From: Robert Skilling To: Subject: BLUE HILL MA 261300 OVC 40 35/14/E05/2998F/HI 37/LO 26 Date: Monday, March 26, 2001 2:15 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA MONDAY MARCH 26 2001 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.bluehill.org/ LOCATION OF MEETING IS BEING CHANGED.... PLEASE AWAIT A LATER UPDATE ON THIS.... 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. Meeting like to take place at Trailside Museum... A MAJOR CUTTING OF TREES AT THE SUMMIT.... Volunteers are needed this coming Saturday, March 31, all day here at the summit. The MDC will do the cutting and chipping of the trees to improve the view from the summit and help the exposure of the instruments. Please come and help us with this long overdue project..this coming Saturday between 8 A.M. and 4 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.... DAILY DISCUSSION....1 P.M. 3/26/2001 PONKAPOAG POND HAS NOW THAWED....3/24/2001 LATEST THAW SINCE 1987 WHEN IT THAWED 3/30/1987... HOUGHTONS POND STILL 90% ICE COVERED.... The official date for the thawing of Ponkapoag Pond, 1.5 miles to our SE, will be March 24 this year. The average date is March 11. Last year it thawed on March 3 and it's the latest thaw since 1987. TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS AT BLUE HILL... 3/26/2001 MON 7 a.m. high overcast with 60 miles visibility.... temp. 27 wnd n at 05 mph... BHO SA 1155 180 SCT E200 OVC 60 165/27/14/0104/002/ FEW SC OFFSHR DSNT NE AND ESE DENSE CI OVHD OVC PTLY THN OVHD BINOVC/CLR SKY BND XTDNG W-N SUN DMLY VSB THN K OVR CTY N VSBY N 40 NW 80/ 8/518/ 53003 10027 20026 10 a.m. sunny and 60 miles visibility with 35 degrees.... wnd ene at 05 mph... BHO SA 1455 CLR 60 164/35/9/0704/001/ FEW DSNT SC CI E-SE VSBY NW 70 WND L/V/ 8/508/ 56001 1 p.m. cloudy with heavy virga and snow showers in the vicinity of the station to the east through south... temp: 35 wind: e at 05 mph.... BHO SA 1755 E50 OVC 35 153/35/14/0904/998/ SNSH VCNTY STN E-S HVY VIRGA ALQDS/ 8/02// 56011 10037 20027 DATA RECORDED FOR SUNDAY MARCH 25..... TEMPERATURES.... MAX 42 MIN 27 // ASOS MAX 42 ASOS MIN 27 NORMAL HIGH AND LOW: 47/30 MEAN 41 [- 4] TOTAL DEP FOR MONTH: - 32 degrees The month of March is averaging 1.5 degrees colder than normal daily... PRECIPITATION....ENDING 7 A.M. 3/26/2001 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M...NONE MONTH: 9.66 [ + 6.09 INS. ] YEAR: 15.49 [ + 3.46] 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: 30 MPH WNW AT 1:49 A.M. PEAK GUST: 30 MPH WNW AT 1:49 A.M. PEAK GUST AERO: 35 MPH WNW AT 1:45 A.M. 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 RECORDS FOR MARCH 27 HIGH 86 IN 1998 LOW 12 IN 1975 PRECIP 1.05 INS 1913 WIND 62 MPH NW IN 1965/ SE IN 1992 ATTN: CONTRACTORS AND SNOWPLOW OPERATORS..... (please see discussion of March 5-7 nor'easter below) The March 9-10 snowfall totaled 8.5 inches here at the summit... 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/+4/0/0/678/93/ 20 SSW 21 45/35/40/+3/0.61/0/059/08/ 40 ENE 22 42/33/38/0 /3.48/T/000/00/ 48 E (Aero 51 E ) 23 39/31/35/-3/0.11/0.5/000/00/ 40 WNW 24 50/32/41/+3/T/0/415/56/ 43 W (Aero 46 W ) 25 42/27/35/-4/0/0/729/98/ 30 WNW (Aero 35 WNW ) 26 am low temp. 26 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