First Week of Surface Temperature Field Campaign and El Nino - GLOBE International STEM Network

We have had a great start to our 2015 Surface Temperature Field Campaign. We are off to a quick start with 16 schools reporting since December 1, 2015. There are a number of other schools that collected data in November. I hope they are able to collect observations in December as well. Since November 1, 8 countries have reported data and 5 states within the United States. If we look at the number of observations since December 1, Main Street School in Norwalk, Ohio has the most observations. Below, I’ll talk about how El Nino is affecting the temperatures in the United States.

I noticed that a lot of schools are posting data from only one site. It is best if your students could take observations of at least two sites at your school. That way, the students can compare the temperature of those two sites.

Participating Schools

Since December 1, 2015

Brazil High School, Trinidad and Tobago (6)

Wyomissing Area Jr./Sr. High School, Pennsylvania, USA (3)

David Wooster Middle School, Connecticut, USA (4)

Hills Home School, Maryland, USA (3)

GPM Satellite Home, Maryland, USA (2)

Mohican School In The Out-of-Doors, Ohio, USA (10)

Roswell Kent Middle School, Ohio, USA (14)

Lakewood Catholic Academy, Ohio, USA (5)

Main Street Intermediate School, Ohio, USA (24)

Crestwood High School, Michigan, USA (5)

Shumate Middle School, Michigan, USA (3)

Ida Middle School, Michigan, USA (6)

University of Toledo, Ohio, USA (2)

Moamar Bin Rashed Intermediate School at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (3)

As-Siddiq Secondary School at Rejal Alma'a, Saudi Arabia (6)

Nasokol Girls Secondary School, Kenya (2)

 

These schools reported data in November as well. I would love to see data from these schools in December if they haven’t already.

Pompano Beach High School, Florida, USA (5)

Wyomissing Area Jr./Sr. High School, Pennsylvania, USA (13)

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (1)

Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School, Pennsylvania, USA (2)

Mohican School In The Out-of-Doors, Ohio, USA (3)

Roswell Kent Middle School, Ohio, USA (73)

Main Street Intermediate School, Ohio, USA (27)

Shumate Middle School, Michigan, USA (16)

Ida Middle School, Michigan, USA (16)

University of Toledo, Ohio, USA (10)

Geogr. Institut UzK, University of Cologne, Germany (1)

Gymnazium Decin, Czech Republic (1)

Kilingi-Nomme Gymnasium, Estonia (2)

2nd Arsakeio-Tositseio lyceum Ekalis, Greece (7)

The 24th Seconadry Girls School at Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia (1)

Al Fisaliah Gifted School at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (1)

Moamar Bin Rashed Intermediate School at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (19)

As-Siddiq Secondary School at Rejal Alma'a, Saudi Arabia (30)

Nasokol Girls Secondary School, Kenya (1)

Santiago College, Chile (5)

If you and your students haven’t entered your data yet but you took it, please do enter the data.

El Nino, What is it doing in the United States

A couple weeks ago there was a record-breaking snowstorm in the Great Lakes region and Midwest of the United States. But, overall the weather has been warm in the Great Lakes. You can see in the figure below from NOAA that the weather in December through February will be warm in southern Alaska through the center part of the US and then wet from the southwest through Florida. I would venture to say that El Nino will make the Great Lakes warmer than average this winter.

 

Here is the information that shows that El Nino is pretty strong right now. You can see how in the last 6 months, sea surface temperature has gone up quite a bit in the Pacific Ocean. The temperature of the 3.4 region (a place in the eastern Pacific Ocean) is nearly 2 C higher than the long term average.

 

This has led to there being only a little bit of snow in the Great Lakes region. The mountains out west are getting snow because of El Nino. It is helping some of the drought areas. This is typical of El Nino years as well.