagoweathercenter.com/blog/pneumonia-front-sends-temps-21-degrees-lower-in-2-hours-monday-pm-ends-warmest-spell-here-in-almost-3-weeks

Chicagoans head out into a very different air mass Tuesday than the one responsible for Monday’s July-level 83-degree high–a reading 14-degrees above normal and the warmest daytime temperature to occur here in 19 days–nearly 3 weeks!  The passage of Monday’s “pneumonia front” at 5:48 pm set in motion a 21-degree temp plunge in only 2 hours time that followed. The dramatic cool-down which brought 7-consecutive days of above normal temps–including Saturday and Sunday highs of 79 and 78—to an unceremonious end.

France Flooding: Montpellier Under Red Alert After 10 Inches of Rain in 3 Hours

By Nick Wiltgen
Published: September 29, 2014

The litany of flash floods caused by extraordinarily heavy rainfall in 2014 grew even longer Monday after record-shattering rainfall struck one of southern France's largest cities.
Montpellier, a city of 264,000 along France's Mediterranean coast, was hit with 252 millimeters (9.92 inches) of rain in just 3 hours, between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. and noon EDT in the U.S.). The exceptionally heavy rain flooded streets and quickly sent the river Lez out of its banks in the city center.
As of 8 p.m. local time, the city had tallied 295.6 millimeters (11.63 inches) of rain for the day, amounting to 47 percent of the city's average annual rainfall of 24.77 inches.

http://www.wunderground.com/news/montpellier-france-flash-flood-vigilance-rouge-20140929

California's Drought Takes A Toll On These 8 Animals

California's Drought Takes A Toll On These 8 Animals

Zain Haidar
Published: September 29, 2014

8 Animals At Risk During California's Historic Drought 

After three years, California’s historic drought continues to worsen. Over 37 million people are now being affected, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The drought is turning the state brown, drying up lakes and depleting wells in Central Valley towns, but humans aren’t the only ones at risk.
Several species are having their ecosystems and food sources threatened by devastating conditions in The Golden State, including this large predator.

http://www.wunderground.com/news/california-drought-wildlife-20140929

Record Fall Heat in the U.S. and Canadian High Plains


http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/comment.html?entrynum=307#commenttop

Temperatures on Thursday and Friday, September 25-26, soared to record levels for this time of the year in Montana, Wyoming, western North Dakota, and the south-central Canadian Plains.

After a relatively cool summer, an early fall heat wave engulfed the U.S. and Canadian High Plains on Thursday sending temperatures close to 100°F in North Dakota and Montana. The hottest reading observed was 98°F (36.7°C) at Terry, Montana and also at Wasta, South Dakota. Miles City, Montana and Williston, North Dakota both reached 97°F (36.1°C), their hottest temperatures ever observed during the fall (post September 22nd) and for so late in the year. Poplar, Montana also reached 97°F. Most sites in Montana broke or at least tied daily record highs on both September 24th and 25th, as was the case in Livingston (91°F/32.8°F) on the 25th, Helena (91°F/32.8°C) on both the 24th and 25th, Cut Bank (90°F/32.2°C) on the 25th, Missoula (92°F/33.3°C) on the 24th, Kalispell (89°F/31.7°C) on the 24th, Butte (85°F/29.4°C) on the 24th, and Bozeman (91°F/32.8°C) on the 25th. What was truly remarkable was how the warmth engulfed the entire (very large) state of Montana with warmer than normal temperatures even for mid-summer.

Albuquerque Festival Tent Flattened in Surprise Microburst; Wild Hailstorms Strike Denver



No picture available: http://www.weather.com/news/severe-weather-denver-colorado-new-mexico-nebraska-20140929

A festival tent the size of a professional football field was flattened by an unexpected microburst in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Monday, injuring the festival's director in one of several powerful thunderstorms to rip across the southern Rockies and adjacent High Plains.

The Weather Channel has confirmed that no severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings had been issued by the National Weather Service in Albuquerque prior to the burst of wind, which hit the festival site at approximately 2:10 p.m. The NWS office issued a "significant weather advisory" for 55-mph wind gusts and half-inch-diameter hail at 2:14 p.m. for a "strong thunderstorm 7 miles southeast of Albuquerque" affecting eastern Bernalillo and northern Valencia counties.
"Most of us got knocked down by this gust of wind," Gore said. "I don't remember being hit by anything physically. But I remember looking up and a lot of guys were down on the ground as well. I don't know if a piece of the tent hit us or it was just the wind, it happened so fast."

