MILLPORT, Ohio – Ed Copeland has been recording the weather for a long, long time. But even the veteran weather observer is shaking his head at this year’s conditions.
“I have never seen the weather as it has been the last four months,” Copeland admits.
“First, the farmers couldn’t plant, then they couldn’t harvest,” he said. “Some of the hay should have been made by the first of July and it wasn’t made until the last of August.”
When it rains, it pours. Copeland, whose family has been official U.S. weather observers at a station in southern Columbiana County for 111 years, measured 5.01 inches of rain in August, nearly double his historical average of 2.83 inches in August.
It rained 10 days there, but Copeland said the rains were spotty. “Some got downpours and floods, while less than a mile or two away, they got little or nothing,” he said.
Copeland said his station is ahead 10 inches of rain for the first eight months of 2003
The sun did shine, believe it or not. In between the showers, however, we received a little more sunshine last month than average. Copeland said his average temperature was 72.1 degrees, compared to the average of 69 degrees. The average sunshine was 70 percent, also up slightly from his historical average of 65 percent.
The station recorded a high of 90 degrees on four days and a low nighttime temperature of 49 degrees Aug. 24.
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