BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2009 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME STRONG COLD FRONT CROSSES THE REGION TODAY SETTING THE STAGE FOR A RETURN TO WINTRY WEATHER THE NEXT FEW DAYS... NEAR RECORD WARMTH ON FRIDAY...FEBRUARY WILL FINISH WARMER, DRIER AND SUNNIER THAN AVERAGE... The high temperature on Friday of 58 degrees was three degrees short of the record for the date, and it was one degree below the high for the month of 59 set back on the 11th. The high for today was 49 back at 2 A.M. ahead of the cold front, which passed through about 4 A.M. with a wind shift from south to west. The temperature dropped to 33 by mid-morning, but it has recovered slightly to the upper 30s by mid-afternoon. Strong southerly winds on Friday kept the day very warm, and the average wind speed for the 27th of 25.8 mph made it the windiest day since Dec 15th, 2008. The peak gust on Friday was 58 mph S at 1:11 P.M, which was the highest gust of the month. The dew point has dropped from the upper 40s just after midnight to the middle teens by early afternoon as drier air moves in behind the cold front. The month of February was generally warm, dry and very sunny, though wintry weather will return over the next few days. Today's observations: 7 A.M. Weather: Overcast stratocumulus, few breaks in overcast Temperature: 38F, Dew point: 34F, Wind: WNW at 16G23 kts Wind: Direction variable W-NW Sea-level pressure: 30.01 inches Hg, rising Visibility: 50 miles 6-hour minimum temperature: 38F Snow depth on ground: zero BHO SA 1155 E20 OVC 50 164/38/34/2916G23/001/ BINOVC SW-N WND 26V32/ 8/5// 51041 60/// 70020 10049 20038 10 A.M. Weather: Clear, few cirrus ESE-SSW, few stratocumulus distant NW-SW, few cumulus fractus Temperature: 34F, Dew point: 25F, Wind: WNW at 14 kts Wind: Direction variable W-NW Sea-level pressure: 30.11 inches Hg, rising Visibility: 50 miles BHO SA 1455 CLR 50 196/34/25/2914/011/ FEW CUFRA FEW SC DSNT NW-SW FEW CI ESE-SSW PK WND 3029/02 WND 26V32/ 8/501 51032 1 P.M. Weather: Thin scattered cirrus, few stratocumulus distant NE-ESE Temperature: 38F, Dew point: 17F, Wind: NW at 14 kts Wind: Direction variable WNW-NNW Sea-level pressure: 30.15 inches Hg, rising Visibility: 70 miles 6-hour maximum temperature: 38F 6-hour minimum temperature: 33F BHO SA 1755 250 –SCT 70 209/38/17/3114/015/ FEW SC DSNT NE-ESE WND 28V34/ 8/501 50013 10038 20033 WEATHER SUMMARY FOR FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....58 NORMAL.....39 MIN.....34 NORMAL.....23 MEAN....46 NORMAL.....31 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL................+15 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH................+61 [+2.1 DEGREES/DAY] HEATING DEGREE DAYS TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY.............19 DEPARTURE........-15 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH............933 DEPARTURE........-67 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON..........4501 DEPARTURE........-35 TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE.....4135 DIFFERENCE......+348 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY............58 S AT 1:11 P.M. AEROVANE.............59 S AT 1:11 P.M. ASOS.................59 S AT 1:11 P.M. DAVIS................55 S AT 1:30 P.M. FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY..............45 S AT 1:11 P.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE...........43 SSW AT 1:32 P.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE..........41 S AT 1:32 P.M. AVERAGE............25.8 S ASOS...............24.6 DAVIS..............23.5 SSE [167 DEGREES] * Last of several occurrences.... PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M.....0.20 DEPARTURE.........+0.05 ASOS...............0.28 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH...........2.37 DEPARTURE.........-1.54 ASOS...............2.42 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR............6.53 DEPARTURE.........-2.16 ASOS...............7.62 # # Includes erroneous ASOS precipitation data on 1/1/09, 1/2/09 and 2/27/09. SNOWFALL (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M..........0.0 DEPARTURE.........-0.5 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH...............10.2 DEPARTURE.........-5.3 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON..............65.3 DEPARTURE........+20.4 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 2009 CALENDAR DAY DATA DATA REPORTED: DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SNOW/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/ PEAK GUST/AERO GUST AERO: Aerovane recording wind system gust when significant TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day) ....: Data not yet available, records not finalized 2/1 45/15/30/+4/0/0/402/67 35 SW 2/2 50/32/41/+15/0/0/568/94 29 NNW 2/3 33/22/28/+2/0.44/5.6/000/00 39 N AERO 38 MPH N 2/4 24/10/17/-9/0.05/0.9/572/94 37 WNW 2/5 17/3/10/-17/0/0/538/88 33 W 2/6 26/4/15/-12/0/0/509/83 26 W 2/7 42/16/29/+2/0/0/314/51 45 S AERO 44 MPH S 2/8 49/30/40/+13/0/0/433/70 54 W AERO 54 MPH W 2/9 37/21/29/+2/0/0/621/100 38 WNW AERO 38 MPH WNW 2/10 36/22/29/+2/0/0/006/01 21 SSE 2/11 59/34/47/+20/0/0/482/77 29 SSE 2/12 51/37/44/+16/0.13/0/063/10 54 WSW AERO 54 MPH WSW 2/13 38/24/31/+3/0/429/68 47 W AERO 47 MPH W 2/14 39/20/30/+2/0/0/595/94 42 W AERO 40 MPH W 2/15 39/23/31/+3/0/0/637/100 30 NW AERO 28 MPH NW 2/16 35/21/28/0/0/0/633/99 23 NW 2/17 35/19/27/-2/0/0/641/100 21 NW 2/18 41/24/33/+4/0.25/1.6/361/56 33 E 2/19 46/24/35/+6/0.34/0.4/155/24 43 W AERO 44 MPH W 2/20 27/18/23/-6/T/T/364/56 50 W AERO 48 MPH W 2/21 37/23/30/+1/0/0/626/96 42 W AERO 37 MPH W 2/22 41/28/35/+5/0.83/1.7/000/00 46 W AERO 48 MPH W 2/23 31/18/25/-5/T/T/507/77 51 W AERO 53 MPH W 2/24 34/15/25/-5/0/0/661/100 35 WNW AERO 28 MPH WNW 2/25 37/17/27/-4/0/0/431/65 22 NW 2/26 47/26/37/+6/0/0/.../.. 31 S 2/27 58/34/46/+15/.../0/.../.. 58 S AERO 59 MPH S 2/28 morning low temp. 33F; normal low is now 23F NEW DAILY RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 2009... None to date DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 28 HIGH 62F IN 1976 LOW -2F IN 1907,1934 PRECIP 1.79 INCHES IN 1958 SNOWFALL 8.5 INCHES IN 2005 PEAK GUST 88e MPH SSW IN 1943 RECORDS FOR MARCH 1 HIGH 62 IN 1972 LOW -3 IN 1886 PRECIP 1.65 INS. IN 1900 SNOWFALL 9.4 INS. IN 1949 PEAK GUST 78 WSW IN 1966 TODAY'S REPORT PREPARED By: Mike Iacono