Weather as Recorded at the UMass Cranberry Station
East Wareham
Prepared by Carolyn DeMoranville
October was warm and a bit sunnier than average. Rainfall was above average for the first month since May, very welcome indeed if not yet enough to entirely break the drought. The temperature averaged 54.8 degrees, 2.1 degrees per day above average, warmer than 2015. Maximum temperature of 77.0 degrees was recorded on the 19th; a minimum temperature of 32.0 degrees was recorded on the 27th, the first freeze of the season. Daytime high temperatures averaged 63.7 degrees, 1.9 degrees above the norm. Evening low temperatures averaged 46.1 degrees, 2.4 degrees above the norm. This is the 7th year in a row of warmer than average daytime highs in October, 6 of the 7 years also had a nighttime low above the 30-year average. So far in 2016, all months, with the exception of April, have had above average temperatures.
Sunshine totaled 58% of the possible sunshine hours, 3 points above the norm and similar to 2015. The Blue Hills observatory had 12 days that were mostly clear (90% of possible) and 6 days with no sunshine. There were 9 days with fog in East Wareham this month. Year-to-date sunshine is running well above the norm (more than 200 hours above).
Precipitation totaled 6.03 inches, 1.89 inches above the 30-year average. The largest rainfall came on the 8-9th, 2.18 inches. Measurable rain was recorded on 8 days, 7 days of which had rainfall of 0.10 inches or greater. This was only the 3rd month with above average rainfall this year. Year-to-date rainfall for 2016 is 35.38 inches; 5.45 inches below average for East Wareham. Notably, our rainfall deficit for the year is less than it was this time last year. The big difference is that we started 2015 with high water tables after the 2014-2015 snows but started 2016 already in a deficit since 2015 came in at more than 6 inches below the norm.
