MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - LAVALE MD JANUARY 2009 OBSERVER SCOTT LOHR DATA COMPILED AND PUBLISHED 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 DAY 24-hour Rain Snow/ Snow Special WEATHER Date Max Min Equiv Ice Depth Obs. SUMMARY 1 30 20 1 Mostly to partly sunny 2 44 22 T Partly to mostly cloudy 3 44 25 Partly cloudy 4 36 24 .07 Cloudy, light rain & drizzle 5 38 32 Mostly cloudy 6 32 31 .44 0.5 S,G AM sleet, then sleet & freezing rain mixed 7 36 32 .94 T F,S,G Heavy rain/freezing rain ending early PM, strong SW winds 8 30 25 T 0.2 T Partly cloudy, intermittent brief snow showers 9 30 22 T T T AM flurries becoming partly sunny, windy 10 30 29 .23 0.1 T S,G Occasional sleet & freezing rain 11 29 24 Mostly cloudy 12 30 23 Cloudy 13 32 20 Cloudy, strong PM winds (SW gusts to 35 mph) 14 20 14 Partly cloudy 15 20 10 .10 2.5 3 Overnight snow, partly cloudy, cold & blustery 16 18 -1 2 Partly cloudy, very cold 17 7 -8 .01 0.1 2 Extreme cold, variable clouds, intermittent light snow 18 30 7 .06 1.5 3 Overcast, snow squalls 19 29 18 4 Mostly cloudy 20 29 9 4 Partly cloudy 21 27 13 3 Partly cloudy 22 43 21 3 Partly cloudy 23 56 22 1 Partly sunny, breezy, mild 24 36 22 Partly cloudy, breezy, colder 25 30 10 Partly sunny 26 32 20 .11 0.5 S Cloudy, snow/sleet late 27 27 21 .64 4.5 1 S Snow, mixing at times with sleet 28 33 28 .18 T 3 G AM light freezing rain, light PM rain 29 34 22 3 Partly to mostly sunny 30 32 21 T 0.2 3 Variably cloudy, intermittent snow showers 31 33 25 3 Partly cloudy AVG/SUM 31.5 19.5 2.78 10.1 1.3 <--Mean EXT 56 -8 0.94 4.5 4 Date 23 17 7 27 20 *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 25.5 F Year precipitation to date: 2.78" Season snowfall to date: 16.5" Number of days with: Fog 1 Sleet 5 Glaze 4 SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: 6-7: Heavy ice storm. Sleet accumulated ~0.5" then turned into a freezing rain, creating a very dangerous icy mess with 1/4"+ glaze. 1.38" total precipitation. 10: Another more minor ice storm. Still very dangerous outside with slick, icy conditions. 15: Alberta clipper drops a quick 2.5" of light, fluffy snow overnight. 16: Very cold AM low -1 F first sub-zero reading in 9 years since Jan. 22, 2000 (-2 F). 17: Extreme cold low -8 F coldest reading in 15 years since Jan. 21, 1994 (-13 F). Not a record however. In 1982 the low on Jan. 17 was -15 F, which at the time set the all-time record low temperature. Still this was one of the most significant Arctic outbreaks in years. 18: More snow showers from another weak clipper, 1.5" of snowfall. 20: Continued cold low 9 F. 22-23: Big rebound in temperatures, with a high of 56 F on the 23rd. 26-28: Another winter storm. Snow, sleet & freezing rain. Snow difficult to measure because it was mixed with sleet then changed to freezing rain sometime overnight on the 27th-28th. MONTHLY SUMMARY January was significantly colder than normal with near-normal snowfall and precipitation. Several winter storms affected the area: two major ice storms (6th-7th, 26th-28th), another smaller ice storm on the 10th and a couple of Alberta Clippers (15th and 18th). Sandwiched between the two clippers was one of the most signficant Arctic Outbreaks in many years. We had our first sub-zero reading since 2000 on the 16th, and on the 17th, our coldest reading (-8 F) in 15 years, since the extreme Arctic outbreak of mid-January 1994. The mean temperature of 25.5 F was the coldest January since 2004 and about 5 degrees below the long-term mean of 30.4 F. Precipitation and snow both totaled slightly below but very close to the long-term averages. Both were relatively well spread out through the month with no particularly high amounts from any one storm. Also of note was that we had 20 days with sub-freezing max temperatures, 14 (2 weeks!) consecutive from the 8th-21st. The only longest streaks of sub-freezing temperatures in recent history were in January 2003 (15 consecutive days) and December 1989 had the longest with 18 consecutive days. Additional notes/records 15: 2.5" of snowfall sets daily record. 17: High 7 F sets new daily record low. Low of -8 F is the coldest reading in 15 years.