BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2005 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME Today's discussion.... A few very light snow flurries were observed around noon today. Cloudy skies today and continued colder than normal temperatures. Although the morning low was close to normal at 22 degrees the normal high temperature is now 38 degrees and we'll never come close to that today. In fact, only 3 days this month have had daily maximum temperature that were normal or above normal. December continues to be a moderately cold month as Decembers go with an average temperature of 27.4 degrees running 5.6 degrees below normal. Today's observations: 7 A.M. overcast of middle and high clouds and the overcast is partly thin; visibility 15 miles and with thin fog especially below an inversion; frost reported; temp. 23; dewpoint 17; wind SW 09 MPH; six hourly min. temp. 22; snow depth 1 inch... BHO SA 1155 E100 BKN 250 OVC 15 206/23/17/2208/014/ OVC PTLY THN THN F BLO INVSN VSBY WNW 20 FROST/ 8/037 4/001 58011 10024 20022 10 A.M. overcast with few thin spots and small break in overcast; visibility 15 miles and hazy; temp. 27; dewpoint 20; wind SW 10 MPH BHO SA 1455 E80 OVC 15 205/27/20/2309/014/ FEW THN SPTS IOVC BINOVC/HIER CLD VSB W-N SUN OCNL DMLY VSB HAZY/ 8/071 58001 1 P.M. scattered clouds with 35 miles visibility and 20 miles east thru south but 45 miles to the west-northwest; temp. 30; dewpoint 17; wind W 12 gusting to 22 MPH; snow flurry ended 5 past the hour; 6-hourly max. temp. 31 deg; 6 hourly precip and snowfall: trace BHO SA 1755 30 SCT 65 SCT 35 169/30/17/2710G19/003/ FEW MDT CU HAZY VSBY E-S 20 WNW 45 SE05/ 8/230 56036 MANUAL 6000/ 10031 20023 WEATHER SUMMARY FOR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18: TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....33 NORMAL.....38 HAZEN....33.0 @ 1:34 p.m. MIN.....23 NORMAL.....23 HAZEN....23.4 @ 5:40 a.m. MEAN....28 NORMAL.....30 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL......- 2 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH......-98 [- 5.6 deg per day] HEATING DEGREE DAYS TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY..........37 DEPARTURE....+ 2 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH.........674 DEPARTURE....+98 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON.......1739 DEPARTURE...-121 TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE..1860 DIFFERENCE...-10 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY.........21 W AT 1:02 A.M. AEROVANE..........23 W AT 1:02 A.M. ASOS..............20 W AT 1:02 A.M. DAVIS.............21 W AT 12:34 A.M. FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY...........15 W AT 5:51 A.M. ** MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE........16 W AT 12:57 A.M. MAXIMUM 1-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE.......17 W AT 12:57 A.M. AVERAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION...10.0 W ASOS............10.2 WSW [250 deg] DAVIS........... 9.9 W [260 deg] ** LAST OF SEVERAL OCCURRENCES... PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M....0.00 DEPARTURE....-0.14 ASOS..............0.00 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH..........2.35 DEPARTURE....-0.28 ASOS..............2.27 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR..........64.62 DEPARTURE...+15.48 ASOS.............62.70* *EXCLUDES 3.19 INCHES OF ERRONEOUS PRECIPITATION RECORDED FROM 1/23-1/28. SNOWFALL (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M........ 0.0 DEPARTURE....- 0.4 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH...............13.1 DEPARTURE....+ 7.6 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON..............15.2 DEPARTURE....+ 6.8 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 2005......CALENDAR DAY DATA DATA REPORTED IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER: DATE MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOW/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/ PEAK GUST/AERO GUST AERO: Aerovane recording wind system when significant TSTM: Thunderstorm day ....: Data not yet available 12/1 43/35/39/+3/0/0/212/38 29 MPH N 12/2 41/31/36/0/0/0/217/39 46 MPH WSW Aero 51 MPH WSW 12/3 33/26/30/-5/0/0/534/96 46 MPH W Aero 50 MPH W 12/4 28/22/25/-10/0.24/2.2/000/00 22 MPH W 12/5 32/21/27/-8/0/0/061/11 23 MPH WSW 12/6 33/23/28/-6/T/0.1/160/29 31 MPH W Aero 36 MPH W 12/7 28/16/22/-12/T/T/479/87 44 MPH WNW Aero 50 MPH WNW 12/8 31/14/23/-10/0/0/545/99 25 MPH NW 12/9 32/22/27/-6/1.23/10.8/000/00 53 MPH NW Aero 63 MPH NW TSTM/SLEET/GLAZE 12/10 34/21/28/-5/0/0/367/67 30 MPH S 12/11 40/27/34/+2/0/0/493/90 27 MPH SSW 12/12 38/21/30/-2/0/0/241/44 25 MPH W 12/13 21/09/15/-17/T/T/361/66 32 MPH WNW Aero 35 MPH WNW 12/14 23/04/14/-17/0/0/513/94 24 MPH NW 12/15 32/07/20/-11/0/0/.../.. 21 MPH E 12/16 48/27/38/+7/0.88/T/000/00 55 MPH ESE Aero 61 MPH ESE/SLEET/GLAZE 12/17 37/26/32/+1/0/0/.../.. 25 MPH W 12/18 33/23/28/-2/0/0/.../.. 21 MPH W 12/19 morning low temp. 22 deg; normal now 23 deg. DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): A NEW DAILY EXTREME HAS BEEN SET FOR DECEMBER 2005 12/9 - A NEW MAXIMUM DAILY SNOWFALL OF 10.8 INCHES; the previous record was 6.0 inches in 2001 RECORDS FOR DECEMBER 19 HIGH 59 IN 1899 LOW -01 IN 1919 PRECIP 2.06 INS. IN 1986 SNOWFALL 14.1 INS. IN 1945 PEAK GUST 68 NE IN 1986 RECORDS FOR DECEMBER 20 HIGH 61 IN 1957 LOW -16 IN 1942 PRECIP 1.69 INS. IN 1936 SNOWFALL 8.3 INS. IN 1995 PEAK GUST 75 MPH S IN 2002 TODAY'S REPORT BY: Robert Skilling