A much wetter, colder and snowier than normal January herein the northern part of Acushnet.  It was the wettest January ( 7.23″ ) in 20years.  January 1998 saw 8.32″ of precipitation.

Most memorable though is the bitter 7 day cold start of January which featured 3 mornings of below zero temperatures, a potent offshore low dropping the barometer to 28.75″ here, and producing a rain to heavy wet 6″ of snow with wind and flash freeze.  It was the most below zero days in January since 2005 had a total of 5.

A short mild spell followed with a 3.20″ rain and wind event toward mid month.  Then not too bad with seasonable temperatures and bare  ground until a months ending fluff factor snow left behind a surprising 8.5″ on the ground.

January 2018 Acushnet, Mass.       41deg,44min N     70deg,55min W

Ave High     37.1 deg.; Ave Low     19.4 deg.; Jan Mean  28.3 deg. is 1.7 deg. below normal

High Temp     60 deg. on Jan. 13th.; Low Temp    -05 deg. below on Jan. 7th.; Days 0 or below     3

Total Precip.     7.23″ is 2.91″ above normal; Max 24hr. Precip.     3.20″ on Jan. 12-13th.

Snowfall     16.0″ is 5.3″ above normal;Max 24hr. Snowfall     8.5″ on Jan. 30th.

Total 2018 Precip.    7.23″ is 2.91″ above normal; Season Snowfall (dec,jan)     21.9″

T- Storm Days    1; High Wind Gust     44 mph on Jan. 5th.; Heating Degree Days     1147; Cooling Degree Days     0

High Barometer     30.68″ on Jan. 15th.; Low Barometer      28.75″ on Jan. 4

Tom Carr, WA1KDD

It is with a great deal of sadness that I must tell you that Rob Lyons, AB1NJ, died from a myocardial infarction (heart attack) about two weeks ago. He was found on his porch when neighbors failed to hear from him for several Days.
Rob was a close friend of mine, a mentor for me in ham radio, and a collaborator in building my weather website, www.capecodwx.com. He tutored me through JT65. Rob was an avid ham radio operator and ranked #1 in the world prior to his death for QSOs using JT65. Rob had an elaborate antenna field with three towers each with SteppIR antennas. For the past couple of years Rob was a avid drone operator and has a series of drone videos on YouTube giving us all a tour of northern Vermont. In earlier times Rob owned his own Cessna 150 and did a great deal of aerial photography. His website showed his keen interest in bird photography. I will miss him greatly and I’m sure many of our members have good memories of him as #4 on our roster and one of our best net controls.

A much colder than normal December here in the northern part of Acushnet and
it was a bit drier and less snowier than normal. December pretty much behaved itself until
a Christmas morning snow squall open the doors to the Artic and never closed. The bitter
cold made this December the coldest Dec. since the year 2000. The 01 deg. reading on the
morning of the 30th. was the lowest December temperature since Dec.25th. 1989 saw a
6 below zero at this station.
The Year 2017 was a bit warmer than normal and it was a little drier than normal.
Snowfall was above average. Comfortable Summer. Active tropical remnants helps moisture
after after a very dry 2016.

December 2017 Acushnet, Mass. 41deg,44min N 70deg,55min W

Ave High 38.2 deg.
Ave Low 22.1 deg.
Dec. Mean 30.2 deg. is 5.1 deg. below normal
High Temp 58 deg. on Dec. 6th.
Low Temp. 01 deg. on Dec. 30th.
Days 0 or below 0

Total Precip. 3.54″ is 1.27″ below normal
Max 24hr. Precip. 0.97″ on Dec.5-6th.
Snowfall 5.9″ is 1.2″ below normal
Max 24hr. Snowfall 2.1″ on Dec. 14th.
Total 2017 Precip. 51.33″ is 1.25″ below normal

T-Storm Days 0
High Wind Gust 46 mph on Dec. 13th.
Heating Degree Days 1089
Cooling Degree Days 0
High Barometer 30.48″ on Dec. 4th.
Low Barometer 29.23″ on Dec. 13th.

The Year 2017 Acushnet, Mass.

Ave High 61.1 deg.
Ave Low 42.6 deg.
2017 Mean 51.9 deg. is 0.7 deg. above the normal 51.2 deg.
High Temp 94 deg. May 18th.
Low Temp 01 deg. on Jan 9th. – Dec. 30th.
Days 0 or below 0 normal is 2
Days 90 or above 6 normal is 10

Total 2017 Precip. 51.33″ is 1.25″ below the normal 52.58″
Max 24hr. Precip. 2.42″ on Apr. 1st.
Snowfall 49.1″ is 11.1″ above the normal 38.0″
Max 24hr. Snowfall 14.0″ on Jan. 7th.
Monthly Snowfall Jan 21.3″ Feb 12.9″ Mar 9.0″ Apr T Dec 5.9″

T-Storm Days 13 normal is 19
High Wind Gust 49 mph on Mar. 11th.
Heating Degree Days 5507
Cooling Degree Days 686
High Barometer 30.69″ on Jan. 14th.
Low Barometer 28.86″ on Mar 14th.

