From: Matthew Douglas To: Subject: BLUEHILL MA 261000 CLR 60 23/5/NW13/3022F/ LO 15 Date: Friday, January 26, 2001 10:10 AM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA FRIDAY JANUARY 26 2001 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.bluehill.org/ DAILY DISCUSSION....10 A.M. 1/26/2001 STEEP TEMPERATURE INVERSION FOR 5TH STRAIGHT MORNING... Again this morning like the past four mornings the low temperatures in the surrounding countryside were much colder than here at the summit. Norwood Airport reported a low of 8 degrees while here we had 15 degrees. LOW WIND SPEEDS THIS MONTH.... The average wind speed for January to date is only around 12 MPH. This is far below the average for the month which is up around 15 to 16 MPH. In addition, the peak gust for the month is below 50 MPH. On our official record, it's 43 MPH NNW on the 10th with 48 MPH on Aerovane. We looked back and could not find a January with such low winds dating back some 20 years. Of course, the month is not over so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. This is similar to November when we reported unusually low winds for the month. A look at the month reveals some interesting stats so far. Our minimum temperature for the month is 9 degrees (not at all cold for January). In fact, the highest January minimum in the past 30 years is 12 degrees recorded in 1990. If it does not get colder by month's end then we'll have the seconds highest monthly minimum for January in the past 30 years. On the other hand, our maximum for the month is just 41 degrees. Every year during the decade of the 1990's had January monthly maxima reaching at least 50 degrees! Three years had maximums in the 60's. The lowest January maximum temperature since 1970 is 42 degrees recorded in 1985. The month of January is averaging about 1.6 degrees warmer than normal to date with a total departure of +39 degrees for 25 days. Precipitation totals 2.53 inches and is 0.92 inch below normal. Snowfall for the month has totaled 19.6 inches and is running ahead of the monthly norm. The normal snowfall total for all of January is 15.4 inches. We report 12 inches of total snowcover this morning at the snow stake in the enclosure and this is very representative of snow depth here at the summit of the hill. TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS... 7 A.M. BHO SA 1155 CLR 40 230/15/9/3210/021/ SC OFFSHR DSNT NE-SE THN K LYR ALNG HRZN ALQDS HAZY/ 8/500/ 4/012 50006 10022 20015 10 A.M. BHO SA 1455 CLR 60 233/23/5/3211/022/ FEW SC OFFSHR DSNT NE-SE THN K LYR DSPTG ALNG HRZN ALQDS HAZY/ 8/500/ 50003 DATA RECORDED FOR THURSDAY JANUARY 25.. TEMPERATURES.... MAX 38 MIN 23 // ASOS MAX 37 ASOS MIN 24 MEAN 31 [+ 6 ] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH TO DATE: + 39 degrees January averaging about 1.6 degrees above normal PRECIPITATION.... NONE MONTH: 2.53 [ - 0.92] YEAR: 2.53 [ - 0.92] SNOWFALL... NONE MONTH: 19.6 INS SEASON: 30.2 INS. PEAK GUST: 23 MPH NNW @ 11:01 P.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 26 MPH NW @ 3:47 P.M. RECORDS FOR JANUARY 26 HIGH 68 IN 1950 LOW -5 IN 1920 PRECIP 1.60 INS IN 1958 WIND 90 MPH SE IN 1978 RECORDS FOR JANUARY 27 HIGH 63 IN 1974 LOW -12 IN 1924 PRECIP 1.59 INS IN 1996 WIND 91 MPH SSE IN 1996 Matt Douglas