BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2011 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME EARLY SUNSHINE REPLACED BY CLOUDS THIS AFTERNOON... SNOW DEPTH CONTINUES ABOVE 20 INCHES The low temperature this morning was the warmest in several days at 21 deg F. The low at nearby Norwood airport this morning was 1 deg F at that much lower elevation, and a strong inversion was in place early today. A little sunshine early this morning has been replaced with a middle level deck of altocumulus and altostratus clouds. On an increasing breeze that is veering from south to west-southwest, the temperature has warmed to the middle 30s as of early afternoon and the dew point has dropped back into the middle teens. The snow depth remains at 23 inches this morning with a very dense snow pack on the ground that has a very high water content over seven inches. BHO Longest Periods with 20"+ Snow Depth (1895-2011): 1) 53 days, 27 Dec 1947 - 17 Feb 1948 2) 34 days, 5 Feb - 9 Mar 1920 34 days, 7 Feb - 12 Mar 1978 4) 23 days, 25 Feb - 19 Mar 1969 5) 17 days, 27 Jan - 12 Feb, 2011 (through Feb 12th) 6) 11 days, 15 - 25 Mar 1916 11 days, 5 - 15 Jan 1961 Today's observations: 7 A.M. Weather: Scattered altocumulus, few stratocumulus offshore distant ENE-SE with a few cumuliform tops ESE, hazy Temperature: 24F, Dew point: 21F; Wind: S at 16 kts Sea-level pressure: 29.90 inches Hg, falling Visibility: 20 miles 6-hour min. temp: 21F Total snow depth on ground: 23 inches BHO SA 1155 120 SCT 180 SCT 20 125/24/21/1816/990/ FEW SC OFFSHR DSNT ENE-SE FEW CU TOPS ESE HAZY/ 8/570 4/023 56024 10024 20021 10 A.M. Weather: Overcast altocumulus, few breaks in overcast all quadrants, few higher clouds visible, few lower altocumulus all quadrants, hazy Temperature: 30F; Dew point 24F; Wind: S at 15 kts Sea-level pressure: 29.82 inches Hg, falling Visibility: 25 miles, hazy, visibility SE 35 BHO SA 1455 E110 OVC 25 098/30/24/1815/982/ FEW BINOVC ALQDS FEW HIR CLDS VSBL FEW LWR AC ALQDS VSBY SE 35 HAZY/ 8/07/ 58027 1 P.M. Weather: Broken altocumulus, overcast altostratus, few breaks in overcast distant SE, few cumulus distant ESE-SSE Temperature: 35F, Dew point: 17F; Wind: SW at 17G27 kts, Wind: Peak gust 29 kts SW at 12:37 P.M. Wind: Direction variable S-WSW Sea-level pressure: 29.71 inches Hg, falling Visibility: 40 miles, visibility ESE-S 50, light haze SW-E 6-hour max. temp: 38F BHO SA 1755 E60 BKN 75 OVC 40 060/35/17/2217G27/971/ FEW BINOVC DSNT SE FEW CU DSNT ESE-SSE VSBY ESE-S 50 LGT HZ SW-E PK WND 2229/37 WND 19V25/ 8/17/ 58038 10038 20024 WEATHER SUMMARY FOR FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....28 NORMAL.....35 MIN.....11 NORMAL.....20 MEAN....20 NORMAL.....27 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL..................-7 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH.................-16 [-1.7 DEGREES/DAY] HEATING DEGREE DAYS TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY............45 DEPARTURE........+7 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH...........438 DEPARTURE.......+14 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON.........3939 DEPARTURE.......-21 TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE....3860 DIFFERENCE......+79 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY..............23 SW AT 1:22 P.M. * AEROVANE............. .25 SW AT 1:22 P.M. * ASOS...................23 SW AT 1:22 P.M. DAVIS..................24 SW AT 12:04 P.M. THE FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY............16 SSE AT 11:36 P.M. * MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE.............16 S AT 11:45 P.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE............17 SW AT 12:05 P.M. AVERRAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION.......12.2 SW ASOS.................11.0 DAVIS................10.6 SSW [213 DEG] * Last of several occurrences PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M....0.00 DEPARTURE.......-0.14 ASOS..............0.00 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH..........2.49 DEPARTURE.......+0.88 ASOS..............2.41 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR...........8.50 DEPARTURE.......+2.11 ASOS...............9.13** ** ASOS data is in error due to system failure on 1/12-13 SNOWFALL (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M..........0.0 DEPARTURE........-0.6 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH...............12.6 DEPARTURE........+5.5 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON..............83.8 DEPARTURE.......+47.3 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 2011 CALENDAR DAY DATA DATA REPORTED: DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOW/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/ PEAK GUST/AERO GUST AERO: Aerovane wind recording system gust when significant TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day) ....: Data not yet available, records not finalized 2/1 20/15/18/-8/.../../000/00 27 N 2/2 34/18/26/0/.../../000/00 35 NNE AERO 37 MPH NNE 2/3 25/15/20/-6/.../../.../.. 21 WNW 2/4 32/13/23/-3/0.00/0.0/.../.. 28 SW 2/5 45/22/34/+7/0.24/0.0/.../.. 36 SW AERO 42 MPH SW TSTM 2/6 41/30/36/+9/0.00/0.0/.../.. 53 W AERO 58 MPH W 2/7 43/28/36/+9/.../../.../.. 20 SSE 2/8 36/13/25/-2/.../../.../.. 53 W AERO 62 MPH W 2/9 28/9/19/-8/0.00/0.0/.../.. 42 WNW AERO 45 MPH WNW 2/10 26/13/20/-7/0.00/0.0/.../.. 25 W 2/11 28/11/20/-7/0.00/0.0/.../.. 23 SW 2/12 morning low temp. 21F; the normal low is 20F DAILY RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 2011 None so far. DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 12 HIGH 56F IN 1999 LOW -14F IN 1914 PRECIP 4.85 INCHES IN 1886 [RECORD FOR MONTH] SNOWFALL 15.0 INCHES IN 2006 PEAK GUST 70 MPH E IN 1985 RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 13 HIGH 64F IN 1951 LOW -10F IN 1967 PRECIP 2.80 INCHES IN 2008 SNOWFALL 13.5 INCHES IN 1894 PEAK GUST 60 MPH SE IN 1972 TODAY'S REPORT PREPARED BY: Mike Iacono