MONTHLY SUMMARY: AUGUST 1998 UPDATED: 9/20/98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...WIDESPREAD DRY CONDITIONS... ...HURRICANE BONNIE BRINGS EXCESSIVE RAINFALL TO COASTAL NC & SE VA... Despite the rains Hurricane Bonnie brought to the coasts of Northeast South Carolina, North Carolina, Southeast Virginia, and Virginia's Eastern Shore, most of the area was warm and very dry. The testimonies of our members best tell the story. So read on. Have enclosed an article forwarded to us by Paul Bassett focusing on the drought in Northern Virginia. By the way, as you submit articles, I consider their length and the timeliness of their subject matters. Can't get them all out but try to, holding some for future ACON reports. Enclosed are prints (sorry no color) of the Bonnie's path, a radar from the Internet as the eyewall began to move onshore between Cape Fear and Wilmington, and a satellite view of the system from GOES-8. In particular, it is worth mentioning here that Hurricane Bonnie certainly devasted coastal areas of North Carolina and Southeastern Virginia with heavy rains and hurricane force wind gusts. Also included are a report of highlights and pics summarizing the storm's impact on Southeastern Virginia reprinted from Norfolk's "Virginian-Pilot." As the storm exited the North Carolina Sounds and Outer Banks, very strong squalls developed over Southeast Virginia heading onshore from the east in the north-to-northeast quadrant of Bonnie. These squall bands continued unabatted for much of the late evening on the 27th. With the strong northeast and east fetch, flooding developed. Persistent wind gusts between 30 and 50 MPH occured during the late afternoon through midnight with a 104 MPH gust recorded at Cape Henry in the northern coastal area of Virginia Beach which signaled the rejuvenation of Bonnie to minimal hurricane force as she exited the North Carolina coast. Several stations- including our members' - reported wind gusts above 60 MPH. Greatest effects of Bonnie over Southeast Virginia included considerable tree damage from prolonged gusts, power outages leaving some folks without for 5 days, and the flooding of prone, low lying areas. Here are reports from our members: Jim Fentress, about 1/2 mile from Norfolk International Airport near the waterfront, reported 3.52" of rain associated with Bonnie. Dave Kessel in Hampton reported Bonnie, which reintesified near Virginia Beach early on the 28th produced a period of 12-16 hours of sustained wind gusts of 30 to 40 MPH with gusts over 60 MPH across the Peninsula (the Peninsula to which Dave refers is not the Eastern Shore peninsula but is across the harbor from Norfolk; see a map!). Nearly 3 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period. Bonnie had been forecast to weaken and pass further offshore. The only additional highlight for August was a thunderstorm on the 10th which produced 2.75" of rain in 30 minutes. From Newport News, Gary Leonard reports: Gusty fringes from Bonnie here with no major damage in my vicinity. (Editor's note: Newport News in on Dave Kessel's peninsula and to the north of Hampton but south of Williamsburg.) The storm also sent some much needed rain (2.10"). From Portsmouth, I guess we, along with Norfolk and Virginia Beach, really got as close to a hurricane as anyone would want. Of course, the people of Southeastern North Carolina really suffered the worst. Winds persistently gusted to above 50 MPH during the evening with a gust to 63 MPH at 10:17 PM. At the center's closest, the barometer here dropped to 29.526". Bands of squalls and the persistent gusts knocked power out at least 6 times (imagine trying to keep my website going with the PC constantly cutting off and on!). Fortunately, within 30 seconds of each power loss, switchers kept the power on here on my street. However, just three streets over (500 feet to the north, say) power was gone for 3 days! Many of the streets in northern Portsmouth near the harbor were completely under water. Rainfall here totaled 2.44" from Bonnie. Observed no thunder during these squalls and no tornadoes were reported. A much smaller Tropical Storm Danny produced more thunder and isolated tornadoes in 1997! NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Alexandria - Rick reports a "hot, dry, dull month! Hopefully, there will be more action in September." He also noted that Dulles and Washington National had their driest August in years with Dulles having the driest August on record!! Annandale - August was warm and very dry with only 0.81", the least in August since 1989. Departure was -2.30". The average mean temp 2.08 degrees in excess. August had 24 days with a max temp >= to 85 which was the most in the last 13 years! The month had the least number of cloudy days since 1995 and only 5 days saw measurable precip. Only 0.07" rain fell