BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA DAILY DISCUSSION AND CLIMATE SUMMARY TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2013 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME LATE SEASON WINTER STORM BRINGS 6.4 INCHES OF SNOW/SLEET TEMPERATURES CONTINUE BELOW NORMAL Snow began last night just after 9 PM EDT, accumulating to about one inch before midnight. Snow continued into the early morning today, with a 3-4 hour period of moderate snow, and a brief burst of heavy snow. Snow began mixing with sleet this morning before 8 AM EDT, and eventually becoming all rain as temperatures warmed later in the morning. Periods of light rain and sleet, moderate at times have been observed early this afternoon. Total snow and sleet accumulation so far today has reached just over 5 inches. The storm total snowfall/sleet through 4 PM EDT is 6.4 inches. Sleet, and eventually perhaps some light snow showers tonight could add to that total. An east wind today has gusted at times 30-40 mph, with a peak gust so far of 42 mph. The recent streak of below normal temperatures has now reached 6 days with todays chilly conditions. Today's observations: 7 A.M. Weather: Light sleet and snow, overcast nimbostratus, few lower stratus fractus, light snow continued from previous hour, light sleet began at unknown time, light snow and sleet continued Temperature: 30F; Dew Point: 30F; Wind: E at 20G29 kts, Wind: Peak wind 29 kts. from the E at 6:43 A.M. EST Sea-level pressure: 29.96 ins. Hg, falling Visibility: 2 miles, light sleet and snow, fog 24-hr snowfall: 6.0 inches Snow depth: 6 inches 24-hr precip: 0.84 inches 6-hr precip: 0.62 inches 6-hr min. temp: 27F Snow depth: trace (patches around the summit) BHO SA 1155 E4 OVC 2IP-S-F 147/30/30/1020G29/996/ FEW LWR STFRA PK WND 1029/43 S- CTD IP- BUKN S-IP- CTD TOTAL NEW SNW PST 24 HRS 6.0 INS/ 8/7// 4/006 58027 MANUAL 60062 ASOS 60061 MANUAL 70084 ASOS 70082 10030 20027 10 A.M. Weather: Light sleet and rain, overcast nimbostratus, stratus occasionally drifting over summit, light sleet and snow continued from previous hour, light snow ended at unknown time and rain began, light sleet and rain continued Temperature: 32F; Dew Point: 32F; Wind: E at 20G28 kts, Wind: Peak wind 31 kts. from the E at 9:36 A.M. EST Sea-level pressure: 29.85 ins. Hg, falling Visibility: 3 miles, light sleet and rain, fog 3-hr snowfall (sleet): 0.3 inch 3-hr precip: 0.18 inch BHO SA 1455 E4 OVC 3IP-R-F 107/32/32/0920G28/985/ STRA OCNLY DRFTNG OVR SMT PK WND 0931/36 IP-S- S-EUKN R-BUKN IP-R- CTD TOTAL NEW SNW PST 3 HRS 0.3 INS/ 8/7// 56040 MANUAL 60018 ASOS 60018 1 P.M. Weather: Light rain, broken stratus, overcast nimbostratus, light drizzle continued from previous hour, becoming moderate drizzle at unknown time, becoming light rain at unknown time, light rain continued Temperature: 35F; Dew Point: 35F; Wind: E at 23G35 kts, Wind: Peak wind 36 kts from the E at 12:12 P.M. EST Sea-level pressure: 29.68 ins. Hg, falling rapidly Visibility: 2 miles, light rain, fog 6-hr snowfall (sleet): 0.3 inch 6-hr precip: 0.24 inch 6-hour max. temp: 35F BHO SA 1755 E3 BKN 8 OVC 2R-F 051/35/35/0823G35/968/ PK WND 0936/12 L- BCMG L UKN BCMG R- UKN CTD TOTAL NEW SNW PST 6 HRS 0.3 INS PRESFR/ 8/7// 58056 MANUAL 60024 ASOS 60024 10035 20030 WEATHER SUMMARY FOR MONDAY, MARCH 18 TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX.....37 NORMAL.....45 MIN.....16 NORMAL.....27 MEAN....27 NORMAL.....36 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL.......................-9 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH......................