Monday, January 25, 2010

Washington DC Precipitation Update

See here for more Washington, DC weather records.

Despite some hyperventilation in the media about potential 1"/hour precipitation rates, the official Washington, DC storm total overnight and Monday morning was (much) less than 1"/day. Today's 0.29", added to the 0.10" which fell before midnight, brings the January 2010 total to only 1.24", less than 50% of the normal month-to-date amount.

Thanks to the very wet December, winter is still well above average just past the halfway point. With another chance for precipitation near the end of the week, there is still a possibility for the month to avoid being the third in the last 12 to be less than 50% of average. Here are the daily, monthly, and seasonal (since Dec. 1) totals around the region:
National        0.29"/1.24"/8.03"
Dulles 0.40"/1.70"/7.68"
Baltimore (BWI) 0.47"/1.94"/10.00"
Further to the west, Bluefield West Virginia set a daily rainfall record (in a relatively short station history) of 0.87" yesterday (January 24). Roanoke also set a daily record of 1.34". The 1.59" at Martinsburg WV was a record for today.

Images (click to enlarge):
Washington DC 2009-10 monthly precipitation amounts and percentages above or below average, CapitalClimate charts from NWS data

4 comments:

S.P. Gass said...

Do you know what the highest official total was in the Northern Shenandoah Valley? I believe some locations exceeded what Martinsburg reported...

CapitalClimate said...

Right you are. There were some fairly high amounts in the west, hence the flood warnings which are still in effect, BTW. I didn't post the list, because it takes up too much space, but here are some of the higher amounts from VA:

..AUGUSTA COUNTY

8 S STUARTS DRAFT 4.23 951 AM 1/25
5 WNW CROZET 4.06 951 AM 1/25
5 S STUARTS DRAFT 3.28 951 AM 1/25
5 N WAYNESBORO 3.27 951 AM 1/25
STUARTS DRAFT 1.40 700 AM 1/25

..CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE

CHARLOTTESVILLE 2.51 1000 AM 1/25 MESONET

..CITY OF WAYNESBORO

2 ENE WAYNESBORO 2.95 600 AM 1/25

..CULPEPER COUNTY

6 NNE RIXEYVILLE 2.19 600 AM 1/25
6 N RIXEYVILLE 1.93 700 AM 1/25

..FAUQUIER COUNTY

6 S WARRENTON 0.91 700 AM 1/25

..FREDERICK COUNTY

5 NE WINCHESTER 1.97 900 AM 1/25
2 E STEPHENS CITY 1.30 700 AM 1/25

..GREENE COUNTY

2 WNW STANARDSVILLE 2.20 600 AM 1/25

S.P. Gass said...

Thanks a lot, are these stats easy for the public to find? I hate to bother you if there's a site I can access to get these data.

CapitalClimate said...

I don't post links to the NWS reports, because they're not permanent, but you can find recent ones from the local Public Information Statement page. They're filed in reverse chronological order. If you don't find what you want, keep going back until you get to the right version. In this case, the rainfall data are currently at the bottom of version 2, but that will change as new ones are added.

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