MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - LAVALE MD FEBRUARY 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 55 25 Mostly sunny, mild 2 36 30 .02 0.5 S Mostly cloudy, north wind, snow showers w/ some sleet 3 32 22 T Mostly to partly cloudy 4 27 15 Partly sunny 5 21 7 Partly sunny, cold 6 45 14 Partly to mostly sunny 7 62 38 Mostly sunny, mild 8 58 34 Mostly sunny, mild 9 52 27 Mostly sunny, mild 10 39 33 .36 Cloudy, occasional rain 11 69 39 .08 DW Variable clouds, mild, brief PM showers w/ very strong winds 12 48 34 DW Variable clouds, extemely windy, W wind gust measured 64 mph 13 43 33 Partly cloudy, moderate SW breezes 14 34 25 .02 0.1 T Mostly cloudy, light snow showers 15 36 26 Partly cloudy 16 35 25 T T T Partly cloudy, PM flurries, blustery 17 40 18 T Partly sunny 18 37 25 .46 0.2 T F,T,H AM snow to rain, thunderstorm with hail at 8:30pm 19 35 17 .01 0.2 Cold, blustery, snow showers 20 30 17 Partly sunny, chilly 21 40 17 Partly cloudy 22 32 28 T 0.1 Partly cloudy, snow late 23 32 21 .02 0.7 1 AM snow showers, gusty NW winds 24 36 15 T Partly sunny 25 47 17 Partly to mostly sunny, milder 26 57 33 .01 Brief pre-dawn shower, partly cloudy to mostly cloudy 27 59 38 .04 Mostly cloudy, few showers 28 37 31 Partly cloudy becoming mostly cloudy AVG/SUM 41.9 25.1 1.02 1.8 0.04 <--Mean EXT 69 7 0.46 0.7 1 Date 11 5 18 23 23 *=Also occurred on earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats Mean Monthly Temperature: 33.5 F Year precipitation to date: 3.80" Season snowfall to date: 18.3" Number of days with: Fog 1 Sleet 1 Thunder 1 Hail 1 Damaging Winds 2 SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 5: Cold low 7 F, high only 21. However a quick rebound on the 7th to a mild high of 62. 11: Line of severe showers and storms whips through this evening at 8pm with wind gusts up to 59 mph in the area, causing some wind damage and power outages. 12: Extremely windy all day. Sustained winds 30-40 mph with a west wind gust measured at 64 mph. The wind was clocked at 67 mph at the Cumberland Airport. These winds caused widespread wind damage--many trees and power lines down and a good bit of structural damage as well. Allegheny Power reported nearly 300,000 customers lost power at some point, an unusually high number. This was one of the windiest days in many, many years. 18: Snow changed to rain, and a rare winter thunderstorm with hail was observed this evening at 8:30pm. Some nearby mountain locations had significant ice accumulations. 23: Light lake effect snow showers overnight. Heavy accumulations in the mountains. 26-27: Mild again highs in the upper 50s. MONTHLY SUMMARY February was an up-and-down temperature month, with many (relatively dry) frontal passages leading to the temperature swings. The coldest and warmest temperatures were within a week of each other, ranging from a balmy 69 to a chilly 7. A wild cold front plowed through the evening of the 11th, bringing with it some of the strongest winds in many years. Winds gusted between 60 and 70 mph on the 12th, causing widespread, and in some areas, significant damage, and a very high number of power outages. Another spring-like system brought snow, ice, rain and even a thunderstorm with hail on the 18th...my first ever observation of hail in February in 18 years of weather observing. Besides all of this...February was very dry, with only about an inch of precipitation, ranking 6th driest in 62 years of records, and also had a lack of snowfall, with the little snow that fell coming in small increments - there were no organized, heavy or widespread snow events this month. Amidst all of the temperature variations, temperatures were slightly above normal, with a cold anomaly in the max temperatures and warm anomaly in the mins nearly offsetting each other.