From: Robert Skilling To: Charlie Orloff (BHO) Cc: ; bOB Lautzenheiser ; Subject: BLUEHILL MA 251300 SCT 15 37/22/NNW10/2997F/LO 25 Date: Thursday, January 25, 2001 1:26 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA WEDNESDAY JANUARY 24 2001 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.bluehill.org/ DAILY DISCUSSION....1 P.M. 1/25/2001 STEEP TEMPERATURE INVERSION FOR 4TH STRAIGHT MORNING... Again this morning like the past three morning the low temperatures in the surrounding countryside were much colder than here at the summit. Norwood Airport reported a low of 13 degrees while here we had 25 degrees; some 8 degrees milder than normal for this date... LOW WIND SPEEDS THIS MONTH.... The average wind speed for January to date is only around 12 MPH. This is far below the average for the month which is up around 15 to 16 MPH. In addition, the peak gust for the month is below 50 MPH. On our official record, it's 43 MPH NNW on the 10th with 48 MPH on Aerovane. We looked back and could not find a January with such low winds dating back some 20 years. Of course, the month is not over so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. This is similar to November when we reported unusually low winds for the month. A look at the month reveals some interesting stats so far. Our minimum temperature for the month is 9 degrees (not at all cold for January). In fact, the highest January minimum in the past 30 years is 12 degrees recorded in 1990. If it does not get colder by month's end then we'll have the seconds highest monthly minimum for January in the past 30 years. On the other hand, our maximum for the month is just 41 degrees. Every year during the decade of the 1990's had January monthly maxima reaching at least 50 degrees! Three years had maximums in the 60's. The lowest January maximum temperature since 1970 is 42 degrees recorded in 1985. The month of January is averaging about 1 degree warmer than normal to date with a total departure of +33 degrees for 24 days. Precipitation totals 2.53 inches and is a half inch below normal. Snowfall for the month has totaled 19.6 inches and is running ahead of the monthly norm. The normal snowfall total for all of January is 15.4 inches. We report 12 inches of total snowcover this morning at the snow stake in the enclosure and this is very representative of snow depth here at the summit of the hill. TODAY'S MANUAL OBSERVATIONS... 7 A.M. /25/2001 THU BHO SA 1155 70 SCT 220 -BKN 10 142/28/18/2711/995/ SC LYR CLRG PST HR INVSN PRSNT THN FH ALQDS/ 8/509/ 4/012 53008 10031 20025 10 A.M. BHO SA 1455 CLR 10 157/31/20/3007/999/ FEW SC N FEW CI HAZY/ 8/501/ 51015 1 P.M. BHO SA 1755 35 SCT 80 SCT 15 151/37/22/3309/998/ FEW MDT CU HAZY VSBY WNW 20 E-SE 12 WND 28V36/ 8/230/ 58008 10037 20026 Robert Skilling