Monday, October 28, 2024

BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY
MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS
ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA

MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024
ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST)
SUNRISE: 0613E
SUNSET:  1642E

MAINLY CLOUDY THIS MORNING, WITH CLOUDS THINNING BY EARLY AFTERNOON,
HOWEVER REMAINING COOL AND DRY….

A lot of low and mid level clouds moved through this morning as a
weak cold front pushed through the area. Even a few light rain and
snow showers moved across northeast Massachusetts early this
morning, seen as virga from here at Blue Hill.

The other story is the amount of low level smoke that was in the air
this morning from various rather large brush fires. There are at least
2 fires to the north of Boston, and there are two to the south of here
in Canton. With the northerly wind, the smoke we’ve been observing
obscuring the visibility at times has been coming from the fires off
to the north of the city.

With very dry conditions continuing, the risk for fire will remain
elevated, however the good news for today is that the winds have gone
light. Regardless, rainfall is a whooping 4.24 inches below normal
for the month to date, and over 7 inches below normal for September
and October combined! There will be a chance for a few light showers
a couple of times this week, but it likely won’t amount to much and
certainly won’t have any impact on the worsening drought conditions.

Temperatures today are on the cool side with readings only reaching
the upper 40s early this afternoon. This is a solid 6-8 degrees below
normal for this time of year. The dew point has been hanging around
in the low 30s, so the air isn’t quite as dry as it was yesterday.

As mentioned, the wind has been northerly all day, but the speeds have
been decreasing since early this morning, becoming quite light by
early this afternoon. The average speed for the day so far is around
8mph, but has been generally 6mph or less over the last 3-4 hours. The
peak gust for the day is 18mph, which occurred just before 2am this
morning.

Overall the visibility has been improving through the day. The
prevailing visibility was 40 miles early this morning, but has improved
to around 70 miles by early this afternoon. However, we had varying
sector visibilities this morning due to the smoke, getting down as
low as 4 miles to the south, and 10-15 miles in the northerly sectors.
The smoke is having much less of an impact on visibility early this
afternoon thankfully.

The maximum temperature so far today is 49F, which is 8 degrees below
the normal high of 57F. The minimum temperature since midnight is 36F,
which is 4 degrees below the normal low of 40F.

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Today’s Observations:

7 A.M.
Weather: Broken stratocumulus, broken altocumulus, few lower stratus
fractus distant NNE-S, smoke layer S-W-N, smoke plumes S
Temperature: 38F; Dew Point: 30F; Relative Humidity: 71%
Wind: NNE @ 8G13 kts
Sea-level pressure: 1031.9 mb; 30.47 in. Hg: rising, then more slowly
Visibility: 40 miles, 4 miles S, 10 miles W-NNW, hazy
6-hr Max temp: 42F
6-hr Min temp: 36F
24-hr Precip:  0.00 inches
BHO SA 1155 E25 BKN 120 BKN 40 319/38/30/0208G13/047/ FEW LWR STFRA
DSNT NNE-S VIRGA DSNT NNE-NE K LYR S-W-N K PLUMES S VSBY 4 S 10 W-NNW
HAZY/ 8/550 51026 10042 20036

10 A.M.
Weather: Broken altocumulus, few stratocumulus all quadrants,
smoke layer distant NNE-ENE, smoke plumes S and plume distant N
Temperature: 44F; Dew Point: 30F; Relative Humidity: 57%
Wind: N @ 4 kts, wind light and variable
Sea-level pressure: 1033.2 mb; 30.51 in. Hg: rising, then more slowly
Visibility: 60 miles, 15 miles NNE-NE
3-hr Precip: 0.00 inches
BHO SA 1455 E110 BKN 60 332/44/30/0104/051/ FEW SC ALQDS K LYR DSNT
NNE-ENE K PLUMES S AND PLUME DSNT N VSBY 15 NNE-NE WND L/V/ 8/550 51013