Intense storms knock over trees, drench Phoenix

Arizona Storms660.jpg


Intense storms swept through the Southwest on Saturday, snapping trees and shrouding metropolitan Phoenix in cascading showers while also bringing flooding to parts of Nevada.
The skies above downtown Phoenix were completely gray in the afternoon as strong winds, thunder and rain hit the region. The outside visibility of buildings was almost entirely obscured by rain and clouds.
 
The storm forced authorities to close a section of Interstate 17 for more than hour due to flooding. Flight departures and landings resumed about 3:30 p.m. after they were halted for an hour at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. But airport spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said delays are expected into the evening. More than 40 flights scheduled to land in Phoenix were diverted to other airports, she said.

"The wind caused some damage to the roof of Terminal 2 in the baggage claim area and in some of the gate areas. However, all three terminals at Sky Harbor are operational," Rodriguez said in a statement.

Branches and debris littered streets around the city and at least one traffic light was knocked over. Some trees were toppled by the ensuing wind. The Salt River Project utility said that about 31,000 customers were without power as of Saturday afternoon.

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2014/09/28/intense-storms-knock-over-trees-drench-phoenix/

Aral Sea's Eastern Basin Has Gone Dry

Aral Sea's Eastern Basin Has Gone Dry

http://www.wunderground.com/news/aral-sea-eastern-lobe-20140927

In a landmark moment that will go without celebration, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried for the first time in modern history.
According to NASA, the Central Asian lake has been shrinking since the 1960s, when the Soviet government began diverting water in the area for agriculture. However, the lake hasn’t dried to such an extent until this summer.
"This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times," Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert, told NASA. "And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."
More than 60 million people now live in the Aral Region, and inflows to the lake have dropped likely due to climate change. 
This most recent desiccation is a result of dwindling snow and rain that typically feeds the lake, Micklin said. In addition to dwindling inflows, massive irrigation efforts of the regions two major rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, depleted nearby water levels, according to New Scientist. 
What was once the world’s fourth-largest lake is now split into several pieces:  the Northern and Southern Aral Seas, and further, the eastern and western lobes of the larger Southern Aral Sea.

The South Aral’s eastern lobe almost completely dried in 2009 but made a comeback in 2010, according to NASA.

October Chill Targets the Midwest, East This Weekend

October Chill Targets the Midwest, East This Weekend

http://www.wunderground.com/news/pattern-change-ahead-20140927

As the calendar shifts to October, expect a plunge of chilly air to arrive in time for the month's first weekend in the Midwest and East.
If you long for summer's return in these areas, we hope you enjoy the next few days.
Parts of the northern Plains and southern Canada saw record hot temperatures so late in the season at the end of last week. Williston, North Dakota and Miles City, Montana both saw temperatures soar to 97 degrees this past Thursday. 
Sunday, Caribou, Maine basked in 84-degree warmth, the hottest temperature on record so late in the season, there. Daily record highs were also set Sunday in at least a dozen other northern cities, including Newark (87), Providence (86), Sault Ste. Marie (80) and Duluth (81). 
Changes, however, are on the way late this week into the weekend. An upper-atmospheric trough will carve southward into the East and Midwest, while a corresponding upper-atmospheric ridge builds into the West. The past few days we have had a ridge in the East and a trough in the West.
This pattern change will bring temperatures that are 20-30 degrees colder for some locations in the northern Plains. Temperatures will also be cooler in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, where highs will go from the 70s and 80s this past weekend, to the 50s and 60s next weekend.
With this fresh plunge of cold air, expect some frost and even freeze conditions from parts of the northern Plains into the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley during the morning this weekend.
As it cools down in the East, the warmth will make a comeback along the West coast, with highs 15-20 degrees warmer by next weekend. Los Angeles will go from highs in the 70s to highs in the 90s or triple digits in some inland locations. The forecast for hot weather, very low humidity and offshore winds has already prompted fire weather watches for the Los Angeles area beginning Wednesday.
Also, the Gulf Coast will remain quite pleasant for early October, with highs remaining generally in the 80s.
In addition to the changes in temperature, many locations will go from wet to dry and vice versa. 
A cold front will drive eastward late this week, with rain and thunderstorms sweeping from the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Thursday into the East Friday, and lingering in New England Saturday.
From Thursday night through Saturday, we can't rule out a few wet snowflakes mixing in with a cold, wind-driven light rain from northern North Dakota into northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan. 
In fact, there should be bands of lake-enhanced rain, and yes, perhaps some wet flakes in the hills away from the lakes, Friday through at least early Sunday from Upper Michigan to central and Upstate New York. Quite a calling card for fall, eh?

