By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
7/9/09
There were no local sightings of arks being built, but the recent weather pattern had many people wondering if the sun would ever shine in Milton again.
According to record keepers at Blue Hill Weather Observatory, the weather station atop Great Blue Hill in Milton, last month was the second-gloomiest June on record, with just 27 percent total minutes of sunshine per hours of daylight recorded, or 118.1 total hours. The record is 25 percent, or 108.7 hours, set in 1903.
“We were all pulling for the record,” admitted Stephanie Radner, a weather observer at Blue Hill. “This place has turned me into a weather geek. After working here for three years, you
have to find some optimism in things like this.”
The low level of sunshine in June also ranks as the fourth lowest of any month ever recorded.
June also had 19 days of measurable precipitation, which ranks as the second most for any June on the list. The record was set in 1916, with 20 days. The corrected mean temperature of 60.6 degrees ranks as the 10th-coldest June on record.
The town did set a record for the month, but it would not be one most people would guess. June’s average wind speed of 9.8 mph ranks as the lowest for any June on record.
Blue Hill Weather Observatory is the oldest continuous weather recording station in the country, keeping records on such things as wind speed, temperature, precipitation and minutes of sunshine since 1885. Many of the observatory’s instruments, like the Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, which measures how many minutes of sunshine our area receives, are the same as the ones used by observers for over 120 years.
The Campbell-Stokes device is basically a large crystal ball that magnifies bright sunshine into a point hot enough to burn a mark on special paper. The reading is measured as a percentage of the total possible hours of daylight. The original, heavy instrument, dating back to the late 19th century, was replaced when it was stolen in the 1990s. The original was eventually returned a few years later.
Modern instruments are used in conjunction
with those from the late 19th century to preserve
the integrity of the database dating back to the
original recordkeeping.
The fact that weather data is recorded continuously at Blue Hill may have given the town a misnomer that occasionally appears in media outlets.
According to several Web sites, Milton has been dubbed the windiest city in America, with an average wind speed of 15.4 miles per hour. Clearly, the top of Great Blue Hill would not be characterized as “the city of Milton” (Milton is a town), but rather a “place.” According to USA Today’s Web site, the top of Mount Washington would probably rank as the windiest “place” in America, by those standards, with an average wind speed of 35.4 miles per hour.
The Blue Hill Observatory is a registered National Historic Landmark, and was founded by American meteorologist Abbott Lawrence Rotch as a private, scientific center for the study and measurement of the atmosphere. Tours of the observatory are held throughout the year, and many school groups visit the famous weather station, whose data is cited around the world.
For more information on Blue Hill Observatory, visit www.bluehill.org.