RodneyS Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 No trace of snow yet (through end of December) in DC. Only has happened in 01-02. And that season DCA recorded a trace on January 6th. Looking at the forecasts for next week, I would venture that record is about to fall. However, DCA did manage to record 3.2 inches of measurable snow after that in January and February, which was 0.6 inches more than IAD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I can't believe DCA's only had a zero in Dec. only once. Its happened five times at BWI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Now also 7 months of the year since 2001 with a record high monthly temp at DC Mar 2012 May 2015 Jun 2010 Jul 2011 Oct 2007 Nov 2001 Dec 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 We need to get Sep.. 1881. That one should be next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I can't believe DCA's only had a zero in Dec. only once. Its happened five times at BWI. For some reason, in the late 1880s there was a gap in recording December snow in DC, but in all of those years at least a trace of November snow was recorded. More recently, neither December 1972 nor December 1991 saw even a trace of snow at DCA, but traces were recorded there in November 1972 and November 1991. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 We need to get Sep.. 1881. That one should be next. September 1881 was a pretty remarkable month, even though the average temperature of 78.2 was just 8.4 degrees above the 1871-2015 average of 69.8. For one thing, it was the warmest month of the year -- the only time in DC history that September has been warmer than June, July,and August. Second, the maximum was 104 on September 7th -- tied for the 6th highest maximum in DC history, with the top five all occurring much earlier (between July 7-August 17). It's also interesting to note that New Year's Day 1881 featured a minimum of minus 14 -- the second lowest in DC history. So, the 1881 DC temperature range was 118 degrees -- greatest yearly range in DC history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 I just did the same thing with AccuWeather's DC projections and got 50.9 degrees. That would not only shatter the December record of 45.6 degrees set in 1889 and tied in 1984, but also the all-time winter monthly record of 48.0 degrees set in January 1950. Weather.com now has forecasts through December 30th, and they're even warmer: Average DC temperature Dec 1-30, 2015 = 51.3 degrees. Impressive performance by Weather.com and AccuWeather in mid-December to pretty much nail the final December 2015 DCA average of 51.2. That was 11.5 degrees above normal. IAD, at 48.7, was 12.1 degrees above normal; and BWI, at 49.0, was 12.3 degrees above normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 December finished at 49.0 degrees (+12.3) at BWI. I don't have a lot of time today but just at a quick glance, this was the hottest DJF month ever and would also be 12th hottest March. Would also be an above average November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Looks like this should go down as the third warmest year on record for DC*. 2012 61.51991 60.22015 60.11998 601990 60 *you know the story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Looks like this should go down as the third warmest year on record for DC*. 2012 61.5 1991 60.2 2015 60.1 1998 60 1990 60 *you know the story When the DCA temperature sensor was replaced on August 10th, the psychro-dyne indicated that it was reading 1.7 degrees too high. From that date forward, the 2015 DCA-IAD average temperature differential shrunk from 5.06 degrees through August 9th to 3.45 degrees thereafter -- a reduction of 1.61 degrees. So, I think that's a pretty good indication that the old sensor was reading about 1.7 degrees too high for many months. If it was doing so beginning no later than New Year's Day 2015, the official yearly average temperature at DCA was inflated by a full degree by the faulty sensor. However, there have very likely been past sensor issues at many sites -- including DCA and IAD -- that received little attention or even went undetected. For example, in 1976, the DCA-IAD annual temperature differential was 5.9 degrees, whereas in 2009 it was only 1.7 degrees. Were the DCA and IAD sensors both accurate in those years? So, I think the bottom line is that there was a problem with the DCA sensor for much of 2015, but attempting to adjust the numbers would open up a new can of worms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxdude64 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 When the DCA temperature sensor was replaced on August 10th, the psychro-dyne indicated that it was reading 1.7 degrees too high. From that date forward, the 2015 DCA-IAD average temperature differential shrunk from 5.06 degrees through August 9th to 3.45 degrees thereafter -- a reduction of 1.61 degrees. So, I think that's a pretty good indication that the old sensor was reading about 1.7 degrees too high for many months. If it was doing so beginning no later than New Year's Day 2015, the official yearly average temperature at DCA was inflated by a full degree by the faulty sensor. However, there have very likely been past sensor issues at many sites -- including DCA and IAD -- that received little attention or even went undetected. For example, in 1976, the DCA-IAD annual temperature differential was 5.9 degrees, whereas in 2009 it was only 1.7 degrees. Were the DCA and IAD sensors both accurate in those years? So, I think the bottom line is that there was a problem with the DCA sensor for much of 2015, but attempting to adjust the numbers would open up a new can of worms. I agree with you on that, it is what it is. Just glad that they did a 'repair'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Some more stats for BWI- this was the 2nd hottest November-December period. The top ten are listed below (in degrees). We came close to beating 1931, and there's a huge gap between 2nd and 3rd. You'll see some familiar recent years in this list too: 1931: 50.2 2015: 50.0 1946: 47.4 1994 & 1941: 47.3 1948: 46.9 1881: 46.6 1889 & 2011: 46.5 2001: 46.4 This was also the 10th wettest December at BWI, with 5.85" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Some more stats for BWI- this was the 2nd hottest November-December period. The top ten are listed below (in degrees). We came close to beating 1931, and there's a huge gap between 2nd and 3rd. You'll see some familiar recent years in this list too: 1931: 50.2 2015: 50.0 1946: 47.4 1994 & 1941: 47.3 1948: 46.9 1881: 46.6 1889 & 2011: 46.5 2001: 46.4 This was also the 10th wettest December at BWI, with 5.85" At DCA, it was no contest. The November-December 2015 average temperature there was 52.5 degrees, which broke