From: Robert Skilling To: Subject: BLUEHILL MA 291300 HI THN BKN 30 32/14/WSW09/3022F/LO 17 Date: Monday, January 29, 2001 1:11 PM BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02186 ELEVATION 635 FT. ABOVE MSL....10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA MONDAY JANUARY 29 2001 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.bluehill.org/ DAILY DISCUSSION....1 P.M. 1/29/2001 SOME LIGHT FLURRIES ON SATURDAY OTHERWISE QUIET WEATHER WEEK-END..... A few light snow flurries on Saturday dusted the ground with 0.1 inch of snowfall which melted down to 0.01. Most of this precipitation fell at mid-afternoon on Saturday. 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 1/2 degrees warmer than normal to date with a total departure of +46 degrees for 28 days. Precipitation totals 2.53 inches [ -1.33 INS.] 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 currently report 11 inches of total snow cover 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. 1/29/2001 MON BHO SA 1155 CLR 20 257/18/13/2709/029/ SC LYR OFFSHR NE-SE FEW CI ALQDS INVSN PRSNT THN FH ALQDS/ 8/501/ 4/011 51006 10021 20018 BHO SA 1455 CLR 15 260/26/15/2705/030/ FEW SC VCNTY STN CI LYR DSNT S-W HAZY THN K LYR W-NE/ 8/505/ 53002 BHO SA 1755 300 -BKN 30 232/32/15/2508/022/ FEW SC NW-NE LWR CI S-W LGT HAZE WND 21V28/ 8/506/ 58028 10031 20017 YESTERDAY OBS... 1/28/2001 SUN BHO SA 1155 CLR 30 167/23/15/3014G22/002/ FEW SC ALG/OFFSHR NE-SE FEW AC NE-E TOTAL NEW SNW PST 24 HRS 0.1 IN/ 8/540/ 4/012 51024 70001 10026 20022 BHO SA 1455 CLR 45 188/28/14/3014G23/009/ CUFRA FRMG/ 8/100/ 51021 RECORDS FOR JANUARY 29 HIGH 58 IN 1950 LOW -11 IN 1888 PRECIP 1.48 INS IN 1973 WIND 72 MPH NW IN 1973 RECORD FOR JANUARY 30 HIGH 60 IN 1914 LOW - 8 IN 1948 PRECIP 1.12 INS IN 1925 WIND 76 MPH WNW IN 1962 Robert Skilling