in the last 14 days and only 2 days brought thunder. The 30.36" barometric pressure reading on the 8th was the highest recorded in August since 1992. The 54 degree minimum on the 20th was the lowest August minimum sinces a 52 degree reading was recorded in 1994. The maximum wind for August of only 20 MPH on the 27th was the least wind max recorded since 1994. Arlington - NWS WBC reports that the monthly average temp was 0.9 degree in excess of the norm while precip totals were 3.32" below the norm. A record high of 97 was tied on the 25th and was also set on the same day in 1968. After a wet first half of 1998, the second half is heading for the drier side. Augst was the 3rd driest in Washington records which date to 1871. The driest was only a few hundredths away at 0.55" set in 1962. For the record, notes the office, August on average produces more rain than any other month of the year. The second driest August was in 1943 with 0.57". Bridgewater - August notes directly from the PC of Clayton Towers: The rainfall for the month was 3.02 inches, but this is a bit misleading. Most of it came in the middle of the month with one big splash. Very little rain fell during the first part of the month, and no measurable rain fell during the last fourteen days. Only one thunderstorm occurred during the month, and only two have occurred since July, the first. In the first six months of the year, there were twenty-four. Generally speaking, August was quite dry with very low humidity readings. There were ten days when the humidity was thirty per cent or below, and nineteen days when the humidity was forty per cent or lower. There's very little chance for thunderstorms to occur when the atmosphere is this dry. Centreville - "Dry? How dry was it?" ponders Paul. He replies that it was so dry a spider set-up home in his rainguage!! His total rainfall of 0.65" was equal to 4 1/2 ice cubes!! Just about right for a gin and tonic!!! (Editor's note: I can't stop laughing! The G&T is right up my alley of thinking here!!) Falls Church - The month was rather normal temperaturewise but below -by over and inch -in rainfall totals. Erica describes the month as "normal but dry." Fredericksburg - Another very dry and warm month according to Ken. The hoped-for rains from Hurricane Bonnie stayed south and east of us, except for a few sprinkles. The last 11 days of the month were very warm with the highs averaging 93.9 degrees with a high of 100 on the 24th. We have had just a little over 2" total rainfall the last 2 months after having over 25" the 1st 6 months of the year. Hampton - See introductory comments. Herndon - Bob Beall days August was his deiest in 22 years at his station. He also noted a pitiful crop of low grade shredded wheat in his yard. Herndon - Ross Topping says, "We sure could use some rain. The rain leftover from tropical systems missed us up here and the usual afternoon thunderstorms also eluded us." August was bone dry here. It was the driest on record. We've barely had 2 inches of rain through July and August. Many temperature records fell. We set new record highs on the 23rd, 24th and 25th and tied the record high on the 26th. New record lows were set on the 2nd, 3rd and 19th and the record low was tied on the 20th. Newmarket - A drier and warmer month than normal says Joyce. "Everything is dried up." Newport News - See introductory notes above. Norfolk - NWS AKQ reports that the 8.47" of rain was 3.66" above normal the monthly mean temp was 1.7 degrees in excess of normal. Portsmouth - Main comments included in introduction. However, station records include: high wind gusts on the 2nd of 23 MPH, on the 10th of 27 MPH, and the biggie on the 27th of 63 MPH courtesy of Bonnie; minimum high temps of 81 on the 4th; low temp max on the 8th of 76 degrees and on the 26th at 78 degrees; max temp highs of 96 on the 23rd, 95 on the 24th and 25th; precip daily with 1.98" on the 27th and 2.53" on the 29th. From the 26th to the 31st, a total of 5.07" fell. Interestingly, just 36 hours after Bonnie's exit here, an intense thunderstorm produced frequent vivid lightning and 2.63" of rain in just 2 hours late on the 29th! Unfortunately, the lightning zapped the port on my PC that connects my Davis Weather Monitor II and the computer. Have not been able to resolve PC conflicts since to reconnect with the monitor leaving me in "manual land!" Thus, no archived hourly readings here for a while! Also lost the mouse and almost the weather monitor itself. The latter was restarted from scratch and is working fine. Richmond - NWS AKQ reports the mean temp was 1/2 degree above normal while precip was 2.5" below normal. Mechanicsville - Strong thunderstorms with sharp lightning and downpours on the 9th. Downpours from tropical storm Bonnie on the 27th- Roanoke - NWS RNK (Blacksburg) Roanoke - Wendell says August was a hot