 light blue.
The Siberian Times reported that smoke from the Russian wildfire was “producing exceptional sunsets” in the western United States and Canada. The newspaper attributed the Kamchatka fire and others this spring in eastern Russia in part to an unusually warm and dry winter, and faster than normal snowmelt.
The Kamchatka Peninsula occupies an area of roughly 100,000 square miles, with the Pacific Ocean to the east of the peninsula and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west. Most of the fire has been on the western side of the peninsula, north of the Kharyryuzova River.
Beaufort Sea Ice Experiences Unusually Early Breakup June 13, 2016
Ice covering Beaufort Sea near the Arctic Ocean typically reaches full-blown breakup by late May each year as air and water temperatures warm, and as daylight turns longer. But 2016 has been dramatically different.
This year, significant breakup and fracturing of the sea ice had occurred by mid-April, as seen in these Landsat 8 images acquired almost exactly a year apart. On April 13, 2015, the ice is largely intact, though fracturing has begun. A year later, on April 15, 2016, much more open water is visible.
Ice specialists with NASA say this year’s breakup is attributable to unusually warm air temperatures during the first months of the year, and to strong winds caused by a stalled high-pressure system over the area. The same warmth that fueled the massive Fort McMurray wildfire in northern Alberta earlier in May is part of the weather pattern affecting the Beaufort Sea.
Though the region was once covered by thicker, multi-year ice, it now has largely seasonal, first-year ice that is thinner, weaker, and more easily broken up by strong winds. While the early breakup hints to the possibility that 2016 could ultimately witness the lowest sea ice extent in the history of satellite recording, that, of course, will depend on the weather conditions in the coming months. Future Landsat acquisitions will help scientists monitor the area and visualize changes.
The surface level of Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona has fallen to a historic low as 16 years of ongoing drought in the American Southwest continue to impact the Colorado River Basin.
Landsat imagery captures the decline of the country’s largest reservoir. In a May 1984 Landsat 5 acquisition, Lake Mead is almost full. But 32 years later, in May 2016, Landsat 8 data show the reservoir when it was 37 percent full. The drop in lake level isn’t even as apparent as it might otherwise be because of the steep topography in the region, but the surface area reduction is still quite noticeable.
Today, Lake Mead supplies water to 25 million people. Virtually all of nearby Las Vegas, NV, with its 2 million residents and 40 million tourists a year, gets its drinking water from the shrinking reservoir. Lake Mead also serves farms, tribes, and businesses in Arizona, California, Nevada, and northern Mexico.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead reached a historic low in May 2016 of 1,074 feet above sea level. It has not been this low since the reservoir began filling in the 1930s.
Rain-Swollen Brazos River Floods Suburban Houston June 2, 2016
Heavy rains that began falling during Memorial Day weekend in late May 2016 pushed the Brazos River, 30 miles southwest of Houston, Texas, toward a near-record flooding stage that hasn’t been seen since 1913, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Shortwave infrared and red bands on Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor reveal the river’s dramatic flooding extent on May 28, compared to two months earlier, on March 25, when the Brazos ran much more sedately past the nation’s fourth most-populous city. Just two years earlier, in 2014, the 840-mile-long river snaking through the center of Texas had gone dry in places because of drought conditions, the NWS said.
As of June 1, more than 120 high-water boat rescues from buildings and cars had been reported near Houston by Fort Bend County first responders. The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters,” of which USGS and EROS ar