MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA OCTOBER 2011 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 44 38 38 .63 F 2 40 34 36 1.21 T 0 F 3 49 36 47 .39 0 F 4 55 46 51 .05 F 5 69 48 53 6 69 41 51 7 76 43 53 F 8 80 46 55 9 84 46 57 10 71 46 57 11 69 46 59 T 12 59 52 54 .19 13 64 54 57 .28 T 14 59 47 48 .71 F 15 57 46 50 DW 16 65 47 49 .34 17 62 44 54 .34 18 69 46 58 19 62 49 49 .12 20 49 40 40 .18 T 21 43 39 41 .13 F 22 51 38 38 23 64 30 46 frost 24 56 41 46 .11 25 62 42 46 26 62 44 57 .16 F 27 57 32 32 .71 F 28 41 28 32 .02 0.2 29 33 30 30 .88 10.8 3 30 41 27 32 7 31 45 30 39 T 5 AVG/SUM 58.3 41.2 46.9 6.45 11.0 0.5 (avg) EXT 84 27 59/30 1.21 10.8 7 Date 9 30 11/29 2 29 30 *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 49.7°F (-1.3°F) Year precipitation to date: 56.34" (+15.63") Monthly precipitation departure: +3.18" (normal October 3.27") Season snowfall to date: 11.0" Number of days with: Fog 9 Thunder 2 Damaging Winds 1 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES COLD RAIN MIXES WITH EARLY SNOW FLAKES 1: Drizzle & light fog overnight. A cold steady light rain fell all day and evening .63" by midnight. High only 44 F, low 38. 2: Steady moderate rain overnight, mixing with wet snow this morning, no accumulation at this location but nearby higher elevations had measurable snow up a few inches. High struggled to 40. Periods of light to moderate rain all day, tapering to drizzle after sunset. 1.21" of total precip today. Oct. 2 is quite early to see snow, even here. 3: Another chilly dreary day with occasional rain showers, low clouds & fog/haze, temps did slowly rise through the day but still failed to climb out of the 40s, high 49. 4: Clouds, fog & drizzle through the morning. Temperatures rose slowly with occasional breezes from the NW. A few late afternoon rays of sun, partly cloudy this evening. FAIR, WARM WEATHER - FINALLY 5: A few early clouds, then clear, sunny & much milder, little wind, finally a nice day! 6: Cool overnight low 41, sunny & pleasant with light breezes, high 69. 7: Dense AM fog, slowly lifting by late morning then sunny, warm, mostly calm afternoon. 8: Another warm, sunny cloudless day with light breezes, high reached 80. 9: Sunny with passing high clouds, light winds, very warm high 84 F. 10: Mostly cloudy, the clouds kept temps down with a high of 71. 11: 4th consecutive low of 46. Partly cloudy early, then mostly cloudy and again cooler than forecast, high 69 F. Again little to no wind. A few late PM sprinkles. 12: Cloudy, occasional light showers, only .19", nowhere near the forecast for heavy steady 1-2 inches of rain. Also 3rd straight day temps were cooler than predicted. 13: Steady temps overnight, cloudy all day with a few peaks of sun, a brief thunderstorm around 9pm then occasional showers through the evening .28" rain. 14: Variable clouds overnight, rain resumed shortly before daybreak and continued through 11:30am heavy at times, becoming windy. A quite variable afternoon with gusty winds, a couple brief downpours with sun mixed in .71" total. A cool, blustery evening. 15: Mostly cloudy AM, partly cloudy PM, cool and very windy with west winds gusting to 40 mph, brought down tree limbs and knocked about half the leaves off the trees. 16: Partly cloudy, a bit milder and still windy with WSW winds gusting to 30 mph. Some heavy rain late this evening mostly 11pm-midnight .34" fell by then. 17: Heavy rain early overnight, gradually tapered off by 3:30am, another .34" for a storm total of .68". Skies quickly cleared by daybreak with breezy & blustery conditions. Clear sunny day and continued windy and a bit chilly. Some partial evening clouds. 18: Partly cloudy overnight and through the morning, mostly cloudy PM, milder & calmer. 19: Cloudy with only occasional peaks of sun, still somewhat mild, became breezy & colder this evening, some brief showers around 10:15pm but most of the rain was to the east. 20: Several claps of thunder shortly after midnight, some brief showers, turning cooler, occasional drizzle during the day and becoming windy & blustery. 21: Continued cloudy, chilly & blustery with periods of light rain and drizzle all day. Low clouds & some fog. Temps struggled into the low 40s. 22: Another cool day with clouds slowly decreasing through the day, a clear crisp evening. 