BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2015 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME LIGHT SNOW OVERNIGHT BRINGS 1.1 INCHES OF NEW SNOW THROUGH 7 AM...ANOTHER 0.7 INCHES FALLS THROUGH 1 PM... OBSERVATORY SETS NEW SEASONAL SNOWFALL RECORD WITH 145.8 INCHES THIS SEASON...SURPASSES 144.4 INCHES IN 1995-1996...LIGHT SNOW ENDED AS FLURRIES AT 1:05 PM EST... Light snow began Friday evening, and it snowed for several hours before ending or becoming too light to accumulate around 10 PM EST Friday. Light snow began again around sunrise this morning. The 24-hour snowfall measurement at 7 AM EST was 1.1 inches of new snow. An additional 0.7 inches was measured on the snow boards for the six hours ending at 1 PM EST. This brings the storm total up to 1.8 inches and the seasonal total up to 145.8 inches, which surpasses the previous seasonal record of 144.4 inches in the very snowy winter of 1995-1996. The liquid equivalent precipitation was 0.08 inches through 7 AM EST, with another 0.09 inches in the six hours ending at 1 PM EST for a storm total of 0.17 inches. A survey of the snow depth on the summit was taken this morning. The average snow depth on the ground was 17 inches, though the depth varies from a low of 12 inches to a high of 22 inches in various places around the summit. For more information about this historic winter, visit our web site at bluehill.org. BHO Greatest Seasonal Snowfall, inches (1885-2015): 1) 145.8 in 2014-2015 (through 1 PM March 21st) 2) 144.4 in 1995-1996 3) 136.0 in 1947-1948 4) 119.4 in 2004-2005 5) 113.1 in 2002-2003 6) 111.5 in 1915-1916 7) 109.6 in 1966-1967 8) 106.8 in 1955-1956 9) 103.4 in 1903-1904 10) 102.5 in 1922-1923 Today's Observations: 7 A.M. Weather: Partial obscuration, light snow and fog, overcast nimbostratus Temperature: 27F; Dew Point: 26F; Wind: NNW at 4 kts, Wind: Light Sea-level pressure: 30.06 ins. Hg, falling then more rapidly Visibility: 1 mile 6-hr Max temp: 27F 6-hr Min temp: 25F 24-hr precip: 0.08 inches 24-hr snowfall: 1.1 inches Snow depth: 17 inches BHO SA 1155 -X E5 OVC 1S-F 179/27/26/3304/006/ SF3 WND LGT TOTAL NEW SNW PST 24 HRS 1.1 INS/ 8/6// 4/017 58008 6001/ 70008 10027 20025 10 A.M. Weather: Partial obscuration, light snow and fog, broken stratus fractus and stratocumulus, overcast nimbostratus, sun occasionally dimly visible Temperature: 30F; Dew Point: 29F; Wind: NW at 4 kts, Wind: Light Sea-level pressure: 30.04 ins. Hg, falling then more rapidly Visibility: 2 miles 3-hr snowfall: 0.6 inches BHO SA 1455 -X E5 BKN 10 OVC 2S-F 173/30/29/3204/004/ SF1 SUN DMLY VSBL WND LGT TOTAL NEW SNW PST 3 HRS 0.6 INS STORM TOTAL 1.7 INS/ 8/72/ 58006 1 P.M. Weather: Very light snow, scattered stratus fractus and nimbostratus, overcast stratocumulus, thin spots in overcast overhead, few higher clouds visible, sun occasionally dimly visible, precipitation very light Temperature: 36F; Dew Point: 33F; Wind: SW at 3 kts, Wind: Light Sea-Level Pressure: 29.93 ins. Hg, falling then more rapidly Visibility: 20 miles, except 30 miles SW-W, 8 miles N-E 6-hr Max temp: 37F 6-hr Min temp: 27F 6-hr precip: 0.09 inches 6-hr snowall: 0.7 inches BHO SA 1755 10 SCT E25 OVC 20S- 136/36/33/2203/993/ THN SPTS IOVC OVHD FEW HIR CLDS VSBL SUN OCNLY DMLY VSBL VSBY N-E 8 SW-W 30 VSBY INCR PCPN VRY LGT WND LGT TOTAL NEW SNW PST 6 HRS 0.7 INS STORM TOTAL 1.8 INS/ 8/6// 58037 6009/ 10037 20027 SUMMARY FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2015 TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....32 NORMAL.....45 MIN.....19 NORMAL.....28 MEAN....26 NORMAL.....37 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL...........................