BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA MONDAY MARCH 04 2002 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.bluehill.org/ DAILY DISCUSSION.....3/4/2002 @ 1 P.M. EARLY MARCH STORM BRINGS ALMOST AN INCH OF RAIN AND WIND GUSTS TO NEAR 60 MPH ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 3RD.... Measurable rainfall began before midnight Saturday evening and by the time rain had ended in the forenoon on Sunday our total here was 0.91 inch in the standard rain gage and 0.84 inch in the ASOS tipping bucket gage. The wedge shaped TruChek gage had 0.94 inch. South winds reached an hourly average of 37 MPH between 7 and 8 a.m. Sunday morning with a peak gust to 61 MPH on the Maximum, Inc. Maestro and Aerovane while the official gust on ASOS was 56 MPH S at 7:12 a.m. and the NWS 420C recorded 58 MPH at the same time. Our new AWS recording system had a peak gust of 54 MPH. You can now get our live weather data on WeatherBug; just go to weatherbug.com, downloard the program and use our zip code of 02186. FEBRUARY 2002 STATS... MEAN 34.0 [ +5.7 ] HIGH: 60 on 26th LOW: 09 on 12th HDD = 864 [ - 184 ] HDD SEASON = 3637 [ - 964 ] ** PRECIP: 2.30 INS. [ - 1.76 ] SNOWFALL: 6.4 [ - 9.3 ] PEAK WIND GUST: 68 mph S on 10th... FASTEST MILE: 47 MPH S on 10th SUNSHINE: 56% OF POSSIBLE [ + 6 points ] PREVAILING WIND: W 17% OF THE TIME.... AV. VAPOR PRESSURE: 4.5 mbs. AV. STATION PRESSURE: 29.276 ins. AV. SEA LEVEL PRESSURE: 30.000 ins. ** this is the lowest seasonal heating degree day unit total on record through the end of February with an all-time record departure of - 964 units. The departure is probably a couple hundred units less than previous record! Here are the final temp stats for February and last winter. The February mean of 33.6 is tied for 6th warmest February on record, and the DJF mean of 34.8 is warmest by over 2 whole degrees. For winter, it's a clean sweep with the mean, max and min all warmest on record, with the greatest departure in the minimum temperature. Warmest Mean Warmest Max Warmest Min FEBRUARY.... Year FEB Year FEB Year FEB 1984 34.9 1976 44.0 1998 27.8 1998 34.0 1981 43.5 1984 27.1 1954 33.9 1984 43.2 1925 26.3 1981 33.9 1954 42.9 1954 26.2 1976 33.7 2002 42.9 1981 25.7 1997 33.6 1991 41.7 1997 25.5 2002 33.6 1925 41.4 2002 25.1 1925 33.1 1930 41.3 1999 24.7 1991 32.6 1951 41.2 1960 24.7 NRML 28.2 NRML 36.4 NRML 20.4 Warmest Mean Warmest Max Warmest Min WINTER... Year DEC-FEB Year DEC-FEB Year DEC-FEB 2001-02 34.8 2001-02 42.5 2001-02 28.0 1997-98 32.6 1936-37 40.7 1997-98 26.2 1936-37 32.3 1990-91 40.7 1948-49 25.2 1998-99 32.3 1889-90 40.6 1932-33 25.1 1932-33 32.2 1932-33 40.4 1936-37 25.0 1990-91 32.1 1998-99 40.3 1952-53 24.9 NORMAL 28.4 NORMAL 36.3 NORMAL 20.8 Mike ___________________________________________________________ Michael J. Iacono Staff Scientist, Radiation and Climate Group Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. 131 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA 02421-3126 email: mike@aer.com http://www.aer.com phone: (781) 761-2288 fax: (781) 761-2299___________________________________________________________ TODAY'S OBSERVATIONS.... 