Centre County Lows 11/22

On the heels of the coldest November readings earlier this week, we dove down into the single digits this morning for one last time before the warm-up. AccuWeather set a new record low for the day with 9 degrees; in fact AccuWeather had not been below 12 degrees in November in the last 10 years. Penn State did not break their daily record of 10, coming in at 14.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell: 6
Marshall Moss: 8
AccuWeather:   9
Elliot Abrams: 12
KUNV Airport:  13
PSU Shelter:   14
Walker Building Top: 15

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning (map shows me at 5, that was incorrectly reported by CWOP)*

Centre County Cold 11/17-11/19

Extremely cold air filtered down from the Arctic this week, threatening record temperatures. In fact, Penn State's high temperature on 11/18 of 18 degrees was their earliest such seasonal reading. This reading was much lower than any other station due to the time of measurements (see below). Their low of 13 degrees on 11/19 also broke a record for the date (formerly 17 in 1903).

AccuWeather recorded 12 degrees on the 19th, and for the last 10 years, it had never been below 12 in the entire month of November! Marshall Moss's station and one other fell to 9 degrees.

Lowest Minimums This Week:*

Jesse Ferrell: 10
Marshall Moss: 9
AccuWeather:   12
Elliot Abrams: 10
KUNV Airport:  12
PSU Shelter:   13



Lowest Maximums This Week: 

Jesse Ferrell: 24 
AccuWeather:   23
KUNV Airport:  22
PSU Shelter:   18

This graph is a little confusing but it illustrates the problem... the "24-hour" temperature started going up rapidly just after 7 PM, when Penn State's climatological day was over, but others' days (which are midnight to midnight) were not. The actual data on the graph is from my station (C6777) and the AccuWeather station (C6778), just to show local variations.



Early-season record low maximums were also set at Bradford, Altoona, Johnstown, Lancaster, and York:

11/14 Maintenance Updates CW6777

The battery for my station (CW6777) thermo/hygro sensor started failing overnight due to a dead battery. It was replaced today; I continue to lose wind data at night due to a dead battery on the roof.

The battery for the Corl Street (DW6314) thermo/hygro sensor has started failing overnight. There is no replacement timeframe.

Centre County Lows 9/23

My chilliest morning yet this Fall! PSU record(s) were 30 or below.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell: 35
Marshall Moss: 37
AccuWeather:   39
Corl Street:   40
Elliot Abrams: 40
KUNV Airport:  40
PSU Shelter:   41

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

State low in Central region was 33 @

Centre County Lows 9/14 & 9/15

Two mornings of nearly identical temperatures. Penn State records for the date were both 35.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows 14th | 15th (when known):

Jesse Ferrell: 36 | 36
Marshall Moss: 38
Elliot Abrams: 40 | 40
Corl Street:   40
AccuWeather:   40 | 40
KUNV Airport:  42 | 41
Walker Top:    44
PSU Shelter:   44 | 44

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows Morning of the 15th:*

9/14 Maintenance Update CW6777

Battery replacement in the WeatherMatrix station (CW6777) anemometer did not work. At this time I'll schedule removing the apparatus from the roof, but there is no estimated date of restoration.

9/5 Maintenance Updates

The Corl Street Elementary station (DW6314) has returned to operation after the battery died on August 12th.

The WeatherMatrix station (CW6777) has stopped transmitting wind data at night due to a dead battery. Hope to replace it by mid September.

Centre County Lows 8/29

My chilliest morning yet. Ironically, PSU only dropped to 51 vs. their record low of 40, while I was 41. Bradford only fell to 39 vs. their record of 25, the lowest August or first half of September record!

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell: 41
Marshall Moss: 44
Elliot Abrams: 45
AccuWeather:   47
KUNV Airport:  48
PSU Shelter:   51

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Other lows reported by NWS: 37 @ Oswayo; 39 at Kane.

Centre County Lows 8/16

A chilly morning for August! Penn State had 51 for three mornings in a row, but records were 47,44,44 respectively.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

PSU Rock Spr:  42
Jesse Ferrell: 43
Marshall Moss: 43
Elliot Abrams: 45
AccuWeather:   47
KUNV Airport:  47
PSU Shelter:   51

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Other Regional Lows This Morning: Bradford recorded 38, one degree off their record of 37 set in 1964.