So fall conditions will likely return to the Midwest and Northeast next weekend, while summer won't let go of the West coast yet. Fall is definitely a season of change and this will be apparent to many as we head through early October.

Denver Severe Weather Dumps Massive Amounts of Hail; Damaging Winds Also Reported

Denver Severe Weather Dumps Massive Amounts of Hail; Damaging Winds Also Reported


http://www.wunderground.com/news/denver-hailstorms-latest-news-20140930


An impressive hail storm slammed into the Denver metropolitan area around 2 p.m. MDT, dropping hail as large as golf balls.
Photos posted to social media show what looked like snow, but was actually a thick sheet of hail covering highways and grassy areas. Denver's 9 News reports Cherry Creek schools delayed dismissing students because of the weather.
Hail drifts several feet deep were reported in some towns, according to AOL.com.
As the storms marched east, they congealed into a powerful squall line. A roof was blown off a house in Kit Carson, Colorado, at 6:20 p.m. MDT, according to law enforcement reports relayed to the National Weather Service office in nearby Goodland, Kansas.
A Weather Underground personal weather station in Hugo, Colorado, recorded a 76-mph wind gust at 5:49 p.m. MDT. Another weather observer in rural Cheyenne County, Colorado, reported an 84-mph gust to the National Weather Service at 6:10 p.m. MDT.

In New Mexico, an estimated 75-mph gust was reported in rural Harding County, while a 62-mph gust was reported earlier in the afternoon at Albuquerque International Sunport.

Human-Caused Global Warming Contributed to Weather Extremes: Report

Human-Caused Global Warming Contributed to Weather Extremes: Report

http://www.wunderground.com/news/report-human-caused-climate-change-2013-weather-extremes-20140929

Scientists announced Monday that human-caused climate change contributed to and/or amplified nine of 2013's most extreme weather events, making one of the most definitive statements yet on the direct link between individual weather extremes and human-induced climate change.
In a new report released in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) and organized by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 20 different groups of scientists studied how 16 extreme weather events came to fruition in 2013. In their analyses, the different groups conducted independent peer-reviewed scientific studies on the same events with the hope of sorting out human influences from natural variation in climate and weather.
The report found strong evidence that human-caused climate change -- particularly the burning of fossil fuels -- amplified temperature related events, including five heat waves across the globe. Less compelling evidence linked humans to the drought in California. On the other hand, the report found no link between humans and Winter Storm Atlas, which dumped up to 55 inches of snow on South Dakota last October, heavy rain in Colorado that flooded more than a dozen cities in and around the Denver metro area and heavy rain and flooding events in Europe.
The scientists hope that the report will help bridge the gap between the public, which sometimes incorrectly correlates weather events with climate change, and the science community, which looks to provide a scientific foundation to the link between the two.
Here are some notable highlights for some of the extreme events:

Australia, Japan, China and Korea's Heat Waves

Of all the events the various studies analyzed in the report, scientists were the most adamant about the link between human-caused climate change and a rash of extreme heat waves in 2013.
"The findings indicate that human-caused climate change greatly increased the risk for the extreme heat waves assessed in this report," the report's authors said in part.
For instance, Australia experienced the hottest year on record in more than a century, prompting the country's meteorological bureau to adjust the color scale on its maps to incorporate more extreme temperatures, Mashable reports. All three independent studies on Australia linked the event to human-induced climate change.
Speaking on the event, Peter Stott of the U.K.'s meteorology office, one of the study's editors, told the Associated Press that "it's almost impossible" to explain the event without human-induced climate change.
Other examples took the human link a step further, hinting at the future of more extreme temperature highs in the decades to come. That example came from Korea, which experienced one of its hottest summers on record in 2013. Temperatures there were the warmest in more than 50 years, sparking a massive energy demand that crippled the country's power supply, the Wall Street Journal notes.
The team of scientists that studied the Korean heat wave not only linked the warm temperatures directly to emissions from human sources, but also said that extremely warm summers are now 10 times more likely in Korea than they were before humans entered the fold.
"We find that a strong long-term increasing trend in the observed SST [Sea Surface Temperatures] near northern East Asia during the past 60 years cannot be explained without the inclusion of recent human-induced greenhouse gas forcing," the study concluded in part.