3/4/2002 MON BHO SA 1155 200 SCT 250 -BKN 80 085/29/11/2913/978/ FEW SC DSNT WNW-N DENSE CI E-S SKY CLRG W-NW FEW CC VSBY NW 90 PK WND 2926/10/ / 8/508/ 53017 70012 10040 20029 BHO SA 1455 220 SCT 250 -SCT 75 098/33/11/2921G30/982/ SC FRMG DSNT WSW-N LWR CI E-S PK WND 2730/45/ 8/501/ 51013 BHO SA 1755 55 SCT 220 SCT 250 -BKN 300 -OVC 75 097/35/13/2814G24/982/ DENSE E-S BINOVC PK WND 2826/17/ 8/502/ 58001 10038 20028 DATA RECORDED FOR SUNDAY MARCH 03 TEMPERATURES.... MAX : 56 MIN: 37 // ASOS MAX: 57 ASOS MIN: 37 NORMAL HIGH AND LOW: 41/24 MEAN 47 [+15] TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR MARCH TO DATE: + 23 degrees PRECIPITATION....ON 03/04 AS OF 7 A.M. 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M. . 0.12 IN. ASOS......................0.15 IN. TOTAL FOR MARCH . .......0.91 IN. STD. GAGE DEP. FROM NORMAL.........+0.46 IN. PRECIP. TOTAL YEAR 2002: 6.86 IN. (std. gage ) DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL....-2.43 IN. SNOWFALL.... ON 02/28 AS OF 7 A.M. 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M.... 0.0 IN. FEB. TOTAL................6.4 INS. SEASONAL TOTAL TO DATE. 32.2 INS. WIND DATA....FOR 03/03... PEAK GUST ASOS: 56 MPH SSE AT 7:12 A.M. PEAK GUST 420C: 58 MPH SSE AT 7:12 A.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 61 MPH S AT 7:34 A.M. MARCH 2002 PRELIMINARY DATA.... MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOW/SUNSHINE/ WIND GUST 3/01 42/23/33/+1/0/0/.../../ 32 W 3/02 47/31/39/+7/0.02/0/.../../ 32 SSE 3/03 56/37/47/+15/0.89/0/000/00/ 58 SSE 3/4 morning lo temp. 28.... FEBRUARY 2002 PRELIMINARY DATA.... MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOW/SUNSHINE/ WIND GUST 2/01 37/31/34/+8/0.36/0/000/00/ 53 W 2/02 34/18/26/0/0/0/506/84/ 63 WNW 2/03 35/17/26/+0/0/0/508/84/ 36 SSW 2/04 38/24/31/+5/0/0/522/86/ 36 NW 2/05 27/15/21/-6/0/0/500/82/ 42 NW 2/06 37/19/28/+1/0/0/601/98/ 31 W 2/07 41/29/35/+8/0/0/049/08/ 24 SSW 2/08 45/29/37/+10/0/0/617/100/ 36 NW 2/09 37/24/31/+4/0/0/608/98/ 30 NW 2/10 51/25/38/+11/0.13/0/087/14/ 63 S (Aero 68 mph S) 2/11 51/11/31/+4/0.66/0/075/12/ 58 SSW 2/12 39/9/24/-4/0/0/263/42/ 50 SSW 2/13 36/16/26/-2/T/T/530/84/ 46 W 2/14 34/12/23/-5/0/0/627/99/ 27 SSW 2/15 46/28/37/+9/0/0/146/23/ 43 S 2/16 54/39/47/+19/0/0/339/53/ 28 SSW 2/17 40/31/36/+7/0.23/1.6/000/00/ 39 N 2/18 39/26/33/+4/T/T/631/98/ 42 N 2/19 49/23/36/+7/0/0/633/98/ 21 W 2/20 53/37/45/+16/0/0/117/18/ 37 SSE 2/21 56/45/51/+22/0.35/0/052/08/ 36 SSE 2/22 46/32/39/+9/T/0/229/35/ 37 W 2/23 42/27/35/+5/0/0/506/77/ 27 W 2/24 39/25/33/+2/0/0/489/74/ 18 S 2/25 48/28/38/+7/0/0/192/29/ 36 S 2/26 60/39/50/+19/0.02/0/539/81/ 47 S (Aero 50 MPH S ) 2/27 54/24/39/+8/0.55/3.5/000/00/ 54 S (Aero 54 MPH S ) 2/28 33/20/27/-4/0/0/672/100/ 44 WNW RECORDS FOR MARCH 04 HIGH 69 IN 1974 LOW -05 IN 1950 PRECIP 1.80 INS 1960 SNOWFALL: 17.3 INS. 1960 PEAK GUST 81e MPH SSW IN 1971 RECORDS FOR MARCH 05 HIGH 64 IN 1979 LOW -02 IN 1948 PRECIP 1.76 INS 2001 SNOWFALL: 13.0 INS. 1891 PEAK GUST 76e MPH WNW IN 1971 e = estimated Robert Skilling