MONTHLY SUMMARY: SEPTEMBER 1996 UPDATED: 10/13/96 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings! First, our sincere wishes for recovery are extended to Joyce Winfree of Newmarket! Fran devasted her station, home, and life. (See notes below) Still, I detect optimism in her writing and hope she and her family will be able to get back to a more normal life soon! Good luck Joyce. Welcome two new members!! Erica Page from Falls Church will give us some comparative data to Lowell Koontz' and David Yowell of Washington (VA), in Rappahannock county, will provide us data from his station in very central-northern Virginia! Welcome back Mr. Bullock (Louisa)!! John is now keeping records again (began 9/1) and has been walking with canes and is getting along fairly well! Keep working at it John. For a man beyond your 80th year, you are remarkable! I could only hope if I reach your age to do what you've accomplished since the 1st of September. Keep at it!!! Don't forget... NO ENVELOPES!!! Please continue to send stamps for your postage! Thanks... Bill ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Arlington - NWS WBC noted that September was cloudy and wet! Only half of the possible sunshine made it through the clouds. The 8 inches of rain during the month made it the rainiest since October 1995 and the 7th wettest since 1871. Bridgewater - Clayton Towers noted: "I have lived in the Shenandoah for about forty-eight years. I have never known a hurricane-related storm to cause as many problems as Fran did. There was serious flooding over a large portion of Virginia and North Carolina, and also in neighboring states. Six to thirteen inches of rain fell in Rockingham and Augusta counties. Since the ground was soft from previous rains, a lot of trees went down from strong winds. Bridgewater had major flooding from nearby North River. Flood waters wrapped around our hous which flooded our basement with three to four feet of water. Just about everybody with basements had problems. The Central Shenandoah Valley was especially hard hit. According to the Red Cross, one hundred sixty-five homes were destroyed. A number of people lost their lives. I've talked to several old-timers around here, and they don't ever recall a storm like Fran. Hurricanes usually don't bother us here in the Shenandoah Valley. So far this year, we have had 49.44 inches of rain. This is about twenty inches above normal. Unbelievable! Centreville - Paul Bassett reports that, "Even if Fran had not come our way, we would have had an excess of 1.83 inches of rain. Resets on weather computer that was inoperative from 4-7 September (wouldn't you know it; right during Fran!); Fran's wind data, thus, is estimated." (Editor's note: Glad you're back online with the computer Paul. I know the feeling. Here, fortunately, the backup worked on my logger during both Fran and Bertha power downs!) Falls Church - Steadfast Lowell Koontz reported that September '96 was the wettest ever recorded in 11 years. It was the third wettest month recorded in the last 11 years. 1.71" of rain in one hour was the greatest one hour rainfall (date not given) since 1990. The month was the cloudiest since 1993. Falls Church - A new member to ACON (VA/NC/SC), Erica Page noted that September '96 was one of the wettest in a long time. Fredericksburg - Hurricane Fran was the big event here, according to Ken McKneely. Peak winds were probably around 40 mph. Downed trees plus many branches and limbs were notable. The Rappahannock River rose to one of the 10 highest levels ever here due to Fran and heavy rains which fell a few days earlier. The month averaged less than 1/2 degree warmer than the normal. High temps were about 1.5 degrees below normal and lows were about 2.5 degrees above normal. Rainfall was over 3 inches above normal with 2.29" from Fran. Hampton - Temperatures and precip were close to normal at Dave Kessel's station. Remnants of Fran produced at 71 mph gust at 5:16 AM on the 6th. Station was without power for 14 hours! Herndon - Robert Beall noted a 16 degree temperature drop in 4 hours on September 28th! New Market - A troubling report from Joyce Winfree informs us that her area was hit so hard by Fran that she lost her weather instruments on the evening of September 6th. At that point she had recorded 6 inches of rain from Fran and it was still raining! Her home had 2.5 feet of water inside. In addition, she lost fences, a van, a truck, and 40 sheep! She adds that this will be her last report for a while! She certainly will need time to recover! Newport News - Fran leaves very little rain and a few broken tree branches in Gary Leonard's area on the 5th and 6th. Norfolk - Portsmouth - The month of September '96 ended with temperatures 0.6 degree below normal while rainfall was nearly one-half inch (0.48") below the norm. Hurricane Fran passed well to the west of the station but still produced a 60 MPH gust from the SSE on the 6th. Remarkably, only 0.25" of rain associated with the Fran's remnants fell here although downpours were anticipated, likely due to the system's more westward track with heavier feeder bands staying just to our west. Mechanicsville - Glen Martin notes that Hurricane Fran's remnants moved into the area on the evening of the 5th and downed trees and power lines knocking-out power to some 400,000 Virginians. The storm pulled-out on the 6th. He noted a lot of broken tree branches and lots of leaves in his yard. Power at his station was off for about 10 hours. Richmond - According to Roy Britt, "Strong gusty winds blew many tree limbs down in my area. Many homes were without power when the remains of Fran passed by Richmond. I was without power