Climate Data Information

Climate Change Impact Part 8: Example – Samoa Summary Some of the roads on Samoa had been damaged in recent storms and the objective of the project was to prepare the rehabilitation taking account of climate change. Climate data, including rainfall at a 10-inute time step for two stations were obtained. The data showed that there was a significant increase in rainfall with elevation (which might explain why the most severe damage to the roads was at highest elevations). A methodology was developed to estimate the storm intensity for a range of durations and return period taking account of climate change. Introduction Samoa consists of two main islands shown on the following map. Both islands have a road network. On Upolo there are roads around and across the island. On Savai’I the roads run around the island. There is a third island, to the east of and smaller than these two, which is a US territory. Figure  1  Map of Samoa The main aim of ...

Sea Levels - Pacific Islands SEA LEVELS - PACIFIC ISLANDS There is concern that sea level rise might threaten the existence of some small island communities. Since the early 1990s the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has been running the Pacific Sea Level Project. The continually monitor sea level, air temperature and water temperature among other parameters. Given the motto of this site “Where numbers count” this is something of which we fully approve. Figure 1 shows the location of the monitoring sites. Figure 2 shows a schematic layout of a typical station. In a recent update of our web site  “www.climatedata.info/impacts/sea-levels/pacific-islands/  ... we plot the values of sea level for a twelve stations in the network. The data of these stations were summarised by the following figure 3. Two factors are very evident. Firstly sea levels are rising: a trend line through the average of all stations gives a rate of rise of 5 m...

SEA LEVELS Sea levels have been rising since the maximum of the last ice 20,000 years ago. The rate of sea level rise is regarded as an indicator of climate change. The change in sea levels is driven by two factors: the thermal expansion of the sea water as it warms and the melting of ice over land. Long Term Sea Level Change During an ice age, ice covers are large areas around both poles. The amount of water in the ice caps is such that sea levels are markedly reduced. Levels 20,000 years ago, at the maximum of the last ice age, were 140 m lower than they are today. Until about 7,000 years ago the rate of rise was about 100 mm/decade. Since then rate of rise has averaged 10 mm/decade. Estimation of Sea Level Change Global sea levels have traditionally been estimated from tide gauges. As can be imagined they show fluctuations of several meters due to tide and wave action. Identifying sea level changes of a few millimetres a year against this background “noise...