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Temperatures drop to 50 below zero in parts of Alaska


The Associated Press
Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:16 UTC
Fairbanks - Bitterly cold weather slid over from Canada and settled into Interior Alaska with forecasters saying temperatures could continue to slide to nearly 50 degrees below zero in coming days.
thermometer -50
© unknown

Over the weekend, the mercury at Fairbanks International Airport dropped to 39 degrees below zero. Areas in the Interior outside the city were even colder; 46 below on the Yukon Flats, 41 below in Fort Yukon and 44 below in Central, according to the weather service.

Rick Thoman, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Fairbanks, said temperatures rose a few degrees on Sunday, but that was it.

"The temperature will probably continue to go up and down randomly," he said. "With no clouds and no wind on the valley floor, temperatures are pretty much probably going to be stuck."

Fairbanks had experienced a relatively mild winter prior to Christmas. It had only dropped to 30 below once, in early December.

Comment: Current Extreme Temperatures from here:

Last Updated: Thu Jan 1 06:51:02 UTC 2009

PFYU: Fort Yukon, Fort Yukon Airport, AK, United States [-49°C, -56.2°F]
PABI: Delta Junction/Ft Greely, Allen Army Airfield, AK, United States [-42°C, -43.6°F]
PABT: Bettles, Bettles Airport, AK, United States [-43°C, -45.4°F]
PAEG: Eagle, Eagle Airport, AK, United States [-44°C, -47.2°F]
PAEI: Fairbanks, Eielson Air Force Base, AK, United States [-44°C, -47.2°F]
PAFA: Fairbanks, Fairbanks Intl Arpt, AK, United States [-41°C, -41.8°F]
PAFS: Nikolai, AK, United States [-41°C, -41.8°F]
PAGK: Gulkana, Gulkana Airport, AK, United States [-42°C, -43.6°F]
PAIN: McKinley Park, McKinley National Park Airport, AK, United States [-40°C, -40.0°F]
PALR: Chandalar Lake, Chandalar Lake Airport, AK, United States [-44°C, -47.2°F]
PAMX: McCarthy, AK, United States [-42°C, -43.6°F]
PANN: Nenana, Nenana Municipal Airport, AK, United States [-42°C, -43.6°F]
PAOR: Northway, Northway Airport, AK, United States [-41°C, -41.8°F]
PATA: Tanana, Calhoun Memorial Airport, AK, United States [-40°C, -40.0°F]

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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 4.9 - North of Svalbard


US Geological Survey
Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:30 UTC
Earthquake Details

Magnitude 4.9

Date-Time
* Thursday, January 01, 2009 at 02:54:05 UTC
* Thursday, January 01, 2009 at 02:54:05 AM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 80.884°N, 2.923°W

Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program

Region NORTH OF SVALBARD

Distances 270 km (165 miles) ESE of Nord, Greenland

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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake recorded near Dillsburg, Pennsylvania

Matthew Kemeny
Patriot News
Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:20 UTC
A minor earthquake this morning about three miles east of Dillsburg, York County, measured 2.1 on the Richter Scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's online earthquake center.

It happened at 12:34 a.m., the USGS reported. There were no reported injuries.

It's the second earthquake in the midstate in the past few weeks. A quake measuring 3.3 on the Richter Scale hit Lancaster County on Saturday night.
      Read More...
Network

Sunspots, Global Warming, And An Ice Age


Investor's Business Daily
Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:46 UTC
The Earth has been warming ever since the end of the Little Ice Age. But guess what: Researchers say mankind is to blame for that, too.

As we've noted, 2008 has been a year of records for cold and snowfall and may indeed be the coldest year of the 21st century thus far. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake swarm in Quincy, California continues


ChicoER
Mon, 01 Jan 1990 02:54 UTC
For the 14th time since Dec. 26, the U.S. Geological Survey has recorded an earthquake in the vicinity of East Quincy.

The most recent quake, a 2.7-magnitude tremor, was recorded at 2:46 p.m. Tuesday, three mines northeast of the tiny community and about 7.5 miles below it.

The swarm of quakes began at 4:20 a.m. on the 26th with a 4.5-magnitude shaker that was distinctly felt in many areas of Butte County.
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Fish

Deciphering Dolphin Language With Picture Words


Science Daily
Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:55 UTC
cetacean words
© Sonic Age Ltd
Because the higher harmonics cannot be imaged, the cetacean words are thus simplified. The principle is similar to the way our ear-brain mechanism recognises the voice of a friend on the phone when only a single word is spoken, even though the bandwidth of the phone is very limited compared with face-to-face speech. The resulting "CymaGlyphs" (the name coined to describe visible sound patterns) could form the basis of a lexicon of cetacean language, each pattern representing a thought.
In an important breakthrough in deciphering dolphin language, researchers in Great Britain and the United States have imaged the first high definition imprints that dolphin sounds make in water.

