From: Robert Skilling To: Subject: BLUE HILL MA 251000 CLR 80 36/18/WNW13G20/2992R/LO 27 Date: Sunday, March 25, 2001 12:18 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA SUNDAY MARCH 25 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. Try to carpool from the Trailside Museum parking lot to avoid congestion at the summit of the hill. Thank you. 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...some daily precipitation and daily sunshine not yet updated.... DAILY DISCUSSION....10 A.M. 3/25/2001 THE MARCH WINDS AGAIN.... PONKAPOAG POND HAS NOW THAWED.... On Saturday we recorded at peak gust of 46 MPH W on Aerovane just after noon time and ASOS had 43 MPH W at 12:16 P.M. There was a 2-minute sustained wind of 35 MPH WSW at 12:14 P.M. It appears that the official date for the thawing of Ponkapoag Pond, 1.5 miles to our SE, will be March 24 this year. We're still awaiting more information on Saturday about the ice cover but on Friday the pond was completely covered but this morning there's just a little ice around the edges. Houghtons Pond is still more than 3/4 frozen. Three hours during the afternoon had a trace of rain yesterday in light rain showers between 3 and 6 p.m. Although there's still quite a lot of snow in the woods and plenty of skiing at the Blue Hills Ski Area, the official snowcover has been reduced to just a trace at the summit this morning TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS AT BLUE HILL... 3/25/2001 SUN 7 a.m. clear with 60 miles visibility and 29 degrees.... wind: w at 14 gusting 23 mph... BHO SA 1155 CLR 60 119/29/15/2812G20/988/ VSBY NW 70 WND 25V31/ 52017 10032 20027 10 a.m. clear with some cumulus forming and visibility of 80 miles... temp: 36 wind: w 13 gusting 20 mph.... BHO SA 1455 CLR 80 132/36/18/2911G17/992/ CU FRMG WND 25V33/ 8/100/ 53013 DATA RECORDED FOR SATURDAY MARCH 24..... TEMPERATURES.... MAX 50 MIN 32 // ASOS MAX 50 ASOS MIN 32 NORMAL HIGH AND LOW: 47/30 MEAN 41 [+ 3] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH: - 28 degrees The month of March is averaging 1.4 degrees colder than normal daily... PRECIPITATION....ENDING 7 A.M. 3/25/2001 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...TRACE MONTH: 9.66 [ + 6.23 INS. ] YEAR: 15.49 [ + 3.60] SNOWFALL... 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...none MONTH: 34.9 INS. SEASON: 83.9 INS. SNOW ON GRND 7 A.M....trace WIND DATA.... PEAK GUST ASOS: 43 MPH W AT 12:16 P.M. PEAK GUST: 43 MPH W AT 12:16 P M. PEAK GUST AERO: 46 MPH W AT 12:16 P.M. RECORDS FOR MARCH 25 HIGH 76 IN 1910 LOW 08 IN 1888, 1956 PRECIP 1.84 INS 1909 WIND 69 MPH SE IN 1969 RECORDS FOR MARCH 26 HIGH 76 IN 1922,1949 LOW 06 IN 1960 PRECIP 1.99 INS IN 1988 WIND 63 MPH S IN 1970 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 (Aero 51 E ) 23 39/31/35/-3/.../0.5/.../../ 40 WNW 24 50/32/41/+3/T/0/.../../ 43 W (Aero 46 W ) 25 am low temp. 27 degrees..normal low is 30 degrees... 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