California's Drought

Three separate studies analyzed California's ongoing worst drought on record and two of them found no evidence directly linking humans to the event. However, the first study, led by Daniel Swain of Stanford University, did find that the same atmospheric conditions -- namely an exceptional ridge of high pressure that parked over the Northern Pacific starting in January 2013 and was dubbed the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" -- that led to California's drought "occur much more frequently in the present climate than in the absence of human emissions."

Winter Storm Atlas and South Dakota/Colorado's Extreme Rainfall

While authors of the individual studies analyzing both of these events didn't directly link humans to their occurrence, the studies did find that human-induced climate change would actually make extreme precipitation events like these less likely in both areas in the coming years. However, the authors of the study on Colorado's rain and flooding were quick to note that though an area like Colorado is less likely to see extreme rainfall like 2013's event, the globe as a whole is forecast to experience more extreme rainfall events by the end of the century.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Global Warming Might Push Back Fall Foliage Transformations


According to a report by Princeton University researchers in Global Ecology and Biogeography, climate change might affect when fall foliage appears in different parts of North America.
In the study, the researchers explained that trees need low daily temperatures and short daylight hours to churn out their famous autumnal shades.
Senior author David Medvigy, an assistant professor of geosciences and associated faculty member at the Princeton Environmental Institute, and first author Su-Jong Jeong discovered that these two factors – daily temperature and daylight hours – not only help predict fall foliage timing, but also influence specific tree species in different ways. 
"We're really interested in understanding how these systems will change as we experience global warming or climate change," Medvigy said in a university statement. "What these results are suggesting is that different locations will change in different ways, and that these differences are actually going to be quite interesting."
http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/global-warming-fall-leaves-20140922

Aral Sea's Eastern Basin Has Gone Dry

In a landmark moment that will go without celebration, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried for the first time in modern history.
According to NASA, the Central Asian lake has been shrinking since the 1960s, when the Soviet government began diverting water in the area for agriculture. However, the lake hasn’t dried to such an extent until this summer.
"This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times," Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert, told NASA. "And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."
More than 60 million people now live in the Aral Region, and inflows to the lake have dropped likely due to climate change. 
This most recent desiccation is a result of dwindling snow and rain that typically feeds the lake, Micklin said. In addition to dwindling inflows, massive irrigation efforts of the regions two major rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, depleted nearby water levels, according to New Scientist. 
What was once the world’s fourth-largest lake is now split into several pieces:  the Northern and Southern Aral Seas, and further, the eastern and western lobes of the larger Southern Aral Sea.


http://www.wunderground.com/news/aral-sea-eastern-lobe-20140927

October Chill Targets the Midwest, East This Weekend

By Linda Lam
Published: September 29, 2014


As the calendar shifts to October, expect a plunge of chilly air to arrive in time for the month's first weekend in the Midwest and East.
If you long for summer's return in these areas, we hope you enjoy the next few days.
Parts of the northern Plains and southern Canada saw record hot temperatures so late in the season at the end of this past week. Williston, North Dakota and Miles City, Montana both saw temperatures soar to 97 degrees this past Thursday. 

Sunday, Caribou, Maine basked in 84-degree warmth, the hottest temperature on record so late in the season, there. Daily record highs were also set Sunday in at least a dozen other northern cities, including Newark (87), Providence (86), Sault Ste. Marie (80) and Duluth (81). 

Changes, however, are on the way late this week into the weekend. An upper-atmospheric trough will carve southward into the East and Midwest, while a corresponding upper-atmospheric ridge builds into the West. The past few days we have had a ridge in the East and a trough in the West.
This pattern change will bring temperatures that are 20-30 degrees colder for some locations in the northern Plains. Temperatures will also be cooler in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, where highs will go from the 70s and 80s this past weekend, to the 50s and 60s next weekend.

With this fresh plunge of cold air, expect some frost and even freeze conditions from parts of the northern Plains into the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley during the morning this weekend.

As it cools down in the East, the warmth will make a comeback along the West coast, with highs 15-20 degrees warmer by next weekend. Los Angeles will go from highs in the 70s to highs in the 90s or triple digits in some inland locations. Also, the Deep South will remain quite pleasant for early October, with highs remaining generally in the 80s.

