MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA APRIL 2012 OBSERVER NATE MULLINS Special Observations: F=fog, T=thunder, H=hail, S=sleet, G=glaze, DW=damaging winds Observation time for this station is midnight (Eastern US). Temperature, °F Precipitation, In. Liquid Solid 7am 24-hour At Rain Snow/ Snow Date Max Min Obs Equiv Ice Depth Special Obs. 1 62 39 45 .05 2 56 38 43 .02 3 67 31 56 4 66 42 42 5 56 33 41 6 56 31 40 7 58 33 43 8 60 39 47 9 54 38 41 .30 10 48 32 32 .03 0.2 S 11 40 31 36 .16 1.2 1 S 12 50 32 38 0 13 62 29 46 14 65 35 51 .23 15 78 51 61 .05 16 84 55 65 17 65 46 50 18 60 44 45 19 71 41 54 20 77 44 58 21 58 41 41 .14 F 22 42 32 32 .13 0.1 F 23 33 31 32 1.13 6.6 3 F,S 24 47 30 38 5 25 61 37 48 1 26 67 40 40 .12 0 T 27 50 34 36 T T T S 28 45 30 39 .01 29 64 31 47 30 73 39 53 AVG/SUM 59.2 37.0 44.7 2.37 8.1 0.3 (avg) EXT 84 29 65/32 1.13 6.6 5 Date 16 13 16/23* 23 23 24 *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 48.1°F (-0.3°F) Year precipitation to date: 15.68" (+0.77") April precipitation departure: -1.44" (normal 3.81") Season snowfall to date: 65.1" Number of days with: Fog 3 Sleet 4 Thunder 1 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES 1: Partly sunny AM, becoming mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Some light rain showers late this evening. 2: A couple of brief showers overnight, breezy, a bit cooler, partly cloudy skies 3: Mostly sunny with a cooler AM and a mild PM high 67 F with light variable winds. 4: Partly cloudy, mild, breezy at times. Low of 42 was set at midnight. 5: Clear & cool overnight, sunny all day with light variable winds. 6: Fair & chilly overnight, sunny, seasonably cool, moderate breezes from the north. 7: Another cool morning and mild, mostly sunny day. Breezes from the SW. 8: Another fair and milder day except mostly cloudy during much of the afternoon hours. Clear again after sunset. A very nice Easter. 9: Partly cloudy AM, mostly cloudy PM, not quite as mild, good evening rain shower began @ 8pm, another brief shower around 11pm. COLDER - LIGHT SNOW/SLEET 10: Partly cloudy and windy early, mostly cloudy, chilly & breezy with temps slowly falling and some ice pellets and snow flurries, light snow showers this evening stuck to raised surfaces 0.2" fell. 11: Light snow showers overnight. 1.0" total measured on snow board (0.8" since midnight) as of 7am. Mostly cloudy, breezy & blustery with frequent brief showers of snow & sleet mixed. Another 0.4" was measured though most of it melted. Total snow 1.2" (0.16" water equivalent). Storm total 1.4". 12: Some early clouds then becoming partly to mostly sunny. Light west winds. Chilly clear evening. 13: Clear & chilly overnight low 29 F. Sunny, mild & pleasant high rebounded to 62 with light SW winds. 14: Clear & cool early, mostly sunny AM then becoming cloudy PM and mild with intermittent light rain during the evening. WARM AGAIN 15: Light rain ended by 1am. Remained mostly cloudy through the morning, with PM clearing. Quite warm with a high of 78 and a warm, occasionally gusty SW wind. 16: Mild overnight low 55 with fair skies. Sunny & warm AM with gusty SW winds. Very warm high 84 F with variably cloudy skies, predicted rain and possibly severe thunderstorms never happened. 17: Partly to mostly cloudy skies, breezy with a cooler afternoon, high of 65 was set early (midnight). 18: Partly sunny with light variable winds and a high just reaching 60 this afternoon. 19: A mild, sunny, very pleasant spring day with light & variable winds. High 71. 20: Sunny and continued warm high 77 F with light SW winds. Another spectacular weather day. 21: Partly cloudy early, then becoming cloudy. Clouds lowered through the day with fog, drizzle and a period of light rain this evening .14" fell. Temperatures fell slowly and steadily all day. *MAJOR TURNAROUND - LATE SEASON HEAVY WET SNOW* 22: A chilly day with fog and intermittent drizzle. High only reached 42. Light rain commenced around sunset and changed to snow around 11pm with 0.1" accumulating on elevated surfaces and snowboard. 