Meteorological Summer is officially over. Here is a brief summary of Jun 1-Aug 31 in Stormstown, PA:
August was a slightly warm month for temperature. The monthly mean was 1.3 deg. F above normal. There were only two daily maximums at or above 90 deg F. The high for the month was 90.8 deg. F recorded on August 29. The low for the month was 49.0 deg F, recorded on August 24. There were 17 heating degree days.
August was rainy, but lower than July, with over 5 inches of rainfall recorded. This was over 1.38 inches above normal for August and has contributed to a 9 inch surplus for 2018. There were 13 days of rain >.01 in, 9 >.1 in and 1 >1 in. Highest single day’s rainfall was 2.01 inches.
July was a normal month for temperature. The monthly mean was 0.7 deg. F below normal. There were only three daily maximums at or above 90 deg F. The high for the month was 91.3 deg. F recorded on July 3. The low for the month was 49.1 deg F, recorded on July 8. There were 37.9 heating degree days.
July was very rainy with over 9 inches of rainfall recorded. This was over 5.5 inches above normal for July and has contributed to an 8 inch surplus for 2018. There were 15 days of rain >.01 in, 13 >.1 in and 3 >1 in. Highest single day’s rainfall was 1.23 inches.
During the past 5 days, it has rained 4.27 inches in Stormstown, PA. That is 0.81 inches above normal for the month of July. So far, it has rained 7.53 inches this month. That’s 4.07 inches above normal. More rain is forecast before the end of July.
Warm, moist summer for Pennsylvania.
Meteorological Spring is officially over. Here is a brief summary of Mar 1-May 31 in Stormstown, PA:
This week, I installed a new UV sensor to my automated weather station. The plot from the first few days of operation appears below.
As you can see the UV intensity was significant. Sunscreen is recommended for indices of 3 or above.
Today, with precipitation in the forecast, I set up my mini-laboratory to measure the pH of the local rainfall in Stormstown, PA. First, I installed a standard rain gauge to collect rainwater.
I calibrated my pH meter, prior to taking any actual measurements, using standard reagents of pH of 4.0 and 6.86. I used a pH 7.0 reagent to verify.
After calibration, I waited for some rainfall and then collected my sample.
It had rained 0.20 inches over the past two days.
This was about 400 ml of liquid.
I measured the pH to be about 5.15, which is in the normal range for rainfall but still acidic. It is not considered to be acid rain.
The following is a graph comparing 2017 temperatures (the red line) with 2018 temperatures (the blue line). Temperatures are in deg F from March 11 to April 10. This shows how much colder than last year this spring has been so far.
Easter has come and gone. However, I got up this morning and saw this:
The depth of the snow was 6 1/2 inches. Due to the insolation of nearly 1000 W/m**2, the surface air temperature rose to 45 F, and the snow rapidly melted. It was just about gone before sunset, with just a few piles remaining. There is still a chance of snow Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Stormstown Dispatch 