MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA FEBRUARY 2009 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 42 22 32 9 2 32 15 15 T T 8 3 15 8 10 T T 8 4 15 4 8 .26 4.0 8 5 10 0 10 T T 11 6 25 10 25 11 7 50 25 44 .02 11 8 45 29 29 .01 3 9 45 24 35 1 10 44 33 44 .36 1 F 11 60 42 44 .12 1 F,T,DW 12 44 30 31 .13 T 0 DW 13 31 26 26 T T T 14 31 22 22 .03 0.5 0 15 25 18 23 T 0.2 1 16 26 19 19 .08 1.5 1 17 33 12 24 2 18 38 24 38 .55 1.1 1 F,S,G 19 39 12 12 .07 1.0 T 20 18 11 14 .05 0.8 1 21 32 13 28 1 22 29 18 18 .16 3.9 1 23 22 13 13 .13 3.0 6 24 25 9 15 .02 0.5 6 25 44 12 32 4 26 44 32 39 .02 1 27 53 31 31 .47 T 0 T 28 31 19 26 T T T AVG/SUM 33.9 19.0 25.3 2.48 16.5 3.5 <--Mean EXT 60 0 - 0.55 4.0 11 Date 11 5 - 18 4 7* *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 26.4 F Year precipitation to date: 8.26" Season snowfall to date: 90.6" Number of days with: Fog: 3 Sleet: 1 Glaze: 1 Thunder: 2 Hail: 0 Damaging Winds: 2 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES 1: Significant warming overnight with strong SW winds gusting to 35 mph. Mostly sunny skies with diminishing winds by evening. 2: Overcast, a few light snow showers, not measurable, temperatures slowly falling 3: Cold and cloudy with flurries and snow showers beginning late evening COLD - SNOW 4: Periods of snow, moderate to heavy at times. Cold low 4 F and high 15 F. 4.0" of snow accumulation. Windy and very blustery with W/NW winds gusting to 35 mph. 5: Snow flurries and very cold low 0 F and high only 8 F during the day, warmed to 10 F by midnight. 6: Temperatures slowly increasing through the 24-hour period with mostly sunny skies. 7: Mostly cloudy and mild with a high of 50 and strong S to SW winds (25-35 mph gusts). A period of drizzle this evening (.02"). 8: Mild overnight with temperatures in the mid 40s, light drizzle and significant snow melt. Clearing skies by noon with winds shifting to NW and becoming gusty (30 mph). 9: Mostly sunny, hazy skies and mild temperatures. Light SW winds. 10: Steady light to moderate rain during the morning and early afternoon hours, then drizzle and fog continuing through the evening .36" fell. First above-freezing low temperature since Nov. 14. MILD - THUNDERSTORMS - DAMAGING WINDS 11: Dense fog and mild overnight. Became partly to mostly sunny with unseasonably mild temperatures reaching 60 this afternoon. Wild cold front plowed through at 8:30pm with a squall line producing very brief heavy rains, thunder and vicious wind gusts 50 to 60 mph, officially clocked at 65 mph at the Johnstown airport. Skies cleared rapidly but the ferocious winds continued at earnest overnight. 12: Overnight shower (.13") and very windy with sustained W winds 30-40 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. The back yard this morning was littered with numerous tree branches. Mostly cloudy and continued very windy all day, finally tapering off in the evening with a few late snow flurries. The unusually strong winds the past two days caused much tree, power line and structural damage all over the area with a report of up to 114,000 customers without power. Pittsburgh reported a 92 mph gust last night! 13: Few AM flurries, mostly cloudy skies with gradual clearing through the afternoon and considerably less wind. 14: Overcast with a few flurries turning to light snow showers with 0.5" accumulation by midnight. 15: Flurries, light snow showers, cold, mostly overcast, light NW winds. 16: Mostly cloudy with intermittent snow showers accumulating 1.5 inches. Light N to NW winds. 17: Fair skies with lots of sun and near calm winds. SNOW/ICE/RAIN 18: Overnight snow about 3/4" fell. Changed to freezing drizzle and sleet during the morning hours; this changed to plain rain during the afternoon and evening with occasional rain showers and dense fog. 1.1" snow/ice and 0.55" precipitation today. 19: Falling temperatures through the 24-hour period with a few snow squalls (1" accum- ulation) and strong W winds 15-30 mph with 35 mph gusts. 20: Cold and blustery with W winds continuing to gust to around 35 mph and light snow showers through mid-morning. Decreasing clouds during the afternoon with diminish- ing winds. 21: Mostly sunny, milder, some haze, much lighter winds and shifting to S/SW. 22: Overnight light snow developed. Surprisingly not much snow during the day and skies became variably cloudy with strong WNW winds developing. However a fairly station- ary and heavy snow band parked itself overhead this evening from about 8:30-11pm and produced nearly another 3" of snow during the 2 1/2 hour stretch. 23: More snow overnight, 2 1/4" by 7am. Light snow and continued gusty NW winds to 35 mph. Total 3" snow fell. Some intervals of sunshine between snow showers. Partial clearing with blowing snow this evening but winds beginning to diminish. Total snow from this event 6.9 inches. 24: Light snow overight (0.5") and cold low 9 F. Sunny clear skies with light N/NW breezes and a high of 25. 25: Mostly sunny with some haze. Cold morning but milder this afternoon high 44 F. 26: Brief light rain overnight (.02"). Overcast skies with light SW winds, mild again. MILD - MORE THUNDER 27: Brief heavy rain at 4am, a couple of brief thunderstorms this morning at 7:30 and 8:15 am. Windy and mild high 53 F with occasional rain showers through early eve- ning .47" fell with rain ending at 5:30pm. Temperatures fell to 31 F by midnight with snow flurries. 28: Falling temperatures continued overnight with a low of 19 F. A few snow flurries. Partly cloudy early becoming mostly cloudy with near calm and variable winds. MONTHLY SUMMARY February brought a major weather pattern change from January, when the area was battered by almost constant snow and ice storms. Winter storms were far less prevalant, and a couple of strong cold fronts were more reminiscent of spring, both of them bringing rare winter thunderstorms to the area. One of these storms, which struck the evening of the 11th, was severe and produced damaging winds that persisted well into the evening of the 12th. This was the highlight of the month. Other highlights included a minor ice storm on the 18th (this storm brought thunder and hail to my old station in LaVale MD), and a couple of respectable lake-effect snows, the heaviest event 6.9 inches on the 22nd-23rd. More thunder was observed on the 27th. Overall, both precipitation and snowfall were well below normal this month, as there were no particularly heavy events in either category, and the systems that brought precipitation were relatively fast-moving. Temperatures were about normal for February. There were a couple of periods of cold and warmth, neither of which lasted for more than a few days. The coldest temperatures were at the beginning of the month, with a 0 reading on the 5th, daytime temperatures in the single-digits (the high of 10 was recorded at midnight) and wind chills well below zero. The warmest temperatures occurred less than a week later on the 11th before the wild cold front plowed through with all of the damaging winds, which littered the yard with branches, caused considerable tree, power line and structural damage in the area, and an unusually large number of power outages. Winds gusted to 65 mph at the airport. For the balance of the month, temperatures were somewhat up and down, but for the most part seasonal and relatively normally (in a mathematical sense) distributed.