MONTHLY SUMMARY: JANUARY 1998 UPDATED: 2/21/98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- By now, it's quite clear that El Nino has had a tremendous impact on the United States this winter. In our region, liquid precip has reached record and above-record levels. Just look at those precip totals for January 1998!! Temps have been above normal all of January and now well into February. The zonal flow has continued and winter's cold- rather impressive I might add- is bottled-up in Canada, moving west to east there with few intrusions into the United States. Imagine it is safe to say that winter around these parts is a "wash-out/snow-out" this year. Now those of you who were on the western edges of low pressures and the nor'easters which affected us all did pick-up some rather hefty snowfalls, but these were not typical Mid-Atlantic/SE US winter snows. Actually, much was the result of supercooling in specific columns of the atmosphere associated with vortices as they moved through the eastern half of the country. Think of it as localized down drafts sucking cold air from aloft creating pockets of wet snow with surrounding areas, having even cooler surface temps, continuing with rain. Personally, I have never seen so many outbreaks of such snowfall, occurring from Louisiana to central North Carolina to the mountains of our region. I will include a surface map indicating such a scenario giving the Raleigh-Durham area nearly 4" of wet snow on January 19th! Spacing here just is not adequate to cover the late January (27-28th) nor'easter which affected much of the region. Heavy rains, winds gusting to near 70 MPH, and tidal flooding inundated the coastal regions while portions of western North Carolina and Virginia saw their greatest snows of the winter with some higher elevations of Virginia approaching 3 foot depths! The storm's center moved east-northeast across southern NC then turned northeast moving along the state's coast to just east-southeast of southeastern Virginia. Lowest surface pressure I observed was near Wilmington at 29.02" And to think, an even greater, more devastating coastal nor'easter was to follow the next week in February!!! More on that next month. Please note several changes in our email address list below AND PLEASE check and recheck your data before mailing it off or sending via e-mail! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Arlington - After a fairly typical December, January was anything but typical! With warm temps, heavy rainfalls, and the lack of snow, the month always had something interesting for the DC area. January began almost 10 degrees below normal on New Year's Day. That was not a sign of things to come! With the exception of the 1st and 14th, every other day was warmer than normal in January '98. The month ended over 8 degrees above normal. Rainfall was almost double the normal. No measurable snow, only the tenth winter in 112 years to have had less than an inch of snow at the beginning of February! Bridgewater - This January was the second wettest in my 34 years of keeping records on precipitation. (from Clayton Towers) The record belongs to January 1996 with 6.75". My 34-year average is 2.54". In the last five years, the average is 4.63". So, most of the Januaries in the last five years have been very wet ones. Our first thunderstorm of 1998 occurred on the 9th. Last year, Bridgewater didn't get its first t-storm until May 9th! The biggest weather event of the month happened on the 27th and 28th when an unexpected snowstorm hit the Shenandoah Valley. We only got 5 inches at Bridgewater, but other places nearby had a foot or more! The landscape was beautiful, until the rain came along and messed everything up! Centreville - Although Paul noted in his earlier posted, winter forecast that January would be mild, he didn't mean some 10.6 degrees above the average!!! There were 13 days with wind gusts over 20 mph while 9 days had gusts over 30 mph. Chester Gap - Dave's 10.87" of aqueous precip was an extraordinarily enhanced El Nino total! Falls Church - At his site, Lowell noted a January that was very warm and wet! The month was the 2nd wettest in the past 18 years. The 15 days with precip also set a record for the month. Never have had a January with temps >= 60 degrees on so many days, 11! The average minimum temp (34.48 degrees) was also a new 18 year record. The minimum temp of 61 on the 8th bested the previous min high temp record by 4 degrees! The ground temp at a foot depth set a 12 year record high for January. January had the least snow since 1983. The average humidity was the highest in the last 12 years! Back to December '97, the month had the fourth lowest barometric pressure (29.20") ever noted since records began here in 1960. The all-time December record low barometer was 28.98" recorded in 1968. Falls Church - Erica noted that January '98 saw average high temps 7.4 degrees in excess. The average low was 10.1 degrees in excess. Not only was the month warm but it was also wet, a whopping 7.58" above normal. The trace of snow was well-below normal. Fredericksburg - January was much warmer and wetter than normal, reports Ken McKneely. In fact, the monthly mean was actually 3.1 degrees above that of December '97! 