BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 TUESDAY JANUARY 28 2003 TODAY'S DISCUSSION....1 P.M. LONG STRETCH OF BELOW FREEZING TEMPERATURES EXTENDS TO 15 DAYS TODAY.. MORNING LOW OF -5.0 DEGREES....COLDEST IN SIX YEARS HERE IN HAZEN SHELTER... AMAZING STUFF! JANUARY TO BE THIRD OR FOURTH COLDEST ANY MONTH PAST 20 YEARS... A VERY SUNNY MONTH INDEED WITH 10 POINTS MORE THAN NORMAL SUNSHINE TO DATE CONTRAST ONE YEAR AGO....66 DEGREES ON JANUARY 29TH... This morning low temperature of 5 below zero was accompanied by windchill temperatures near -25 degrees at times and was the climax of a very long cold snap. Today is number fifteen to have below freezing temperatures in the streak that began with January 14th. This is our longest stretch since 19 days during December 1989. The low of -5 degrees this morning was our coldest since January 1997. The coldest months during the past 20 years are: December 1989 at 17.4 degrees, January 1994 at 18.8 degrees, January 1985 at 20.6 degrees and January 2003 at 20.7 (27 days). Six days have had 95 to 100% of the possible sunshine and today will make number seven. Four days have had no sunshine and all of those occurred during the first week. One year ago tomorrow's date we hit record high temperature of 66 degrees! TODAY'S OBSERVATIONS... 1/28/2003 TUE 7 a.m. BHO SA 1155 220 -BKN 40 242/-4/-15/2811/025/ SC LYR OFFSHR NE-ESE FEW ACSL DSNT S MSTLY CLR SKY NE-SE ARCTIC SEA SMOKE VSB OVR OCEAN SFC NE-E VSBY NE-E 20 WNW 45/ 8/541/ 4/006 56006 11001 21005 10 a.m. BHO SA 1455 CLR 60 241/6/-14/2710/024/ FEW SC OFFSHR DSNT E FEW AC/ACSL SW-N FEW CI VSBY NW 70/ 8/541/ 55001 1 p.m. BHO SA 1755 90 SCT 60 217/15/-12/2912G18/017/ ACSL ALQDS VSBY NW 70/ 8/040/ 56024 10016 21004 THE DATA RECORDED FOR MONDAY JANUARY 27 TEMPERATURES ARE CALENDAR DAY MIDNIGHT TO MIDNIGHT EASTERN STANDARD TIME MAX: 24 MIN: 0 ASOS MAX: 24 ASOS MIN: 0 MEAN: 12 [ -14 ] NORMAL HIGH/LOW/MEAN: 34/17/26/ TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR JANUARY TO DATE: - 140 degrees JANUARY IS AVERAGING 5.5 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL IN TEMPERATURE PRECIPITATION FOR 01/28 UPDATED AS OF 7 A.M. 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M.......0.00 INS. TOTAL FOR ASOS............0.05 INS. TOTAL FOR JANUARY ....... 2.75 INS.(STD GAUGE) DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL....-1.43 INS. ASOS TOTAL FOR JANUARY....2.51 INS. TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS.... 0.0 INS. JANUARY SNOWFALL TO DATE..12.1 INS. SEASONAL SNOWFALL........ 43.4 INS. PRECIP. TOTAL YEAR 2002...53.41 INS. DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL.....+2.34 INS. WIND DATA FOR MONDAY JANUARY 27 2003 PEAK GUST ASOS: 37 MPH NW AT 10:44 A.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 43 MPH NW AT 8:49 A.M. PEAK GUST 420C: 39 MPH NW AT 7:35 P.M. JAN. 2003 PRELIMINARY DATA....ALL IS CALENDAR DAY DATA.... BELOW IS ORDER OF DATA REPORTED.... MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOWFALL /SUNSHINE/ OFFICIAL 420C WIND GUST/Aero Aero = Aerovane recording wind system gust when significant TSTM = thunderstorm day ... SUNSHINE DATA NOT YET AVAILABLE 1/1 40/33/37/+10/0.60/T//000/00/ 48 NE Aero 51 MPH NE 1/2 34/20/27/0/0.13/0.3/050/09/ 55 NE Aero 56 MPH NE 1/3 35/23/29/+2/0.75/2.0/000/00 44 NE Aero 44 MPH NE 1/4 35/24/30/+3/0.83/3.6/000/00 52 NE Aero 54 MPH NE 1/5 31/20/26/-1/0.01/0.2/431/78 18 WNW 1/6 27/23/25/-1/0.12/1.6/000/00 18 NNW 1/7 26/15/21/-5/0.03/0.6/089/16 28 NNW 1/8 35/15/25/-1/0.08/1.3/061/11 30 W 1/9 37/30/34/+8/0.08/0.7/290/52 30 SSW 1/10 36/19/28/+2/0.03/0/324/58 32 WNW 1/11 26/17/22/-4/0/0/375/67 42 WSW Aero 43 MPH WSW 1/12 31/20/26/0/0/0/499/89 43 W Aero 45 MPH WNW 1/13 34/19/27/+1/T/T/388/69 45 WSW Aero 45 MPH WSW 1/14 23/11/17/-9/0/0/564/100 38 W 1/15 23/9/16/-10/0/0/503/89 24 WNW 1/16 25/13/19/-7/0/0/483/85 31 W 1/17 28/7/18/-8/0.04/0.7/336/59 28 NW 1/18 16/-3/07/-19/0/0/554/97 27 NW 1/19 22/10/16/-9/0/0/137/24 25 W 1/20 27/11/19/-6/T/0.1/310/54 47 W 1/21 17/5/11/-14/0/0/577/100 50 W Aerovane 53 MPH W 1/22 14/2/08/-17/0/0/572/99 52 W Aerovane 54 MPH W 1/23 12/-02/05/-20/T/T/557/96 32 WNW Aerovane 36 MPH WNW 1/24 23/03/13/-13/0/0/553/95 1/25 27/09/18/-8/0/0/345/59 23 WNW 1/26 32/19/26/0/0.01/0.3/053/09 22 SSW 1/27 24/0/12/-14/0.04/0.7/500/85 39 NW Aerovane 43 MPH NW 1/28 MORNING LOW MINUS 05; Maximum thru 2 p.m. 17 degrees... SUNSHINE THROUGH 1/27 IS 56% OF POSSIBLE NORMAL FOR MONTH OF JANUARY IS 46% THE DAILY EXTREMES...... RECORDS FOR JANUARY 28 HIGH 59 IN 1916 LOW -09 IN 1888, 1924 PRECIP 2.18 INS. IN 1897 SNOWFALL 15.0 INS. IN 1897 PEAK GUST 78e MPH SSE IN 1977 RECORDS FOR JANUARY 29 HIGH 66 IN 2002 LOW -11 IN 1888 PRECIP 1.48 INS. IN 1973 SNOWFALL 8.0 INS. IN 1943 PEAK GUST 72 MPH NW IN 1973 RECORDS FOR JANUARY 30 HIGH 60 IN 1914 LOW -08 IN 1948 PRECIP 1.12 INS. IN 1925 SNOWFALL 6.5 INS. IN 1986 PEAK GUST 76 MPH WNW IN 1962 e = estimated today's report by: Robert Skilling