NOAA News
Courtesy of NOAA

U.S. temperature and precipitation in October were near average; Sandy breaks records in East as severe drought continues in West, Great Plains According to NOAA NCDC scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during October was 53.9°F, 0.3°F below the long-term average. This ends a 16-month streak of above-average temperatures for the Lower 48 that began in June 2011. Publ.Date : Thurs, 8 Cct 2012 12:18:38 -0400 Carbon dioxide at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory reaches new milestone: Tops 400 ppm On May 9, the daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time since measurements began in 1958. It marks an important milestone because Mauna Loa, as the oldest continuous carbon dioxide (CO2) measurement station in the world, is the primary global benchmark site for monitoring the increase of this potent heat-trapping gas. Publ.Date : Fri, 19 May 2013 1:30:00 -0500 Below-normal Eastern Pacific hurricane season predicted NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center announced today that a below-normal hurricane season is most likely for the Eastern Pacific this year. The outlook calls for a 55 percent probability of a below-normal season, a 35 percent probability of a near-normal season and a 10 percent probability of an above-normal season. Publ.Date : Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:00 -0500 Active Atlantic hurricane season predicted In its 2013 Atlantic hurricane season outlook issued today, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting an active or extremely active season this year. Publ.Date : Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:00 -0500 Severe weather possible across Northeast and Southern Plains, including moderate risk for parts of northwest Texas Get the latest forecast, watches and warnings from NOAA's National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, http://www.spc.noaa.gov. Publ.Date : Thu, 23 May 2013 10:05:00 -0500 Below-normal Central Pacific hurricane season expected NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center today announced that climate conditions point to a below-normal season in the Central Pacific Basin this year. Publ.Date : Wed, 22 May 2013 16:30:00 -0500 Severe weather threats move into lower Great Lakes, Tennessee Valley Wednesday Get late-breaking weather information, and your local forecast, at http://www.weather.gov. Publ.Date : Wed, 22 May 2013 08:15:00 -0500 More severe weather expected from Great Lakes to Central Texas on Tuesday Get late-breaking information from the NOAA National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/). Publ.Date : Tue, 21 May 2013 12:05:00 -0500 Global April temperatures were 13th highest on record; Year-to-date is eighth warmest period on record; North American snow cover was third largest According to NOAA scientists, April 2013 was also the 37th consecutive April and 338th consecutive month (more than 28 years) with a global temperature above the 20th-century average. Publ.Date : Mon, 20 May 2013 11:05:00 -0500 Mobile app provides free nautical charts for recreational boating As recreational boaters gear up for a summer of fun on coastal waters and the Great Lakes, NOAA is testing MyNOAACharts, a new mobile application that allows users to download NOAA nautical charts and editions of the U.S. Coast Pilot. Publ.Date : Mon, 20 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500 New report examines national oil pollution threat from shipwrecks NOAA presented to the U.S. Coast Guard today a new report that finds that 36 sunken vessels scattered across the U.S. seafloor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nation’s coastal marine resources. Publ.Date : Mon, 20 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500 April was cool, wet and had more snow on the ground for the contiguous U.S.; April temperatures were coolest since 1997 According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous United States during April was 49.7°F, 1.4°F below the 20th-century average. It was the 23rd coolest April on record. Below-average temperatures dominated the central United States. Publ.Date : Wed, 15 May 2013 11:05:00 -0500 First GOES-R instrument ready to be installed onto spacecraft The first of six instruments that will fly on GOES-R, NOAA’s next-generation of geostationary operational environmental satellites, has been completed seven months before its scheduled installation onto the spacecraft. Publ.Date : Wed, 02 May 2013 11:10:00 -0500 Final report on Sandy service assessment released After a thoughtful and deliberate review, today NOAA released a report on the National Weather Service’s performance during hurricane/post tropical cyclone Sandy. The report, Hurricane/Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy Service Assessment, reaffirms that the National Weather Service provided accurate forecasts for Sandy, giving people early awareness of the significant storm churning toward the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Publ.Date : Wed, 02 May 2013 10:22:00 -0500 New current meter at Stevens will feed data into NOAA’s real-time information system to allow ships to navigate more safely in New York harbor NOAA is using data from a new current meter in New York harbor, operated by one of its academic partners, New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of Technology, to provide enhanced real-time information to mariners travelling through the nation’s second busiest port. Publ.Date : Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:20:00 -0500 National Weather Service completes Doppler radar upgrades This week, the National Weather Service completed the dual-polarization technology update in Brownsville, Texas – concluding the 122 NWS radar site upgrades throughout the country. This new advanced technology is helping federal weather forecasters more accurately track, assess and warn the public of approaching high-impact weather. Publ.Date : Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:30:00 -0500 Arctic nearly free of summer sea ice during first half of 21st century For scientists studying summer sea ice in the Arctic, it’s not a question of “if” there will be nearly ice-free summers, but “when.” And two scientists say that “when” is sooner than many thought — before 2050 and possibly within the next decade or two. Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0500 Sandy retired from list of Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone names Sandy has been retired from the official list of Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone names by the World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane committee because of the extreme impacts it caused from Jamaica and Cuba to the Mid-Atlantic United States in October 2012. Publ.Date : Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:05:00 -0500 Statement from Dr. Kathryn Sullivan on NOAA’s FY 2014 Budget Request While the economy has shown signs of recovery over the past year, continued fiscal uncertainty and tight budgets mean that government agencies, like so many families and businesses across the country, still face tough choices. At NOAA, we’re working to fulfill our core mission of science, service and stewardship and balance investments in current and future programs and services. Publ.Date : Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:12:00 -0500 Polar-orbiting satellite retires After nearly 11 years of helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-17 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a typical lifespan of three years. Publ.Date : Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:00:00 -0500 2013 Space Achievement Award NOAA received the prestigious 2013 Space Achievement Award today from the Space Foundation "for its use of space-based systems in making life-saving predictions and issuing early warnings of calamitous weather conditions." Publ.Date : Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:00:00 -0500 Fisheries Service seeks comments on proposal to list scalloped hammerhead sharks under Endangered Species Act NOAA’s Fisheries Service, in response to a petition submitted by the WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals is proposing to list four populations of scalloped hammerhead sharks under the Endangered Species Act, two as threatened and two as endangered. Publ.Date : Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:00:00 -0500 A warming world will further intensify extreme precipitation events According to a newly-published NOAA-led study in Geophysical Research Letters, as the globe warms from rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, more moisture in a warmer atmosphere will make the most extreme precipitation events more intense. Publ.Date : Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:00:00 -0500 Thin, low Arctic clouds played an important role in the massive 2012 Greenland ice melt Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were “just right” for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado. Publ.Date : Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:15:00 -0500