BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2004 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME DAILY DISCUSSION TODAY AT 1 P.M. Light snow ended by 8:30 this morning after 0.5 inch but the snow started up again after 11 a.m. and early this afternoon visibility has dropped to 3 miles to our southeast and south while there's glow of bright sky along the west horizon with 45 miles visibility in that direction by 1:30 p.m. This second batch of snow is not accumulating here. The north wind is gusting near 30 MPH early this afternoon SPECIAL REPORT....9 A.M. FINAL SNOWFALL...0.5 INCH THIS MORNING... The snow which began around 4 a.m. and accumulated to 0.4 inch by 7 a.m. became very light by 7:30 a.m. adding just 0.1 more to bring the final total to 0.5 inch and 0.03 melted. February snowfall total is now 3.0 inches. HIGHEST BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IN THREE YEARS YESTERDAY.... Yesterday's highest pressure of 1040.2 mbs. or 30.72 inches was our highest reading for any month here since 30.73 inches in February 2001. The maximum reading occurred at 8:55 a.m. ASOS reported a maximum of 30.74 inches but our manual observations got a 30.72. The highest pressure during the past two years has been 30.70 inches. It looks like Boston had 30.74 inches which is also likely to be their highest in three years. And, just an interesting note while looking at our monthly extremes, the last time the pressure dropped below 29 inches was way back in 1997, when in December the lowest was 28.85 inches. SPECIAL REPORT...7 A.M. ANOTHER MINOR SNOWFALL EVENT...CLOSE TO HALF INCH It's just another minor snowfall event here this morning. It's the 2nd one this month and about the 10th one since December 14th. Three have been between 2 and 3 inches and the all the rest less than 2 inches. Light snow began around 4 a.m. this morning and amounted to just 0.4 inch on the snow boards by 7 a.m. A break in the overcast could be seen to our northwest and the snow was becoming very light by 7:30. The melted amount through 7 a.m. was 0.03 in the standard non-recording 8 inch gage while ASOS tipped in only 0.01. February sunshine is 70% of possible through the 16th. The average percent for the month is 50%. The last time the month was extremely sunny was during February, 1987, with 74%. After three days of cold temperatures the month of February has a near normal average with a total departure of just +6 degrees so the month is averaging about 0.4 degree on the mild side of normal. TODAY'S OBSERVATIONS.... 2/18/2004 WED 7 a.m. cloudy with light snow and 24 deg; wind nne at 12 mph... BHO SA 1155 -X E28 OVC 21/2S- 256/24/22/0310/029/ S2 BINOVC DSNT WNW-NNW VSBY NW 9 TOTAL NEW SNW PST 24 HRS 0.4 IN/ 8/02// 56021 ASOS 60001 MANUAL 6003/ ASOS 70001 MANUAL 70003 10026 20024 10 a.m. overcast with 20 miles visibility; 27 deg; wind nne at 13 gusting 22 mph... BHO COR SA 1455 E12 OVC 20 232/27/22/0211G19/022/ BINOVC DSNT W-NNW VSBY NW 30 NE-S 12 WND 34V06/ TOTL NEW SNW PST 3 HRS 0.1 IN/ 8/5/// MANUAL 6000/ 1 p.m. cloudy with very light snow no new accumulation and 28 deg; wind n at 16 with gusts reach 30 mph...high temp six hours 28 deg; snowfall six hours 0.1 inch.. BHO SA 1755 E10 OVC 6S- 197/28/24/0114G26/011/ PCPN VRY LGT VSBY W-NW 25 E 4 SE-S 3 PK WND 0127/19/ TOTAL NEW SNW PST 6 HRS 0.1 IN/ WND 33V04/ 8/02// 58035 MANUAL 6000/ 10028 20024 OUR WEATHER SUMMARY FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17 TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....29 NORMAL.....35 HAZEN SHELTER: 35.0 @ 12:36 P.M. MIN.... 11 NORMAL.....20 HAZEN SHELTER: 20.9 @ 11:57 P.M. MEAN....20 NORMAL.....29 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL.....