VSF Weather Blog
by Jerry Madero (posted January 2010)

You just hate to change your internet provider because beginning with the first minute after you've hooked up with your new ISP you're stuck with the fact that nobody knows how to reach you by email. So begins the mind numbing job of notifying scores of contacts and web pages of your new address. But it had to be done because the current provider's system would go down invariably when the weather got bad which is exactly when it's needed, at least if you're running a weather station over the internet. Then there is the chore of upgrading your operating system. Vista's not treating you very well and over time the network connection drops become more frequent. You're spending way too much time rebuilding data files. Coupled with a new interest in astronomy and astrophotography you're not doing much writing anymore. So after months and months of frustration the necessary steps are taken, the grunt work accomplished; there is a new internet provider and there is Windows 7. The goal was to have a reliable weather network running by the first of the year. It actually happened in the middle of December.

So let's talk about December... Chilly but not really damp. Fortunately I wasn't headed for the golf course either morning, December 4th or 5th, when the temperature plunged to a year low of 11 degrees below zero. Whoops, that's Celsius, but at 12 degrees above it's still plenty cold for around here. The whole month was nippy as the mean temperature was a remarkable 7.2 degrees below normal. We did manage a few balmy days in mid-month when on the 18th we recorded the monthly high of 65. Though I complained a bit about it not being too damp we were actually slightly above normal with 1.03 inches of rain compared to the 30 year average of 0.98 inches. But if it wasn't for the storm on the 7th when 0.86 inches fell we wouldn't have been close.

By the way, since we're talking comparisons here, where do these averages come from? In a fairly good size city the data is usually taken from the city's commercial airline airport. While we do have an airport in the area it certainly isn't served by any airlines and it doesn't have a weather station. No data forthcoming there. The City of Cottonwood is also lacking a weather station. And Cornville isn't even a town, officially. However we are blessed with Tuzigoot National Monument and indeed, it does have a weather station and the National Weather Service hoards its readings and has established a climatology database for it. At an elevation of 3,470 feet it's only 88 feet higher than my station so the comparisons are favorable. Plus it's all I've got.

While December of last year was cool, July 18th was downright HOT; the thermometer soaring to 110! As a matter of fact highs were a hundred or better 20 of the 31 July days. But overall 7 months were cooler while the remaining five, the majority of which were summer months, were above normal. Unfortunately we lost the good fight - the fight for water. Eight months were below normal with January and August really disappointing. It was pretty grim; I recorded only 7.98 inches for the year, well below the 30 year average of 13.08 inches.

The strongest wind gust of 2009 was 42 mph on July 20th. A note about wind speeds: The National Weather Service sets the standard height for recording wind speed at 30 feet above the ground to negate the effects of terrain friction. My anemometer is about 8 feet above ground and because of that will record lower wind speeds than from the standard height. However since we're not 30 feet above the ground while we're sitting on the patio I feel we're actually getting a truer reading.

As I scribe this report one of the strongest storms ever to hit the Southwest is just winding down. I have already recorded the second highest monthly precipitation total since I began keeping records in 2005. So far, I've received 4.07 inches including the moisture content of the .75 inches of snow we received the morning of Jan. 21st.

Stay tuned, I'll have a review of January including our version of The Perfect Storm next month.