for 26 hours. A total of 118,000 people had their power knocked-out in the Richmond area." Roanoke - Wendell Prillaman broke his record for the wettest month ever! He recorded 14.71" during the month breaking the old record of 14.14" set in November 1985. This was 10.57" above average and rain he could have used in his vegetable garden back in June and July when only 2.15" fell between 6/12 and 7/14. September temp average of 66.7 degrees was 0.4 degrees below norm. Fran's winds were not bad in his area with less damage than from Hugo or Hazel. Washington (VA) - Rappahannock County - David Yowell reports that the 14.58" of rain recorded during the month was the most rainfall in any month since he started records. The previous station high was 14.56" in June 1995. Weems - Brevard - This is, by far, the rainiest September Bob Keehn has ever recorded! The six year total for the month, 1990 to 1995, is 23.77", and the previous monthly high was 5.80" in 1992. Charlotte - Extreme western edge of Fran brushed Billy Brown's area on the night of the 6th. Lowest barometric pressure of 29.56 inches at 0300. Rainfall was only 0.80" on the 5th-6th. Large slow moving rain system dropped 2.86" during the evening of September 30th and the on the night of October 1st. Charlotte - NWS in Greenville-Spartanburg noted that September averaged cooler than normal but this resulted mainly from the cool temps of the last half of the month. Henderson - "We got Fran, of course!" reports George Stevenson who adds "Highest wind was 54 mph and winds blew 30-50 mph for hours. Trees were uprooted and power was out for several days. Took 3 weeks to clean-up!" Raleigh - Bob Woodson noted that rainfall for the year through 9/30 is 16.12" above the norm! The airport recorded 15.44" which is a record rainfall for any month at RDU. Raleigh - At RDU, the month was highlighted by the 8.80" of rain which fell from Fran on the 5th and 6th. The 16.64" here not only broke the September record of 12.94" set in 1945, but also set a new all-time record for monthly rainfall totals, the previous being 13.63 inches set in August 1908. The big event in September, of course, was Hurricane Fran. Fran caused major damage from the Raleigh-Durham area to the southeast coast. Damage estimates exceed 4 billion dollars. Fortunately, his home did not sustain much damage due to the lack of trees in the yard. Power went out at 9:50 PM Thursday, September 5th, and was not restored until Monday, September 9th. We were one of the lucky ones! Quite a few homes in Raleigh did not get power until September 13th! Officials say this was the largest weather related power outage ever in the United States. The lowest barometric pressure recorded at my location was 979.2 millibars or 28.92" The peak winds gust at my station was 33 mph, recorded at 4:21 AM September 6th. I have only a fair exposure for winds from the east or northeast. NWS at RDU recorded a peak gust of 79 mph. Also, RDU airport recorded 9.44" of rain during Hurricane Fran's trekk across the Raleigh area. This is a 24 hour record for any month. This resulted in serious flooding in Raleigh as well as causing several dams to fail. Wake and Durham County schools were closed for 6 days! (Editor's note: Bob included some articles from the local newspaper that I'll copy for the mailing which will not appear on the Internet home page.) Roxboro - Merriell Jay noted that Hurricane Fran passed through the area with tropical storm force (60-65 mph) winds and rainfall total was in excess of 6 inches. Widespread damage from downed trees and power lines. Moderate flooding occurred in some locations. Structural and road damage affected some areas. Wilmington - More than likely Fran will be the weather headline of the year here! Fran tracked in a general northward direction off the SE US coast during the day of the 5th. By nightfall, her eye was just off the Cape Fear Coast with very strong winds and intense heavy rains already pounding SE NC. The eye made landfall between 8:30 and 9 PM over Bald Head Island, extreme eastern Brunswick County and southern New Hanover County. The storm then moved north across the Cape Fear region toward the Piedmont. The damage left in here wake was immense and much worse than what was left behind by Bertha. On the 5th: 4.41" inches of rain fell, most in one day and a new daily record; on that day a sustained 67 mph winds was recorded and was the strongest of the month; an 86 mph peak wind- fastest of the month- was recorded on the same day; the day had a daily wind average of 28.0 mph, also highest for the month; a sea-level pressure of 28.39" was recorded, also the lowest for the month. The 24-hour rainfall total of 4.47" on the 5th and 6th was the most for any 24-hour period. Greenville-Spartanburg - According to the NWS here, the month average below normal in temperature and above normal in precip. The monthly rainfall pushed the yearly totals to in excess of 5 inches. The high temp only reached 80 degrees on 5 days after the 12th. On the 21st, the day of the devastating tornadoes near Anderson, the airport received less than a half inch of rain as the severe weather passed to the south. Ruby - Franklin Hancock reports to us that September was rather cool and wet in his area. There were only three days with high temps >=90 degrees. There were two days with high temps only in the 60's- 68 degrees on 9/29 and 66 degrees on 9/30. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 RAL Bob Woodson woods@usa.pipeline.com CEN Paul Bassett III pbassett@nmaa.org WSH David Yowell runamok@juno.com FCH Erica Page erica@erols.com -----------------------------------------------------------------------------