month with temps 1.0 degrees above normal. Rainfall was 0.20" in excess of the norm and the month ended on a very dry note with no rain for the last 14 days. Stafford - Temperatures were 1.85 degrees above normal while precipitation totals were 1.00" below normal. Only a disappointing 0.02" of rain from Bonnie, some very weak winds here. Only 0.26" of rain since August 12th with drought conditions beginning to be experienced - notes from Danny Jessee. Washington - Dave says for his "notes section": "One word 'DRY'"! Woodstock - Lauck writes temps were above normal and precip was below normal! No noticeable effects here from Bonnie. At 2.94" of rain, this was the driest July/August I have recorded. Previous record was 3.80" in 1987 for the two month period. However, the 1987 summer (June/July/August) still holds the record low at 7.13" against 1998's 7.61" Asheville - The monthly mean temp was 1.4 degrees above normal and rainfall was 2.46" below normal. Brevard - Away from station 28-29th; cumulative rain was recorded for the two day period. August 1998 was another warm month, the mean high, 85.7 deg. F, was about 1.5 degrees higher than the mean for the previous eight years while the mean low, 61.9 deg., was 1 deg. lower than the mean low. Total rainfall recorded, 2.74", was the second lowest I have recorded in August, the lowest, 1.03", was recorded in 1997. The shortage of rain during the summer growing season, following an excess of rain during the early months of the year that delayed farmers planting their crops, has hurt local farmers. Lawns are developing patches of brown without irrigation. Charlotte - NWS GSP reports Charlotte was slightly cooler than normal with the average monthly temp some 1.2 degrees below normal. Rainfall was deficient by 0.91 inch. Greensboro - NWS RDU noted that the mean temp was 0.9 degree above normal and rainfall was 1.75" above normal. Henderson - No rain to speak of here in August. Earl would save us later with 2.87". August was typically hot, saith George. Raleigh - NWS RDU reported only one record temp was set this month with a record low of 54 on the 20th, breaking the old record by 5 degrees. There were 5 days in which the morning low was less than 60 degrees with the normal low for the month at 67.5 degrees. There were 12 days of 90 degrees or higher this month, 37 days since the summer began. Rainfall was above normal but 3.08" fell on just one night between the 16th and 17th. The monthly mean temp was 0.2 degree in excess of the norm while rainfall was 0.64" in excess. Raleigh - A rather dry month here, according to Bob Woodson, but with average temperatures. Precip was 2.52" below normal. Few problems here with Bonnie. There were a few power outages and a lot of businesses closed early in anticipation on the 26th. "Fran" is still fresh in everybody's memory. Bonnie was "no Fran" here. Roxboro - Only 1/3 of normal precip fell during August at Merriell's site. The month was mostly hazy, hot, and humid with dry conditions. Max and min temps averaged above normal while precip was well below normal. Wilmington - NWS ILM noted that after a pair of dry months, the Port City got more than its share with 6.34" in excessive rains, thanks to Bonnie. The month was the 7th wettest on record (1871). The average temp was 0.4 degree above normal. The month's low temp of 61 degrees on the 20th tied a record for the date set previously in 1886. A record max low was set on the 30th when the temp dipped only to 81 degrees, with the previous record 77 in 1937. Record max lows were tied on the 17th, 18th, and 29th. The city only received 48% of possible sunshine. Back-to-back incredibly breezy days were noted on the 26th and 27th thanks to Bonnie. The barometer dropped to a very low 28.63" on the 26th as Bonnie passed. Columbia - From NWS CAE: the average temp was 1.3 degrees above normal while rainfall was 2.57" below normal. Greenville/Spartanburg - NWS GSP Ruby - Franklin noted August was a relatively dry month. Two hurricanes, Bonnie and Danielle, brushed by but no rain was recorded from them. Tri-cities - The month's mean temperature was just 7/10ths of a degree above normal while precip was 1.03" below normal. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATED MEMBERS' E-MAIL ADDRESSES: (posted by permission) BRE Bob Keehn Bob_Keehn@citcom.net BRI Clayton Towers Ctowers@rica.net POR Bill Trotter wtrotter@whro.org RAL Bob Woodson woods@pipeline.com CEN Paul Bassett III pbassett@digizen.net WSH David Yowell deyowell@mnsinc.com FCH Erica Page erica@erols.com RMD Roy Britt rbritt@erols.com NEW Joyce Winfree joywood@shentel.net FRB Ken McKneely mckneelys@email.msn.com STF Danny Jessee tornado@tidalwave.net WOO Lauck Walton jwalton@shentel.net NPN Gary Leonard garleonard@aol.com -----------------------------------------------------------------------------