MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA MARCH 2012 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 (Eastern US). Temperature, °F Precipitation, In. Liquid Solid 7am 24-hour At Rain Snow/ Snow Date Max Min Obs Equiv Ice Depth Special Obs. 1 54 32 32 DW 2 48 27 43 .26 3 50 30 30 4 33 25 25 .09 1.9 S 5 28 21 21 .07 1.6 2 6 43 15 34 2 7 65 31 50 T 8 62 36 36 .76 9 40 26 26 T T 10 42 20 31 11 64 27 46 12 67 38 51 .24 13 69 51 59 T 14 71 45 55 15 73 45 59 16 68 54 55 .08 T 17 75 44 59 F 18 72 52 57 T T 19 64 53 54 .16 20 74 51 58 F 21 65 53 58 22 79 57 63 23 80 49 59 .17 F,T 24 59 52 52 2.14 F,T 25 59 49 52 .01 F 26 52 29 29 27 53 21 42 28 68 41 51 .37 T,H 29 51 34 35 30 63 28 46 .40 F,T 31 54 41 41 .06 F,T AVG/SUM 59.5 38.0 45.5 4.81 3.5 0.1 (avg) EXT 80 15 63/21 2.14 1.9 2 Date 23 6 22/5 24 4 6 *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 48.7°F (+11.3°F) Year precipitation to date: 13.31" (+2.21") March precipitation departure: +0.94" (normal 3.87") Season snowfall to date: 57.0" Number of days with: Fog 7 Thunder 7 Sleet 1 Hail 1 Damaging Winds 1 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES 1: Very windy overnight and through the day with mostly cloudy skies, becoming mostly clear with calmer winds after sunset. Temperatures gradually fell all day. Branches, small trees etc. blown down. 2: Cool overnight, mostly clear with increasing PM clouds, some rain showers this evening with a brief downpour @ 8pm. Moderate SW breezes most of the day. 3: Winds increasing overnight with gusts 40+ mph slowly shifting from SW to W. Partly cloudy skies with temperatures falling slowly through the day. SOME SNOW 4: Mostly cloudy, breezy and chilly with snow showers developing this evening, mixed with some sleet. 1.9" of snow by midnight. 5: Light snow showers overnight and this morning, tapering to flurries by noon and ending, another 1.6" snow. Partly cloudy during the afternoon but remaining quite cold & blustery with a high of only 28. 6: A chilly morning low of 15 F with fair skies. Milder with sunshine and snow melt this afternoon. Light SW winds. VERY MILD, RAIN, WIND 7: Mostly clear overnight then partly to mostly sunny and very mild high of 65. Gusty SW winds. 8: Very mild overnight with increasing clouds. High of 62 this morning then a steady rain for most of the PM hours. Gusty SW winds continued, shifting to W this evening as temperatures quickly dropped off. Rain was briefly heavy at times .76" fell. 9: Much cooler with partly sunny skies and a few scattered flurries. Very windy with W winds gusting 40+ mph. 10: A colder overnight and a mostly sunny somewhat cool day with a high of 42. Light NW winds. LONG STRETCH OF WARM WEATHER - LITTLE RAIN 11: A seasonably cold morning then a rapid rise in temperatures with sunny skies, high 64, light winds, one of the nicest days of the season so far. 12: Fair and milder overnight. Partly sunny and warm with occasional rain showers developing after 4pm. Winds light from W. 13: A few early sprinkles then gradually becoming mostly sunny and very mild again high 69 F. Gusty W winds. Low of 51 was set very early, temps rose through the AM and it was still 59 @ midnight. Some peepers heard for the first time this year. 14: Clear overnight. Sunny & very mild, light SW breezes, high 71. Beautiful early spring day. 15: Another fairly mild night and a balmy, partly sunny day with light W winds. 16: A couple of brief pre-dawn showers, one with thunder. Partly sunny AM with decreasing PM clouds, still a mild, pleasant afternoon with light SW winds. 17: Dense fog this morning, then becoming sunny and warm with a high of 75 and light SW winds continuing. Spectacular St. Patricks Day weather. 18: Variably cloudy and warm with sprinkles late this afternoon and a few rumbles of thunder. 19: Occasional light rain showers throughout the AM hours. Some partial PM clearing. 20: AM fog then becoming sunny and warm again. Light winds, a beautiful spring day again. 