the 2001 record by 2.3 degrees. In fact, starting in March 2015, I believe that DCA broke every composite DC monthly record ending in December 2015 -- ten records in all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 DCA finally made the 20s this eve. Latest on record passing 12/23 in 2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 BWI would only need a +1.5 departure in both January and February to tie for top ten hottest winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 2015-16 goes down as latest trace on record for DC. Still none. 01-02 tapped out today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 BWI already had a T in December, but if you're looking to track snow futility, the only January that ever had a 0 (not even a T) was 1937. Its still early, but we're at zero so far and no snow in sight. Should probably mention that 1937 really delivered in February and March and was an above average winter though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 This is something else I've been thinking about but don't have enough info- how often do we go through an entire winter without at least one subfreezing high? Looking at some of BWI's hottest winters I can't find any that didn't have at least one for DJF except 31/32 (and even that winter had several in March). So I can't find any for DJFM at all. Although not having any subfreezing highs may not correlate to an overall torch winter, so I could be looking in the wrong places. I'd assume DCA has had several without. Still early though- and BWI might get one next week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 This is something else I've been thinking about but don't have enough info- how often do we go through an entire winter without at least one subfreezing high? Looking at some of BWI's hottest winters I can't find any that didn't have at least one for DJF except 31/32 (and even that winter had several in March). So I can't find any for DJFM at all. Although not having any subfreezing highs may not correlate to an overall torch winter, so I could be looking in the wrong places. I'd assume DCA has had several without. Still early though- and BWI might get one next week? If you define subfreezing as 31 degrees and below, such a failure last happened at DCA four winters ago. During the winter of 2011-12 (Weak La Nina), the low maximum was 32 on January 22, 2012. The last winter at DCA in which the maximum exceeded 32 every day was the prior very strong El Nino in 1997-98, when the low maximum was 34 on March 11, 1998. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 I figured not getting a subfreezing high in DJF (yes, I mean 31 and under) would be more common at DCA than BWI. Other than 31/32, the only other one I found was 97/98 (which was tied for 8th hottest winter overall). But there may be others, I can't check them all. Some of BWI's hottest winters and the first subfreezing high they had (also included the super nino of 72/73 out of curiosity, even though its way down on the list at 25th hottest): 32/33 - 12/16 (23 degrees) 48/49 - 12/26 (25 degrees) 49/50 - 2/26 (31 degrees) 72/73 - 12/17 (30 degrees) 01/02 - 12/30 (30 degrees) 11/12 - 1/4 (31 degrees) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Play around with this it has basically everything once you figure out how to pull it http://xmacis.rcc-acis.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Play around with this it has basically everything once you figure out how to pull it http://xmacis.rcc-acis.org Will be adding this to my bookmarks, thanks! I use this page a lot- you guys probably already have this, but if you don't, its got a lot of good data: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/lcd/lcd.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrinceFrederickWx Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Not only was this storm the biggest one for BWI (29.2") but it was also the snowiest single day yesterday (25.5"), beating the previous record of 23.3" on January 28, 1922. One thing that makes me kinda sad- the Dec. 2009 storm has now been knocked off the top ten list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needbiggerboat Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 22/23 Jan 2016 Blizzard for IAD Overall and 2-day storm total, #2 at 29.3 (#1 is 32.4 from 5/6 Feb 2010) 1-day, #2 at 22.1 (#1 is 22.5 from 11 Feb 1983) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gymengineer Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I think IAD's 28" snow depth is its highest on record, beating the depth after the second February 2010 storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 December wasn't hot. It was warm. And January wasn't cold. It was cool. However the 34.9 degree average temperature at DCA, while only 0.3 degrees below the January 1871-2016 DC average of 35.2 degrees, was 16.3 degrees below the December 2015 average DCA temperature of 51.2 degrees. That decline represented the greatest one-month change from December in DC history. The previous record-holder was January 1912, which declined 16.0 degrees from December 1911. (The largest increase was January 1990, which was up 15.7 degrees from December 1989.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Current three winter stretch is the snowiest on record for Dulles, VA (since 1963) at 122.7". Number two is 65-66 thru 67-68 with 105.5". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinterWxLuvr Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Current three winter stretch is the snowiest on record for Dulles, VA (since 1963) at 122.7". Number two is 65-66 thru 67-68 with 105.5". Does IAD keep stats on number of days with at least 1" snowfall? I know I've seen that data for some airports at some time in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MN Transplant Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Current three winter stretch is the snowiest on record for Dulles, VA (since 1963) at 122.7". Number two is 65-66 thru 67-68 with 105.5". Snow town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 At 2:52 PM today, there was a temperature difference of 21 degrees between DCA (65) and IAD (44). Not a record, as on both January 21, 1984 and January 28, 1987, the daily DCA/IAD minimums differed by 24 degrees (8 and minus 16, and 7 and minus 17, respectively). However, both of those occurred with significant snow on the ground at IAD and a clear night, and so radiational cooling was the source of the extreme difference in morning lows. Does anyone know what the record is for the largest afternoon difference, both at the same time and for the entire afternoon? (IAD is still forecast to reach about 60 later today.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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