From: Robert Skilling To: Cc: ; Subject: BLUE HILL MA 141300 MSTLY CLDY 45 39/26/W18G32/PK GST 39 Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 3:02 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA WEDNESDAY MARCH 14 2001... A meeting of Blue Hill Observatory board of directors will be held today starting at about 6:30 p.m. this evening. This meeting will be held here at the Observatory. PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.bluehill.org/ The next meeting of the Blue Hill Observatory Weather Club is scheduled for April 12, 2001. Our speaker will be Christine Clayburg of Channel 7 in Boston. Location of meeting: AT BLUE HILL OBSERVATORY. Please arrive at the Observatory around 7 p.m. All of our daily March data to date is included on this page below.... this includes all the daily precipitation and snowfall data for the calendar days ending at midnight...sunshine data now up-to-date...... ATTN: CONTRACTORS AND SNOWPLOW OPERATORS..... (please see discussion of March 5-7 nor'easter below) DAILY DISCUSSION....1 P.M. 3/14/2001 THOSE MARCH WINDS ARE BACK... West to west-northwest winds began gusting past 40 mph early this afternoon with a peak gust to 42 MPH W at 1:01 p.m. WHEN WILL THE SUN SHINE AGAIN? After the third sunniest winter (December through February) on our record March has taken us to the opposite extreme--a very cloudy and gloomy month. There have been five days without any sunshine and only one clear day through March 13th. The result is only 22% of the possible sunshine so far for the month. The normal sunshine percent for March is 48% on our 117-year record. Our record least sunny March occurred in 1951 with only 30% of the possible sunshine. More recently, just 35% of the possible sunshine was registered in March 1995. TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS AT BLUE HILL... 7 a.m. obscurement with fog and visibility 1/8 mile in dense fog... temp: 33 and wind: s at 12 mph... 3/14/2001 WED BHO SA 1155 W3 X 1/8F 986/33/33/1810/949/ VSBY NW 1 CLDS AND BINOVC VSBL PST HR FROST ON PVMT/ 8///// 4/014 51023 70033 10034 20032 10 a.m...cloudy with 12 miles visibility and hazy... temp: 37 & wind: wsw at 14 mph.... BHO SA 1455 E38 BKN 50 OVC 12 992/37/34/2512/951/ LWR STRA DSSPTD PST HR HIER CLDS VSBL HAZY WND 22V28/ 8/57// 53006 1 P.M. mostly cloudy and windy....visibility of 45 miles... temp; 39; wnd: w at 18 gusting 32 mph with peak gust to 39 mph during the past hour... BHO SA 1755 E38 OVC 45 996/39/26/2816G28/952/ NMRS BINOVC OVC V BKN PK WND 2934/10/ WND 24V31/ 8/400/ 53004 DATA RECORDED FOR TUESDAY MARCH 13... TEMPERATURES.... MAX 40 MIN 28// ASOS MAX 40 ASOS MIN 28 MEAN 34 [- 1] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH: - 53 degrees The month of March is averaging 4.2 degrees colder than normal daily... PRECIPITATION....ENDING 7 A.M. 3/14/2001 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...0.33 IN. MONTH: 5.33 [ + 3.44] YEAR: 11.16 [ + 0.81] SNOWFALL... 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...ZERO MONTH: 33.5 INS. SEASON: 82.5 INS. WIND DATA.... PEAK GUST ASOS: 28 MPH E AT 5:32 A.M. (direction corr. due to icing) PEAK GUST: 28 MPH E AT 5:32 A.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 33 MPH E AT 5:32 A.M. RECORDS FOR MARCH 14 HIGH 74 IN 1946 LOW 08 IN 1926 PRECIP 1.72 INS IN 1984 WIND 66 MPH WNW IN 1982 RECORDS FOR MARCH 15 HIGH 80 IN 1990 LOW 06 IN 1993 PRECIP 1.33 INS IN 1972 WIND 73 MPH ENE IN 1940 RECORDS FOR MARCH 16 HIGH 73 IN 1990 LOW 08 IN 1932 PRECIP 1.95 INS IN 1900 WIND 79 MPH NE IN 1956 THE MARCH 5-7 SNOWSTORM... Please DO NOT USE our 23 inches for the March 5-7 Nor'easter snowfall recorded here at the summit of Blue Hill for billing your customers! This is a maximum amount and very localized amount because of our elevation of 600 feet above sea level. Please check out the National Weather Service, Boston, homepage and click under "storm totals" for a list of accurate snowfall totals from many towns and cities throughout the area. Please go to: www.nws.noaa.gov/er/box You can probably use 15 to 17 inches for the Milton-Canton-Randolph area. A total of 10 inches fell in Hingham. DAILY MARCH 2001 DATA....AT BLUE HILL... max/min/mean/dep/precip/snow/sun mins/%/pk gust (Aero = the aerovane wind system ) 1 29/15/22/-9/T/T/311/46/ 29 W 2 26/16/21/-10/0.01/0.3/000/00/ 18 N 3 28/21/25/-7/0.05/0.9/054/08/ 21 ENE 4 28/20/24/-8/0.05/0.8/014/02/ 24 ENE 5 32/26/29/-3/1.76/7.0/000/00/ 60 NE (estimated wind) 6 31/27/29/-3/1.85/15.5/000/00/ 55 NNE (estimated wind) 7 29/23/26/-7/0.03/0.5/000/00/ 32 N 8 39/24/32/-1/0/0/306/44/ 23 SSE 9 38/28/33/-1/0.54/6.3/000/00/ 31 ENE 10 38/28/33/-1/0.19/2.2/154/22/ 44 NW (50 NW Aero ) 11 43/25/34/0/0/0/387/55/ 45 WNW (50 WNW Aero ) 12 41/24/33/-2/000/00/678/96/ 32 NW 13 40/28/34/-1/0.85/T/000/00/ 28 E (33 E Aero ) 14 am low temp. 32 deg. Here are total snowfall measurements for 24 hours ending 7 a.m. during the nor-easter and daily melted totals: 3/5....1.0 inch (0.16 in. ) 3/6...12.5 inches ( 2.47 ins.) 3/7... 9.5 inches (1.01 ins. ) Robert Skilling