MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - LAVALE MD OCTOBER 2010 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 65 54 Partly cloudy 2 66 43 Partly cloudy 3 59 46 Partly to mostly cloudy 4 51 48 .20 Cloudy, periods of light rain 5 54 45 .05 Overcast, light PM showers 6 52 47 .08 Overcast, occasional brief showers 7 66 50 Clearing 8 72 45 Partly-mostly sunny 9 78 48 Sunny, warm 10 80 50 Sunny, warm 11 78 62 Sunny, warm - lightning to N late 12 72 55 Partly cloudy, mild early then cooling 13 68 47 Fair & mild 14 56 46 .14 Occasional brief showers 15 54 42 .09 Variable clouds, brief PM showers, windy 16 59 44 Partly cloudy, breezy 17 72 43 Mostly sunny, mild 18 58 41 .02 Mostly cloudy, brief late AM shower 19 58 47 .23 Predawn rain, PM clearing 20 58 36 F AM fog, cloudy 21 58 48 Fair, seasonable 22 55 43 Fair, seasonable 23 69 36 Cool AM, mild PM, fair 24 72 40 Partly sunny 25 68 50 .02 Mostly cloudy, brief PM showers 26 74 51 .14 F Heavy AM fog, PM shower, tornado watch 27 72 57 Mild, pleasant 28 69 43 Partly cloudy, gusty winds 29 49 45 Mostly cloudy, breezy, cool 30 60 32 Fair, AM frost & freeze 31 61 41 Fair, pleasant AVG/SUM 64.0 46.0 0.97 0.0 - EXT 80 32 0.23 - - Date 10 30 19 - - *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 55.0 °F (+1.8°F) Year precipitation to date: 31.87" (-2.43") Monthly precipitation departure: -2.01" Season snowfall to date: 0.0" Number of days with: Fog 2 NOTES/SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 4-6: Periods of light rain and showers, cool 7-12: Warm, mostly sunny & dry. Strong storms N of area on the night of the 11th-12th. 14-15: Occasional brief showers, NW winds gusted 35+ mph on the 15th 19: Light rain overnight 25-26: A few showers. Large systems again broke up as the approached from the SW. Tornado watch issued the evening of the 26th but no severe winds or storms, not much rain 28: NW winds gusting 15-30 mph 30: Late first freeze & frost MONTHLY SUMMARY After an exciting and very wet ending to September, October went back a very dry weather pattern, despite an average number of days with rain and many weather systems affecting the area. A cut-off low over the Ohio Valley brought light rains from the 4th-6th and cool temperatures. The following week, the 7th-13th, was warm and dry, with the month's high of 80 on the 10th. Strong thunderstorms repeatedly passed north of us on the night of the 11th- 12th. No rain fell here. More weak systems brought passing showers on the 14th-15th. More light rains fell on the 18th and early on the 19th. Relatively mild weather followed during the 4th week. In this time, multiple systems moving this way from the SW were forecast to soak the area with 1-2 inches of rain, but instead the systems evaporated as they crossed the mountains, with the heaviest rain and some severe thunderstorms to our N & W. Two more dry frontal passages followed on the 29th & 31st. The season's first frost & freeze didn't occur until the morning of the 30th, when the low nipped 32. The lack of any significant rainfall events in October led to a meager .97" monthly precip total. This did not reflect the relatively active (at times) weather pattern. Every- thing seemed to evaporate as it crossed the mountains. This was opposite to September, which was very dry but ended up very wet after 3.14" of rain fell from Tropical Storm Nicole on the 30th. Over 2.5" of that would have carried over to Oct. 1 with the 7am observation time used by most area COOP stations. In that case, October would have had about 3.6" of rainfall, about six-tenths above normal. As it stood with the midnight observation time, LaVale was probably the driest station in the state, except for the COCORAHS station at Creasaptown (about 6 miles SSW of this station) had only .90" of rain excluding the 2.07" carry-over from the Sep. 30 heavy rain event, and Cumberland's COCORAHS station had .92" excluding the Sep 30 carry-over. Temperatures were moderately above normal, owing mostly to the above normal min temperatures and the lack of any particularly cold readings. The first frost and freeze didn't occur until the 30th, when the low hit 32. There were no particularly cold max readings, either, despite the lack of any real hot weather either. October was the 8th consecutive month with above-normal temperatures. The last time we've had a streak like this was 13 consecutive months above normal from October 1990 through October 1991. 2010 could end up one of the warmest years ever, if we have a mild finish in November and December. Additional notes/records: 4th: Record low max 51 F breaking the record of 53 in 2003. 11th: Record high min 62 F tied with 1970. 27th: Record high min 57 F tied with 1977.