MONTHLY WEATHER OBSERVATIONS LAVALE MD SEPTEMBER 2004 OBSERVER NATE MULLINS Observations for this month taken by Charles Orlick and David Drewery 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 24-hour Rain Snow/ Snow Date Max Min Equiv Ice Depth Special Obs. 1 80 55 F 2 80 57 3 80 58 4 80 62 5 80 57 6 64 63 .04 7 75 63 .05 F 8 70 67 5.36 F 9 70 67 .39 F 10 79 59 11 74 54 F 12 78 58 13 79 60 F 14 75 57 15 66 64 .22 F 16 78 63 17 78 69 2.58 F 18 64 59 .28 19 72 46 20 71 43 F 21 77 46 22 82 51 23 82 52 F 24 80 57 F 25 79 60 F 26 72 59 27 73 60 .28 28 65 63 .92 F 29 71 60 30 74 57 Tot 74.9 58.2 10.12 0.0 - Ext 82 43 5.36 - - Date 23* 20 8 - - *=also occurred on one or more earlier dates Miscellaneous Stats: Mean Monthly Temperature: 66.6 F Year precipitation to date: 42.83" Season snowfall to date: 0.0" Number of days with: Fog: 13 Ice Pellets: 0 Glaze: 0 Thunder: 0 Hail: 0 Damaging Winds: 0 Notes/Significant Events 1: Light AM fog then mostly sunny with calm winds and warm temperatures. 5: Sunny early then becoming partly-mostly cloudy with variable winds to about 15 mph. 6: Cloudy and cool with drizzle all day. 7: Drizzle continuing on and off all day with fog on the mountains. A few weak peaks of sun. REMNANTS OF FRANCES TORRENTIAL FLOODING DOWNPOURS ALL-TIME RECORD RAINFALL 8: Rain from the remnants of Hurricane Frances began overnight and continued through the day moderate to heavy at times. Fog on nearby mountain ridges. Heaviest rains occurred between 5-8pm. Torrential downpours with rainfall rates over two inches per hour at times as heavy showers and storms tracked over the same area. Over 3 inches fell in only 3 hours. Showers continued through midnight. A total of 5.36" fell for the day breaking the all-time record set by Fran on Sept. 6, 1996. Major flash flooding occurred in the area with roads and bridges submerged and some roads washed out, mudslides, downed trees and power lines, streams out of banks and numerous flooded basements. The extreme western and extreme eastern portions of the county were hardest hit with 6-8" in both areas. Many tornadoes also occurred to the S & E of the area in MD and VA. 9: A few more showers overnight another .39" fell by 9am. Remained mostly cloudy and cool. 24-hour storm total 5.75" which is also an all-time record. 10: Warmer with partly cloudy skies and a high of 79 F. 11: Dense AM fog and cooler low 54 F. Clear after fog lifted then partly cloudy during the afternoon. 15: Rain 5-7:30am then drizzle through noon .22" fell. Remained cloudy with light east winds. REMNANTS OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE SEVERE FLOODING AND HIGH WIND 17: Rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan began early this morning about 5am and continued through the day. Rain was mostly light to moderate but the torrential downpours began around 5pm and continued on and off through 11pm. About two inches fell during the six-hour period and a total of 2.58" fell by midnight. Severe and widespread flash flooding occurred with streams out of banks, roads and bridges washed out and/or damaged, trees and power lines down, and dozens of cars, homes and businesses heavily damaged. Some evacuations and even some rescues took place. Portions of LaVale turned into a river and parts of nearby Mount Savage were devastated. Some areas of the county reported six inches of rain. A tremendous number of tornadoes were reported just to the north, south and east in PA, MD, WV and VA. 18: Rain gradually tapered off overnight another .28" fell by 7am. Storm total 2.86" from Ivan. Remained mostly cloudy through the day and windy with some partial clearing late. Winds were sustained 20-30 mph from the NNW with estimated gusts to 50 mph. 19: A clear cool morning low 46 F and brilliant sunny day with pleasant temperatures. 20: Early morning valley fog and cool, otherwise sunny and pleasant again. 22: Warm high 82 F. 23: Again warm high 82 F. Early AM fog then mostly sunny with scattered cirrus clouds. REMNANTS OF JEANNE 27: Became cloudy. Showers this evening from the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne 8pm-midnight .28" fell. 28: Light rain overnight became moderate to heavy during the early-mid morning hours. Rain tapered to drizzle by 12pm ending by late afternoon another .92" fell since midnight. Fog and calm winds. A bit of minor flooding with streams and rivers running high but this area pretty well dodged the bullet this time as the very heavy rains narrowly passed to the south & east. 2-4 inches fell in the eastern half of the county and some parts of MD and DE reported 5-8 inches as well as severe storms and tornadoes. Summary: The names Frances, Ivan and Jeanne pretty well sum up September's weather. While we narrowly dodged the bullet from Jeanne, the first two storms produced tremendous amounts of rain and caused the worst flooding in the area since 1996. The western portion of the county was hit hardest with some areas devastated. Frances dumped an incredible 5.75" of rain on the 8th-9th, an all-time record, and Ivan brought another 2.86" as well as high winds and numberous tornadoes in adjacent counties. The terrible trio of hurricanes made September 2004 the wettest month ever (since 1992) with an amazing 10.12 inches, just beating out September 1996 when 9.76" fell, including 5.20" from Hurricane Fran. Ironically most days of the month were quiet with abundant sunshine, low humidity, and pleasant temperatures. Overall temperatures were on the warm side, with no extremely warm or cold weather and little variation in temperature. Fog was common, occurring on 13 days.