1 P.M.
Weather: Scattered altocumulus, thin scattered cirrus, few stratocumulus/
standing lenticularis all quadrants, smoke layer distant NNE-ENE, smoke
plume S and distant N
Temperature: 48F; Dew Point: 32F; Relative Humidity: 53%
Wind: NNW @ 3 kts, wind light and variable
Sea-level pressure: 1032.0 mb; 30.48 in. Hg: steady, then falling
Visibility: 70 miles
6-hr Max temp: 49F
6-hr Min temp: 44F
6-hr Precip: 0.00 inches
BHO SA 1755 100 SCT 250 -SCT 70 320/48/32/3303/048/ FEW SC/SCSL ALQDS
K LYR DSNT NNE-ENE K PLUME S AND DSNT N HAZY WND L/V/ 8/551 58012
10049 20044

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SUMMARY FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2024

TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)
MAX…….53  NORMAL…..57
MIN…….36  NORMAL…..40
MEAN……45  NORMAL…..49

DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR (1991-2020) NORMAL……………-4
TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH……………………..+65 [+2.2 DEGREES/DAY]

HEATING DEGREE DAYS (SEASON: JUL 2024 THRU JUN 2025)
TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY……………20  DEPARTURE……..+3
TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE MONTH…………..256  DEPARTURE…….-69
TOTAL HEATING UNITS FOR THE SEASON………….326  DEPARTURE……-116
TOTAL HEATING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE……..295  DEPARTURE…….+31

COOLING DEGREE DAYS (SEASON: JAN 2024 THRU DEC 2024)
TOTAL COOLING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY…………….0  DEPARTURE………0
TOTAL COOLING UNITS FOR THE MONTH…………….4  DEPARTURE……..-3
TOTAL COOLING UNITS FOR THE SEASON………….761  DEPARTURE…….+84
TOTAL COOLING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE……..711  DEPARTURE…….+50

PEAK WIND GUST (MPH):
Note: Instruments designated #1 = Main Tower, #2 = South Tower,
F420C, Contacting, Merlin, and Richards are all on Main Tower.
E=Estimated

F420C (Official)………..28 W    @   03:27 P.M.
VECTOR #1 (1-Sec)……….29 WNW  @   02:19 P.M.
VECTOR #2 (1-Sec)……….30 WNW  @   01:48 P.M.
DAVIS #1……………….31 W    @   03:27 P.M.
DAVIS #2 ………………28 WNW  @   02:19 P.M.
RMY #1 (Instantaneous)…..30 W    @   03:00 P.M.
RMY #2 (Instantaneous)…..30 WNW  @   02:18 P.M.
MERLIN…………………27 WNW
RICHARDS (C5C) (Inst)…..OTS

FASTEST MILE:
CONTACTING ANEMOMETER/OFFICIAL………………23 WNW  @   02:20 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE VECTOR #1 AVERAGE…………..21      @   03:05 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE VECTOR #2 AVERAGE…………..21      @   03:04 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS #1 AVERAGE……………22 W    @   03:05 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS #2 AVERAGE……………21 W    @   03:05 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE RMY #1 AVERAGE……………..20 W    @   03:05 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE RMY #2 AVERAGE……………..21 W    @   03:05 P.M.
MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE RICHARDS (C5C) AVERAGE……..OTS

AVERAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION:
CONTACTING/OFFICIAL……..11.5 W [277 total miles] VECTOR #1………………11.3
VECTOR #2………………11.9
DAVIS #1……………….11.7 W
DAVIS #2……………….11.8 WNW
RMY #1…………………10.0 WNW
RMY #2…………………11.6 W
RICHARDS (C5C)………….OTS

PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST):
TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M……..0.00 DEPARTURE…..-0.18
TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH…………..0.53 DEPARTURE…..-4.24
TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR (2024)…….43.57 DEPARTURE…..+0.13

