Rainfall Totals -- February 28th, 2011

Hey everybody....

Here are the rainfall totals from the strong rain/storm system that moved through our area earlier this morning (2/28/11).  As you can see, most locations around here were in the one and a half inch to two inch range.  Townville officially received 1.66 inches between 1:53 A.M and 9:51 A.M.  At one point, the rainfall rate was 0.74 inches per hour.

Townville, PA                    1.66 in
Guys Mills, PA                   1.54 in
Woodcock, PA                 1.97 in
Oil City, PA                       1.52 in
Meadville, PA (Airport)     1.87 in
Franklin, PA (Airport)        1.50 in
Erie, PA (Airport)              1.53 in

Also, High Temperature for the day was 50.2°F not 81.7°F.   Every now and then the station takes faulty data...not sure why. I'm working on a fix.  

Rainfall data from Wunderground

A Ring Around The Moon...

Ever look up at the moon on the clear night and notice a "halo" of light around it?  No, its not a sign that the world is coming to an end.  It's actually very interesting phenomenon. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moon_Ring_01.jpg

The ring is caused by a refraction of light through ice crystals (mainly thin cirrus clouds) in the upper atmosphere.  The crystals have a hexagonal shape to them which causes the ring around the moon.  The ring will typically be the same size (22° across the sky) due to the hexagonal shape of the crystals.

Folklore says that the ring indicates that bad weather is coming.  The cirrus clouds usually come before a warm front and low pressure system which tends to bring stormy weather.  Also, some say that the amount of stars inside the ring indicate how many days till the stormy weather arrives. Does this work? Check it out sometime...

Lake Erie Ice Cover

The lake effect snow machine has been fairly quiet as of late.  This is mainly due to the substantial amount of ice cover on Lake Erie. Open water is needed for lake effect snow and currently there is not very much.  Even though the majority of the lake is covered, we can still receive lake effect snow from  moisture through cracks and open spots on the lake, and even from Lake Huron. The chances of receiving lake effect snow though are very low when the lake is ice covered.  Those who hate the winter and all the snow that comes with it should be happy to hear of this news and to see the image below.   

Pictured below is a Lake Erie ice cover shot taken on February 3, 2011. (Credit: NWS/NOAA)
Earlier Ice Cover Images can be seen HERE.