MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - LAVALE MD SEPTEMBER 2008 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 80 54 Mostly sunny 2 81 56 Mostly sunny 3 85 57 Mostly sunny 4 85 56 Mostly sunny 5 86 62 F AM fog, mostly sunny 6 75 68 .14 Occasional AM showers, clearing late 7 77 56 Partly to mostly sunny 8 79 54 Mostly sunny 9 72 63 .51 T Predawn heavy t-storms. Mostly cloudy, clearing late 10 70 54 Partly cloudy 11 68 60 Mostly cloudy 12 68 63 .49 Intermittent showers, briefly heavy at times 13 77 68 .04 Occasional light showers, very humid 14 86 70 Partly sunny, hot, very humid, breezy late 15 72 68 .03 Early light showers, breezy, winds shifting to NW 16 68 55 Mostly cloudy AM with partial PM clearing 17 72 50 F AM fog, then partly cloudy 18 71 51 Partly to mostly sunny 19 67 48 Partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy PM 20 65 50 Mostly cloudy AM, partly cloudy PM 21 72 52 F AM fog, then mostly sunny 22 72 52 F AM fog, then mostly sunny 23 70 55 F AM fog, then mostly sunny 24 72 47 F AM fog, then mostly sunny becoming mostly cloudy PM 25 65 51 Partly sunny early then mostly cloudy, winds from E 26 62 54 .21 F Cloudy, occasional showers AM & late PM 27 68 61 1.61 F,T Heavy t-showers overnight, cloudy, heavy evening rains 28 69 62 .20 F Rain ending, brief shower, PM clearing 29 69 57 Becoming partly cloudy 30 69 52 Mostly cloudy AVG/SUM 73.1 56.9 3.23 0.0 - EXT 86 47 1.61 - - Date 14* 24 27 - - *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 65.0 F Year precipitation to date: 37.16" Season snowfall to date: 0.0" Number of days with: Fog 9 Thunder 2 NOTES AND/OR SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 1-5: Fair conditions and warm. 6: Mostly light showers overnight from outer bands of Tropical Storm Hanna. Most of the storm tracked up the east coast with the heavy rain line stopping at the Allegany/Washington County line. Only .14" here but several inches of rain fell to our east in central Maryland. 9: Some strong early morning t-storms dropping a half-inch of rain. 0.51" sets a new daily record for September 9. Cold front passage - cooler temperatures PM. 12: Occasional showers of varying intensity. Much rain tracked just north and just south with 1+ inch totals at nearby stations in Bedford, Garrett and Allegany Counties. 0.49" rain still eclipses the 0.48" record set in 1996 for September 12. 13: Light showers, increasing humidity. 14: Warm, tropical humidity. Breezy PM. Not exceptionally windy here but some damaging winds in some nearby higher elevations. Winds were the result of a tight pressure gradient to the east Hurricane Ike as it raced up the Misssissippi River Valley and into Canada. 15: Light showers at daybreak. Frontal passage, cooler temperatures and wind shift to NW. 16-20: Cooler, seasonable temperatures, fair to partly cloudy weather, dry. 21-24: Four consecutive mornings with fog. WELCOME RAINS 26: Occasional brief showers. Heaviest rain began towards midnight. Fog especially on mountains. 27: Some heavy showers/storms overnight. Overcast through the day with intermittent light rain, becoming heavy at times again late this evening. 1.61" fell for the day. This is however not a daily record--the record for Sept. 27 is 1.74" in 2003 when severe thunderstorms plowed through the area, dropping quarter-size hail in parts of LaVale and causing flash flooding. 28: Rain ended overnight, with a brief AM shower, followed by partial PM clearing. Storm total 2.02", and was much needed after a couple of very dry weeks MONTHLY SUMMARY This was another mild September, with a mean temperature of 65.0 F, ranking it the 5th warmest in 17 years of records. 4 of the last 5 Septembers have had record or near-record warmth. Here are the top 5 mildest Septembers: 2005 (67.9), 1998 (67.1), 2004 (66.5), 2007 (66.4) & 2008 (65.0). Temperatures were fairly consistent, however, with a lack of extremes in either direction. The only notable anomaly was the 86 degree reading on the 14th. This was due to a strong southernly wind to the east of Hurricane Ike as it roared up the Mississippi River Valley. Although winds were relatively mild here, nearby higher elevations had some locally damaging wind gusts from the storm. The month's low temperature was only 47 F, the highest September extreme minimum in 17 years of record. There were only two lows below 50 F, and the diurnal variation was relatively weak, despite a fair amount of sunshine throughout much of the month. In the precipitation department, rainfall was below average, but not excessively so. Overall, preciptation in the county was near the long-term normals, with the highest montly amount of 4.00" recorded at Creasaptown's COCORAHS station. We missed much of the moisture from two major tropical storms: Hanna, which narrowly slid east of the mountains and dropped very heavy rains in the central part of the state on the 6th, and Ike, which passed well to the west after making landfall in Texas on the 13th and causing much damage. Sandwiched between these tropical systems were two frontal passages, a cold front on the 9th and a warm front on the 12th, each of which dropped about a half-inch of rain. About two-thirds of the month's rain fell from a slow-moving upper-level low that moved north from the Carolinas. A low-level fetch of moisture from the Gulf and Atlantic interacted with the east slopes of the mountains to produce heavy rains from the 26th-28th, with 1.61" falling on the 27th--about half the month's total rainfall of 3.23". Additional notes/records 6: Record high min 68 F 13: Record high min 68 F 14: Record high min 70 F 15: Record high min 68 F September 2008 had the 5th highest mean min temperature on record (56.9 F).