Polar Déjà vu

UPDATED at 09:30UTC – January 22, 2014

EXTREME CLIMATIC & WEATHER EVENTS
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New York, New Jersey, Delaware Declare States of Emergency as Polar Vortex II shuts down DC,  grounds thousands of flights

New York: Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency Tuesday for the following counties: Suffolk, Nassau, Richmond, Kings, Queens, New York, Bronx, Westchester and Rockland as a major winter storm battered the tristate area, bringing serious snow and extremely cold temperatures. A dangerous polar vortex is chasing the storm.

“This winter storm will bring a one-two punch of snow and extreme cold. I urge all those in the affected regions to exercise caution, and avoid travel if possible,” said Cuomo. “State resources are deployed to clear snow and help those impacted by the storm, but above all it is important that New Yorkers remain safe both during and after the storm.”

New Jersey

Governor Christie declared a State of Emergency in New Jersey, authorizing the emergency services to activate, coordinate and prepare  response to the storm.

“Today’s winter storm is expected to produce heavy snow, dangerous conditions and travel hazards throughout the state,” said Christie. “I’ve authorized state officials to take all necessary action to prepare, and my Administration will continue monitoring conditions throughout the remainder of the storm. I encourage all New Jerseyans to stay off the roads if possible so that our first responders and public safety officials can safely respond to any emergency situations.”

Delaware

Delaware’s governor Markell has declared a state of emergency as the winter storm brought snow and high winds to the East Coast.

The storm, which forced  schools, government offices and businesses in Delaware to close early, is forecast to  bring up to 16 inches of snow to mid-Atlantic region.

• Maryland declared a snow emergency.

Govt Shutdown

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers in DC area were ordered to stay home Tuesday. Schools and offices were also shut down throughout the region.

• The storm forced Governments in Delaware and Maryland to shut down.
• Connecticut sent home nonessential state workers.
• Philadelphia schools and offices were closed.

NWS Forecast

A Powerful winter storm continues to intensifying off the East Coast with bitter cold spreading into the Eastern U.S., said the National Weather Service (NWS).

“A storm system will strengthen overnight in the Atlantic waters off the East Coast spreading heavy snow and strong wind into coastal sections of New England and the Northeast. Blizzard conditions are possible in eastern Massachusetts. In addition, temperatures across the eastern U.S. will be 10 to 25 degrees below average with bitter wind chills.”

The forecast also warned of

• Heavy snow from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast Coast

• Temperatures will be 15 to 30 degrees below average over parts of the Upper Midwest

• Temperatures will be 15 to 25 degrees below average for the Mid-Atlantic/Central Appalachians into the Lower Great Lakes

• Storm along the Mid-Atlantic Coast will deepen rapidly while moving northeastward to the Canadian Maritimes paralleling the Coast by Wednesday evening.

• … another storm over the Upper Midwest will move southeastward to the Central Appalachians by Thursday morning.

Hazardous Weather Warnings

Hazardous conditions extended along a 1,700-km front from Kentucky to Massachusetts on Tuesday, snarling  transport and triggering multiple weather Warnings, Watches and advisories including Blizzard Warning, Winter Storm Warning, Storm Warning, Special Marine Warning, Flood Warning, Gale Warning, Wind Chill Warning, Hard Freeze Warning and Freeze Warning among others.

Flight Delays and Cancellations

More than 6,000 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled or delayed on Tuesday, according to FlightAware.com. An additional 1,400 flights have been canceled for Wednesday.

National Low and High Temperature [contiguous United States]

Issued 7 pm EST Tuesday, January 21, 2014

• -38ºC (-37 degrees) at Embarrass, MN

• 29ºC  (84 degrees) at Camarillo, CA

Source: NWS Weather Prediction Center, College Park, MD

Temperature spread 67ºC (121 degrees).

On January 7, 2014 FIRE-EARTH said [Google and WordPress censored]:

FIRE-EARTH Models show more Extreme Weather Events could wreak havoc across North America in the coming days and weeks.