The key to this technique is the CymaScope, a new instrument that reveals detailed structures within sounds, allowing their architecture to be studied pictorially. Using high definition audio recordings of dolphins, the research team, headed by English acoustics engineer, John Stuart Reid, and Florida-based dolphin researcher, Jack Kassewitz, has been able to image, for the first time, the imprint that a dolphin sound makes in water. The resulting "CymaGlyphs," as they have been named, are reproducible patterns that are expected to form the basis of a lexicon of dolphin language, each pattern representing a dolphin 'picture word.'
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Igloo

Global Warming? Global Cooling Forecast Backed By Real Science

Don Easterbrook
American Geophysical Union Abstract
Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:13 UTC
Abstracts of American Geophysical Union annual meeting, San Francisco Dec., 2008

Solar Influence on Recurring Global, Decadal, Climate Cycles Recorded by Glacial Fluctuations, Ice Cores, Sea Surface Temperatures, and Historic Measurements Over the Past Millennium

Easterbrook, Don J., Dept. of Geology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225
Global, cyclic, decadal, climate patterns can be traced over the past millennium in glacier fluctuations, oxygen isotope ratios in ice cores, sea surface temperatures, and historic observations. The recurring climate cycles clearly show that natural climatic warming and cooling have occurred many times, long before increases in anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 levels. The Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age are well known examples of such climate changes, but in addition, at least 23 periods of climatic warming and cooling have occurred in the past 500 years. Each period of warming or cooling lasted about 25-30 years (average 27 years). Two cycles of global warming and two of global cooling have occurred during the past century, and the global cooling that has occurred since 1998 is exactly in phase with the long term pattern. Global cooling occurred from 1880 to ~1915; global warming occurred from ~1915 to ~1945; global cooling occurred from ~1945-1977;, global warming occurred from 1977 to 1998; and global cooling has occurred since 1998. All of these global climate changes show exceptionally good correlation with solar variation since the Little Ice Age 400 years ago.

Comment: NOAA's Climate Prediction Center updated its ENSO data and prediction yesterday December 29, 2008. The La Nina conditions that were questionable a month ago have strengthened and current forecasts now call for La Nina to dominate well into 2009.
ENSO 2009
© Climate Prediction Center

The report can be found here.

In addition to the cooling influence of La Nina, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is still strongly negative (in a cool phase) as can be seen here
Pacific Decadal Oscillation
© Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean
Pacific Decadal Oscillation
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) appears to be going negative and will soon send the UK and Europe into the deep freeze, possibly for much of the month of January.

And this recent article reveals the virtual absence of sunspots for the past year.

2008 sets record for days with no sunspots.
Sunspot graph
© IceCap
Sunspotless days 2008. Second fewest sunspots in over 100 years.


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Chess

2008 Now Ranks #2 Since 1900 in Number of Sunspotless Days

Joseph D'Aleo
IceCap
Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:01 UTC
With the number of sunspotless days reaching 16 so far this month, we have now exceeded 1912 as the 2nd quietest sun year since 1900. Only 1913 ranked higher with 311 days. With 12 more days this month as of this writing, we could reach as high as 266 days. Note that 2007 also ranked in the top 10.
Sunspot graph
© IceCap
Sunspotless days 2008. Second fewest sunspots in over 100 years.

This is the month by month comparisons of sunspotless days this solar minimum (red) through November and the last minimum in the mid 1990s (blue).
2008 Sunspotless days
© IceCap
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 5.9 quake hits off Sumatra


Reuters
Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:41 UTC
A magnitude 5.9 quake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on Tuesday.

The shallow quake, only 6.2 miles (10 km) deep, was centered 85 miles (135 km) west of Bengkulu on Sumatra and hit at 2:49 a.m. on Wednesday (1949 GMT on Tuesday).

There was no immediate tsunami warning and the quake was unlikely to trigger one at that magnitude.
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Phoenix

Russian scientist: Eruption of Koryak Volcano Might be Dangerous


Russia-InfoCenter
Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:16 UTC
Authorities of Kamchatka Territory and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City must get ready for a big swell of eruption of the
Koryak Volcano
located at the 30 km distance from the city and its airport, which is the major air gateway of Kamchatka.

Alexei Ozerov, the leading scientist of the Volcanology and Seismology Institute of Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Science has recently reported about this to RIA Novosti.
      Read More...
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