In addition to the changes in temperature, many locations will go from wet to dry and vice versa. 
A cold front will drive eastward late this week, with rain and thunderstorms sweeping from the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Thursday into the East Friday, and lingering in New England Saturday.
From Thursday night through Saturday, we can't rule out a few wet snowflakes mixing in with a cold, wind-driven light rain from northern North Dakota into northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan. 
In fact, there should be bands of lake-enhanced rain, and yes, perhaps some wet flakes in the hills away from the lakes, Friday through at least early Sunday from Upper Michigan to central and Upstate New York. Quite a calling card for fall, eh?

So fall conditions will likely return to the Midwest and Northeast next weekend, while summer won't let go of the West coast yet. Fall is definitely a season of change and this will be apparent to many as we head through early October.

Aral Sea's Eastern Basin Has Gone Dry

Zain Haidar
Published: September 29, 2014



In a landmark moment that will go without celebration, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried for the first time in modern history.

According to NASA, the Central Asian lake has been shrinking since the 1960s, when the Soviet government began diverting water in the area for agriculture. However, the lake hasn’t dried to such an extent until this summer.
"This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times," Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert, told NASA. "And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."

More than 60 million people now live in the Aral Region, and inflows to the lake have dropped likely due to climate change.
This most recent desiccation is a result of dwindling snow and rain that typically feeds the lake, Micklin said. In addition to dwindling inflows, massive irrigation efforts of the regions two major rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, depleted nearby water levels, according to New Scientist.
What was once the world’s fourth-largest lake is now split into several pieces:  the Northern and Southern Aral Seas, and further, the eastern and western lobes of the larger Southern Aral Sea.
As Slate reports, the lake’s gradual disappearance is making the region’s seasons more extreme.
The South Aral’s eastern lobe almost completely dried in 2009 but made a comeback in 2010, according to NASA.

Human-Caused Climate Change Contributed to Weather Extremes

By Eric Zerkel
Published: September 29, 2014



Scientists announced Monday that human-caused climate change contributed to and/or amplified nine of 2013's most extreme weather events, making one of the most definitive statements yet on the direct link between individual weather extremes and human-induced climate change.
In a new report released in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) and organized by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 20 different groups of scientists studied how 16 extreme weather events came to fruition in 2013. In their analyses, the different groups conducted independent peer-reviewed scientific studies on the same events with the hope of sorting out human influences from natural variation in climate and weather.
The report found strong evidence that human-caused climate change -- particularly the burning of fossil fuels -- amplified temperature related events, including five heat waves across the globe. Less compelling evidence linked humans to the drought in California. On the other hand, the report found no link between humans and Winter Storm Atlas, which dumped up to 55 inches of snow on South Dakota last October, heavy rain in Colorado that flooded more than a dozen cities in and around the Denver metro area and heavy rain and flooding events in Europe.
The scientists hope that the report will help bridge the gap between the public, which sometimes incorrectly correlates weather events with climate change, and the science community, which looks to provide a scientific foundation to the link between the two.
Here are some notable highlights for some of the extreme events:

Australia, Japan, China and Korea's Heat Waves

Of all the events the various studies analyzed in the report, scientists were the most adamant about the link between human-caused climate change and a rash of extreme heat waves in 2013.
"The findings indicate that human-caused climate change greatly increased the risk for the extreme heat waves assessed in this report," the report's authors said in part.
For instance, Australia experienced the hottest year on record in more than a century, prompting the country's meteorological bureau to adjust the color scale on its maps to incorporate more extreme temperatures, Mashable reports. All three independent studies on Australia linked the event to human-induced climate change.
Speaking on the event, Peter Stott of the U.K.'s meteorology office, one of the study's editors, told the Associated Press that "it's almost impossible" to explain the event without human-induced climate change.
Other examples took the human link a step further, hinting at the future of more extreme temperature highs in the decades to come. That example came from Korea, which experienced one of its hottest summers on record in 2013. Temperatures there were the warmest in more than 50 years, sparking a massive energy demand that crippled the country's power supply, the Wall Street Journal notes.
The team of scientists that studied the Korean heat wave not only linked the warm temperatures directly to emissions from human sources, but also said that extremely warm summers are now 10 times more likely in Korea than they were before humans entered the fold.
"We find that a strong long-term increasing trend in the observed SST [Sea Surface Temperatures] near northern East Asia during the past 60 years cannot be explained without the inclusion of recent human-induced greenhouse gas forcing," the study concluded in part.

