BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA   DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME   THE STRONG SOUTH WINDS OF TUESDAY GUSTED TO 45 MPH CLOUDS CLEAR AWAY EARLY THIS MORNING TEMPERATURES RISING INTO THE 60'S   The strong south winds which began averaging over 20 MPH around noon yesterday reached hourly speeds of 28 to 29 MPH in the afternoon and evening.  The fastest sustained winds were 33 MPH with gusts to 45 mph. The strong winds diminished quickly in the very early morning hours while veering to W and NW.    Early morning clouds quickly cleared away and left us with complete sunshine and temperatures rising into the 60's with gentle NW-NNW winds. The air continued to dry out after some light showers passed just to the east of Blue Hill early this morning and dew points were dropping into the lower 30's to the upper 20's.  This was producing relative humidities which fell into the 20 per cent range making for quite a dry day.   Spectacular visibility over 80 miles has developed in the increasingly dry air today with dew points down to 26F and relative humidity of 24% at 2 P.M. EDT   Today's observations:   7 A.M. Weather: Scattered altocumulus, lenticularis and few castellanus, layer E-SW receding, few stratocumulus distant W-WNW, light showers of rain moved ESE passing in the vicinity of station to the east and southeast   Temperature: 53F; Dew Point: 38F; Wind: NW at 12 kts, Wind: Direction variable WSW-N Sea-level pressure: 30.16 ins. Hg, rising then rising more rapidly Visibility: 70 miles, light distant haze 6-hour min. temp: 51F BHO SA 1155 100 SCT 70 212/53/38/3212/016/ FEW SC DSNT W-NW AC/FEW LWR AC/ACC/FEW ACSL LYR RCDG E-SW DRK SKY DSNT ESE-S FEW -SHRA VC E-SE PST HR MOVD ESE VSBY ESE-S 30 HAZY LGT DSNT HZ SW-NW-NE WND 24V35/ 8/580 53017 10055 20051   10 A.M.  Weather: Clear, few small cumulus forming WSW, layer of altocumulus and altocumulus lenticularis distant ESE-S along the horizon, cirrus distant E-S-SW  Temperature: 58F; Dew Point: 32F; Wind: NNW at 10 kts, Wind: Direction variable WSW to N Sea-level pressure: 30.19 ins. Hg, rising then more slowly Visibility: 80 miles BHO SA 1455 CLR 80 225/58/32/3310/019/ FEW SML CU FRMG WSW AC/ACSL LYR DSNT ESE-S ALG HRZN CI DSNT E-S-SW WND 25V36/ 8/141 51013    1 P.M. Weather: Clear, few small cumulus dissipated during the observation period, cirrus distant SE-SW Temperature: 64F; Dew Point: 26F; Wind: NW at 7 kts, Wind: Direction variable WSW-N Sea-level pressure: 30.18 ins. Hg, falling slightly Visibility: 85 miles 6-hour max temp: 64F BHO SA 1755 CLR 85 221/64/26/3207/018/ FEW SML CU DSSPTD S CI DSNT SE-SW WND 24V01/ 8/001 58004 10064 20053   WEATHER SUMMARY FOR TUESDAY, APRIL 16   TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....62     NORMAL.....56 MIN.....38     NORMAL.....38                          MEAN....50     NORMAL.....47     DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL....................+3 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH...................+13 [+0.6 DEGREE/DAY]   HEATING DEGREE DAYS  TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY............15   DEPARTURE..........-3 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH...........324   DEPARTURE.........-13 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON.........5344   DEPARTURE........-476 TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE....4543   DIFFERENCE.......+801   PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY...............44 S   AT  2:54 P.M.                    AERO....................40 S   AT  3:31 P.M.                      ASOS....................44 S   AT  3:04 P.M.                    DAVIS...................43 S   AT  3:03 P.M. RMY: 45 THE FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY.............33 S   AT  5:17 P.M. *  MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE..............33 SSW AT  5:24 P.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE.............33 S   AT  2:53 P.M. AVERAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION.........20.4 S                    ASOS..................20.3                    DAVIS.................18.5 S [190 deg] * last of several occurrences...   PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M....0.00  DEPARTURE...........-0.15                          ASOS..............0.00 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH..........1.18  DEPARTURE...........-1.48                          ASOS..............1.13 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR..........15.27  DEPARTURE...........-1.39                          ASOS..............N/A* *ASOS malfunctioned during storm on 2/8-9, leading to erroneous totals                         SNOWFALL (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL SNOWFALL 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M.........0.0   DEPARTURE............-0.1 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH.............Trace   DEPARTURE............-2.3 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON.............99.0   DEPARTURE...........+37.0   PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR APRIL 2013 CALENDAR DAY DATA DATA REPORTED: DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/ PEAK GUST/AERO GUST AERO: Aerovane wind recording system gust RMY:  RMY = R.M. Young wind gust recording system added 8/9/2011 TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day) ....: Data not yet available, records not finalized   4/1  61/31/46/+5/0.34/0.0/458/60     40 W   AERO 44 MPH WNW RMY 46  TSTM 4/2  40/27/34/-7/T/T/460/60          45 W   AERO 42 MPH W   RMY 47 4/3  45/27/36/-6/0.00/0.0/755/98     44 W   AERO 43 MPH W   RMY 47 4/4  55/26/41/-1/0.00/0.0/719/93     30 WSW AERO 27 MPH WSW RMY 31 4/5  59/36/48/+5/0.00/0.0/403/52     33 NNW AERO 28 MPH NNW RMY 38 4/6  47/30/39/-4/0.00/0.0/747/96     38 NW  AERO 35 MPH NW  RMY 40  4/7  52/31/42/-1/0.00/0.0/391/50     51 S   AERO 46 MPH S   RMY 50 4/8  65/43/54/+10/T/0.0/494/63       29 SSW AERO 22 MPH SSW RMY N/A 4/9  72/44/58/+14/T/0.0/456/58       35 WNW AERO 35 MPH WNW RMY 39  TSTM 4/10 64/43/54/+9/0.13/0.0/426/54     23 SE  AERO 20 MPH SE  RMY 25 4/11 52/40/46/+1/0.09/0.0/.../..     18 ENE AERO 14 MPH ENE RMY N/A 4/12 40/34/37/-8/0.58/T/000/00       38 E   AERO 32 MPH E   RMY 41 4/13 52/34/43/-3/0.04/0.0/128/16     31 NNE AERO 27 MPH NNE RMY 21 4/14 52/36/44/-2/0.00/0.0/216/27     31 WNW AERO 27 MPH WNW RMY 32 4/15 55/35/45/-2/0.00/0.0/.../..     21 ESE AERO 15 MPH S   RMY N/A 4/16 62/38/50/+3/0.00/0.0/.../..     44 S   AERO 40 MPH S   RMY 45   4/17 morning low temp: 51F; the normal low is now 38F   DAILY RECORDS FOR APRIL 2013 None so far.   DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated):   RECORDS FOR APRIL 17 HIGH 93 IN 2002 LOW 21 IN 1908 PRECIP 1.68 IN 1954 SNOWFALL 1.0 IN. IN 1899 PEAK GUST 63 MPH ESE IN 2011   RECORDS FOR APRIL 18 HIGH 92 IN 1976 LOW 23 1887 PRECIP 1.48 IN 1954 SNOWFALL 3.7 IN. IN 1965 PEAK GUST 59 MPH S IN 1982   TODAY'S REPORT PREPARED BY: Robert Skilling/Peter Volpe