MONTHLY SUMMARY: MAY 1996 PREPARED: 6-21-96 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The heat and humidity of summer press on, broken by some heavy thunderstorms, a hurricane at the coast, and unusual troughs over the East. Hope you're enduring this all quite well. Some of us have seen quite a bit of severe weather. Look forward to your July summaries for details! Here in Portsmouth, most everything is back to normal after Hurricane Bertha's intrusion. Hope everything is back to normal in Paul Bassett's territory after the late June tornado! Hope to include some of your articles and graphs if space permits. (in written copy but not online) quite a bit of rain in May! Hope no, or little, flooding problems occurred. Not a lot going on here in Portsmouth. Keeping an eye today on low pressure off the SC coast that looks like a tropical depression. Aircraft from the TPC/NHC is heading-out to investigate as I write!! Just enduring a lot of humidity these first two weeks of June. Also, note a lot of mid-level pockets of cool air triggering significant thunderstorm activity across the region which should help boost many of your June totals. Of course, although many of these storms produce downpours, they are more widespread rather than associated with lines of storms or larger systems. So, while some of you will have large totals for June, others may be in the "unfavored" areas and experience some drought. Let's hope not! Roy Britt of Richmond is storm chasing all over the Midwestern/Upper Plains states! He writes via postcard: "Have done lots of traveling in the last two weeks. I have chased in Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Colorado, and Kansas. As of today, I have observed two storms and no tornadoes." Also, received a postcard from Jack Stewart in Randolph, NH dated 5/31/96: "Now we're in Dave Lesher's territory! He'll get my reports for June through September. Left Charlottesville 5.21 with temps in the 90's until we left Virginia. In first 20 days of May in Charlottesville, had fluctuating temps and lots of nasty, gray, and cold air damming weather. Have a good summer." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Arlington - NWS DCA noted: "After spring's strong showing during the last half of April, May 1996 was a return to the rather gloomy weather we have come to expect during the past several months. May was also the rainiest in 6 years! Bridgewater - Clayton Towers noted: "Every month seems to have some unusual weather. This May was no exception. In a span of seven days, we had frost and also record-breaking high temperatures. There were four consecutive days with ninety-degree readings, and each of those days was a record-breaker. Four ninety-degree days were also a record for the month. Eight thunderstorms and fourteen rainy days were a lot for the month of May. The precipitation was much above normal, but didn't break a record. The month ended with an unusually long spell of precipitation and some very cool temperatures." Falls Church - May was a cool and wet one with a notably hot period of 3 days (19th-21st). 97 degrees on the 20th was a new record max for May. Lowell Koontz also noted that the month was the 3rd coolest in 16 years. Rain fell on 16 days. Interestingly, on the 27th, Lowell noted a two-degree range between high and low temps. Fredericksburg - Ken McKneely writes: May was wetter and cooler than normal. 16 days with measurable precipitation. The high temperatures averaged over 4 degrees below normal, while the low temps were only slightly cooler than normal. This obviously was due to all the cloud cover. One very warm spell from the 18th through the 23rd with highs averaging 91.2 degrees with the mean of 75.7 degrees! On the 4th, strong thunderstorms were in the area. Some neighborhoods received hail, high wind gusts, property damage, and power and telephone outages. Fredericksburg - According to Matthew Michaelson, May was cool and wet, overall. During 16 days, drizzle and light rain fell accumulating to 4.45 inches, which was 0.98" above normal. For those days during which precip occurred, the average daily rainfall amount was just 0.30". Temps were quite crazy. May 1-6, they were near or above normal. May 7-9, they fell sharply below normal. May 10-11, they rose much above normal. May 12-16, they dropped to about 10 degrees below normal. May 17-24, they were much above normal with some high temperatures almost 20 