Centre County Lows 7/25

Another chilly July morning; Penn State was +4 compared to their daily record.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell: 44
Marshall Moss: 45
Elliot Abrams: 46
Corl Street:   49
AccuWeather:   49
KUNV Airport:  50
PSU Shelter:   52
Walker Top:    52

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Other Regional Lows This Morning: Bradford & Smethport made it down to 39. Ironically, Bradford tied their record daily low from last year.

Centre County Lows 7/18

A second chilly morning for Centre County:

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell: 46
Elliot Abrams: 49
AccuWeather:   50
KUNV Airport:  50
PSU Shelter:   56

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Centre County Lows 7/17

A little chilly this morning in the favored areas... though Penn State was +8 compared to their daily record.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell: 49
Marshall Moss; 49
Elliot Abrams: 51
Corl Street:   52
AccuWeather:   52
KUNV Airport:  53
PSU Shelter:   55
Walker Top:    55

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Other Regional Lows This Morning

Centre County Wind Gusts 5/27

A severe thunderstorm (warning) passed through Centre County on the afternoon of May 27th. Here are selected wind gusts:

Walker Roof   : 47 mph
AccuWeather HQ: 44 mph (2014 High)
Jesse Ferrell : 38 mph 
KUNV Airport  : 35 mph

Not included in this report? Leave a comment below with your wind gust.

Centre County Lows 5/19

Quite chilly this morning in the favored areas... though Penn State was +10 compared to their daily record.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Elliot Abrams: 35
Jesse Ferrell: 35
Corl Street:   36
AccuWeather:   37
PSU Shelter:   42
KUNV Airport:  39
Walker Top:    43

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Centre County Flooding 5/16

Eastern Centre County received heavy rainfall yesterday afternoon through early this morning. Some rain gauge amounts:

Penn State: 2.78"
UNV Airport: 2.65"
AccuWeather HQ: 2.45"
Jesse's House: 2.57"
CoCoRAHs (W to E): 2.14, 2.88, 2.98, 2.65, 3.50"

NWS EDD estimates for the area (12Z):



This drove local USGS gauges to their highest levels this year. Here are the gauge heights from the USGS gauges closest to State College:



I took the following pictures at gauge height 6.65" (max was 6.76") in Houserville:

Centre County Highs 5/13

It was hot, hot, hot today! Penn State broke their previous record for the day at 86 degrees. Other selected high temperatures:

AccuWeather HQ: 87
Jesse's House: 89

Other high temperatures:*

Station Maintenance Notice

The AccuWeather HQ Davis weather station lost power and stopped transmitting Saturday at 5:08 AM. I believe it lost power because the batteries were not in correctly.

I rebooted the station this afternoon, but it would no longer receive data. I rebooted again and the console received data, then froze up.

Third reboot seemed to be work but it stopped transmitting to the Internet soon thereafter.

A fourth reboot has worked thus far. I'd like to upgrade the firmware on the device but I need to find the IP address first.

Because the station was actually unpowered, it did not maintain a record during that period. The nearest station (my house) reported these temperatures:

SATURDAY: 39/68
SUNDAY: 33/66
MONDAY: 28/62 (as of 3 PM)

In addition, the "WeatherMatrix" station at my house was not transmitting temperatures between 6 AM & 4 PM on April 30th. This was due to a dead battery and not enough solar power this week. Both outages are shown below:

Centre County Lows 4/16

One more (?) cold snap for Centre County? PSU records are in the teens, so this morning didn't set one, but today is the last day of the season with "normals" in the 30s, so these readings are still pretty impressive.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Elliot Abrams: 20
Jesse Ferrell: 21
Corl Street:   22
Marshall Moss: 22
AccuWeather:   22
PSU Shelter:   23
KUNV Airport:  23
Walker Top:    24

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

High Winds & Shelf Cloud 4/14

A forming shelf cloud was accompanied by heavy rain and high winds, gusting to 47 mph downtown on the top of the Walker Building, and 38 mph atop AccuWeather HQ. Other stations that were at 30m, were not close to the front of the forming bow echo, or were away from the heaviest rain did not report winds over 32 mph and/or reported the max gust earlier in the day.



