MONTHLY SUMMARY: MAY 1998 UPDATED: 7/02/98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello everyone! As you've noticed, the May report is late and "short-'n'-sweet"! One of the reasons that the report is shorter- datawise- than usual is that "dummy" here forgot to download NWS data for May during the month of June!! Didn't even cross my mind until I went to download the monthly summary file area at Weatherbrief on July 1st and realized it had been updated with June NWS info!!! So, we'll have to do without NWS May '98 data for comparisons. Still was able to pick-up some data from other publications. Many stations noted, particularly in the north sections of our area, a month of two faces: the first half of May 1998 tended to be cooler and wetter while the 2nd half was warmer and drier. Overall, the month saw precipitation near normal except for south-central Virginia along the Carolina border and along the coastal plain of North Carolina where 150% of the normal precip fell. Areas just south of Charlotte near the SC border averaged below normal precip to just 50% of normal in northern SC. Western SC was dry while the coast of the state was near normal to 150% of the normal precip, particularly along the northern half of the SC coast. Temperatures along the coasts of Virginia and NC south to Cape Hatteras were about normal. Areas near a line running from Alexandria south to Wilmington ran about 2 deg above normal. Temp averages were 2 to 4 degrees above normal west of that line over the remainder of the states with an area of +4 degree departures over south-central North Carolina south to north-central South Carolina. We have a prospective member, Mr. Rick Schwartz of Alexandria, who requested to join the membership in June. We look forward to his data! Well, it's July now. Let's hope the weather continues to settle down here in the aftermath of El Nino and the violent spring storms. June turned out to be rather nice with timely rains and abundant fair weather with no noteworthy runs of heat! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Annandale - Lowell characterizes the month of May 1998 as one with "a split personality." The first half of the month was wet and cool and the latter half was warm and dry. The first half of the month's temperatures averaged below normal while the second half averaged above normal. The ground temp measured at the 1 foot depth was the highest since such records began 12 years ago. Rainfall was slightly above normal (+0.29"). Blacksburg - May was a very wet and warm month, reports NWS in Blacksburg. The month made the top ten for both heat and rainfall, ranking at number 10 (63.6) for the warmest and the wettest at number 4 (7.12")! Bridgewater - The precipitation for May was 0.32" below normal. Precipitation amounts of 3.76" was exactly the same for April and May, which is a bit unusual. The total precipitation for the year is 24.70" which is 10.72" above normal. The last two weeks of May were fairly dry. There has not been a strong thunderstorm all year in pur part of the Shenandoah Valley. The have been 16 thunderstorms so far, and all have been of the weak variety. Centreville - Paul reports that his "Weather Analyst" computer program came with 30 years of temp and precip data for IAD (Dulles Airport). He's about 8 miles south of the airport off route 28 near I-66. As he added his data of about 13 years, the program auto updated the averages meshing Dulles' with his data. This gives him about a 43 years database! He wants you to make a correction re: his "Dew Point" notes sent last month. On page 2 the mid-point temp should be 55.5 degrees Fahrenheit, not 65.5. Sorry for the typo! He attributes the error to wearing his hat too tightly for the error! (Speaking of hats, I plan to include a snapshot of Paul's "weather hat" in next month's report. This you've got to see! If it weren't for Paul's humor, I wouldn't make it through some of these monthly reports!!) Oh yeah... Centreville's May '98 avg. daily temp was 5.6 degrees above normal while precip was 1.47" above normal. Falls Church - Erica noted that MAy 1998 was a wet month with much above normal precip. The average high was 2 degrees above normal while the average low was 3 degrees above normal. The area experienced above normal thunderstorm activity. Fredericksburg - A cool and very wet first half to the month, then much warmer and drier during the second half, reports Ken McKneely. FRB saw its 5th consecutive month with at least 4.75" of rain. Hampton - The weather continued to moderate from the winter pattern and the severe weather of April, reports Dave Kessel. Scattered thunderstorms produced adequate rainfall with temperatures about normal. Herndon - Russ Topping noted the first 12 days of May offered only 1 rainless day followed by 10 consecutive days without a trace. A new record high temp of 91.1 was set on the 16th. Herndon - Bob Beall noted a "demonstrable persistence of wet and dry." Lynchburg - A little warmer than normal (+1.5 deg.) and slightly above normal for precip (+0.84"). Rather seasonable here during May! (from NWS Blacksburg) Mechanicsville - Strong t-storms moved through the area on the 8th at 0600 hours and again at 1000 hours. Portsmouth - The mean temp for May 1998 was 1.9 deg. above normal while precip here (3.35") was 95% of normal. A whopping 14 days saw the high temp equal or exceed 90 deg. Temps ranged from a low of 52 on the 8th to 98 deg. on the 26th. An rather low, non-winter barometric pressure reading of 29.485" was noted on the 15th. Year-to-date rainfall is some 6.13" above normal or 127%. Roanoke - Wendell notes that his station was 3.3 degrees above normal for the month and his precip total was 1.86" above normal. Hail was noted on FOUR (4!) different occasions, more than is normally recorded in 1 year! An unsually high number of t-storms (9) for the month- Roanoke - NWS Blacksburg note that overall May 1998 was uneventful!! Both precip (+0.5") and temps (+3 deg.) were above normal. Stafford - Danny reports that May got off to a rainy start with some varying sorts of rainfall on 11 of the first 12 days! After the 12th, only 0.62" of rainfall was recorded. The year-to-date rainfall is 15.82" above average. The monthly temps were 3.48 deg. above normal. Woodstock - Lauck noted hail on the 24th, mostly in the 1/4 to 1/8 inch measurement range. However, he was able to pick-up one hailstone that measured 1 inch in width. The month was a little warmer and wetter than average. Brevard - Bob Keehn was able to make notes on on data collected from May 1st through the 21st, except for rainfall which was recorded for all those days while rainfall was measured cumulatively from the 22nd to the 31st. (He must have been out of town! "Been there, done that!") May temps, compared with earlier Mays, were slightly on the warm side. The monthly average of 65.3 deg. Fahrenheit, compares with 64.4 deg. for the previous 8 Mays. Rainfall of 3.28" was slightly less than the average of 3.89". This is the second month of 1998 NOT to set a record for the month, the other month being March. Henderson - Temps and rainfall were above normal. That combination has been going on all year! (report from George Stevenson, Jr.) Raleigh - Bob Woodson noted that May was the 1st month of 1998 with precip below normal! There were at least 5 severe watches/warnings issued in May but no severe weather was observed at his location. Roxboro - Temperatures averaged above normal, reports Merriell. Rainfall was near normal. A tornado warning was issued for the area on May 7th but none were confirmed. Summerlike heat and humidity for the second half of the month. Ruby - The month, sayeth Franklin, was rather dry and hot for May. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------