Earth ChangesS


Brick Wall

Sea Surface Temperatures "warmest on record"...but

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:15 UTC
There is a lot of wailing an gnashing of teeth today over this Associated Press story titled:

In hot water: World's ocean temps warmest recorded

Please take a moment to read that story above as I can't post it here. Associated Press has declared war on bloggers.

First a few caveats:
  1. Yes (as mentioned about the northeast USA beach water temperatures in the AP article) we have some very warm sea surface temperatures this summer, we also had the coolest summer surface temperatures on record in many places in the USA.
  2. The AP story is written by Seth Borenstein. Seth tends to report the warmest side of things in the worst way, so take the story with a grain of salt. For example, Portland Maine also set a new record low for July Temperatures, see here. I don't think Seth covered that one nor the -50°F all time statewide Maine record low on January 16th, 2009 seen here. One should also note that NOAA reported "July Temperature Below-Average for the U.S." How quickly we forget. I'm not trying to pick a weather -vs- climate food fight, but simply pointing this out for balance. We've had some cold events this year also.
  3. Sea temperature spikes like this have have happened before. More on that later.
In the story Seth says: "The result has meant lots of swimming at beaches in Maine with pleasant 72-degree water."

To check that out, I utilized the Rutgers SST satellite page here. This image showing coastal Maine from NOAA-15 on August 18th seemed fairly representative and was one of the few that was almost completely filled with SST data. As you can see on this summary page, there is a lot of missing data. With this much missing data, one wonders if SST data averages are accurate.
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Fish

Ancient Bird's Feathers Had Iridescent Glow


Live Science
Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:31 UTC
Feather fossil
© Jakob Vinther/Yale University
Scientists discovered that nanostructures found in this 40-million-year-old fossil were responsible for producing iridescent colors in the living feather.
Nanostructures preserved in feather fossils more than 40 million years old show evidence that those feathers were once vivid and iridescent in color, paleontologists say.

Iridescence is the quality of changing color depending on the angle of observation - it's what makes you see a rainbow in an oil slick.

Many insects, such as butterflies, display iridescent colors on their wings, as do many modern birds on their feathers.

The simplest iridescent feather colors are produced by light scattering off the feather's surface and a smooth surface of melanin pigment granules within the feather protein.

Scientists found smooth layers of these melanin structures, called melanosomes, when they examined feather fossils from the Messel Shale in Germany with an electron microscope.
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Bell

US: Brisk July portends frigid, snowy winter, experts say

Tim Puko
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:42 UTC
Meteorologists at AccuWeather have a name for 2009: "Year Without True Summer." The worst part? It could lead to the truest of winters.

July's below-average temperatures could mean heavy snowfalls and bitter cold this winter along the Eastern Seaboard, according to the State College-based service and its chief meteorologist, Joe Bastardi. Whether Pittsburgh will feel the chill is tough to say: It's on the edge of the predicted snow belt and might or might not be hit, depending on where the storms blow, AccuWeather meteorologist Kate Walters said.

But these types of long-term forecasts are difficult to make accurately, other meteorologists said. The National Weather Service has a less detailed long-range outlook that in part contradicts AccuWeather's. And Weather Channel meteorologists declined to comment, telling their spokesman that such predictions are just too hard to make.

"They vary greatly, depending on their detail. The more detail, the less likely they are to be accurate," said Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Pittsburgh office. "It gets real (uncertain) beyond (90 days). All you're doing is trying to play the game of percentages."
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Evil Rays

Arctic temperature headed below freezing

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:27 UTC
There's a couple of indicators that at least for Arctic temperature, the numbers are headed south. First the weather plot from the drifting buoy that is connected with NOAA's North Pole Cam:
Artic temp graph 08-2009
© unknown

After some very brief excursions above freezing, it is now averaging below freezing. See the raw weather data here. The temperatures from the buoy have been hitting -2°C regularly the past nineteen days.

Another indication is the north pole cam itself.
NOrth Pole Camera
© NOAA
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Phoenix

US: California firefighters battle wilderness blazes

Robert Jablon
Associated Press
Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:31 UTC
Los Angeles - California firefighters working in withering heat battled wildfires Thursday in rugged mountains above the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, in the central coast region and on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park.

