From: Robert Skilling To: Subject: BLUE HILL MA 231300 CORR OVC 70 38/26/WNW25G37/2937R/S:T/R:T Date: Friday, March 23, 2001 3:34 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA FRIDAY MARCH 23 2001 CORRECTED COPY FOR DATE IN SUBJECT LINE.... 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. 3/23/2001 THE BIG NOR'EASTER 3/21-23/2001 The storm ended with light snow early this morning here on the summit with a total of 0.5 inch on the snow boards and just some slush on the road. Our peak wind gust today so far is 45 MPH WNW at 10:21 A.M. OUR FINAL RAINFALL TOTAL WAS 4.20 INS. (ASOS total 3.94 ins.) MONTHLY TOTAL NOW 9.66 INS. (STD. GAGE) THIRD WETTEST MARCH ON RECORD....(1968 had 10.96 & 1983 had 10.02 ) PEAK WIND GUST 51 MPH E AT 2:40 A.M. 3/22. Flooding worst since October 1996 anyway in local area and the only good comparison for March is March 1968. At this time of year, frost in the ground and no growing season in progress plus snowmelt made this flooding among the top maybe three worst since the hurricane flooding of the 1950's. TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS AT BLUE HILL... 3/23/2001 FRI 7 a.m. cloudy and 35 miles visibility TEMP: 33 wind: wnw at 17 gusting 29 mph.. rainfall past 24 hours 1.62 ins. storm total 4.20 ins. BHO SA 1155 15 SCT E20 BKN 25 OVC 35 933/33/32/2915G25/933/ CIG RGD FEW THN SPTS IOVC VCNTY STN WNW VIRGA NW-E-SE TOTAL NEW SNW PST 24 HRS 0.5 IN/ 8/7/// 4/001 5 6007/ 70162 10033 20031 10 a.m. cloudy with 60 miles visibility.... temp: 37 wind: wnw 25 gusting 40 mph... a trace of snow past 3 hours... BHO SA 1455 E25 OVC 60 940/37/28/3022G35/935/ BRGHT SPTS IOVC PK WND 3035/52/ VIRGA DSNT NE-SE VSBY NW 70 MTN INCLD 70 NW/ 8/5/// 51007 6000/ 1 p.m. cloudy with 70 miles visibility... temp. 38 wind: wnw 25 gusting 37 mph... a trace of snow past 6 hours... BHO SA 1755 E36 OVC 70 947/38/26/3022G32/937/ DSNT VIRGA ALQDS MTN INCLD 70 NW PK WND 3037/1658/ 8/5/// 53007 6000/ 10039 20033 DATA RECORDED FOR THURSDAY MARCH 22... TEMPERATURES.... MAX 42 MIN 33// ASOS MAX 42 ASOS MIN 33 NORMAL HIGH AND LOW: 46/29 MEAN 38 [+ 0] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH: - 28 degrees The month of March is averaging 1.5 degrees colder than normal daily... PRECIPITATION....ENDING 7 A.M. 3/23/2001 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...1.62 INS. MONTH: 9.66 [ + 6.51 INS. ] YEAR: 15.49 [ + 3.88] SNOWFALL... 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...0.5 IN. MONTH: 34.9 INS. SEASON: 83.9 INS. SNOW ON GRND 7 A.M....1 INCH WIND DATA.... PEAK GUST ASOS: 46 MPH ENE AT 2:02 A.M. PEAK GUST: 48 MPH E AT 2:40 A.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 51 MPH E AT 2:40 A.M. RECORDS FOR MARCH 23 HIGH 78 IN 1938 LOW 03 IN 1934 PRECIP 1.58 INS IN 1903 WIND 78 MPH W IN 1940 RECORDS FOR MARCH 24 HIGH 70 IN 1920 LOW 06 IN 1906 PRECIP 1.51 INS IN 1956 WIND 71 MPH W IN 1968 RECORDS FOR MARCH 25 HIGH 76 IN 1910 LOW 08 IN 1888, 1956 PRECIP 1.84 INS 1909 WIND 69 MPH SE IN 1969 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 50/32/41/+4/0/0/.../../ 20 SSW 21 45/35/40/+3/.../0/.../../ 40 ENE 22 42/33/38/0 /.../T/000/00/ 48 E 23 morning lo temp. 31 and 0.5 snowfall 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