-11 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH...........................-63 [-3.4 DEGREES/DAY] HEATING DEGREE DAYS (SEASON JUL TO JUN) TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY..............39 DEPARTURE..........+11 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH.............689 DEPARTURE..........+63 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON...........5397 DEPARTURE.........+203 TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE......5291 DIFFERENCE........+106 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY..................17 NNW AT 1:23 A.M. ASOS.......................15 N AT 2:26 A.M. DAVIS......................N/A RMY 15 FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY....................11 NNW AT 2:44 A.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE.................12 N AT 2:51 A.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE................N/A AVERAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION..............5.5 NNW ASOS.......................4.8 DAVIS......................4.3 NW [307 degrees] * Last of several occurrences... PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M....0.08 DEPARTURE.....-0.11 ASOS..............0.08 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH..........1.87 DEPARTURE.....-1.48 ASOS..............N/A TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR..........13.21 DEPARTURE.....+1.57 ASOS..............N/A *** *** ASOS monthly and annual totals not available due to erroneous readings SNOWFALL (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M..........1.1 DEPARTURE......+0.7 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH................7.6 DEPARTURE......-1.8 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON.............145.1 DEPARTURE.....+88.7 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR MARCH CALENDAR DAY DATA DATA REPORTED: DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOWFALL/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/ PEAK GUST/RMY GUST RMY: R.M. Young wind gust recording system TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day) ....: Data not yet available, records not finalized 3/1 29/14/22/-9/..../.../000/00 25 SSW RMY 25 3/2 35/22/29/-2/..../.../480/71 44 WNW RMY 48 3/3 32/13/23/-9/..../2.8/340/50 33 S RMY N/A 3/4 41/32/37/+5/..../.../000/00 33 SW RMY 36 3/5 36/16/26/-6/0.02/0.2/000/00 28 NW RMY 29 3/6 26/5/16/-16/0.00/0.0/681/99 28 NW RMY 25 3/7 38/13/26/-7/0.00/0.0/567/82 30 WSW RMY 30 3/8 41/25/33/0/T/T/208/30 38 WNW RMY 41 3/9 45/28/37/+4/0.00/0.0/565/81 40 W RMY 39 3/10 52/32/42/+9/..../0.0/252/36 28 S RMY 27 3/11 55/38/47/+13/..../0.0/604/86 37 WNW RMY N/A 3/12 38/23/31/-3/0.00/0.0/677/96 44 N RMY 48 3/13 40/18/29/-5/0.00/0.0/581/82 23 SSW RMY 26 3/14 41/29/35/0/0.84/0.0/000/00 23 SSW RMY 23 3/15 41/24/33/-2/0.03/0.6/.../.. 39 NW RMY 39 3/16 44/23/34/-1/0.00/0.0/.../.. 28 NW RMY N/A 3/17 48/25/37/+1/0.17/T/..,/.. 53 NW RMY 63 3/18 30/19/25/-11/0.00/0.0/.../.. 51 NW RMY 56 3/19 31/15/23/-13/0.00/0.0/.../.. 37 NW RMY 39 3/20 32/19/26/-11/..../.../000/00 17 NNW RMY 15 3/21 morning low temp: 25F since midnight; normal low is now 28F DAILY RECORDS FOR MARCH 2015 -NONE SO FAR. DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): RECORDS FOR MARCH 21 HIGH 81 IN 1921 LOW 2 IN 1885 PRECIP 2.67 INS. IN 1974 SNOWFALL 10.6 INS. IN 1958 PEAK GUST 72 MPH NE IN 1958 RECORDS FOR MARCH 22 HIGH 81 IN 2012 LOW 3 IN 1885 PRE 3.48 INS. IN 2001 SNOW 8.7 INS. 1967 WIND 84e MPH E IN 1977 TODAY'S REPORT PREPARED BY: Mike Iacono