• More Extreme Weather Events to Hit North America

 

Terrible Ocean Headlines

Even the average high school grad could have made an educated guess …

About one third of the world’s annual emissions of CO2 is absorbed by the surface of the oceans forming carbonic acid (ancient name acid of air or aerial acid), H₂CO_3, which is increasing the acidity of the oceans to as much as 7.7 pH in some areas off the California coast. [Pre-industrial (1700s) ocean pH: 8.179]

Ocean Acidity Kills Corals. Photo Credit: Associated Press. Image may be subject to copyright!

“We were completely surprised because people had been looking at the effect of acidification on calcified structures of marine animals, but there was no evidence to suggest it was affecting non-calcified structures, like a sperm or an egg,” lead-scientist Jane Williamson from Macquarie University told Reuters on Friday.

“It is widely believed that seawater is chemically well-buffered, but these results show that the acidification process already well underway may threaten the viability of many marine species,” Williamson said.

The sea urchins study found a link between increased ocean acidity and a reduction in fertility (Credit: ABC News). Image may be subject to copyright!

“What we have now is evidence that the world’s marine life is far more sensitive to ocean acidification than first suspected, and that means our oceans may be very different places in the not-too-distant future.”

Related Links:

• World Oceans in Extreme Danger
• Southern Ocean already losing ability to absorb CO₂
• The Ocean’s Carbon Balance
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part IV

Up to 410 dead zones with a combined area of about 250,000km² and counting!

Summertime satellite observations of ocean color from MODIS/Aqua show highly turbid waters which may include large blooms of phytoplankton extending from the mouth of the Mississippi River all the way to the Texas coast. When these blooms die and sink to the bottom, bacterial decomposition strips oxygen from the surrounding water, creating an environment very difficult for marine life to survive in. Reds and oranges represent high concentrations of phytoplankton and river sediment. Image taken by NASA and provided courtesy of the NASA Mississippi Dead Zone web site.

No of Dead Zones

• 1970: 40 dead zones
• 1980: 65
• 1990: 135
• 2000: 305
• 2008: 410 dead zones with a combined area of about 250,000km²

“The biggest one measures about 30,000 square miles in the Baltic Sea, the researchers said. This is followed in size by one in the Gulf of Mexico starting at the mouth of the Mississippi River in the United States and one at the mouth of China’s Yangtze River in the East China Sea.” Reuters reported.

“It’s not sort of a local or regional problem, which is how it was thought of in the past,” said Robert Diaz of the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “It is actually a global problem.”

“Most of it is agricultural-based, but there is a lot of industrial nitrogen in there, too, if you consider electric generation industrial,” added Diaz.

Related Links:

• Eutrophication and Hypoxia
• Congratulations! We Are Breaking Another Record: Our Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico
• Dead Zones
• Our Oceans [Index Page]
• The Eight Steps that Help Kill More of Our Fish
• Marsification of Earth

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Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part IV

Wild Facts Series: Just when you thought the oceans were dying painlessly!

Carbon Emissions Make Oceans Corrosive!

‘Acidified’ Water Threatens Marine Life on the Continental Shelf from Canada to Mexico: NOAA

Researchers found evidence of corrosive water about 20 miles off the west coast of North America from Canada to Mexico last summer. The ocean water on the western North American continental shelf was previously thought not to be “acidified.”

“Ocean acidification” is caused by the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, a process which makes water corrosive.

Effects of increasing carbon dioxide and temperature on coral reefs. (NOAA Coral Reef Watch)

“Acidification of the Earth’s ocean water could have far-reaching impacts on the health of our near-shore environment, and on the sustainability of ecosystems that support human populations through nourishment and jobs,” said Richard W. Spinrad, NOAA assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research. “This research is vital to understanding the processes within the ocean, as well as the consequences of a carbon-rich atmosphere.”

“Our findings represent the first evidence that a large section of the North American continental shelf is seasonally impacted by ocean acidification,” said Feely. “This means that ocean acidification may be seriously impacting marine life on our continental shelf right now.”

“While this absorption provides a great service to humans by significantly reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and decreasing the effects of global warming, the change in the ocean chemistry affects marine life, particularly organisms with calcium carbonate shells, such as corals, mussels, mollusks, and small creatures in the early stages of the food chain,” said Feely.

