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Thursday, September 3, 2020

September 3, 2020

BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS ELEVATION 635 FEET, 10 MILES SSW OF BOSTON, MA THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 ALL TIMES ARE IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME IMPROVEMENT HARD TO COME BY AS WE HEAD INTO DAY 2 OF DREARY CONDITIONS… Early this morning at the base of Great Blue Hill, visibility was approximately 5-10 miles. On our ascent up the 635-foot summit, visibly suddenly closed in around 550 feet. At the top, visibility was 1/16 of a mile at best. As the morning progressed, the ceiling lifted just a little allowing us to see the waters of Boston Harbor and the western hills in our nearest vicinity. However, as the 1 PM observation approached, the ceiling lowered and we were once again socked in clouds and light rain. Temperatures responded briefly to some thinning/brighter overcast around late morning notching 74 degrees before the clouds and light rain returned. Temperatures have thus slipped into the upper-60s. Our sun card has yet to record any minutes of sunshine since Tuesday afternoon! Overnight rainfall coupled with yesterday’s measurements yielded 0.19 inches for our 24-hour total. Despite this, we are still running an annual precipitation deficit of -2.24 inches. Most other locations throughout the state are seeing more substantial deficients thanks in large part to a lack of widespread rain events. Rainfall this summer has been very convective and localized in nature. The current annual deficit at Bedford is -10.72 inches, Boston is -7.00 inches, and Worcester is -5.37 inches. A ‘lucky’ 12% of the state is “abnormally” dry, yet a whopping 52% is in a “moderate” drought, and 35% is in a “severe” drought (the state drought monitor is updated every Thursday). The highest wind gust so far today has been 23 mph from the south occurring just after midnight. 5 MPH has been the average speed thus far. The high so far today is 74F, 2 degrees below the daily normal max of 76F. The low since midnight is 70F, which is 11 degrees above the normal low of 59F. Today’s Observations: 7 A.M. Weather: Vertical Visibility 200 ft, Sky Obscured Temperature: 72F; Dew Point: 72F; Relative Humidity: 100% Wind: SSW at 6 kts (wind light) Sea-level pressure: 29.81 ins. Hg: rising then more rapidly Visibility: 1/16 mile, fog 6-hr Max temp: 72F 6-hr Min temp: 70F 24-hr Precip: 0.19 ins. BHO SA 1155 X W2 1/16F 095/72/72/2006/981/ WND LGT/ 8//// 53008 70019 10072 20070 10 A.M. Weather: Overcast Stratus (few stratus fractus distant SW-W) Temperature: 72F; Dew Point: 70F; Relative Humidity: 93% Wind: NNW at 7 kts Sea-level pressure: 29.82 ins. Hg: rising then falling Visibility: 20 miles, thin fog 3-hr Precip: 0.00 ins. BHO SA 1455 E15 OVC 20 097/72/70/3407/982/ FEW SF DSNT SW-W THN F ALQDS/ 8/6// 50002 1 P.M. Weather: Light rain (beginning @ 12:10 P.M.), Vertical Visibility 300 ft, Sky Obscured Temperature: 69F; Dew Point: 69F; Relative Humidity: 100% Wind: NNE at 5 kts (wind light) Sea-level pressure: 29.81 ins. Hg: falling then rising Visibility: 1/8 mile, fog 6-hr Max temp: 74F 6-hr Min temp: 69F 6-hr Precip: 0.02 ins. BHO SA 1755 X W3 1/8R-F 094/69/69/0305/981/ R-B10 WND LGT/ 8/// 55003 60002 10074 20069 SUMMARY FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2020 TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F) MAX…..69   NORMAL…..76 MIN…..59   NORMAL…..59 MEAN….64   NORMAL…..68 DEPARTURE FROM 30-YEAR NORMAL……………. -4 TOTAL DEPARTURE FOR THE MONTH……………. -4 [-2.2 DEGREES/DAY] COOLING DEGREE DAYS (SEASON JAN TO DEC) TOTAL COOLING UNITS FOR YESTERDAY…………  0  DEPARTURE……-4 TOTAL COOLING UNITS FOR THE MONTH…………  3  DEPARTURE……-5 TOTAL COOLING UNITS FOR THE SEASON………..760  DEPARTURE….+215 TOTAL COOLING UNITS LAST SEASON TO DATE……623  DEPARTURE….+137 PEAK GUST AND AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH) PEAK WIND GUST FOR YESTERDAY………………..23 SSE AT  2:15 P.M. AERO…………………….23 SSE AT  1:24 P.M. ASOS…………………….22 SSE AT  1:25 P.M. DAVIS……………………25 S   AT  1:09 P.M. RMY 24  MERLIN 22 FASTEST MILE FOR YESTERDAY………………….16 SSW AT 10:58 P.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE ASOS AVERAGE……………….16 SSW AT 10:58 P.M. MAXIMUM 2-MINUTE DAVIS AVERAGE………………17 SSE AT  1:43 P.M. AVERAGE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION…………..11.7 SSE ASOS…………………..11.1 DAVIS………………….11.8 SSE [161 deg.] PRECIPITATION (INCHES) THROUGH THIS MORNING (EST) TOTAL PRECIPITATION 24 HRS ENDING 7 A.M….0.19  DEPARTURE….