degrees above normal. May 25-31, they were much below normal with some high temperatures as much as 24 degrees below normal. Temperatures averaged near normal for the month. But, records were set on several days. On May 13, a record low of 37 degrees was recorded. On May 19, 20, and 21, record highs of 98, 98, and 96, respectively, were recorded. And, on May 27, a record high minimum of 57 degrees was recorded. Newmarket - Joyce Winfree reported that May 1996 ties the record for the wettest May since 1948. Newport News - The first 100 degree reading in May was recorded here (20th) since Gary Leonard started keeping records in 1984. The month still averaged about normal. Portsmouth - Two notable periods here when a mini-heat wave hit from the 18th through the 21st as temps hit 90 or above with new record highs of 97 on the 19th, 98 on the 20th, and a record-tying 94 on the 21st. On the other hand, record lows of 47 on the 31st and 44 on the 15th were also recorded. At the end of the month, a nasty bout with 5 straight days of low clouds, rain, thunderstorms, drizzle, and fog was upon us and created a very depressing period as a stationary front hovered over SE VA. Cool temps continued under fair to partly cloudy skies for the next three days! Mechanicsville - At Glenn Martin's station, strong thunderstorms moved through the area on the 11th producing strong winds and hail. Some wind damage occurred with downed trees. Thunderstorms also occurred on the 4th, 5th, and 25th producing downpours. Roanoke - Wendell Prillaman noted that May was 1.6 degrees above normal temp. Most notable was the 5-day heat wave in which records were set 4 of the 5 days! He also recorded the highest May temp at his station! Woodstock - May 1996 was the wettest in 11 years at the station, according to Lauck Walton, and temps were more than 2 degrees below normal! Charlotte - Billy Brown reports that during the late afternoon and early evening of the 29th, severe thunderstorms swept across south-central NC and north-central SC. There were numerous reports of funnel clouds, wind damage, and marble to golfball size hail. No severe weather at this station and a much need 0.69" was the first substantial rainfall of a very dry May. Charlotte - NWS at Greensville-Spartanburg SC reported that May was warm and dry in Charlotte. Severe weather affected the area several times during the month. Henderson - George Stevenson noted an unusually bad storm on May 11th that blew down right many trees. Power was off for up to two days! The storm lasted for about one-half hour. Raleigh - NWS RDU noted a record high wind gust of 64 mph on the llth. It was the highest gust ever for the month of May as well as the highest gust ever recorded at the RDU Airport. Raleigh - Bob Woodson reported that his station experienced 2 periods of severe weather. On May 11th, high winds in NW Wake County felled numerous trees with a 39 mph gust during the episode. Bob's home also lost some shingles. On May 29th, peasize hail was observed. Roxboro - "Above normal temperatures and precipitation. Severe weather- activity of thunderstorms downed trees and power lines on the 11th and 27th. There were fluctuations in temperatures from cool to hot throughout the month." (report from Merriell Jay) Wilmington - According to NWS ILM, the Port City saw May temps nearly 2 degrees above normal. While temps were above, precip was about 1.4" below the norm. Greenville-Spartanburg - NWS GSP noted that May was warmer and wetter than usual. Until a stationary front settled over southern SC on the 24th, the month was well on the track for one of the driest May's ever! On the 24th and 25th, a total of 3.79" was recorded from strong thunderstorms with golfball size hail! Hail at one point covered the ground! Ruby - Franklin Hancock noted that the month was very, very dry- much drier than last year! The temps seemed like July or August rather than May. Crops are hurting in this area from the heat and dry weather. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATED MEMBERS' E-MAIL ADDRESSES: (posted by permission) BRE Bob Keehn Bob_Keehn@juno.com BRI Clayton Towers Ctowers@rica.net POR Bill Trotter wtrotter@pen.k12.va.us 71470.1535@compuserve.com wtrotter@whro.org FRD Matthew Michaelson mmichael@s850.mwc.edu RAL Bob Woodson woods@usa.pipeline.com CEN Paul Bassett III pbassett@nmaa.org -----------------------------------------------------------------------------