There were no warnings issued or lightning detected. Above is the radar reflectivity at 6:10 PM with my location (Blue Course & Havershire) tagged in the middle; this was just a few minutes after the photos below were taken (the AccuCams & Walker Cam, which are timestamped).

Centre County Highs 4/13

Penn State University in State College, PA rose to 84 degrees, breaking the daily record from 1941. It has only been warmer than 84 degrees four times this early in the year (Jan 1 - Apr 13) in history. It was especially ironic since one month ago today we were in the single digits. The mountains won the contest yesterday, with 90 reported in Maryland & West Virginia.

Selected* Online Centre County highs today:

Joe Bastardi:  87
Jesse Ferrell: 86
Mark Mancuso:  85
PSU Shelter:   84
Corl Street:   84
KUNV Airport:  84
Elliot Abrams: 83
AccuWeather:   83
Marshall Moss: 83
Walker Top:    83

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your high from this afternoon.

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Centre County Lows 3/13

Pretty darn chilly for March 13th! The wind chill reached -10 @ AccuWeather HQ's Davis Vantage Pro weather station this morning. Low temperatures were in the single digits, but owing to the winds, were fairly consistent. PSU did not set a record; it was +3 in 1984.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Elliot Abrams: +7
Jesse Ferrell: +8
Corl Street:   +8
Marshall Moss: +8
AccuWeather:   +8
PSU Shelter:   +9
Walker Top:    +9
KUNV Airport: +10

If your station is not included in this list, please post a comment with your low from this morning.

Because of the single-digit reading at Penn State, I have adjusted the Winter Summary blog to read 29 days at or below 10 degrees, vs. 4 last winter.

The temperature fall last night was quite something -- the Davis Vantage Pro weather station at my house fell as much as 12 degrees per hour, and 33 degrees overnight... and the high yesterday was 62!

Other Online Lows This Morning:*

Lowest Pressure Since Sandy

State College (UNV airport) bottomed out at 29.07" Hg sea-level pressure tonight as a major storm system passed over us. As far as I can tell, this was the lowest pressure we've seen since Hurricane Sandy dropped us to 28.72" on October 31, 2012.

PSU Winter Vs. 2012-2013

Winter 2013-2014 compared to 2012-2013:

# of mornings @ PSU <10  F: 29* this yr so far; 4 last winter.
# of mornings @ PSU <=0  F:  9 this yr so far; 0 last winter.

Days Above Normal @ PSU Dec-Feb 2012-2013: 54%
Days Above Normal @ PSU Dec-Feb 2013-2014: 30%

Lowest Temp This Winter: -9, Coldest Since 1994's -18

The data above is from AccuWeather's KPSU database. *Updated 3/13 to add one more day.

Also from the AccuWeather data: Due to the unusually cold winter this season versus last, Penn State recorded 63 days (70%) with at least a trace of snow, and 61 days (68%) with at least an inch of snow cover this winter (90 days Dec-Feb). Last winter those numbers were 48 (53%) and 32 (36%). In other words: The number of days with snow cover was nearly twice this season versus last!

The official PSU temperature stats for last winter & this winter are shown below; we were a full 6.19 degrees colder this winter than last!



In addition to the temperature record mentioned above, 1994 was quite a winter. Harrisburg had at least 1" of snow on the ground for 71 consecutive days, which established a new record (this year they only had 45 non-consecutive). 1994's streak continued until they had 75 consecutive days, ending on March 20th. At Penn State, however, 1994's snow cover lasted from January 3 to March 31 (88 consecutive days!) And of course, that snow year (July 1993 - June 1994) set the record of 109.3" here in State College (as well as the Annual Snowfall at 102.6").

Corl Street Station Returns

After going offline in November 2013, the Corl Street Weather Station (a Davis Vantage Vue station on the school's roof) has started transmitting online once again, as of today (March 7th).

It turned out that the internal "C" batteries had leaked battery acid (again!) and once the console was cleaned and rebooted, it started uploading to the Internet once again.

Some GOOD news: The console continued to record all winter, so we now know that the station fell to +4 on March 4th, and had a yearly low of -10 during the January cold outbreak, probably on the 7th.