7 consecutive days early in the month exceeded the 60 degree mark. 2 rain events during the last 10 days dropped over 4.5" Ken notes that he would venture to say most any January with over 6 inches of aqueous precip would be buried in the "white stuff", but most all of the total was rain. Hampton - Dave noted a very mild and wet beginning to 1998. Temperatures were some 7 degrees above normal with precipitation some 2 inches above normal. A significant storm on the 27th and 28th produced two tides of 6.5 feet or 3.5 feet above mean low lower water. This tied for second with a storm in October 1982. (editor's note: but was surpassed, interestingly, only one week later!!) Only the Ash Wednesday storm of the early 1960s produced higher tide levels. Also, strong winds early on the 28th and again that same afternoon produced numerous gusts over 50 mph. This was the first time Dave has had damage to his anemometer with tower and rooftop instruments! Herndon - Strong nor'easter roared up the coast on the 27th and 28th. Had a record high temp and record high minimum temp on the 8th!! (notes from Russ Topping) Herndon - Bob Beall noted a mild, soggy month. January was the warmest of the past 8 but only the 3rd wettest in 22 years! Mechanicsville - Glenn noted heavy rains at times and gusty winds on the 28th. Newport News - Gary notes that he finally joined the computer world (note e-mail address below)! The month had a temp average some +6.8 degrees. Norfolk - The monthly average temp was 7.4 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 2.24 inches above normal. Portsmouth - The mean temperature here was 7.4 degrees above the norm while precip ran 1.60" above normal. Neither set a new record (since 1977). 11.5 cooling degree days here, a rather hefty total for January, a month that occasionally sees cooling degree days. Year-to-date precip some 139% of the norm. A rather low barometric pressure of 29.371" on the 28th resulting from the passage of low pressure off the NE NC coast. This nor'easter produced local flooding, winds gusting here to SE 53 mph and near 70 MPH at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel. (27th and 28th) Severe tidal flooding and beach erosion noted locally. Average wind speed was 4.7 MPH and the dominant direction was northerly. Richmond - NWS AKQ noted: The monthly average temp was 7.5 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 3.61 inches above normal. Roanoke - A little of most everything in Lowell's region! Thunder, hail, fog, sleet, snow, glaze and a lot of rain noted here!! This January was the wettest on record at 9.64". Snowfall of 7.5" was 1.4" above normal. Average temp for January was 6.7 degrees in excess. Stafford - The week of January 3-9 saw temps average nearly 25 degrees above average! Danny Jessee also reports his site had 211% of normal rainfall for the month, yet only a trace of snow fell. He also noted 1.2 cooling degree days, a rarity for January! Washington - Dave notes: "What started out as a cold January became the warmest and wettest ever recorded at this location!" Woodstock - Precipitation here was the highest in 13 years of record. Temperatures were the second highest during the same period, nearly 5 degrees above average. Only one winter night with temps in the teens! From the 4th to the 9th, high temps reached the 60s each day!! Asheville - The monthly average temp was 5.6 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 6.71 inches above normal. Brevard - Bob is under the weather with surgery but his wife Evelyn is maintaining his records. When he can, he'll resume his reports. This received 2/21/98: Power lost to Wx recorder, max. and min readings, temp & wind, lost 7-8 Jan. January was not unusual temperature-wise, perhaps slightly on the warm side, but was NOT usual for precipitaiton. Rain plus snow-melt measured 12.78 inches, more than an inch higher than my previous highest January recording in a series commencing in January 1990. The average or the previous eight Januaries was 7.38 inches. We are getting our share of the El Nino effect. The nearby Asheville airport reported setting an all time record in January. PS- The operation on my back was a success. I expect to be able to travel again on recovery. Charlotte - The monthly average temp was 7.8 degrees above while the monthly rainfall was 2.03 inches above normal. Greensboro - A low temperature of 13 degrees on the first set a new record low temp for the date. A high of 68 tied the record high for January 8th. The monthly average temp was 5.8 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 3.71 inches above normal. Henderson - January averaged 7.9 degrees above normal (37.5). Rainfall was doubled here for the month. George says we might as well blame El Nino for this mess. Do believe he's right on! Raleigh - Bob reports a very wet and rather mild month. Had a snowfall on the 19th of 4" which was unusual since areas north and west of the site saw rain (editor's note: column cooling wet snow from strong upper velocities and great evaporative cooling!) Raleigh - The NWS noted: The monthly precip total created the second wettest January on record (since 1887). Rockwell - According to Tom Myers, the month was much warmer than average with a mean average at 7.1 degrees in excess of the norm. Precipitation was also way above average with an excess of 2.73" (norm=3.84") Overall, the month was cloudy, damp, and warmer than normal. Roxboro - Merriell notes that the month was warmer than average while rainfall was nearly twice the norm. Frozen precip was noted on several days. (report form Merriell Jay) Wilmington - After 11 consecutive months of cooler than average months, January '98 was warmer than normal. A record high minimum temp was set on the 8th when the temp dropped only to 62 degrees. The month was the 4th wettest in Wilmington history. The 3.03" of rain recorded on the 23rd was not only the most for a single calendar day but also set a new daily record. Columbia - The monthly average temp was 4.7 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 2.50 inches above normal. Greenville-Spartanburg - The monthly average temp was 5.3 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 2.66 inches above normal. Ruby - The earth here is saturated! So much so, that you can hardly stand on it! Franklin says his area has experienced much flooding. Fortunately, there wasn't much snow to melt and add to the mess. This amount of precip is most unusual for this area. Tri-cities - The monthly average temp was 6.3 degrees above normal while the monthly rainfall was 1.89 inches above 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 BOS Thomas Hensley thomas@summit.net RWL Tom Myers tmyers@salisbury.net WOO Lauck Walton jwalton@shentel.net NPN Gary Leonard garleonard@aol.com FAL Lowell Koontz lkoontz@pen.k12.va.us -----------------------------------------------------------------------------