+0.07 ASOS…………..0.20 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH……….0.19  DEPARTURE….-0.03 ASOS…………..0.20 TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE YEAR……….33.00  DEPARTURE….-2.24 ASOS………….33.78 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR AUGUST CALENDAR DAY DATA DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/PEAK GUST/AERO/RMY GUST AERO: Aerovane wind recording system gust RMY:  R.M. Young wind gust recording system TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day) ….: Data not yet available, records not finalized M:    Missing data 08/01  87/66/77/+5/0.00/866/100            18 S    AERO 21 S    RMY 19 08/02  85/69/77/+5/0.02/320/37             36 S    AERO 37 S    RMY 38 08/03  91/75/83/+11/0.00/715/83            36 WSW  AERO 38 SW   RMY 36 08/04  83/71/77/+5/0.21/094/11             67 SSE  AERO 71 S    RMY 70 08/05  90/68/79/+7/0.00/668/78             28 SW   AERO 30 SW   RMY 29 08/06  84/65/75/+3/0.00/701/82             20 W    AERO 17 W    RMY 19 08/07  79/65/72/0/T/136/16                 16 NE   AERO 16 NE   RMY N/A 08/08  83/64/74/+2/0.00/612/72             20 S    AERO 20 S    RMY 19 08/09  90/65/78/+6/0.00/661/78             26 SSW  AERO 26 SSW  RMY 26 08/10  94/69/82/+11/0.00/727/86            22 W    AERO 20 W    RMY 20 08/11  92/72/82/+11/0.00/708/84            31 SSW  AERO 35 SSW  RMY 31  TSTM 08/12  93/74/84/+13/0.00/647/77            22 SSW  AERO 22 SW   RMY 19 08/13  88/71/80/+9/0.00/528/63             18 ENE  AERO 18 NE   RMY 18 08/14  82/67/75/+4/0.00/618/74             23 ENE  AERO 23 ENE RMY N/A 08/15  67/62/65/-6/T/000/00                33 NNE  AERO 32 NNE  RMY N/A 08/16  69/62/66/-5/…./000/00             26 ENE  AERO 28 ENE  RMY 26 08/17  73/59/66/-5/…./339/41             25 NE   AERO 24 NE   RMY N/A 08/18  84/63/74/+3/…./784/95             23 W    AERO 23 W    RMY 24 08/19  81/59/70/0/0.03/526/64              26 W    AERO 28 W    RMY 27 08/20  80/56/68/-2/0.00/804/98             22 W    AERO 21 W    RMY 22 08/21  88/61/75/+5/0.00/719/88             28 SW   AERO 26 SW   RMY 28 08/22  85/66/76/+6/0.26/521/64             18 NNE  AERO 16 S    RMY 16 08/23  89/63/76/+6/2.21/552/68             60 WNW  AERO 53 WNW  RMY 58  TSTM HAIL 08/24  87/67/77/+7/0.00/493/61             18 S    AERO 18 S    RMY 19  TSTM 08/25  86/65/76/+7/0.01/492/61             35 NNW  AERO 37 NNW  RMY 35 08/26  74/56/65/-4/0.00/780/97             29 NW   AERO 32 NW   RMY N/A 08/27  68/57/63/-6/0.33/008/01             18 SSE  AERO 20 SSE  RMY 20  TSTM 08/28  80/59/70/+1/0.00/559/70             20 W    AERO 20 W    RMY N/A 08/29  74/65/70/+1/0.06/000/00             32 W    AERO 32 W    RMY N/A 08/30  75/57/66/-2/0.00/793/100            36 W    AERO 36 W    RMY N/A 08/31  75/54/65/-3/0.00/569/72             20 S    AERO 20 S    RMY 20 DAILY RECORDS FOR AUGUST 2020 8/23/20: DAILY RECORD HIGH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 89F, BREAKS PREVIOUS RECORD of 88F SET IN 1918, 1947, 1949, 1996 8/23/20: DAILY RECORD PRECIPITATION OF 2.21 INS, BREAKS PREVIOUS RECORD OF 2.09 INS SET IN 2010 8/23/20: DAILY RECORD PEAK WIND GUST OF 60 MPH, TIES PREVIOUS RECORD OF 60 MPH SET IN 1940 PRELIMINARY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR SEPTEMBER CALENDAR DAY DATA DATE: MAX/MIN/MEAN/DEP/PRECIP/SUN(MIN.)/SUN(%)/PEAK GUST/AERO/RMY GUST AERO: Aerovane wind recording system gust RMY:  R.M. Young wind gust recording system TSTM: Thunderstorm day (thunder heard some time during day) ….: Data not yet available, records not finalized M:    Missing data 09/01  76/59/68/0/0.00/…/..              22 SSE  AERO 21 SE   RMY 20 09/02  69/59/64/-4/…/…/..              23 SSE  AERO 23 SSE  RMY 24 09/03 The low since midnight iS 70F, the daily normal low is 59F DAILY EXTREMES Temperature and precipitation records back to 1885, and wind records back to 1940 (e = estimated): RECORDS FOR SEPTEMBER 3 HIGH 95F IN 1929 LOW 43F IN 1983 PRECIP 3.82 INCHES IN 1972 (TROPICAL STORM CARRIE) PEAK GUST 58 MPH NNE IN 1972 (TROPICAL STORM CARRIE) RECORDS FOR SEPTEMBER 4 HIGH 90F IN 1953, 1973 LOW 46F IN 1987 PRECIP 3.22 INCHES IN 1922 PEAK GUST 47 MPH SE IN 1966 TODAY’S REPORT PREPARED BY: Andrew Swanson