EASTON MASSACHUSETTS
NORTHEAST BRISTOL COUNTY
MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL REPORT

AUGUST 1996

August of 1996 ended the meteorological summer and the lack of extreme heat remained as the 90 degree level was never reached for the entire 90 day period.  However, this does not say that we never had spells of warm weather.  On the contrary, humidity levels were frequently in the "muggy" category and there were several days with temperatures in the 80s...7 of them in the mid 80s....which made conditions feel very summery.  The high temperature of 87 degrees on the 5th arrived courtesy of a Bermuda High pressure center in the southeast.  It also brought some of the highest humidity levels as well with afternoon dew points on the 5th near 71 degrees (at 5PM). The low temperature of 53 degrees occurred on the 20th under the influence of a strong High moving down from our North.   

With an abundance of moisture at the lower levels of the atmosphere thanks to a wind that primarily blew from the east or south, many locations experienced heavy fog.  8 days of heavy fog were recorded in town, the most for the entire year to date.  Locations to the south had even more fog days such as in Fairhaven, MA, on the south coast, where 20 days with heavy fog were recorded.

6 thunderstorm days were observed in town.  Most if not all of these thunderstorms occurred in the first half of the month as weak steering currents in the atmosphere left the region wide open for "convergence."  A seabreeze front on the 6th of August was the focal point for thunderstorms, one of which was severe, in Easton Center.  Dime sized hail fell in Easton Center westward through the Five Corners area.  While this South Easton location recorded just a Trace," 0.90" was observed in Easton Center! A similar event occurred the day before on the 5th except this time the most notable event out of the thundershower was the temperature drop of 8 degrees in just one hour between 5 and 6PM....

Not much action occurred this August other than the thunderstorm activity of early month.  A dominant trough in the upper layers of the atmosphere kept us fair.  A good indicator of this was the lowest barometric pressure reading which was at a RECORD HIGH MINIMUM for the month of August and also, as far as we can tell based on long term area records, the HIGHEST MINIMUM pressure FOR ANY MONTH OF THE YEAR going back to approximately 1925.  

TEMPERATURES
Highest			87	6th	
Lowest			53	20th
Highest Min		68	6th
Lowest Max		63	13th
Average High		78.7
Average Low		61.6
Mean for August:	70.2

PRECIPITATION	*
Total for the Month:		3.44"
Departure for the Month:	-0.89"
Greatest Total in Obs. Day:	1.03" 	13th
Days with Measurable Precip	   9
Total for the Year to Date:	 34.45"
Departure for the Year to Date:	 -3.96"

WEATHER
Days with FOG		8
Days with THUNDER	6


WIND
Peak Gust at Oliver Ames High School in North Easton unavailable this month.....

BAROMETRIC PRESSURE
Lowest was 29.94" at 1700 on the 10th and the Highest was 30.40" at 0800 on the 20th.  

DEW POINT/RELATIVE HUMIDITY (5PM) *
Average Dew Point:		64 ° 
Average Relative Humidity:	76%


Josh Nichols
Easton, MA weather observer
nicholsj@joker.lsc.vsc.edu OR
75613.1534@compuserve.com
Lyndon State College Freshman '96-'97