Rain helps, but October is still dry
Many locations west of the I-95 corridor received more than an inch of rain on Saturday. One would guess that the heavy rain helped bring what had been a very dry October more into line with the long-term averages. It sure helped.
But for many locations, including the official station at BWI Marshall, we remain very dry for the month. High winds during the height of the storm yesterday afternoon reached 20 mph at BWI, with gusts to 29 mph, resulting in thousands of power outages. Only a few thousand of the 20,000 or so affected by the storm are still without power this morning.
Here are some unofficial rain totals from CoCoRaHS:
Thurmont: 1.56 inches
Taneytown: 1.44 inches
Sykesville: 1.40 inches
Cockeysville: 1.36 inches
Ellicott City: 1.32 inches
Fallston: 1.26 inches
Columbia: 1.12 inches
Towson: .81 inches
Crofton: 0.68 inches
Pasadena: 0.53 inches
Easton: 0.38 inches
Out at BWI they recorded just 0.72 inches, bringing the month's total to only 0.84 inches. That is 1.73 inches below the average for the month through yesterday's date. If we get no more rain through the end of the month (Friday), which seems likely, this would become the fifth-driest October for Baltimore since 1963:
October 1963: Trace (record)
October 2000: 0.08 inch
October 1978: 0.71 inch
October 2001: 0.78 inch
October 2008: 0.84 inch
Comments
Mr. Roylance,
Yes, October has been a dry month. However, for the year we are 3.67" in the black. We could have no rain in November and still be ahead for the year.
Thank you for the work that you do, as you produce a very entertaining + informative blog. I have learned quite a bit from you in the year and a half that I've been following your posts.
FR: Thanks for the kind words. You are correct about the year's rainfall surplus. Extend your time scale back far enough, and our precip is exactly average.
Posted by: kvnmnnng | October 27, 2008 12:17 PM
Frank - I gotta' "pile on" a bit here - I too enjoy your site - most of the time - but agree with this person on the "overkill" of a "precip deficit" - why you and the other weather folks seem to "panic" whenever we are so much as a tenth of an inch below normal is beyond me - I saw several forecasters over the weekend telling us we were absolutely desperate for rain!!! How can that be? The weather is never "normal" - but all in all things even out over time.....relax :)
Thanks, Frank - keep up the good work.
FR: Boy, you guys are tough. Here I drag myself out of a warm bed on a Sunday morning - for NO PAY, mind you - and dish up the overnight rainfall stats for the handful of readers who browse the site on a Sunday, and I get a pie in my face on Monday. OK OK. It's October, the growing season is over and nobody except the Water Dept. cares how much rain we get. But I figure the 5th driest October in 44 years is worth noting for the weather geeks who read this stuff. And did I "panic?" Noooo. I said the overnight rain brought us "more into line" with long-term averages. I said it had been "very dry for the month." True enough. Sheesh. I shoulda stayed in bed...
Posted by: Rich | October 27, 2008 1:47 PM