Weather plagued fire crews as temperatures in some areas rose toward triple digits and humidity levels headed downward. For a second day, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of extreme fire conditions for many of Califonia's central and southern mountain ranges.
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Alarm Clock

Pacific Ocean garbage patch worries researchers

Michelle Rindells
Associated Press
Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:13 UTC
Los Angeles - A tawny stuffed puppy bobs in cold sea water, his four stiff legs tangled in the green net of some nameless fisherman.

It's one of the bigger pieces of trash in a sprawling mass of garbage-littered water, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where most of the plastic looks like snowy confetti against the deep blue of the north Pacific Ocean.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Wellington rocked by two earthquakes


TVNZ
Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:38 UTC
Wellingtonians had a shaky night's sleep as two earthquakes rocked the city in the early hours of the morning. The quake, which measured 5.2 on the Richter scale, was centred 20 kilometres south of Wellington at a depth of 30 kilometres. It struck at 2.10am Friday.

Some residents say it is the biggest earthquake they have felt in 35 years. A second quake followed at 3.52am in the same area and measured 4.3.

Police were inundated by 111 calls from people wanting more information on the quake but had no reports of damage, a central police communications spokesman said.

However some residents have reported cracks in ceilings. GNS Science duty seismologist Ken Gledhill says the first earthquake was felt from the Kapiti Coast to the top of the South Island.

More than 100 reports of shaking were received by the GeoNet website within 25 minutes of the earthquake.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Six earthquakes hit Oklahoma today

Brian Sargent
NewsOK
Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:44 UTC
Six earthquakes struck Oklahoma today, including five in Jones. Magnitudes of the quakes in Jones ranged from 2.5 to 2.7 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All five epicenters were near the intersection of Main Street and SW 3. They were reported at 7:58 a.m., 10:17 a.m., 10:31 a.m., 12:13 p.m. and 1:32 p.m.

Today's strongest quake measured 3.4 on the Richter scale. It was reported at 3:22 a.m. in Seminole County about 15 miles northeast of Ada.

There were no reports of damage, said Pontotoc County Emergency Manager Chad Letellier, whose office is in Ada. More than 30 people reported feeling the quake, he said.
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Cow

UK: Farmers issue warning after fatal cow attacks

Alexander Monro
Reuters
Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:30 UTC
The deaths of no fewer than four people after being trampled by cows in the past two months has prompted Britain's main farming union to issue a warning about the dangers of provoking the normally docile animals.

Cows can become aggressive and charge, especially when calves are present and walkers are accompanied by dogs, said the National Farmers Union (NFU).

The union and the Ramblers' Association both advise that walkers release dogs from their leads when passing through a field of cows.
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Bizarro Earth

Canadian crops off

Ian Elliott
Feedstuffs
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:57 UTC
With farmers stung by a terrible growing season, Canada will produce less grain and oilseeds, Statistics Canada says in its new estimate of field crops released in Ottawa last Friday.

Crops will be off for almost all crops, the federal agency reports in first estimate for this summer's crop. Spring wheat production at 16.1 million metric tons (mmt) will be down more than 12% from last year. The durum harvest is expected to be off more than 18% at around 4.5 mmt.

Feed grains like corn and barley will also be down from last year at 9.4 mmt (-10.9%) and 8.9 mmt (-24%) respectively.

Canadian farmers will also take in a smaller oilseed crop, although increased soybean output will reduce the drop from last year. The canola crop at 9.5 mmt will be down 24.5%. Soybean output at more than 3.4 mmt is up 4.4%.

"In the West, late germination caused by unfavorable conditions this spring has held back progress by about two weeks compared with normal," Statistics Canada says. "Yields will drop for all major crops compared with 2008. In the drought-stricken areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta, higher than normal abandonment was also shown to be a factor in the loss of production."

"In Ontario and Quebec, excessive moisture and cool growing conditions held back growing progress."

The report summarizes results of a survey of 14,600 farmers undertaken by the government agency between July 27 and August 4.
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