***UPDATE(7/2/2008): We have just
completed the move of this web site to a CALS server in order to better to serve
your needs. We have repaired some broken links, and reloaded
missing images and documents. On the Data Page->Summary->Moscow, we have loaded the data sheets for Moscow Plant Sciences Farm up through
June, 2008; I also recently submitted the updated data from the Coop network up through May 2008 to the INSIDE Idaho database-hopefully the UI library will be able to ingest that new data soon so it will be available online. Thanks for your patience.***
News Update (6/11/2008): How unusual was the June 10, 2008 snowfall
that occurred in Moscow, Idaho and surrounding areas?
Following June tenth's snowfall, I looked back through the
daily “Cooperative Observer” dataset that goes back to February, 1893 for
Moscow, to look for recorded June snowfall. The only other recorded June
snowfalls during the entire period of record, preceding yesterday, were:
June 15, 1895 “Trace”
June 5, 1899 “Trace”
A “Trace” is defined as less than 0.05 inches; if more than
0.05 inches falls, it is recorded in tenths of an inch increments. Yesterday’s
snowfall in Moscow went down officially as 0.1 inches. The record included an
entry for **Every** June day during the period from 1893 to the present, but 13
days of these were marked as “Missing” (six of these missing days occurred at
the end of June, 1899-perhaps vacation comp time for the poor bloke who shoveled
the “Trace” of snow back on June 5, 1899; for the other missing days, three
occurred consecutively in June 1950, and then one each in June of 1909, 1911,
1913, and 1920. Just to be thorough, though, the minimum recorded temperature
on each of the days with a missing snow record was in the mid-forties (except
the three days in June, 1950, which are also missing), so it is likely that snow
data were missing simply because there was nothing to report.
Outside of June, the only other summertime date with
recorded "snowfall" was July 11, 1997, on which 0.8 inches were recorded (here I’m
considering June, July and August as “Summer”). However, since I originally
posted this, the Observer, Roy Patten, went back and checked his hand-written
notes from that day, and determined that the July 11 event was actually hail.
Therefore, the recent June 10 event remains the only Moscow summer snowfall
event on record since the 1890's.
This brings up the question, “Is this evidence of global
warming or cooling”? One can say conclusively that it is evidence of June
10, 2008 cooling, but that is about as far as it should be carried! Russ
Qualls, Idaho State Climatologist
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| Current Moscow Weather |
43.7 °F
as of 11:00 ST
| Precipitation: | 0 mm |
| Relative Humidity: | 68.04% |
| Wind: | from 294° at 11.44 mph |
| Solar Radiation: | 291.4 W/m*2 |
Recent Measurements
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