Jan. warmer,wetter and snowier than norm – 19″ snow in the first 10 days
Feb. blizzard conditions Feb 9th. t-snow then warmer bit drier than norm
Mar. much colder than norm – windy-very low barometer 28.86″ – bit snowier
Apr. much wetter and warmer than normal – wettest in a decade 7.88″
May. colder and wetter than norm but high temp of year 94 on the 18th.
Jun. normal nice – a bit drier – breezy – remnants t.s. Cindy drops 0.97″
Jul. colder and drier than norm-coldest since 2009 – no heat waves
Aug. colder and drier – first 17 days only 0.56″ – swells from Hurr, Gert
Sep. warmer than norm – 11 days 80 or better – vy active tropic remnants
Oct. warmest since 1984 – potent windswept rain fells trees – power outages
Nov. cooler than norm – no snow – windy- short lived rain events
Dec. much colder than norm – end of month Artic blast-coldest since 2000

Mid-morning on Christmas day saw a strong snow squall pass through North Falmouth.  It lasted for close to an hour with high winds from all directions, blinding snow, and a rapid drop in temperature.  My anemometer recorded gusts to  38 MPH.  John, K1`J, 3.9 miles south of us recorded gusts to 55 MPH.  The pics below are from my Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station.  The event was brief.  The snow melted almost immediately and melted down to 0.20 inches of water.  There were some downed power lines and tree branches.  Then the Sun came out and it was a nice day!

This week we have had a fantastic band and we’ve recorded an average of 47 reports so far each day.  The Net Controls have been having a  problem with some of our Internet reports.  Take a look at the screen shot below and you’ll see that some of the data is “clipped” and the info we want is not right there.

So, some suggestions.  in the temperature field just put in the number, we know that it is Fahrenheit because that is what it says at the top of the column.

Barometer:  use “R” “F” or “S” rather than spelling out “rising slowly” etc.

Wind:  give the speed as “direction/current/gust/peak”, i.e. “NNW @ 5/10/25”

Sky:  use “10LS” or “10R”

Gradient; “35/23” , we know it’s Fahrenheit.

Rain:  give the number for the past 24 hours, “1.30”

New Snow:  give the new snow ford the past 24 hrs, “2.5”

Total Snow:  give the depth of accumulated snow on the ground, “5.5”

Use the space at the end for comments or details that you want to tell us.

See what I mean?  The clipping makes it a little more difficult for the Net Control.

Dick, K1MGH

A cooler than normal November here in the northern part of Acushnet with below
normal precipitation. The growing season ended with a hard freeze 19 degrees on Veterans
Day morning November 11th.. Most rain events were short lived until a day long rain on
November 22nd. dropped 1.54″.
A early Thanksgiving Day this year saw a sunny sky and the next 7 days until months end
were rain free. The main complaint this decent November was the wind with 10 days seeing
gusts to 25 mph or better.
No snow fell this November and the snowbird juncos even arrived late.
The Fall Season (sep,oct,nov) was warmer than normal by 2.5 degrees and it was a
little drier than usual. This was the 4th. Fall Season in a row above normal temperature wise.

November 2017 Acushnet, Mass. 41deg,44min N 70deg,55min W

Ave High 52.9 deg.
Ave Low 33.6 deg.
Nov. Mean 43.3 deg is 1.0 deg. below normal
High Temp 70 deg. on Nov. 3rd.
Low Temp 19 deg. on Nov. 11th.
Days 0 or below 0

Total Precip. 3.70″ is 1.11″ below normal
Max 24hr. Precip. 1.54″ on Nov. 22nd.
Snowfall 0 is 1.1″ below normal
Total 2017 Precip. 47.79″ is 0.02″ above normal

T-Storm Days 0
High Wind Gust 37 mph on Nov. 19th.
Heating Degree Days 659
Cooling Degree Days 0
High Barometer 30.53″ on Nov. 11th.
Low Barometer 29.16″ on Nov. 19th.

The Fall Season (sep,oct,nov)
Ave Temp. 56.4 deg. is 2.3 deg. above normal
Total Precip. 12.90″ is 0.54″ below normal

The barograph recording shows two large swings in barometric pressure .  Each trace represents two days and the two traces are a week apart, in November.  Each vertical line represents two hours.

The Bendix barograph is always within 0.01″ of the Davis barometer in my shack.  The Davis is outside the house and the Bendix is in my radio shack.  The Bendix is one of three barographs given to me by our former Net Manager, Bill Claflin, now deceased.  Bill was a good friend and I miss him.

Dick, K1MGH

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

This is a link to a video that was the Picture of Today (November 27) in one of  my favorite web sites, Astronomy Picture of the Day (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/).  The video shows the development of the storms we watched over the past few months (Where do hurricanes go? To better understand dangerous storms, NASA compiled data from several satellites into a supercomputer simulation of this past year’s hurricane season. Specifically, the featured video shows how smoke (white), sea salt (blue), and dust (brown) tracked from 2017 August through October across the northern half of Earth’s Western Hemisphere. ).  I hope NASA doesn’t object to my pointing it out to you.

This is a fascinating video!  Hope you take a look and enjoy.  Dick