MONTHLY WEATHER OBSERVATIONS LAVALE MD AUGUST 2006 OBSERVERS DAVID DREWERY AND CHARLES ORLICK (DATA COMPILED BY NATE MULLINS) Special Observations: F=fog, T=thunder, H=hail, S=sleet, G=glaze, DW=damaging winds Observation time for this station is midnight. Temperature, °F Precipitation, In. Liquid Solid 7am 24-hour Rain Snow/ Snow Date Max Min Equiv Ice Depth Special Obs. 1 98 72 2 98 72 3 96 72 4 93 71 T 5 93 60 6 88 61 7 94 71 .02 T 8 87 65 9 88 57 10 84 58 .16 11 81 57 .01 12 81 52 13 85 50 14 92 56 15 91 61 T 16 84 58 17 86 57 18 87 60 19 86 64 T 20 88 67 .02 21 85 60 22 87 57 23 87 57 24 87 59 25 94 63 26 92 63 .25 T 27 81 69 .54 T 28 83 70 .02 29 86 67 30 78 67 31 73 67 T AVG/SUM 87.5 62.6 1.02 0.0 - EXT 98 50 0.54 - - Date 2* 13 27 - - *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats: Mean Monthly Temperature: 75.0 F Year precipitation to date: 21.21" Season snowfall to date: 0.0" Number of days with: Fog: 0 Ice Pellets: 0 Glaze: 0 Thunder: 3 Hail: 0 Damaging Winds: 0 DAILY NOTES: RECORD HEAT - CONTINUED DRYNESS 1: Sunny with oppressive heat and humidity, a record high of 98 F and heat indeces around 110 F. This was the hottest reading since 7/31/99 when the max reached 100. 2: Clear early becoming partly cloudy. Oppressive heat and humidity continue with another high of 98 F, heat indeces around 110. The official reading in Cumberland was 104 F and was the hottest there since July 1988. 3: Another scorcher with sunny skies, high 96 F, humid, heat indeces around 105. 4: Cloudy early with a brief light shower around 9am, trace. Became partly cloudy with less humidity and light breezes, still hot high 93 F. 5: Mostly sunny and hot but with low humidity, light breezes. 6: Sunny then clouds began increasing around 2pm. 7: Thunder with a little rain around 3am (.02") then partly cloudy, hot and humid. 8: Partly cloudy with light breezes, not as hot or humid today. 9: Clear early then partly cloudy with light & variable winds by afternoon. A LITTLE RAIN 10: Showers from 6am-noon most of them were light .16" fell. Became partly sunny during the afternoon. 11: Mostly sunny after a few brief, light AM showers, .01". 12: Sunny and pleasant. 13: Sunny and pleasant. 14: Partly cloudy, hot & humid with light breezes during the afternoon. 15: Light predawn shower, not measurable, as another system coming in from the west falls apart. Partly sunny, hot but less humid. 16: Sunny with pleasant temps and humidity and light breezes from the east. 17: Sunny and warm with high clouds developing during the afternoon, light E winds. 18: Partly cloudy becoming mostly sunny, warm. 19: Cloudy early becoming mostly sunny. Cloudy again this evening with showers just brushing by to the north, only a trace of rain. 20: Mostly sunny except mostly cloudy around midday with a brief shower at noon. 21: Sunny and pleasant with light breezes. 22: Partly cloudy with light N winds in the afternoon. 23: Clear early then partly cloudy with light & variable wind. 24: Sunny during the morning, partly cloudy this afternoon with light variable winds. 25: Sunny becoming partly cloudy, hot and humid with light variable breezes. 26: Sunny early then partly cloudy, hot and humid again. Light variable breezes. Light showers began around 5pm with thunderstorms late this evening, .25" by midnight. 27: Thunderstorms continued through 1am with heavy downpours. Cloudy and not as hot with occasional showers, a total of .54" fell for a storm total of .79" which was very much needed. 28: Cloudy with calm wind and light drizzle. 29: Cloudy early then partly cloudy, warm and humid with light variable breezes. 30: Partly cloudy with light E breezes, a bit cooler. 31: Cloudy and cooler with light NE breezes and occasional light drizzle. SUMMARY: The stream of dry Augusts continued in 2006, this year being the driest in 15 years of records. The past 3 years have had 3 of the 4 driest Augusts. Also this is the 3rd record dry month in the last 12. This was also the 2nd hottest August since 1992. The month started out sizzling with highs close to 100 and it didn't cool off much the rest of the month. The persistent hot, dry weather pattern parched lawns and caused trees to begin turning early. Overall, August 2006 ranks 5th hottest August on record (August 1995 was the hottest with a mean temperature of 76.3 F). The average max of 87.5 is the second hottest on record since 1948. Additional notes/records 1: Record high 98 F. Also a record high min of 72 F 2: High of 98 F just misses record of 99 in 1991. Record high min of 72 F. 3: Record high min 72 F again 7: Record high min 71 F 27: Record high min 69 F August 2006 was the 2nd driest August on record with 1.02" of rainfall. August 2006 had the 2nd highest mean maximum temperature (87.5 F) on record. It was overall the 5th warmest August on record with a mean temperature of 75.0 F.