From: Robert Skilling To: Subject: BLUE HILL MA 201300 HI THN OVC 60 48/23/NE06/3049F/LO 32/HI 49 Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 2:19 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA TUESDAY MARCH 20 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...... DAILY DISCUSSION....1 P.M. 3/20/2001 MILDER THAN NORMAL FOR PAST SIX DAYS... AND TODAY IS DAY SEVEN MILDER THAN NORMAL... Even with a light northeast wind the strong March sunshine has boosted the temperature to near 50 degrees early this afternoon. The slightly milder than normal weather continues since mid-March. Spring began (Vernal Equinox) occurred at 8:31 A.M. this morning. Almost identical low temps. for the past seven mornings are as follows: 32,32,33,32,31,31,32. The last six 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 which was exactly normal. However, the month is still averaging about 2 degrees colder than normal. SUNSHINE WELL BELOW NORMAL THIS MONTH... Through the first half of March only about 22% of the sunshine was recorded but through the 19th that percentage has increased to 34% due to several sunny days.... TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS AT BLUE HILL... 3/20/2001 TUESDAY 7 a.m. clear with 60 miles visibility temp. 34 wind: nnw at 10 mph... BHO SA 1155 CLR 60 334/34/20/3409/052/ FEW CI S-W AND DSNT N THN K LYR ALF NW-N AND THN K LYR ALG HRZN W-NE/ 8/001/ 4/007 53020 10036 20032 10 a.m. high thin overcast with 60 miles visibility... temp. 45 wind: ne at 05 mph.. BHO SA 1455 300 -OVC 60 335/45/26/0404/052/ BINOVC/CLR SKY N-E VSBY NW 70/ 8/007/ 53001 1 p.m. high thin overcast with 60 miles visibility and the view is 70 miles to the northwest... temp. 48 (high 49) wind: ne 06 mph...and light variable past hour... BHO SA 1755 300 -OVC 60 325/48/23/0505/049/ FEW SML CU SE-SSW FEW LWR CI VSBY NW 70 WND LGT/ 8/107/ 56010 10049 20034 DATA RECORDED FOR MONDAY MARCH 19... TEMPERATURES.... MAX 47 MIN 31// ASOS MAX 46 ASOS MIN 31 NORMAL HIGH AND LOW: 45/28 MEAN 39 [+ 2] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH: - 35 degrees The month of March is averaging 2 degrees colder than normal daily... PRECIPITATION....ENDING 7 A.M. 3/20/2001 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...NONE MONTH: 5.46 [ + 2.73] YEAR: 11.29 [ + 0.10] Our ASOS total for March to date: 4.72 inches And, our ASOS total for 2001 to date: 9.26 inches ** ** this is 82% of the actual total SNOWFALL... 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...NONE MONTH: 34.4 INS. SEASON: 83.4 INS. SNOW ON GRND 7 A.M....7 INCHES WIND DATA.... PEAK GUST ASOS: 26 MPH NW AT 11:56 P.M. (18TH) PEAK GUST: 28 MPH NW AT 1:06 A.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 30 MPH NW AT 1:06 A.M. RECORDS FOR MARCH 20 HIGH 79 IN 1945 LOW 04 IN 1885 PRECIP 1.39 INS IN 1957 WIND 63 MPH SE IN 1975 RECORDS FOR MARCH 21 HIGH 81 IN 1921 LOW 02 IN 1885 PRECIP 2.67 INS IN 1974 WIND 72 MPH NE IN 1958 RECORDS FOR MARCH 22 HIGH 71 IN 1948 LOW -03 IN 1885 PRECIP 1.30 INS IN 1977 WIND 84 MPH E IN 1977 ATTN: CONTRACTORS AND SNOWPLOW OPERATORS..... (please see discussion of March 5-7 nor'easter below) 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/+5/0/0/436/61/ 38 W (Aero 43 W ) 16 49/33/41/+5/0/0/589/82/ 23 NW 17 46/32/39/+3/0.03/T/634/88/ 20 SE 18 44/31/38/+2/0.10/0.9/159/22/ 39 NW (Aero 44 NW ) 19 47/31/39/+2/0/0/617/85/28 NW 20 am low temp. 32 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