MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - LAVALE MD AUGUST 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 86 67 .34 Brief torrential downpour at 5am, became mostly sunny 2 80 67 1.37 T Midnight-6am training t-storms w/ heavy rain, then clearing 3 79 61 Mostly sunny 4 80 69 Mostly sunny, becoming partly-mostly cloudy late 5 80 65 Partly cloudy, humid 6 83 70 .14 Shower at 6am, partly to mostly cloudy 7 83 63 T Mostly sunny, becoming overcast w/ light drizzle late 8 77 63 Mostly sunny 9 76 64 Mostly sunny 10 76 56 Mostly sunny 11 72 59 Mostly sunny 12 76 61 Mostly sunny 13 80 56 .04 T Partly cloudy, evening light rain w/ thunder 14 74 61 .32 F,T Foggy w/ overnight shower, m. cloudy, PM light rain/thunder 15 73 58 .03 F AM fog & light rain, mostly cloudy 16 76 54 F Dense AM fog, then sunny 17 81 56 Mostly sunny 18 84 56 Mostly sunny 19 82 57 Mostly sunny 20 76 58 Mostly sunny 21 82 56 Mostly sunny 22 82 60 Mostly sunny 23 82 58 Mostly sunny 24 88 58 Mostly sunny, warm 25 84 66 Mostly sunny 26 77 59 Mostly sunny 27 68 60 .65 Overcast, intermittent PM rain becoming steady and heavy by night. 28 61 58 2.87 Steady rain, heavy at times from remnants of Tropical Storm Fay. 29 75 61 T Some early clouds and drizzle, PM clearing 30 80 63 .03 Overnight light showers, mostly cloudy, muggy 31 80 56 Mostly sunny, pleasant AVG/SUM 78.5 60.5 5.79 0.0 - EXT 88 54 2.87 - - Date 24 16 28 - - *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 69.5 F Year precipitation to date: 33.93" Season snowfall to date: 0.0" Number of days with: Fog 3 Thunder 3 DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES 1: A localized tropical downpour at 5am .34" fell in <10 minutes. 2: Training thunderstorms began at midnight and continued through 6am. The storms brought intense almost continuous lightning and heavy downpours totaling 1.37" which shatters the old Aug. 2 record of 0.34" set in 1993. This is also the most rain in an August day since 2.70" fell on Aug. 6, 2000(the current August record). 6: A morning shower from a dying MCS, some thunder and heavier rain to our N & NW 7-12: A generally fair weather period with mainly fair skies and slightly cooler temperatures 13-15: A more unstable airmass, brief heavy shower about midnight on the 13th-14th, some thunder. The .03" of rain on the 15th was a record, believe it or not. 16-26: Another fair weather period with seasonable temperatures, low humidity and pleasantly cool overnight lows. Monthly high temperature of 88 reached on the 24th. 27: Rain began in the afternoon, light and intermittent at first, then steadier and heavier towards midnight as the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay approach. 28: Rain much of the day, heavy at times especially overnight and this morning. More heavy downpours during the late afternoon/early evening hours. Rain tapered to drizzle by midnight. Cool high only 61 F. 2.87" of rain fell today, breaking the old August single-day record of 2.70" in 2000. A storm total of 3.52" of rain has fallen, the heaviest precipitation event of 2008 so far. This is also the heaviest rain in one day in almost 4 years since Frances dropped 4.36" on 9/8/2004. The heavy rain, however, was welcome, and there was virtually no flooding due to recent dryness. 29: Light drizzle/mist ended early this morning. 30: Light showers overnight, mostly cloudy, humid/muggy. Some clearing by mid evening. 31: Sunny, gorgeous day with deep blue skies, low humidities and light breezes to wrap up the final day of the Meteorological Summer. MONTHLY SUMMARY Despite a relatively dry weather pattern that left a lot of lawns parched in nearby areas, this ironically ended up being the wettest August in 17 years of records, with the monthly total of 5.79" beating the old record of 5.56" set just last year in 2007. Indeed this station had far more rain than almost any other station in the area, as it was right at the intersection of two heavy rain events - one on the 2nd from an MCS moving eastward, and the heaviest one, the remnants of Fay, which moved north-northeast through the area on the 27th-28th with a whopping 3.52 inches. 2.87" of rain fell on the 28th alone, beating out the 2.70" rain on Aug. 6, 2000 that caused major flooding in the western part of the county and the 2.55" of rain that fell on Aug. 17, 1994 from the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl, to set the new daily August record. It is the second heaviest summer rain day. That record was set on July 30, 2004, when 3.10" fell from training thunderstorms. In between the two heavy rain events, there were many days of sunshine and few days with any rain. August was on the cool side, with below-normal temperatures, particularly in the maximum temperature department. The monthly average temperature of 69.5 F ranks it the 4th coolest of 17 Augusts and was 2.3 F below the 17-year average of 71.8 F. The mean maximum of 78.5 F was the second coolest, just behind 1992 that had an average mean maximum of 78.3 F. This was also only the third August where temperature failed to reach 90 degrees. The warmest temperatures occurred during the first week and from the 17th-25th. There was a cool stretch from the 8th-16th and again during the heavy rain event from Tropical Storm Fay, when temperatures failed to climb out of the 60s on the 27th and 28th. In general, temperatures were relatively consistent with few extremes in either direction. The month ended on a pleasant note with a beautiful late-summer day on the 31st.