NOAA said: “Previous studies found ocean acidification at deeper depths farther from shore. The researchers said that the movement of the corrosive water appears to happen during the upwhelling season during the spring and summer, when winds bring CO2 -rich water up from depths of about 400-600 feet onto the continental shelf. The water that upwells off of the North American Pacific coast has been away from the surface for about 50 years.

Typical coral-reef community observed in the U.S. Virgin Islands. [Species lables: the image to view labels: Ma, boulder star coral (Montastrea annularis); Dc, knobby brain coral (Diploria clivosa); Pa, mustard hill coral (Porites astreoides); Pp, finger coral (Porites porites); D, dead coral (probably Porites astreoides); O, octocoral (soft coral); S, sponge.] Photograph by Nathan Smiley, USGS.

“The field study collected samples from Queen Charlotte Sound, Canada, to San Gregorio Baja California Sur, Mexico. The closest they found corrosive water was about four miles off of the northern California coast.”

“We did not expect to see this extent of ocean acidification until the middle to the end of the century,” said Sabine. “Because of this effort, we have a baseline for future observations as we continue to study and monitor the relationship of biological and physical processes and their ability to respond to ocean acidification.”

“We did not expect to see this extent of ocean acidification until the middle to the end of the century,” said Sabine. “Because of this effort, we have a baseline for future observations as we continue to study and monitor the relationship of biological and physical processes and their ability to respond to ocean acidification.”

“When the upwelled water was last at the surface, it was exposed to an atmosphere with much less CO2 than today and future upwelled waters will probably be more acidic than today’s because of increasing atmospheric CO2,” said Hales, a professor of chemical oceanography, who is also funded by NASA.

“We don’t know how this will affect species living in the zone below the level of the lowest tides, out to the edge of the continental shelf,” said Ianson, an oceanographer. “We do know that organisms like corals or pteropods are affected by water saturated with CO2. The impacts on other species, such as shellfish and other juvenile fish that have economic significance, are not yet fully understood.”

“In Baja California, we have several Mediterranean-climate coastal lagoons where the main external physical and biogeochemical forcing is from the neighboring coastal ocean, strongly influenced by upwelling,” said Hernandez-Ayon, a coastal oceanographer. “We are concerned about these areas because they play an important role as nurseries and feeding grounds of juvenile fish populations but are also are ideal sites for shellfish aquaculture.” More …

What is Bleaching?

Corals are very sensitive to temperature change: a 1–2º C change in local temperature above their normal summer maximum can lead to a phenomenon called ‘bleaching’, whereby the corals expel their vital algal symbionts (algae which live in the cells of the coral), leaving the coral tissues translucent.

Bleached Coral (Pocillopora) NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In 1998, a single bleaching event led to the loss of almost 20% of the world’s living coral. Corals can recover from these events but repeated episodes are likely to weaken the coral ecosystem, making them more susceptible to disease and causing a loss of biodiversity. (Source)

How will ocean acidification affect marine life?

Corals, calcareous phytoplankton, mussels, snails, sea urchins and other marine organisms use calcium (Ca) and carbonate (CO3) in seawater to construct their calcium carbonate (CaCO3) shells or skeletons. As the pH decreases, carbonate becomes less available, which makes it more difficult for organisms to secrete CaCO3 to form their skeletal material. For animals in general, including invertebrates and some fish, CO2 accumulation and lowered pH may result in acidosis, or a build up of carbonic acid in the organism’s body fluids. This can lead to lowered immune response, metabolic depression, behavioral depression affecting physical activity and reproduction, and asphyxiation. Since the oceans have never experienced such a rapid acidification, it is not clear if ecosystems have the ability to adapt to these changes (1,2). Effects of ocean acidification on organisms and ecosystems are still poorly understood. Over the last few years, research has intensified significantly to fill the many knowledge gaps. (Source)

Related Links:

• International Scientists Find ‘Acidified’ Water on the Continental Shelf from Canada to Mexico
• How will ocean acidification affect marine life ?
• Ocean Acidification
• Integrated Coral Observing Network

• The Eight Steps that Help Kill More of Our Fish
• Global warming could starve oceans of oxygen: study
• The Floating Toxic Garbage Island
  
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part III
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part II
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part I