+20 [+0.9 DEGREES/DAY] HEATING DEGREE DAYS TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY............38 DEPARTURE............+9 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH...........548 DEPARTURE...........-21 TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON.........4668 DEPARTURE..........-469 TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE....4085 DIFFERENCE.........+583 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY...............27 NNW AT 1:52 A.M. AERO....................23 NNW AT 1:26 A.M. ASOS....................26 NNW AT 1:59 A.M. DAVIS...................24 NW AT 1:26 A.M. RMY: N/A THE FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY.............18 NNW AT 1:44 A.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE..............18 NNW AT 2:00 A.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE.............18 SSE AT 8:09 P.M. AVERAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION..........8.2 SSE ASOS...................7.1 DAVIS..................7.2 ENE [068 deg] PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M....0.84 DEPARTURE...........+0.65 ASOS..............0.82 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH..........4.80 DEPARTURE...........+1.66 ASOS..............5.02 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR..........13.19 DEPARTURE...........+1.63 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.........6.0 DEPARTURE............+5.5 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH..............36.0 DEPARTURE...........+27.4 TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON.............97.2 DEPARTURE...........+41.6 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR MARCH 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 3/1 39/33/36/+5/0.00/0.0/047/07 25 NNW AERO 24 MPH NNW RMY 28 3/2 42/30/36/+5/0.00/0.0/400/59 18 NW AERO 16 MPH NW RMY 21 3/3 42/30/36/+4/0.01/0.2/034/05 17 WNW AERO 15 MPH WNW RMY N/A 3/4 39/26/33/+1/T/T/328/48 32 NW AERO 33 MPH WNW RMY 37 3/5 43/30/37/+5/0/0/123/18 27 WNW AERO 24 MPH WNW RMY N/A 3/6 37/33/35/+3/.../.../000/00 * 47 NE AERO 46 MPH NE RMY 51 3/7 34/29/32/-1/.../.../000/00 * 45 NE AERO 45 MPH NE RMY 47 3/8 37/28/33/0/.../.../000/00 * 41 NNE AERO 39 MPH NNW RMY 45 3/9 40/29/35/+2/0.00/0.0/677/97 29 N AERO 23 MPH N RMY 28 3/10 40/27/34/+1/0.00/0.0/372/53 21 S AERO 17 MPH S RMY N/A 3/11 50/32/41/+7/0.00/0.0/099/14 27 S AERO 25 MPH S RMY N/A 3/12 52/39/46/+12/0.51/0.0/000/00 45 S AERO 46 MPH S RMY 47 3/13 50/33/42/+8/T/0.0/674/95 32 WNW AERO 32 MPH WNW RMY 34 3/14 34/20/27/-8/0.00/0.0/.../.. 37 W AERO 37 MPH NW RMY 38 3/15 39/17/28/-7/0.00/0.0/.../.. 35 NW AERO 37 MPH W RMY 34 3/16 39/25/32/-3/0.00/0.0/.../.. 23 NW AERO 18 MPH WNW RMY 20 3/17 38/23/31/-5/0.00/0.0/.../.. 32 WNW AERO 28 MPH WNW RMY 34 3/18 37/16/27/-9/0.14/1.1/.../.. 27 NNW AERO 23 MPH NNW RMY N/A 3/19 the morning low temp: 27F; the normal low is now 27F * Precipitation and snowfall for calendar days March 6-8 are under review. The records under review are as follows: (inches) March 6 0.19 precip // 0.3 snowfall March 7 1.36 precip // 11.5 snowfall March 8 1.89 precip // 18.0 snowfall DAILY RECORDS FOR MARCH 2013 None so far. Calendar day precipitation and snowfall amounts for 3/6-8 are under review. DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): RECORDS FOR MARCH 19 HIGH 77 IN 2012 LOW -2 IN 1967 PRECIP 1.69 INS. IN 1956 SNOWFALL 17.6 INS. IN 1956 [RECORD FOR MONTH] PEAK GUST 75e MPH WNW IN 1941 RECORDS FOR MARCH 20 HIGH 79 IN 1945 LOW 4 IN 1885 PRECIP 1.39 INS. IN 1957 SNOWFALL 11.4 INS. IN 1957 PEAK GUST 63 MPH SE IN 1975 TODAY'S REPORT PREPARED BY: Sean Fankhauser