23: A late 1st frost & freeze this morning - clear skies with a low of 30. A sunny mild day with the high rebounding to 64, some later PM high clouds, little wind. 24: Variable clouds overnight and through the AM with a few sprinkles, occasional PM rain showers, mostly cloudy, breezy. 25: Clearing overnight and a mild sunny day with light NW breezes. Mild, fair evening. 26: variable clouds with brief rain showers around 8am and 8pm this evening. Breezy at times, still a bit mild. 27: Mild overnight with occasional rain. Light to occasionally moderate rain and drizzle with low clouds & fog, strong NW breezes & falling temps all day to 32 F by midnight. ***RECORD-SHATTERING EARLY SEASON SNOW STORM*** 28: A chilly AM and remaining very cool with some morning sun giving way to mostly cloudy skies. Light snow late evening stuck mostly to elevated surfaces, 0.2" on snow board. 29: Snow overnight. Light early, gradually becoming moderate another 3.0" by 7am. Snow continued heavy at times through the morning and mid-day, tapering to light snow and ending during the evening. 7 inches fell in 6 hours from 7am-1pm with another 0.8" of accumulation before the storm ended. Much of this afternoon's snow melted as it fell. Storm total 11.0", 10.8" today. I have never seen this much snow in October before. In fact, tornadoes are more likely to hit Johnstown than an 11" October snow! Wow!!! 30: Overcast and cold this AM with a low of 27, 7" of snow on the ground at 7am, rapid clearing by noon with sunny PM skies and some snow melt, still chilly high 41 F. 31: Increasing clouds overnight, cloudy all day with little wind and a few PM sprinkles. MONTHLY SUMMARY October was another memorable 2011 weather month. It followed suit of the previous two months and the overall 2011 trend towards much above normal precipitation. This was the wettest October out of 8 since this station's records commenced August 2004, with 6.45" of precipitation, nearly twice the average of 3.27". This followed the wettest September on record. The most substantial events were at the beginning and again near the end of October. Heavy rains, totaling well over 2 inches, fell the first 3 days. On the 2nd, a historically early measurable snow fell on the ridge tops, with over 2 inches snowfall at the highest elevations. Wet snow flakes fell for several hours at this location as well but did not accumulate. After a spectacular recovery to Indian Summer like temps in the 80s and a week without rainfall, the remainder of the month, from the 12th on, light to moderate rain events were quite frequent. The obvious highlight, however, was the final event - not a rain event, but instead a Nor-Easter that brought historic amounts of snow to much of the state. 11.0" of snow fell here from this storm, 10.8" of that on the 29th. Isolated amounts over 1 foot occurred at the higher elevations of the Laurel Highlands, the south-central mountains and the Poconos in the northeastern part of the state. Snow records for October were shattered all over the place, even in many valleys and lower elevations. Many of these areas had not even seen measurable snow in October for decades. The 11" here in Westmont was one of the higher totals and was more than originally forecast. The heavy wet snow downed trees and power lines throughout the area. October was the first month since March with below normal temperatures. The temperatures were skewed downward significantly during the cold-core precip events early and late. The first 3 days failed to climb out of the 40s, as did all of the final four days. The high the 29th, when we were hammered with heavy snow, was only 33, one of the coldest October max temperature readings on record. However, there were a few very warm readings, which occurred early in the month, immediately following the first stretch of cold weather. The 8th and 9th had highs of 80 and 84, respectively. There were 2 days in the 80s, 2 in the 70s, 11 in the 60s, 7 in the 50s, 8 in the 40s and 1 in the 30s - quite a variation and a somewhat bimodal distribution. Lows, on the other hand, were fairly consistent, with mainly 40s for the first two-thirds of the month. Ironically, despite the cold and snow, the first frost and freeze didn't occur until the 23rd, continuing the recent tendency towards abnormally late first frosts and freezes. Following a strong cold frontal passage on the 27th, all of the final 5 days had sub-freezing low temperatures. Fog occurred on 9 days, thunder twice, and October was very windy at times, with damaging wind on the 15th.