From: Matthew Douglas To: Subject: BLUE HILL MA 181000 LO OVC 30 33/31/NW10/2994R/S:0.9/R:0.13 Date: Sunday, March 18, 2001 11:54 AM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA SUNDAY MARCH 18 2001 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....10 A.M. 3/18/2001 SNOWFALL OVERNIGHT ADDS ANOTHER INCH TO OUR BIG SEASONAL TOTAL... NOW 83.4 INCHES... TEMPS. ABOVE NORMAL FOR PAST 4 DAYS... Light snow overnight accumulated on the old snow (still measures almost a foot deep on the summit) and on the snow boards and covered the trees here at the summit. There was no accumulation on the road or the rocky surfaces. The measurement was 0.9 inch and melted 0.13 inch. ASOS melted 0.11 inch. The accumulation at the surface below the summit was only a few tenths of an inch. Yesterday's bright sunshine and very light winds allowed the temperature to reach 46 degrees and the low was 32 in the morning. It was much cooler along the coast with maximum of 40 at Boston and 41 degrees at Hull. The mean temperature of 39 degrees was 3 degrees milder than normal. The last four days have all been milder than normal in a March that had all below normal days from the 1st thru the 14th with the exception of 11th--was normal. The month is still averaging about 2.5 degrees colder than normal. TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS AT BLUE HILL... 3/18/2001 SUN 7 A.M. dense fog with very light snow grains... temp. 32....wind: nnw at 07 mph... BHO SA 1155 W2 X 1/16SG-F 130/32/32/3306/991/ PCPN VRY LGT TOTAL NEW SNW PST 24 HRS 0.9 IN/ 8///// 4/011 53010 6008/ 70013/ 10032 20031 10 A.M. low overcast with 30 miles visibility with 50 miles view to the west and northwest but only 20 miles to the southeast. temp: 33: wind nw 10 mph...trace of precip. and snow past 3 hours... BHO SA 1455 E8 BKN 30 OVC 30 139/33/31/3209/994/ BRGHT SPOTS IOVC/ VSBY SE 20 W-NW 50/ 8/5/// 53009 6000/ DATA RECORDED FOR SATURDAY MARCH 17... TEMPERATURES.... MAX 46 MIN 32// ASOS MAX 45 ASOS MIN 32 NORMAL HIGH AND LOW: 44/28 MEAN 39 [+ 3] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH: - 39 degrees The month of March is averaging 2.5 degrees colder than normal daily... PRECIPITATION....ENDING 7 A.M. 3/18/2001 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...0.13 IN. MONTH: 5.46 [ + 3.01] YEAR: 11.39 [ + 0.38] SNOWFALL... 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...0.9 IN. MONTH: 34.4 INS. SEASON: 83.4 INS. WIND DATA.... PEAK GUST ASOS: 17 MPH SSE AT 8:59 P.M. PEAK GUST: 20 MPH SE AT 6:34 P.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 21 MPH SE AT 6:34 P.M. RECORDS FOR MARCH 18 HIGH 68 IN 1999 LOW 00 IN 1885 PRECIP 5.61 INS IN 1968 WIND 71 MPH WNW IN 1941 RECORDS FOR MARCH 19 HIGH 69 IN 1903 LOW -02 IN 1867 PRECIP 1.69 INS IN 1956 WIND 75 MPH WNW IN 1941 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 42/32/37/+2/0/0/142/20/ 53 W (Aero 53 W ) 15 48/32/40/+5/0/0/.../../ 38 W (Aero 43 W ) 16 49/33/41/+5/0/0/.../../ 23 NW 17 46/32/39/+3/0.03/T/.../../ 20 SE 18 morning low temp. 31...snowfall overnight 0.9 inch... 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