California's Drought

Three separate studies analyzed California's ongoing worst drought on record and two of them found no evidence directly linking humans to the event. However, the first study, led by Daniel Swain of Stanford University, did find that the same atmospheric conditions -- namely an exceptional ridge of high pressure that parked over the Northern Pacific starting in January 2013 and was dubbed the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" -- that led to California's drought "occur much more frequently in the present climate than in the absence of human emissions."

Winter Storm Atlas and South Dakota/Colorado's Extreme Rainfall

While authors of the individual studies analayzing both of these events didn't directly link humans to their occurrence, the studies did find that human-induced climate change would actually make extreme precipitation events like these less likely in both areas in the coming years. However, the authors of the study on Colorado's rain and flooding were quick to note that though an area like Colorado is less likely to see extreme rainfall like 2013's event, the globe as a whole is forecast to experience more extreme rainfall events by the end of the century.

Hail slams Detroit, Tornado watch for Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming

Severe storms bring the threat of heavy rain, large hail and even the possibility of tornadoes into the High Plains Monday evening.
Denver has already seen impacts, as an impressive hail storm slammed into the metro area around 2 p.m., dropping hail as large as golf balls.
Photos posted to social media show what looks like snow, but it's actually a thick sheet of hail covering highways and grassy areas. Denver's 9 News reports Cherry Creek schools delayed dismissing students because of the weather.

No major damage was reported, but the threat isn’t over. A tornado watch stretches from the Denver metro north and east into extreme southern Wyoming, western Nebraska and extreme western Kansas. The watch is set to expire at 9 p.m. local time.
A severe thunderstorm watch is also posted for 9 p.m. for portions of southern Colorado and eastern New Mexico into the extreme western Oklahoma and Texas panhandles.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Mount St. Helens shows signs of reawakening

Mount St. Helens shows signs of reawakening

Though the mountain isn't getting as much publicity these days, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey are marking the anniversary to highlight new eruption warning technology they've installed around the volcano since then and to remind people that Mount St. Helens will continue to rebuilt itself.
The eruption that started a decade ago was the second of two dome-building phases.
The first one started after the explosive eruption of May 18, 1980. Twenty lava eruptions occurred over the next six years.
Geologists were surprised that the mountain stopped erupting in 1986. "Many of us were expecting it to continue a while," said USGS seismologist Seth Moran.
The second lava dome, which started appearing in 2004, appeared at a different spot in the crater. Lava that appeared from 2004-08 was much more solid than during the earlier phase.
Even though the lava dome hasn't erupted since 2008, its shape still is changing.
"As it cools, it fractures and settles and falls apart," said Dan Dzurisin, a USGS geologist. Rockfall has also been changing the shape of the crater rim.
And 5 miles below the volcano, there are signs that the magma chamber that fueled both eruptions is recharging. Dzurisin said the USGS is focusing on the rate of recharging and whether the magma can compress in the chamber, rather than flowing toward an outlet to the earth's surface.
Magma levels rising inside Mount St. Helens
Though the USGS was able to predict the 2004 eruption by monitoring earthquakes, "it exposed some weaknesses in our monitoring," Moran said.
In September of 2004, the USGS had only one GPS device near the volcano, at Johnston Ridge. That device did  start to move during the eruption. After the new dome appeared, the USGS landed a helicopter in the crater and had a worker put a GPS there.
"Three days later there was an explosion that wiped out that site," Moran said. "That really forced us to get creative about how to get instruments in close."
The scientists then devised a way of dropping a seismometer from a helicopter.
Since then, the agency has installed numerous GPS receivers around the Northwest. The instruments continually measure a change of location of as little as one millimeter. Data from the receivers combined with video from remote cameras had allowed the USGS to reduce the exposure of its researchers to hazardous situations, Dzurisin said.
Over the centuries, Mount St. Helens has gone through phases of explosive eruptions and periods of rebuilding itself with magma eruptions.
Geologists expect future dome-building eruptions at the volcano. "It looks like Mount St. Helens is getting ready to erupt again and it can happen in the order of years to decades," Moran said.
Those eruptions will likely be similar to the one that started a decade ago and no massive eruption like the one in 1980 is expected. "Part of that is that there isn't as nearby big a cork," Moran said.
Eventually, the crater will fill in and the peak may return to the lovely rounded shape it had before 1980.

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