21: Mostly cloudy and a bit cooler - forecasted sunshine didn't appear much as clouds hung here over the mountains all day. Finally cleared around sunset. RECORD WARMTH - HEAVY RAIN - THUNDERSTORMS 22: Partly cloudy overnight and through the day, light variable winds, very warm high reached 79 F. 23: Mostly clear overnight with light AM fog. Partly cloudy, very warm again high reached 80, the earliest 80+ degree reading at this station since it opened 8 years ago. An early summer-like day with rain and some thunder beginning around 11pm .17" by midnight. 24: Thunderstorms overnight midnight-2am with heavy rain continuing through daybreak another 1.46" by 7am. Showers continued on and off through about 4pm, remained cloudy with patchy fog the rest of the day. 2.14" of rain fell today with a storm total of 2.31". 25: Fog and a bit of drizzle overnight. Mostly cloudy this morning, still mild. Cloudy PM with temps in the 50s and occasional light drizzle. Light North winds. 26: Clearing overnight, mostly sunny with gusty NW winds and slowly falling temps all day. 27: Cold 21 F this morning. Sunny & pleasant high rebounded to 53. Light variable winds. Milder this evening with some high clouds moving in. VARIABLE - MORE STORMS 28: Mostly cloudy & mild overnight. Very mild this morning with several brief thunderstorms from about 11am-noon .37" rain fell. The first storm had pea-sized hail for about 2 minutes. Partly cloudy, windy, mild this afternoon, clear skies after sunset. 29: Mostly cloudy AM skies with some partial PM clearing. Temperatures slowly fell through the day with breezy conditions. 30: A chilly AM with heavy frost then a mild sunny afternoon. Became cloudy this evening with rain and thunderstorms mostly from 10pm-midnight .40" of rain fell with patchy fog developing. 31: Rain and thunder ended by 12:30am. Cloudy with haze and light fog overnight. Continued overcast and somewhat cool all day. MONTHLY SUMMARY March 2012 was highlighted by incredible record warmth, as well as a record number of days with thunder. Temperatures averaged 11.3°F above normal, with equal contributions from above normal max and min temps. This was the greatest departure from normal in the temperature category that I can ever remember. In fact, March's average max, min AND mean were ALL slightly milder than the respective averages for April! Without question, this was the warmest March on record. Wildlife came to life unusually early, and the vegetation - trees, shrubs etc. began to blossom unusually early. The high for the month was a warm 80 and the low a chilly 15, during a brief cold snap in the first week, which was also associated with the month's only snow event of 3.5" on the 4th-5th. No frozen precipitation was observed after the 9th. 17 days reached 60 or higher, 13 consecutive from the 11th-23rd - an incredible warm streak. Likewise, more than half of the month (18 days) had above-freezing lows, 14 consecutive from the 12th-25th - that's two consecutive weeks! The persistent warmth made March quite a memorable and spectacular weather month. Temperatures have now been above normal 11 of the past 12 months and 5 consecutive months. Only October 2011 had below normal temperatures. Precipitation was above average for the 8th consecutive month. This is also a very impressive and unusual streak. After more than 3 weeks, it looked like the streak of above normal precipitation would finally come to an end. However, nearly 2 1/2 inches of rain fell from thunderstorms late on the 23rd through the 24th, accounting for roughly half of the month's total precipitation. Thunder was observed on 7 days - by far the most thunderstorm activity I have ever seen in March. 5 of the final 9 days had thunder. The unusual number of thunderstorms was likely a product of warm temperatures and several disturbances that passed through late in the month, all of which had favorable dynamics for strong to locally severe thunderstorms. Pea-sized hail was noted from one of these storms on the 28th.