Centre County Lows 3/4

Selected* Online Centre County Lows this morning:

Jesse Ferrell:   0
Marshall Moss:  +3
Elliot Abrams:  +3
Corl Street:    +4 (NEW!)
AccuWeather:    +5
KUNV Airport:   +6
PSU Shelter:    +7
Walker Top:     +8 

Please reply with your low from this morning, and your lowest this season!

Other Online Lows This Morning:*



Hopefully this will be the last day that my station will report a reading at zero or below!

Centre County Lows 2/28

Another frigid night in Central PA...

FUN FACTS:

# of mornings @ PSU <10  F: 25 this yr so far; 4 last winter.
# of mornings @ PSU <=0  F:  9 this yr so far; 0 last winter.

43% of Feb.'s daily average temps @ PSU were 10 or more degrees below normal.

Selected* Online Centre County Lows Feb. 28th:

Jesse Ferrell:  -7
Marshall Moss:  -6?
AccuWeather:    -5
KUNV Airport:   -1
Elliot Abrams:  -7?
PSU Shelter:    -1
Walker Top:      0    

Other Centre County Lows:*

Cold Evening 2/26

When the winds quit last night at my house, I managed to drop to 1 degree, but by this morning I was in the teens.

Other 24-hour lows in the area* ranged from ~5-10 degrees:

Centre County Lows 2/12

Selected* Online Centre County Lows Feb. 12th:

Jesse Ferrell: -14
Marshall Moss:  -8
AccuWeather:    -8
KUNV Airport:   -6
Elliot Abrams:  -5
PSU Shelter:    -1
Walker Top:     +1    

The -14 reading was my second-lowest temp since I moved here in 1997. My record was -15 in 2009. The following reports were also received: Brett Anderson (-18), Dave Dombeck (-19), Frank Strait (-9). Please reply with additional readings if you are not listed above!

Other Centre County Lows:*



Other Pennsylvania Lows From PA Storm Chasers.

Other Pennsylvania Lows From NWS:

Centre County Lows 2/11

FUN FACTS:

# of mornings @ PSU <10 F: 18 this yr so far; 4 last winter.
# of mornings @ PSU <0  F:  6 this yr so far; 0 last winter.

Selected* Centre County Lows Feb. 11th:

Jesse Ferrell: -5
Marshall Moss: -4
AccuWeather:   -2
Elliot Abrams: +1
PSU Shelter:   +5
Walker Top:    +8
KUNV Airport:  +10

Brett Anderson reports -12 at his house. Please reply with additional readings if you are not listed above!

Other Centre County Lows:*

Centre County Lows 2/8

Another cold morning. Selected* Centre County Lows Feb. 8th:

Jesse Ferrell: -3
Marshall Moss: +1
Elliot Abrams: +4
AccuWeather:   +4
PSU Shelter:   +8
KUNV Airport: +10
Walker Top:   +10

Please reply with additional readings if you are not listed above! Other Centre County Lows:*

Welcome to the Centre Co. Mesonet!

Welcome to my new blog. Since installing a weather station at my house here in State College, PA in 1997 (the year I started working at AccuWeather), another station at AccuWeather in 2005, and several since, I have become the unofficial record keeper, if you will, at least of the extreme temperatures, rainfall and winds reported online for our county. After 2005, I sent an email to the AccuWeather Forecasting Dept. each time one of these extreme values was recorded. This often resulted in additional, manually taken readings, to not go out to everyone.

In February 2014, I decided to move those postings online to this blog. I'd like to welcome the other forecasters at AccuWeather (and the general community) to reply with their readings when I post a blog. I will be gradually, over time, filling in additional reports from the past.

DISCLAIMERS: This is an UNOFFICIAL blog about what I refer to as "The Centre County Mesonet." That name is also unofficial; the Centre County Mesonet website just contains links to various (online) weather stations and webcams in the State College area. Because of the nature of automated stations, they can be in error.

Official climate information for Penn State University can be found on their website; official climate information for State College, PA is not recorded by the National Weather Service but the nearest stations are listed here and the PA State Climatologist maintains official data for the state. Additional information on Pennsylvania extremes can often be found via the Pennsylvania Storm Chasers group on Facebook, and my WeatherMatrix Blog.