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LA NIÑA MAY SOON ARRIVE On the heels of El Niño, its opposite, La Niña may soon arrive. In a weekly update, scientists at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center noted that as the 2006-2007 El Niño faded, surface and subsurface ocean temperatures have rapidly decreased. Recently, cooler-than-normal water temperatures have developed at the surface in the east-central equatorial Pacific, indicating a possible transition to La Niña conditions. Typically, during the U.S. spring and summer months, La Niña conditions do not significantly impact overall inland temperature and precipitation patterns, however, La Niña episodes often do have an effect on Atlantic and Pacific hurricane activity. “Although other scientific factors affect the frequency of hurricanes, there tends to be a greater-than-normal number of Atlantic hurricanes and fewer-than-normal number of eastern Pacific hurricanes during La Niña events,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “During the winter, usual La Niña impacts include drier and warmer-than-average conditions over the southern United States." Full Story Inside **|
NOAA / CIRES SCIENTISTS HELP PREPARE VIRGINIA BEACH FOR TSUNAMI, STORM-DRIVEN FLOODING — A team of scientists is contributing a crucial step in NOAA’s effort to prepare U.S. coastal communities, including Virginia Beach, for potentially deadly tsunami and storm-driven flooding. Scientists with the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences have created a high-resolution digital elevation model for the area around Virginia Beach, Va., designed to improve forecasting for early tsunami warning systems and to help coastal communities prepare for storm-driven flooding. VALENTINE’S DAY WINTER STORM CLASSIFIED AS A CATEGORY 3 "MAJOR" STORM — The winter storm that struck the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region on Valentine’s Day, piling up snow and ice, snarling both car and airline traffic and plunging thousands into the dark was classified as "major," or a Category 3, on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale, or NESIS, according to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. This is a preliminary classification based on the snowfall observations currently available. NOAA Magazine - The stories behind the headlines. Up Close: Louis Uccellini, Director of the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction Discusses Winter Storms NOAA AND AUSTRALIA SECURE TSUNAMI PARTNERSHIP — NOAA and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology officially signed an agreement to promote cooperative technical partnerships in tsunami early warning systems. As part of this effort, NOAA and the Bureau expect to launch a new Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART™) buoy station in April to further strengthen the Indian Ocean region’s capacity for tsunami warning. AccessNOAA - NOAA Employees Make a Difference **** Cool Free Stuff for Students and Teachers!**
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