MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA FEBRUARY 2008 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. Temperature, °F Precipitation, In. Liquid Solid 7am 24-hour At Rain Snow/ Snow Date Max Min Obs Equiv Ice Depth Special Obs. 1 34 25 26 1.35 2.0 2 F,S,G 2 31 24 25 T T 3 F 3 38 24 30 3 F 4 37 29 37 .11 2 F 5 53 46 46 .72 1 F,T 6 58 39 39 .25 T 7 39 28 28 .09 0.5 1 8 30 26 26 .06 0.6 1 9 39 26 34 .20 3.0 3 10 34 4 4 .18 1.8 3 S,T,DW 11 16 -1 12 T T 3 12 25 10 25 .63 6.5 5 F 13 32 17 17 .11 1.3 8 F,G 14 29 14 23 T T 9 15 34 22 22 T T 7 S 16 31 20 25 7 17 40 25 39 .12 6 18 50 22 22 .15 1.0 2 19 22 14 14 .06 1.0 2 20 23 9 12 .10 2.0 3 21 23 4 19 .12 1.5 3 22 29 20 28 .58 2.5 5 F,S,G 23 28 21 21 .05 0.2 4 F,G 24 34 16 27 4 25 28 24 25 4 26 33 25 25 .49 2.3 5 F,S,G 27 25 10 10 .25 3.8 8 28 18 8 12 .02 0.5 9 29 31 6 31 1.23 11.5 8 S AVG/SUM 32.6 19.2 24.3 6.87 42.0 4.2 <- Mean EXT 58 -1 - 1.35 11.5 9 Date 6 11 - 1 29 28* *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 25.9 F Year precipitation to date: 10.62" Season snowfall to date: 84.5" Number of days with: Fog 10 Thunder 3 Sleet 6 Glaze 5 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES HEAVY ICE - WINDY 1: Freezing rain and sleet began pre-dawn with strong SE winds gusting 30-40 mph and slight warming. Rain and freezing rain continued through the midday then changed to light snow by 2pm with patchy fog. Snow became moderate to heavy at times between 7-9pm with strong winds becoming west at 30+ mph. A few flurries ending by 10pm. 1.35" precip and 2" snow and ice accumulation. There was still about 1/4" glaze on everything late this evening but the strong winds began breaking large chunks of ice off the trees and resulted in something resembling a bad hail storm. 2: Windy overnight with a few flurries. Winds diminished around daybreak with low clouds and some lingering fog and light freezing drizzle. Clouds broke abruptly to clear skies around 4pm but some dense fog developed again late this evening. 3: Patchy fog overnight. Mostly cloudy in the morning becoming mostly sunny in the afternoon. Some increase in high clouds towards sunset but clear again by mid evening. 4: Became overcast overnight with light rain (0.11" by 7am). Overcast all day with dense fog and occasional light drizzle, calm winds. MILD - THUNDERSTORMS - WINDY 5: Overnight warming with gusty WSW winds. A strong line of storms moved through at 9:45am with heavy rain to start then steady lighter rain ending around 12:30pm .64" fell. Occasional brief showers and dense fog through the evening. Day's rain total = 0.72". 6: Strong SW winds overnight with 25 to 45 mph gusts. Very mild with variably to mostly cloudy skies. A few showers began around 5:30pm and a train of strong storms narrowly passed to the S & E between 6-7:30pm with constant lightning & thunder in that direction but no rain here. A few brief heavy showers followed around 8pm with falling temperatures and gusty winds only .25" rain here but very heavy rains fell in nearby Somerset Co. just S & E where the storms hit. COLDER - LIGHT SNOWS 7: Falling temperatures and strong west winds overnight with light snow developing 0.5" by 7am. Mostly overcast with diminishing winds and some fine light snow again by 11pm. 8: Overnight light snow measuring 5/8" (0.06" water). Near calm winds with mainly overcast skies. 9: Light to occasionally moderate snow developed again overnight with 2" by 7am. Light AM snow ended by 11:45 am total 3.0" snow fell and 0.20" water equivalent. Gradual clearing during the afternoon with warming temperatures and gusty west winds. THUNDERSNOW - ARCTIC FRONT - BRUTAL WIND CHILLS 10: A wild, sudden and very intense thunder-snow squall mixed with sleet around 4am. Several loud and close claps of thunder with vicious W winds and white-out conditions. Variable clouds with steadily falling temperatures and a snow squall around 12:30pm followed by intermittent flurries and light snow showers in the evening. Continued very windy and blustery with temperatures falling to 4 F by midnight and wind chills around -20 F. Winds were clocked at 64 mph at the airport this morning. 11: Very cold with mostly clear skies and gusty winds overnight. A frigid -1 F this morning with wind chills -20 to -30 F. Mostly sunny but remained cold high only 16 F with diminishing winds. Increasing and thickening clouds by 4pm. Light fine snow began around 10pm. HEAVIEST SNOW OF THE SEASON 12: Light snow overnight gradually became moderate. 