MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA JULY 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 67 56 59 .09 2 73 54 63 3 74 60 60 .38 F,T 4 66 60 62 .54 F 5 72 61 64 .63 F 6 74 61 67 F 7 77 64 64 .25 F,T 8 81 63 66 .03 F 9 76 64 63 .15 10 75 58 61 11 78 55 67 12 82 62 70 T 13 76 68 68 .28 14 73 60 62 15 77 57 62 16 80 56 65 17 83 64 70 18 84 64 72 F 19 82 67 70 20 82 66 66 .20 F,T 21 80 62 65 F,T 22 78 62 66 .14 F,T 23 72 62 63 1.08 T 24 71 57 63 .01 25 75 59 66 26 76 63 69 27 76 65 65 .02 T 28 79 57 64 29 81 61 68 30 78 64 68 .55 F,T 31 74 66 66 .26 F AVG/SUM 76.5 61.2 65.3 4.61 0.0 - EXT 84 54 - 1.08 - - Date 18 2 - 23 - - *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 68.9 F Year precipitation to date: 36.84" Season snowfall to date: 0.0" Number of days with: Fog 12 Thunder 8 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES 1: A few showers overnight. Overcast and cool with partial PM clearing, clear after sunset. 2: Clear overnight, fair skies during the day with a few passing clouds, very pleasant. 3: Steady temperatures overnight with increasing clouds. Mostly cloudy with occasional strong breezes from SW. Thundershower from 4-5pm followed by occasional light showers that gradually tapered off .38" fell. Fog developed late evening. 4: Overnight light shower with foggy conditions. Heavy cloud cover all day but no rain until a couple of passing showers 6-7pm. Localized moderate to heavy rain shower from 10:30-11:30pm dropped about a half-inch of rain mostly between 10:40-11pm. Patchy evening fog again. 5: Overnight fog and overcast. Moderate to occasionally heavy rain showers from 6-9am dropped another .63" rain. Variably to partly cloudy skies during the afternoon with more heavy showers clipping the SE side of Johnstown but no more rain at this station. Dense fog again by late evening. 6: Dense overnight and early AM fog. Skies cleared to partly cloudy by mid-morning then became mostly cloudy again during the afternoon with calm winds. 7: Patchy early fog with partly cloudy skies. Strong thunderstorms developed all around this station in every direction from noon-4pm until finally a very localized brief thunderstorm popped up overhead and dropped a quick .25" in 10 minutes. About 3 blocks (less than a quarter mile) to the east had no rain. Other nearby parts of the county were deluged with 1 to 2 inches of rain prompting flood advisories. Amazing how localized these storms can be... 8: Patchy early fog then mostly sunny and warm with light WSW winds. Brief gusty shower this evening about 10:30pm winds gusted ~ 30 mph. 9: Overcast through the morning and early afternoon with a couple of rain showers from noon-2pm (0.15"). Partly to variably cloudy skies during the afternoon & evening, then mostly clear after sunset. 10: Clear overnight. Mostly sunny with passing cumulus clouds and calm to light NW winds. 11: Clear overnight. Some increase in clouds during the mid-afternoon hours, then mostly clear again after 4pm. 12: Mostly sunny and warm with calm to light SW winds and an increase in high clouds during the evening hours with sprinkles shortly prior to midnight. 13: Overnight shower (0.14"). Mostly cloudy skies with strong breezes from SW. Brief heavy shower at 3:30pm (another 0.14"). Breezy during the evening. 14: Partly to mostly sunny skies with pleasant temperatures and humidities. 15: Clear, sunny day with a few passing clouds, light breezes, beautiful mid-summer day. 16: Clear, sunny, and calm conditions with warm temperatures and low humidity. 17: Fair and warm with increasing humidity and hazy skies especially during the evening. 18: Fair overnight with light fog/haze. Mostly sunny except for a brief period of mostly cloudy skies late morning. Warm and humid. 19: Mostly sunny, warm and humid with light SW winds. 20: Partly cloudy, becoming breezy by mid-morning with SW winds gusting 15-25 mph. Gusty winds & light rain @ 4pm and a thundershower at 5pm dropping .20" rainfall. Mostly overcast skies the rest of the evening w/ calm winds & fog developing late. No severe weather here in the Johnstown area but a lot of severe reports to our S & SW in SW PA and the MD/WV panhandles. 21: Dense AM fog with skies clearing to mostly sunny by mid-morning. Skies became overcast after 7pm. Thunder and nearly continuous lightning to S & SW from 9-11pm from a big cluster of strong to severe storms that hammered Fayette, Somerset Co. PA, Garrett & Allegany Co. MD and Mineral Co. WV but did not drop any rain or wind gusts at this station. 22: Morning fog and rain with some thunder from 7:30-9pm .14" fell. Skies cleared rapidly by 10 am and remained mostly sunny throughout the day. 23: Occasional showers and thunderstorms developed overnight and early this morning with the heaviest rain falling from 7-8:30am .68" fell by then. Variably cloudy during the PM hours with a brief but heavy thundershower at 3pm dropping another .40" in 15 minutes. 24: Light overnight shower. Mostly cloudy early, then partly to mostly sunny with low humidity, cooler temperatures and occasionally breezy conditions. 25: Partly to mostly sunny, calm to light SW winds. 26: Partly to mostly sunny, light SW winds. Some increase in haze and humidity in the evening. 27: Some very intense and close lightning began at 2am but only a brief shower as a strong storm passed to the south. Nearly 30 minutes of continuous lightning and thunder. More thunder at 4am but still no rain. Quite a racket for only 0.02" of total rainfall. Variably cloudy AM, becoming mostly sunny PM with light NW winds. 28: Warm, sunny & pleasant day with calm to light & variable winds. 29: Mostly cloudy early, with rapid clearing after 8am. Sunny/fair skies & calm to light winds. 30: Hazy morning sunshine & high clouds. Thunder and moderate rain from 2-3pm .12" fell. A couple of heavier showers this evening from 5:45 to 7:15 pm dropped another .43" rain. Brief sun produced a brilliant rainbow as the rain ended. Patchy evening fog. 31: A couple of brief overnight rain showers (0.10"). Overcast early with skies gradually clearing. Clouds re-formed in the area during the evening with a couple of brief heavy showers from 8-9pm bringing another .16" rainfall. Clear after 10pm with patchy fog. MONTHLY SUMMARY This was a faily typical July with near normal temperatures and slightly below normal rainfall. It was the fourth consecutive July with sub-par rainfall, although by only a half-inch this time. Statistically July is supposed to be the wettest month of the year with a 5.11" average. Almost all of the rain came from very localized, hit-or-miss showers and storms and was evenly distributed throughout the month with no outstanding amounts on any given day. Had a couple of MCS-type systems from the 20th-23rd and again on the 30th-31st tracked slightly further north, it could have been a very wet month. There were a couple stretches of very nice weather for mid-summer, with pleasant temperatures and low humidity. There were no extremes in temperature and there was not much variation either, despite a number of frontal passages. There was only a 30 degree difference between the month's high and low temperatures, 84 on the 18th and 54 on the 2nd. 9 days were in the 80s, 20 days in the 70s and only two in the 60s. Locally, there was little to no severe weather, except for the 5th when nearly stationary heavy rain showers dropped up to 3 inches in the SE portion of the county and caused minor flooding. A lot of heavy thunderstorms slipped slightly south of the area and hit Fayette/Somerset counties.