23: Steady snow continued overnight. Another 3.2" by 7am. Snow depth reached 5.8" by around noon then slowly began to melt as temps inched just above freezing. Light to moderate snow continued all day, occasionally mixed with sleet, but did not begin to accumulate again until around 6pm with another 0.9" for a storm snow total of 6.7" (6.6" today) and 1.13" of melted precipitation for the day. Some NW wind gusts gradually shook the heavy, wet snow off the trees and shrubs. Some tree damage and scattered power outages. The snow level was about 1,500', with NO snow in downtown Johnstown at 1,273' but an amazing 23.7" at Laurel Summit (2,770 ft) just SW of here. While this total is in dispute, there is no question that over a foot fell on the highest terrain. This was the heaviest late April snowfall since 1928, when 1 to 2+ feet of snow fell from a Nor' Easter on April 28-29. 24: Clearing & chilly overnight. Still 5" of snow on the ground at 7am. Partly cloudy - more clouds in the afternoon, still cool but not nearly as cold as yesterday, with most of the snow melting. 25: Variable overnight clouds with a slight warming trend after midnight. Mostly sunny and breezy at times, milder again this afternoon high 61. 26: Variable clouds and mild with gusty W winds during the afternoon & evening. A couple of brief rain showers with thunder around 6pm. Temperatures dropped off fairly quickly this evening. 27: Partly cloudy & chilly overnight low 34 F. Some spits of snow & sleet this morning, not measurable. Partly cloudy, breezy & a bit blustery with a high struggling to 50. 28: Mostly cloudy & cool high only 45 F. Some very light rain early this afternoon with calm winds. 29: Clear & chilly overnight with frost. Sunny with some scattered high clouds, milder this afternoon. 30: Fair overnight then a warm, sunny beautiful day with a high of 73 and occasional south breezes. MONTHLY SUMMARY April 2012 was characterized by near normal temperatures, below normal precipitation but above normal snowfall. The obvious highlight of the month was the late season Nor' Easter that dumped record amounts of heavy, wet snow at the higher elevations. Up to 2 feet fell on top of Laurel Ridge to our west on the 22nd-23rd. A storm total of 6.7" of snow fell at this location. Higher elevations had considerably more, while elevations below 1,500 feet - including downtown Johnstown - had little or no accumulation. It was very ironic to get record heavy snows so early (11" on Oct. 29, 2011) and late in a cold season that was otherwise very mild with very little snow. Other than the big storm on the 23rd, April's weather pattern was relatively quiet. It was the first month with below normal precipitation since July 2011 - ending still a very impressive streak of 8 consecutive months with above normal precipitation. Unbelievably, April's average temperature of 48.1°F was not only slightly below normal - for the first time since October 2011 and only the 2nd time since March 2011 - but it was actually cooler than March! This is extremely unusual and may well be the first time on recent weather records that this happened, at least the first time in many years. Temperatures were relatively mild and consistent the first 2 weeks of April, but the rest of the month had a wild, rollercoaster temperature pattern. The month's high of 84 occurred on the 16th, just 3 days after the month's low of 29 on the 13th. One week later, on the 23rd when the heavy, wet snow fell, the high was only 33, one of the lowest readings for so late in the season. However, temperatures again rebounded into the 60s just two days later. The other unusual observation in April was the virtual lack of thunderstorms. Last April, there were 9 days with thunder. March 2012 had 7 days with thunder. Yet only one rumble of thunder occurred in April on the afternoon of the 26th. Needless to say, April was quite different from the past several months.