2.5" fell by 7am. Steady, moderate snows continued through most of the daylight hours and piled up to 6.5" by 4:30am when the snow tapered to flurries. 0.63" water equivalent from core sample. The 6.5" snow that fell today is the heaviest of the season so far and the most since last March 16th when 7 inches fell. 13: Some light freezing rain and drizzle fell around daybreak. Temperatures rosed to 32 F then fell steadily through the afternoon and evening with light snow developing and accumulating 1 1/4" by midnight. Winds gusted 30 to 40 mph from the West. 14: Flurries overnight and early this morning tapered off. Skies cleared to sunny by late morning with light west winds. 15: Heavy overcast all day with occasionally gusty winds and some spits of snow and sleet, trace. 16: Became sunny with light W winds. 17: Overnight warmup with some increasing clouds. Occasional rain showers in the afternoon and early evening, .12" fell. 18: Some AM light rain changing to light snow with falling temperatures and W winds gusting to 25 mph. 1" snow accumulation by midnight. 19: Overnight light snow & very windy with W winds gusting over 45 mph. Became variably cloudy and continued blustery with occasional snow showers. 20: Light steady snow began overnight and continued through late afternoon with 2" accumulation. Cold with temperatures dropping to 9 F by midnight.\ COLD/SNOW/ICE 21: Some light snow overnight. Cold low 4 F. Sunny this morning then increasing haze and high cloud cover developing during the afternoon. Light to moderate snow began around 10pm. 22: Overnight snow tapering off towards daybreak. About 3.8" fell since 10pm last night. Dense fog developing with occasional sleet, freezing rain and freezing drizzle. About 0.2" of glaze accumulation, total precip 0.70" since last evening. 23: Light freezing rain/drizzle and fog, changing to light snow showers. Light accumulation. 24: Variable clouds with near calm winds. 25: Overcast with a few spits of freezing drizzle and/or very light snow, trace. MORE SNOW & ICE 26: Overnight snow changing to rain this morning around 8am. 2" accumulation. Light rain changed back to snow this evening with an additional light accumulation. Some freezing rain and sleet was observed as well during the changeover. 27: Overnight snow & gusty WNW winds to 30 mph. Cloudy and cold with occasional snow showers and squalls through the day. Continued windy & blustery. 3.5" snow accumulation. 28: Cold with overnight light snow. Partly to mostly cloudy, breezy & cold with a few flurries. SURPRISE BIG SNOW! 29: Mostly clear & cold this morning low 6 F. Clouds rapidly increased through the morning and snow began around 12:30pm and quickly became moderate to heavy and steady. Moderate to heavy snow continued all afternoon & evening with rates of 1 to at times 2 inches per hour. Some sleet began mixing in before the snow tapered to flurries around 10pm. In a little over 9 hours 11.5" snow fell after a forecast for perhaps a "couple of inches." The snow was heavy and melted down to 1.23" of water. A few spits of sleet/freezing rain late. MONTHLY SUMMARY February had a bit of everything, from heavy snow and ice, to thundersnow, to bitter cold temperatures and wind, to nearby severe thunderstorms. The month began and ended with major winter storms, the latter of which was unexpected. Temperatures were close to normal, with a good bit of variation. Following a big ice storm on the 1st, the first week was quite mild, with spring-like thunderstorms on the 5th and 6th. An arctic front, accompanied by thundersnow on the 10th, yielded the month and season's coldest temperature of -1 on the 11th. Heavy snow (6.5") fell on the 12th. An active pattern continued, with messy snow/ice storms on the 22nd and 26th- 27th. Right on its heels came the "Leap Day Clipper" on the 29th that was only supposed to drop a couple inches of snow and perhaps a little ice. When all was said and done, nearly a foot (11.5") had dumped in a 9-hour period. Another 2.5" overnight on March 1st brought the storm total to a whopping 14 inches. Needless to say, February's precipitation total of 6.87 inches was well above, in fact twice the normal of 3.43 inches. The total snowfall of 42" was also undoubtedly well above normal and is the snowiest month in 4 years of Westmont records.