National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The featured product in this month's analysis is the South American continent snow cover. Several storms swept across the southern parts of South America accompanied by accumulating snows mainly along the spine of the Andes mountains from Chile northward into Bolivia. Below freezing temperatures persisted during the month allowing excessive snow to accumulate. The snow cover anomalies were greatest across the southern third of Argentina where snow cover was observed both in the high mountains and across the lower elevations of Patagonia. The anomalies are expressed in percent of average with green to blue areas indicating above average and orange to red areas below average snow cover.

Contents of This Report:

• South American Temperature Anomalies
• Asian Temperature Anomalies
• Asian Wetness Product
• African Temperature Anomalies
• European Temperature Anomalies

South American Temperature Anomalies

A mid-winter flow of Antarctic air moved northward across southern portions of the continent. Widespread cool anomalies were evident across much of central South America. The coldest anomalies, in the range of -2C to -4C were centered over Paraguay. The unusually cold weather was responsible for nearly two dozen deaths in southeast Brazil and northern Argentina around mid-month.

Most of the remainder of the continent also had below average temperatures. A few areas across northern Brazil and Venezeula were near the long term average. No significant areas observed warm anomalies this month.

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Asian Temperature Anomalies

Persistent cloudiness across much of southwestern Asia kept the region cooler than average this July 2000. This cloudy pattern is associated with an active monsoon season and has persisted for the last two months.

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Warm anomalies were noted over Mongolia and across central and northeast China. These anomalies were associated with a ridge of high pressure which kept the region dry and warm. The greatest anomalies, over 3C, were observed over parts of northeast China in the Beijing area northwest of the Gulf of BoHai.

Asian Wetness Anomalies

The greatest positive wetness anomalies were observed over parts of southeast Asia. These were associated with periodic heavy rainfall in the region, especially across Thailand, and Cambodia into parts of Vietnam. This region typically experiences its wettest weather in September and October but has been exceptionally wet during the last two months. In Udon Thani, in eastern Thailand, one event dumped over 10.8 in. (275 mm) of rain in one evening. This was a new provincial record high amount according to the local meteorological office. Media reports stated that five Mekong Delta provinces in southern Vietnam were also flooded. Positive wetness anomalies were also observed over western India, near the India-Pakistan border and in southeast India with flooding reported in some areas.

Large negative (dry) anomalies were observed in parts of eastern India, in Bangladesh, and in parts of central and eastern China. Some of these areas continue to suffer from drought. According to media reports, the province of Heilongiang in northeast China has received 70% less rainfall than average during its usual rainy season, which begins in May. Forty million people are estimated to live in this region which includes the Songhua river basin, an important grain growing region.

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African Temperature Anomalies

Much of the African continent had temperatures again near or below the norm for July. This is similar to the pattern observed in May and June , but quite the opposite was observed in April when much of the continent was warm.

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In contrast, only the extreme northern part of the continent had near or above average temperature anomalies. This was due to a ridge of high pressure aloft over the Mediterranean which kept the area warmer than average.

European Temperature Anomalies

Much of southern Europe experienced a brutal heatwave during the beginning of the month. A ridge of high pressure from Saharan Africa brought a scorching heat wave to southeast Europe, breaking century-old records on July 5th. Temperatures reached as high as 111 degrees F (44C) in locations across Turkey, Greece, Romania and Italy. The hottest reported temperature was 113 degrees F (45C) in south central Bulgaria. For more details, see Climate Watch- July 2000 . Mean temperatures were much warmer than average across Turkey, Bulgaria, and parts of Greece where the heatwave persisted. North and west of this area, in central and northern Europe much cooler temperatures were prevalent during most of the month with anomalies of -4C observed in parts of France.

References:

Basist, A., N.C. Grody, T.C. Peterson and C.N. Williams, 1998: Using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager to Monitor Land Surface Temperatures, Wetness, and Snow Cover. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 37, 888-911.

For all climate questions other than questions concerning this report, please contact the National Climatic Data Center's Climate Services Division:

Climate Services Division
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue, Room 120
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4876
phone: 828-271-4800
email: ncdc.orders@noaa.gov

For more information, refer also to ...
SSMI Derived Products
Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)
The Blended GHCN - SSM/I Product
The Global Temperature Anomalies

Tom Ross
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4499
email: tom.ross@noaa.gov

Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: jay.lawrimore@noaa.gov

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