Obama Climate Change Strategy Coming Within Weeks, Adviser Says

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/obama-climate-change_n_3467272.html?utm_hp_ref=climate-change

President Barack Obama will target carbon emissions from power plants as part of a second-term climate change agenda expected to be rolled out in the next few weeks, his top energy and climate adviser said on Wednesday.

Obama will take several steps to make tackling climate change a "second-term priority" that builds on first-term policies, Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said at a forum sponsored by the New Republic magazine.

"In the near term we are very much focused on the power plant piece of the equation," she said.

On Wednesday in Berlin, Obama said the United States understood it had to do more to fight climate change and he pledged that more action was coming.

"Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down, but we know we have to do more. And we will do more," he said in a speech.

The president is expected to announce new U.S. measures to fight global warming in the coming weeks.

Supercell Thunderstorm Time Lapse Video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/supercell-time-lapse-thunderstorm-video_n_3428738.html?utm_hp_ref=extreme-weather

A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

The time-lapse was filmed by Mike Olbinski, a storm chaser who has spent the past four years searching for the perfect storm. He captured this rotating cell near Booker, Texas during a trip to the Great Plains with a friend on June 3.

"We chased this storm from the wrong side (north) and it took us going through hail and torrential rains to burst through on the south side," Olbinski wrote in the video description. "And when we did...this monster cloud was hanging over Texas and rotating like something out of Close Encounters."

Tornado in Colesville, Maryland

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/tornado-dc_n_3437480.html

A tornado with 50 mph winds was confirmed about 15 miles from D.C., in the Maryland suburbs. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang reports that trees and wires went down in Bethesda, Rockville and Colesville -- the tornado was confirmed near Colesville at 3:53 p.m. -- but that "authorities had no reports of significant structural damage to any buildings, said Asst. Chief Scott Graham, a Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman."
Three tornadoes were reported in Maryland, according to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency:
Spokesman Ed McDonough says there have been no reports of injuries from the storms Thursday afternoon. He says a woman was struck by lightning in Cecil County Thursday morning. McDonough says tornadoes were reported near Olney in Montgomery County, Laurel in Prince George's County and Snow Hill in Worcester County on the Eastern Shore.
The National Weather Service says it can't confirm any tornadoes before taking a close look at the damage.

Barry Moving Inland

Barry is moving westward into the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Heavy rain, flooding and possible mudslides will be the main threats from Barry in this region through the end of the week. Rainfall amounts may locally reach as much as 10 inches.

Barry is not a threat to the United States.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/tropical-depression-storm-two-20130617

Baked Alaska: All-Time Record Heat Grips State

Alaska, well known for its long and brutal winters, has dealt with a historic heat wave this week.

As an unusually strong and very warm ridge of high pressure is parked in the upper atmosphere above Alaska, at least five cities broke all-time record highs Monday.

Alaska's two largest cities shared the heat, though without breaking records. Fairbanks has been 86 degrees or warmer Saturday through Wednesday. Anchorage's highs topped out at 81 on both Monday and Tuesday.

The hot dome of high pressure responsible for this weather is breaking down, allowing the heat to relax as we head into the weekend. Click on the names of the cities above for the five-day forecast

http://www.weather.com/safety/heat/baked-alaska-record-heat-20130618

Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?

Permafrost (perennially frozen) soils underlie much of the Arctic. Each summer, the top layers of these soils thaw. The thawed layer varies in depth from about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in the coldest tundra regions to several yards, or meters, in the southern boreal forests. This active soil layer at the surface provides the precarious foothold on which Arctic vegetation survives. The Arctic's extremely cold, wet conditions prevent dead plants and animals from decomposing, so each year another layer gets added to the reservoirs of organic carbon sequestered just beneath the topsoil.

Over hundreds of millennia, Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon - an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 petagrams of it (a petagram is 2.2 trillion pounds, or 1 billion metric tons). That's about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth's soils. In comparison, about 350 petagrams of carbon have been emitted from all fossil-fuel combustion and human activities since 1850. Most of this carbon is located in thaw-vulnerable topsoils within 10 feet (3 meters) of the surface.

But, as scientists are learning, permafrost - and its stored carbon - may not be as permanent as its name implies. And that has them concerned.

"Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures - as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius) in just the past 30 years," Miller said. "As heat from Earth's surface penetrates into permafrost, it threatens to mobilize these organic carbon reservoirs and release them into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, upsetting the Arctic's carbon balance and greatly exacerbating global warming."

Current climate models do not adequately account for the impact of climate change on permafrost and how its degradation may affect regional and global climate. Scientists want to know how much permafrost carbon may be vulnerable to release as Earth's climate warms, and how fast it may be released.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20130610.html

Rare Clear View of Alaska

On most days, relentless rivers of clouds wash over Alaska, obscuring most of the state's 6,640 miles (10,690 kilometers) of coastline and 586,000 square miles (1,518,000 square kilometers) of land. The south coast of Alaska even has the dubious distinction of being the cloudiest region of the United States, with some locations averaging more than 340 cloudy days per year.

That was certainly not the case on June 17, 2013, the date that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired this rare, nearly cloud-free view of the state. The absence of clouds exposed a striking tapestry of water, ice, land, forests, and even wildfires.

Snow-covered mountains such as the Alaska Range and Chugach Mountains were visible in southern Alaska, while the arc of mountains that make up the Brooks Range dominated the northern part of the state. The Yukon River -- the longest in Alaska and the third longest in the United States -- wound its way through the green boreal forests that inhabit the interior of the state. Plumes of sediment and glacial dust poured into the Gulf of Alaska from the Copper River. And Iliamna Lake, the largest in Alaska, was ice free.

The same ridge of high pressure that cleared Alaska's skies also brought stifling temperatures to many areas accustomed to chilly June days. Talkeetna, a town about 100 miles north of Anchorage, saw temperatures reach 96°F (36°C) on June 17. Other towns in southern Alaska set all-time record highs, including Cordova, Valez, and Seward. The high temperatures also helped fuel wildfires and hastened the breakup of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2534.html