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PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR OCTOBER CALENDAR DAY DATA
DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SUN(MIN)/SUN(%)/PEAK GUST/VEC1/RMY GUST
PEAK GUST: F420C (Official)
VEC1: Vector #1 1-second gust
RMY:  R.M. Young #1 wind gust recording system (Instantaneous)
TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day)
….: Data not yet available, records not finalized
M:    Missing data

10/1   66/55/61/+3/T/134/19               28 ENE VEC1 28 ENE RMY 29
10/2   66/52/59/+1/T/252/36               21 ENE VEC1 20 ENE RMY 20
10/3   72/52/62/+5/0.00/592/85            23 S   VEC1 23 S   RMY 23
10/4   74/54/64/+7/0.00/452/65            23 SW  VEC1 22 SW  RMY 22
10/5   72/52/62/+5/T/457/66               24 NNW VEC1 23 NNW RMY 24
10/6   65/47/56/0/0.00/655/95             20 SE  VEC1 19 SE  RMY 18
10/7   60/51/56/0/0.27/021/03             29 SSE VEC1 29 SSE RMY 31
10/8   64/45/55/0/0.00/663/97             21 NW  VEC1 21 NW  RMY 21
10/9   64/46/55/0/T/639/94                24 W   VEC1 23 WNW RMY 23
10/10  60/42/51/-4/0.00/616/91            36 NW  VEC1 36 NW  RMY 38
10/11  67/40/54/0/0.00/635/94             28 WSW VEC1 27 WSW RMY 27
10/12  71/48/60/+6/0.00/652/97            44 NW  VEC1 43 NW  RMY 45
10/13  50/44/47/-7/0.20/007/01            32 ENE VEC1 32 ENE RMY 30
10/14  51/38/45/-8/0.06/000/00            35 NW  VEC1 34 WNW RMY 36
10/15  55/35/45/-8/0.00/617/93            31 W   VEC1 30 WNW RMY 31
10/16  56/38/47/-5/0.00/615/93            32 NW  VEC1 31 NW  RMY 32
10/17  54/35/45/-7/0.00/421/64            22 NE  VEC1 22 NE  RMY 20
10/18  59/40/50/-2/0.00/656/100           28 NNE VEC1 28 NE  RMY 27
10/19  72/46/59/+8/0.00/653/100           20 WSW VEC1 19 WSW RMY 19
10/20  76/47/62/+11/0.00/650/100          21 WSW VEC1 22 WSW RMY 23
10/21  82/52/67/+16/0.00/628/97           25 WNW VEC1 25 W   RMY 26
10/22  74/58/66/+16/0.00/632/98           18 WNW VEC1 17 WNW RMY 17
10/23  78/53/66/+16/0.00/571/89           35 SSW VEC1 35 SSW RMY 36
10/24  70/47/59/+9/T/…/..               26 NNW VEC1 26 NNW RMY 26
10/25  61/40/51/+2/0.00/…/..            20 NNW VEC1 21 NNW RMY 20
10/26  64/43/54/+5/0.00/…/..            37 W   VEC1 39 W   RMY 41
10/27  53/36/45/-4/0.00/…/..            28 W   VEC1 29 WNW RMY 30

10/28 The low since midnight is 36F, the daily normal low is 40F.

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OCTOBER DAILY RECORDS TO DATE

10/21 RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 82F, OLD RECORD WAS 79F IN 1979

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DAILY EXTREMES
Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and
wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated)

RECORDS FOR OCTOBER 28
HIGH 81F IN 1919
LOW 23F IN 1914
PRECIP 2.46 INCHES IN 2006
SNOWFALL TRACE IN 1891,1934,1957,1979
PEAK GUST 71 MPH SSW IN 1995

RECORDS FOR OCTOBER 29
HIGH 74F IN 1989
LOW 23F IN 1891
PRECIP 2.42 INCHES IN 2012
SNOWFALL 4.0 INCHES IN 2011
PEAK GUST 76 E IN 2012

TODAY’S REPORT PREPARED BY: Matt Douglas