Rainfall history?

[squirrelitude]

I've found it surprisingly difficult to get good information on recent rainfall history for Somerville. Like... how much rain did we get in that storm yesterday? How about all of June? And what's the historical average for June? (Latter might need a different site.) Any tips?

Comments

[gingicat]

My husband teddywolf poked around the NWS site and found it.

https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=box

[metahacker]

You rock!

[squirrelitude]

Ah nice, thank you!

some current Somervillle numbers

[redbird]

The Weather Underground site has data from a network of unofficial weather stations, and you can enter a location and then select one of those stations, including two in/near two stations in or near Davis Square.

From there, you can get daily, weekly, and monthly weather data; those two are reporting 6.75 and 7.19 inches of rain, respectively, so far this month. For June 2023, they give me either 6.47 or 5.95 inches of rain.

Those don't give past years or averages; The site teddywolf found might be better for that; the NWS/NOAA sites have historical data, and may be better calibrated than the hobbyist Weather Underground local weather stations.

Re: some current Somervillle numbers

[squirrelitude]

Oh, interesting! I used to use that site. Hmm... I'm having trouble getting the precip totals, though! If I go to https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KMASOMER81/graph/2023-07-23/2023-07-23/monthly I see a high for the month under Summary (but no total) and if go down to the graphs and set it to monthly mode, I get a precip graph but it's not cumulative (despite the labels). Where are you seeing totals?

Re: some current Somervillle numbers

[redbird]

Something weird is going on with one of those stations (KSOMER81). If I use the KSOMER89 station, scroll down, and pick "monthly mode," it shows me a plausible-seeming number of 7.19 inches so far this month, rather than the much lower number from KSOMER81.

Re: some current Somervillle numbers

[squirrelitude]

Ah, OK -- so the "average" is the total for the month, once you're in monthly mode! That makes sense now that I understand it. :-P Cool!

The precipitation graph is still weird, and that's what I had been looking at:



I think the accumulation line is resetting at the day boundary, which is weird but would explain it. Maybe I'll send them a bug report asking for that graph to accumulate for the whole month when in monthly mode...