September 2000 LaVale MD Weather Summary Observer Nate Mullins Special Observations: F=fog T=thunder H=hail DW=damaging wind S=sleet G=glaze Temperature, F Precip Date Max Min Liquid Solid Special Obs 1 83 63 T F,T 2 85 70 T 3 84 65 T T 4 81 57 T 5 70 42 6 73 45 7 75 51 8 77 55 T 9 82 56 T 10 85 62 .49 F,T 11 79 65 3.66 F,T 12 82 68 .03 F 13 72 51 .01 14 78 57 15 70 50 .17 T 16 64 48 .02 17 72 40 F 18 74 45 19 67 57 .16 F 20 85 58 F 21 71 52 .01 22 70 42 23 78 56 24 71 57 .03 25 59 46 1.95 F 26 55 45 .27 F 27 69 41 F 28 68 41 F 29 63 43 F 30 67 40 F 31 Tot 73.6 52.3 6.80 0.0 Ext 85 40 3.66 - Date 20+ 30+ 11 - Mean Monthly Temp 63.0 F Fog days 13 Thunder days 5 Significant Events 1: AM fog. Warm & humid. Strong storm just to the SE 3-5pm inched this way but dissipated before it reached this station. Only a trace of rain. 3: Warm & humid. T-storm just to S 4-5pm with loud thunder but no rain, another storm just to N around 8pm but only a few sprinkles of rain fell. 5: Clear & cool overnight. Mostly sunny, breezy, cooler & much less humid. 10: Partly cloudy, warm & humid. Heavy clouds built up around dusk. Thunderstorm between 10-11pm with frequent lightning and some heavy downpours .49" rain fell. Some fog developed by midnight. FLASH FLOOD! 11: Cloudy & foggy with a brief shower overnight .01" fell. Mostly cloudy hazy & humid. Rain and thunder began at 6:15 pm and the cell suddenly exploded overhead with wicked close frequent lightning, cracking thunder and buckets of rain. The storm was unreal. Every time it seemed the rain was tapering off, it would come crashing down again harder than before as the storm kept forming and re-forming in the same area and became stationary. 3.17" of rain fell in only 90 minutes, the most I have ever seen in such a short period of time. Another storm from 9:30-10:30pm brought the grand total to 3.66" today. Creeks and streets were severely flooded all over LaVale and Cumerland with many roads impassible. Over 3 feet of water rushed across I-68 in downtown, closing the interstate for over 3 hours. Many other major roads were closed throughout the city. Power was knocked out in many areas for an extended period of time. Cars floated through the streets of Cumberland and flood waters ravaged many homes and businesses. A large landslide along US 220. Nearly $2 million in flood damage was reported. This figure didn't include all of the damage to cars, roads, bridges etc. We were right on the very western edge of the storm much of the time. Areas within 2-3 miles to the west received a mere quarter-inch of rain, while areas just 1 mile to the south & east had 5+ inches of rain. A few other areas of the county such as Westernport were also hit very hard by heavy rains and flooding from this cluster of thunderstorms. Amazingly, only about an inch of water covered the lowest parts of our basement and we did not get a big basement flood as we have seen from a few other big storms dropping lesser amounts of rain. **See below the monthly summary for some official and unofficial rainfall totals from this tremendous storm** 12: Dense AM fog. Warm & humid again. Only a light shower this evening .03" fell. Breezy at times late. 15: Light overnight shower .01" fell. Variably cloudy. Temperatures dropped through the day. Thundershower with gusty winds 3-4pm total .17" rain fell. 16: Partly cloudy, cool & breezy. Brief afternoon shower .02" fell. 17: A cool overnight low 40 F with dense fog. 19: Light rain 10am-3pm from the remnants of T.S. Gordon .16" fell. Fog developed later this evening. 20: Dense AM fog then sunny & warm. Some faint "heat" lightning to W late. 21: Brief shower overnight .01" then partly to mostly sunny with strong winds and falling temperatures. COOL/HEAVY RAINS 25: Low clouds & fog throughout the day with rain 11am-1:30pm and heavy steady rains 3-9pm 1.86" fell by then. Drizzle and light rain through midnight total 1.95" for the day. Cool also with high only 59 F today. 26: Light rain & drizzle overnight and through mid-morning another .27" fell. 24-hour storm total 2.22". Cloudy, very cool, foggy by late evening. High temperature only 55 F. Some higher elevations to the east reportedly had some rare very early season snowflakes this morning. 30: A cool overnight low of 40 F. Sixth consecutive morning with fog. Summary: By far, September was the wettest month of 2000 with 6.80 inches. Two heavy rain events highlighted the month. On the evening of the 11th a thunderstorm sat overhead and dumped a whopping 3.66" of rain on this station and over 5 inches in some areas, causing severe flash flooding. The other event brought 2.22" of rain on the 25th-26th. Temperatures were near to slightly below normal, varying quite a bit throughout the month. Fog was common, occurring on 13 days. Some rainfall totals from the September 11th storm and flash flood event: Haystack Mountain 6.00" + Washington Street, Cumberland 5.25" C-street, LaVale 5.00" Cumberland Police Barracks (LaVale) 4.80" Allegany High School (Cumberland) 4.02" LaVale weather station 3.66" Cumberland official NWS 2.97" Savage River Dam (Garrett County) 2.31" Frostburg 0.85" Clarysville (only about 3 miles away!) 0.25" Additional notes/records 2: Record high min temperature of 70 F this morning 11: Smashing daily record rainfall 3.66" from an intense, stationary thunderstorm. A record 90-minute rainfall of 3.17" was logged from 6:15 to 7:45 pm. 4.80" fell at the Police Barrack station in LaVale. This is the 2nd heaviest rain ever in September. Only Hurricane Fran dropped more rain with a record 5.20" on Sept. 6, 1996. 12: Record high min 68 F. 25: Record rainfall for the date 1.95" fell. 26: Record low max temperature of 55 F. September 2000 was the 3rd wettest September on record with 6.80" of rainfall. At the Police Barracks, a whopping 8.14" of rain fell this month, ranking it 2nd wettest September there.