Thursday, October 1, 2009

September Weather Summary / WY 08-09 Summary

I'm pulling double duty on this month's summary. With the books officially closed on the 08-09 water year, I'd like to share some water year data with you. First, let's start with this month.

As in my previous post, this month shows more of the same in the precipitation department. We ran another surplus, but only after following a 31-day period of 0.31". Late in the month, an upper level low spinning in Colorado offered us the relief we needed, and my lawn responded with vigor! Each mow, now I am thinking, "Is this the last time?" Let's hope this weekend is the last.

Overnight, a warm front lifted NE through the area, giving us a milder start to the day than the previous few mornings (temps in the 60s rather than 40s), currently, there is a wide swath of rain and storms spreading from Texas to Missouri, and into Montana. Quite impressive indeed. There is thunder in the area, and we are sure to get the first precip of WY 09-10.

September Observations
can be found here

Temperatures

September offered us very comfortable temperatures. We started and ended the month a bit on the cool side, but we stayed around average through the middle of the month.

High: 83° on 9/11 and 9/27

Low: 44° on 9/29 and 9/30

Mean High (average): 76.2° (79.1°)

Mean Low (average): 57.0° (55.4°)

# of Days Above Average High: 6

# of Days Below Average High: 20


Precipitation

Average Precip: 3.68"
September Precip: 4.28"

And our yearly totals so far...



2007 - 2009 September Comparisons




In a comparison to the previous two years, you can see a remarkable difference in rain amounts. Last year, the tropics were extremely active, and we had two tropical depressions impact our area. One even came right through Missouri! The result of that is easy to spot on the graph. 2007, on the other hand experienced some extreme drought (if you'll remember, that was the same year with the devastating Easter Freeze).

September Days with Thunder: 2

I took some time over the weekend to generate some disaggregated data concerning rainfall amounts. I was interested to know the frequencies in which we experienced heavy/light rainfall events. I'm excited to have these data now. Thanks to OSNW3 for showing me some cool features on Excel.

January - August 2009
Days With Precipitation






Water Year 2008 - 09 Summary


Yearly Precipitation Average: 41.22"
WY 2008-09 Deviation: +6.00"


Links to Monthly Summaries:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! Amazing post! The graphics are awesome, I really need to get a station up and start making some graphics. ;)

Great summary! As for the temps, I was in Florida recently, and it was a HUGE shock to me to come back to the chilly fall weather in Wisconsin.

Chris

WxWatcher said...

You'd be surprised how economical weather stations can be! I just got one for the classroom, an Oregon Scientific WMR968, and at home a WMR100N

My dream is to upgrade to Davis, one day. I'm hoping Bob will buy me one for Christmas. :o)

Welcome back to WI, sounds like you missed some cloudy, windy weather while you were gone.

Ami Jo said...

Great post WxWatcher!!! I wish I had a new gauge to replace the one used as a chew toy by my son's dog. The beginning of the new water year would be a beautiful time to put it up!

Hope you are having a blessed week! Love ya! Ami

WxWatcher said...

You do have a birthday coming up, don't you?

Hope you have a great week, too. We sure do miss seeing you all.

Bob said...

This is an outstanding post WxWatcher. The charts are well done and comprehensive. With the start of the New Year I'll be able to begin comparisons as I’ll have a year of recorded data - looking forward to that.

Bob
WX Ranger NW

WxWatcher said...

I look forward to seeing your data, Bob!

Josh Herman said...

Agreed. WxWatcher, you've opened my mind to the "water year". I thought your were being funny when you closed that email with "happy new year" but after thinking about it for a minute and then reading the topic of the day on CoCoRaHS and then seeing this entry... well, it all came together. :)

It's on! Expect the OSNW3 Water Year (I think of Wyoming each time I see "WY") to be featured in the next entry. I am excited to compare the amount of days with measurable precip/snow. We all know Bob's will be much lower than ours. :)

Even with the remnants of the two hurricanes that came up last September we were still way below average for the month, just opposite for you all in MO.

WxWatcher said...

I had never heard of the water year before joining CoCoRaHS, but the time line makes total sense. I told my Environmental Studies class about the new year on Thursday, and one student asked what year it was...hmm, made me think. I'll have to check back to see when hydrologists began using this cycle.

I know Nolan appreciates water year summaries as well!