-9 TOTAL DEPARTURE FEBRUARY TO DATE: +6 DEPARTURE FOR THE FEBRUARY TO DATE: +0.2 DEGREES/DAY ASOS MAX/MIN FOR 2/17: 29/11 HEATING DEGREE DAYS TOTAL HEATING DEGREE DAYS FOR YESTERDAY.......45 DEPARTURE.....+9 TOTAL HEATING DEGREE DAYS FOR FEBRUARY...... 637 DEPARTURE.... -6 TOTAL HEATING DEGREE DAYS FOR THE SEASON....4240 DEPARTURE.....+57 TOTAL HEATING DEGREE DAYS FOR LAST SEASON...4485 DIFFERENCE...-245 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY........21 SE AT 3:50 P.M. AEROVANE.........22 SE AT 3:50 P.M. ASOS.............20 SSE AT 4:33 P.M. FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY..........N/A MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE.......16 N AT 12:00 A.M. AVERAGE ASOS WIND FOR YESTERDAY ....8.2 MPH ** second of two occurrences PRECIPITATION (INCHES) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HR ENDING 7 A.M.....0.03 ASOS..............0.01 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR FEBRUARY...........1.74 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR FEBRUARY TO DATE......-0.71 TOTAL ASOS PRECIPITATION FOR FEBRUARY......1.57 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR JANUARY............1.72 DEPARTURE....-3.06 ASOS..............1.40 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR 2004...............3.46 DEPARTURE....-3.77 TOTAL ASOS PRECIPITATION FOR 2004..........2.97 SNOWFALL (INCHES) TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M......0.4 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR FEBRUARY TO DATE.........2.9 DEPARTURE......-5.4 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR JANUARY ................8.5 DEPARTURE......-7.1 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON..............41.6 DEPARTURE......+4.2 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY, 2004......CALENDAR DAY DATA FEBRUARY 2004 DAILY DATA... DATA REPORTED: DATE MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOW/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/ PEAK GUST/AERO GUST AERO: Aerovane recording wind system when significant TSTM: Thunderstorm day ....: Data not yet available 2/1 31/9/20/-6/0/0/599/100 33 NW Aerovane 38 MPH NW 2/2 37/18/28/+2/0/0/578/96 21 NNW 2/3 42/25/34/+8/0.51/0.2/000/00 47 SSE Aerovane 49 MPH SSE 2/4 42/24/33/+7/T/0/564/93 46 W Aerovane 47 MPH W 2/5 34/21/28/+1/0/0/451/74 33 WNW 2/6 33/24/29/+2/1.08/2.3/000/00 28 SSE 2/7 39/24/32/+5/0.12/T/092/15 37 WNW 2/8 24/12/18/-9/0/0/616/100 59 WNW Aerovane 62 MPH WNW 2/9 41/20/31/+4/0/0/279/45 47 SSW Aerovane 48 MPH SSW 2/10 44/32/38/+11/0/0/546/88 31 WSW 2/11 35/21/28/+1/0/0/618/99 46 W Aerovane 46 MPH W 2/12 35/16/26/-2/0/0/294/47 25 SW 2/13 38/26/32/+4/0/0/535/85 37 W 2/14 40/28/34/+6/0/0/581/92 32 W 2/15 29/9/19/-9/T/T/583/92 39 NW 2/16 27/8/18/-10/0/0/631/99 20 NNW 2/17 29/11/20/-9/0/0/346/54 21 SE 2/18 MORNING LOW 24; SNOWFALL 0.5; PRECIP 0.03 February sunshine is far above normal with 69% thru the 17th.. The normal for February is 50%. The combined months of the winter now have an average of 59% of the possible sunshine. NEW DAILY RECORDS FOR MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2004 TO DATE: NONE RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 18 HIGH 65F IN 1981 LOW -10F IN 1958 PRECIP 1.97 INCHES IN 1887 SNOWFALL 9.2 INCHES IN 1952 PEAK GUST 65e MPH NNW IN 1952 RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 19 HIGH 66F IN 1981 LOW -5F IN 1923 PRECIP 2.73 INCHES IN 1972 SNOWFALL 12.0 INCHES IN 1893 PEAK GUST 76 MPH ENE IN 1972 TODAY'S REPORT BY: Robert Skilling