BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005 TODAY'S DISCUSSION..... Today, similar to the past two days, temperatures are edging into the low 40's with very dry air, dewpoints in the middle teens. Today will become the 16th day out of 17 days this month to have below normal temperatures. March is averaging 6.3 degrees colder than normal daily. Winds continue from the west to west-northwest and have prevailed from the w-wnw 54% of the time so far this month with 209 out of 384 hours through yesterday. Sunshine for the month at 55% is running 7 points above normal. TODAY'S OBSERVATIONS 3/17/2005 THU 7 a.m. clear with few distant cirrus clouds and visibility 60 miles; temp. 25; dewpoint 14; wind west at 10 mph; six hourly min. temp. 23; total snow on ground 11 inches. BHO SA 1155 CLR 60 158/25/14/2809/000/ FEW CI DSNT SSE-SW AND DSNT WNW-N VSBY NW 70/ 8/001 4/011 53005 10028 20023 10 a.m. clear with a few high thin clouds and visibility 75 miles; temp. 35; dewpoint 13; wind wnw 12 gusting 22 mph... BHO SA 1455 CLR 75 147/35/13/3010G19/996/ FEW CI/ 8/001 58011 1 p.m. high thin scattered clouds with 80 miles visibility; temp. 41; dewpoint 13; rh 32%; six hourly max. temp. 41 deg. BHO SA 1755 300 -SCT 80 134/41/13/2612G21/993/ LWR CI DSNT S-WSW WND 24V30/ 8/005 58013 10041 20025 WEATHER SUMMARY FOR WEDNESDAY MARCH 16: TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....43 NORMAL.....45 MIN.....26 NORMAL.....28 MEAN....34 NORMAL.....36 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL......- 1 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH......- 98 (-6.3 DEGREES/DAY) PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M....0.00 DEPARTURE....-0.16 ASOS..............0.00 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH..........3.02 DEPARTURE....+0.59 ASOS..............2.81 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR..........13.36 DEPARTURE....+2.09 ASOS.............12.47 [corrected total] SNOWFALL (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M........ 0.0 DEPARTURE.....-0.4 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH.............. 19.6 DEPARTURE....+12.6 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON.............113.8 DEPARTURE....+61.4 TOTAL SNOW ON THE GROUND.................... 11 YESTERDAY'S PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY........29 W AT 4:06 A.M. AEROVANE.........31 WNW AT 10:02 A.M. ASOS.............26 NW AT 10:02 A.M. DAVIS............29 WNW AT 10:26 A.M. FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY......... 22 W 8:52 A.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE.......21 WNW AT 8:53 A.M. MAXIMUM 1-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE......22 WNW AT 8:52 A.M. YESTERDAY'S AVERAGE WIND SPEEDS... OUR AVERAGE SPEED AND DIRECTION.....13.8 W ASOS AVERAGE AND DIRECTION..........14.0 W [280 deg. ] DAVIS AVERAGE AND DIRECTION.........14.6 WNW [290 deg. ] THE PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR MARCH 2005...... CALENDAR DAY DATA DATA REPORTED HERE ENDING MIDNIGHT: 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 3/1 29/23/26/-6/0.53/3.6/000/00 52 MPH NNE Aero 52 MPH NNE 3/2 33/20/27/-5/T/T/264/39 42 MPH W Aero 45 MPH W 3/3 28/15/22/-10/0/0/640/94 43 MPH W Aero 43 MPH W 3/4 31/12/22/-11/0/0/561/82 40 MPH W Aero 44 MPH W 3/5 39/18/29/-4/0/0/679/99 29 MPH W 3/6 40/24/32/-1/0/0/345/50 42 MPH SSW Aero 44 MPH SSW 3/7 47/33/40/+7/0/0/201/29 45 MPH S Aero 50 MPH SSE 3/8 42/12/27/-7/1.20/5.7/000/00 63 MPH WNW Aero 66 MPH WNW 3/9 21/06/14/-20/0.02/0.3/663/95 54 MPH W Aero 58 MPH W 3/10 29/11/20/-14/0/0/673/96 29 MPH WSW 3/11 32/18/26/-10/0.07/1.0/134/19 29 MPH E 3/12 34/28/31/-4/1.19/8.9/000/00 27 MPH NE 3/13 37/25/31/-4/0.01/0.1/291/41 25 MPH W 3/14 39/21/30/-6/0/0/669/94 31 MPH WNW 3/15 44/24/34/-2/0/0/512/72 30 MPH WNW 3/16 43/26/35/-1/0/0/675/94 29 MPH W 3/17 morning low temp. 23 deg; normal now 28 deg. There are no new daily records set for March to date.... DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): RECORDS FOR MARCH 17 HIGH 69 IN 2003 LOW 06 IN 1885 PRECIP 1.97 INCHES IN 1968 SNOWFALL 6.5 INCHES IN 1956 PEAK GUST 70 MPH SSW IN 1973 RECORDS FOR MARCH 18 HIGH 68 IN 1999 LOW 00 IN 1885 PRECIP 5.61 INCHES IN 1968 [RECORD FOR MONTH] SNOWFALL 9.3 INCHES IN 1985 PEAK GUST 71e MPH WNW IN 1941 RECORDS FOR MARCH 19 HIGH 69 IN 1903 LOW -02 IN 1967 PRECIP 1.69 INCHES IN 1956 SNOWFALL 17.6 INCHES IN 1956 PEAK GUST 75e MPH WNW IN 1941 RECORDS FOR MARCH 20 HIGH 79 IN 1945 LOW 4 IN 1885 PRECIP 1.39 INCHES IN 1957 SNOWFALL 11.4 INCHES IN 1957 PEAK GUST 63 MPH SE IN 1975 RECORDS FOR MARCH 21 HIGH 81 IN 1921 LOW 2 IN 1885 PRECIP 2.67 INCHES IN 1974 SNOWFALL 10.6 INCHES IN 1958 PEAK GUST 72 MPH NE IN 1958 RECORDS FOR MARCH 22 HIGH 71 IN 1948 LOW 3 IN 1885 PRE 3.48 INS IN 2001 SNOW 8.7 INS 1967 WIND 84e MPH E IN 1977 TODAY'S REPORT BY: Robert Skilling