MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA MAY 2009 OBSERVERS SARA, STEVE AND 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 64 54 58 .90 T 2 58 48 48 .10 3 52 46 50 .18 4 50 45 45 .79 F 5 48 45 48 .10 6 64 48 54 .59 F 7 63 50 56 8 65 51 59 T 9 70 48 48 .02 10 56 45 45 11 58 44 45 .12 T 12 58 39 50 13 59 44 54 14 70 50 54 .15 T 15 75 50 63 F 16 75 55 55 .32 T 17 55 40 43 18 54 34 47 frost 19 69 40 55 20 76 50 53 21 78 48 57 22 77 53 61 23 76 58 63 24 76 59 61 .05 25 74 54 54 .25 26 54 48 50 .42 27 62 50 59 .13 T 28 72 58 58 1.49 F,T 29 59 54 54 .02 F 30 65 52 55 31 63 45 46 AVG/SUM 64.4 48.5 55.1 5.63 0.0 - EXT 78 34 - 1.49 - - Date 21 18 - 28 - - *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 56.5 F Year precipitation to date: 18.91" (-0.29") Season snowfall to date: 94.6" Number of days with: Fog 5 Thunder 6 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES SHOWERS/STORMS/COOL 1: Rain began early this morning heavy at times continuing through the morning and ending abruptly at 12:30pm .76" fell. Variable clouds and breezy. More rain late this evening with some thunder total by midnight .90". 2: Rain midnight-1am another .10" storm total 1.00". Mostly cloudy and cool with skies clearing to mostly sunny during the evening and hazy. 3: Cool, steady light rain and drizzle all day .18" 4: Light rain overnight becoming moderate at times during the day with patchy dense fog. Continued cool with rain ending by 6:15pm .79" fell. A brief ray of sun around 6:30pm. 5: Overcast with a brief period of moderate rain 5:30-6:15pm .10" fell. Continued cool high 48 F. 6: Overnight shower (.07"). Fog early with clearing skies by late morning, cloudy again by 1:30pm. Steady rain from 5-11:15pm another .52" fell (.59" for day). A bit milder today high 64 F. 7: Variably cloudy skies with similar temperatures to yesterday. 8: Partly cloudy, a few sprinkles at 1pm. 9: Brief early AM shower (.02"). Mostly cloudy and milder with occasional sprinkles. Became windy this afternoon and evening with falling temperatures. SW winds up to 25 mph and gusts to 40 mph. 10: Continued windy overnight with sustained wind 20-25 mph shifting to NW and gusting to 35 mph. Cooler and windy, finally diminishing by late afternoon. Partial clearing through the day. 11: Mostly cloudy, continued cool. Brief thunderstorm at 6 pm, clearing afterwards. 12: Cool, mostly clear skies, breezy 13: Partly cloudy with increasing clouds by noon, strong SW breezes MILD 14: Warmer with overcast skies and a couple of brief thunderstorms in the area. The storms were heaviest east & west of here with only .15" rain at this station. 15: Early fog then variable clouds and near calm winds 16: Mostly cloudy, breezy and mild. Thunderstorms in the area 5-7pm and again 9-10:30pm. Nice low rolling thunder. No direct hits or particularly heavy downpours .32" total rain fell. 17: Cool, mostly cloudy AM, cleared to fair skies PM, breezy with NW winds 15-25 mph. FROST 18: Chilly this morning low 34 F with patchy frost. Clear sunny day with light winds 19: Sunny, light breezes & pleasant WARMER 20: Sunny, light breezes, pleasant, mild 21: Sunny, warm, light & variable winds 22: Partly cloudy skies through the day, light variable winds SCATTERED SHOWERS/STORMS 23: Variable clouds and warm with thunderheads to the S & E from strong storms that hammered areas near the old hometown of Cumberland MD and parts of Bedford Co. but NO rain or thunder here. 24: Overcast early then variable clouds, warm and humid. A near repeat of yesterday with severe thunderstorms to our south over Somerset, Bedford, Garrett & Allegany Counties but none here. Only .05" rain from a light shower from 8-9 this morning. 25: Partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy PM. A very localized shower formed over the area at 7pm & remained relatively stationary. Radar showed very heavy rains 1+" just to our west. No rain to our east or north. 0.25" at this station as light to moderate rain continued through 10pm. 26: Overcast & cool with slowly falling temperatures and steady light rain through the day .42" fell. 27: Overcast this morning becoming partly cloudy this afternoon. Thunderstorms in the area from 5 to about 6:30pm but again no direct hits as the storms did their usual act of breaking up as they approached from the SW. STRONG STORMS - HEAVY RAIN 28: Brief overnight shower (.01"). Mostly cloudy skies. Torrential downpours and storms narrowly passed to the S & E with downtown and parts of Southmont just a couple miles away getting dumped on...while this station only gets .02" rain! However some intense thunderstorms developed again over the area from 5-6:30pm with heavy downpours and sharp, at times very close lightning that caused brief power flickers. 1.15" rain by 6:30pm. Another strong storm about 9pm with rain tapering off by 11pm brought the total rain to 1.49" for the day. The storms caused wind damage to our northeast in the Portage area along with three sightings of funnel clouds, scattered power outages and some minor flash flooding with the county under a Flood Advisory all evening. 29: Overcast with drizzle and fog during the AM and early PM hours. Skies became partly cloudy late this evening with light NW winds 30: Mostly sunny and pleasant, increasing clouds this evening with NW breezes and gusts ~ 30 mph. 31: Partly cloudy gradually becoming mostly sunny with gusty NW winds continuing. A cool evening. MONTHLY SUMMARY May 2009 had an active weather pattern, with a progression from more general "steady" rain systems early in the month to a scattered shower and thunderstorm regime later in the month. Precipitation was relatively evenly distributed through the month, though most of it falling early and late. Many storms seemed to break up or barely pass by our area, especially to the south & east, but we did receive nearly 1.5 inches of rain from strong to severe thunderstorms on the evening of the 28th. This system caused some wind damage just to our northeast and minor flash flooding in the county. This storm event also pushed our precipitation above normal (5.63" vs. 4.31") for the month of May. Temperatures were slightly above for the month. We started off cool, with temperatures only in the 40s on the 5th, but a predictable warming trend with a hint of summer by mid-month, temperatures near 80 with humid conditions. Interestingly, the month's low and high temperatures were set only 3 days apart. There was a touch of frost on the 18th. Shortly thereafter, temperatures warmed into the upper 70s. The month finished on a somewhat cool note, after the cold front passage on the 28th. As per usual the past few months, in fact the past few years, it was the positive anomaly in the minimum temps that dominated and was responsible for the slightly above normal temperatures. Max temperatures were near or slightly below normal.