The climate of LaVale, and all of Maryland, is temporate with distinct seasons. Temperatures average about 52 degrees in a typical year. The most "pleasant" times of the year, temperature-wise, are the transition seasons--mid April through mid-May, and again from mid-September to mid-October. Of course, these "transition" seasons can also have some of the most unpredictable temperatures and largest swings from day to day. The diurnal range is usually around 20 to 25 degrees, but can vary by as much as 40 or 50 degrees in dry, clear conditions or during frontal passages, or stay nearly constant in cloudy, humid conditions. Overall temperatures average around 30 degrees in January and around 73 in July. Typical annual extremes are close to 0, with the coldest part of the year from late January to early February, usually late January to early February, to the mid or upper 90s, with the hottest part of the year from mid July through early August. High summer humidity usually makes it feel even hotter, with heat indeces frequently topping 100. The hottest ever temperatures were 103 on July 16, 1988 and -16 on January 20-21, 1985 & January 19, 1994. See below for some monthly statistics (means and extremes). Winters are quite chilly, but usually not extreme, certainly not nearly as brutal as the mountain locations immediately to the west. Measurable snow usually falls between November and late March or early April (the latest major winter storm in Allegany was on April 28, 1928, when over a foot of heavy wet snow fell in the area), although snow flurries are sometimes observed in October, and frozen precipitation has been observed as late as May. The first and last frosts are usually in early to mid October and late April to early May, though frost is sometimes observed as early as September and as late as late May or even early June. Nearby mountain locations usually see a shorter growing season, and much more snow, due to the higher elevation and exposure to high winds coming off the Great Lake (mainly lake Erie). Snowfall averages around 40 inches per season, but tends to vary quite a bit from season to season, with some seasons receiving a foot or less, and others receiving over 80 inches. January and February are virtual ties for the snowiest months, but December and March frequently see a good bit of snow. Most snow comes from systems moving northeast from the Gulf of Mexico, passing just to the east up the Mid-Atlantic coast, although lesser amounts of snow falls from Alberta clippers coming in from the west or northwest and lake effect snow showers spilling over the Allegany Front. Little lake effect snow falls east of the Allegany Front. Mixed precipitation is common, with several sleet and freezing rain "glaze" events observed several times in a typical cold season. Occasionally, an ice storm will paralyze the area with several inches of solid sleet/glaze. Sometimes these storms are caused by "cold air damming" on the east slopes of the Alleghanies. The worst ice storms in recent history occurred on March 6, 1989, when heavy freezing rain and sleet (accompanied by high winds and thunder for good measure) piled up 4 to 6 inches in the area; February 8-9, 1994, when an inch of solid glaze topped 3-4 inches of sleet and paralyzed travel in the area for days, and January 14-15, 1999, when a similar ice storm hammered much of Maryland.
Prevailing wind is from the west. Ahead of storm systems, winds are often more from a south, sometimes east or southeast direction, pulling in Atlantic moisture. A low-level south or east flow favors heavy precipitation in the LaVale area, with orographic lift on the east slopes of the mountains. However, when the low-level flow is from the west or northwest, systems often dissipate or break up due to the mountains - consequently LaVale and much of western Maryland (but especially Allegany County) is in a rain/precipitation shadow, with all but the extreme western portion receiving about 5-10 inches less than most of the rest of the state. Still, precipitation averages a healthy 40.5 inches per year, and is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year. The spring tends to be slightly wetter, with the summer the second wettest season. The driest months are October through February, and May is on average the wettest. The drier months average slightly below 3 inches, while the wettest months average around 4 inches. Any given month can be abnormally wet, with occasionally over 9 or 10 inches falling, or abnormally dry, with the driest months receiving a few tenths of an inch. Most precipitation during the "cold season" (October through April) tends to fall from northeastward moving low pressure systems and trailing cold fronts. These systems can bring in plenty of Atlantic and Gulf moisture. Precipitation during the warm season can occasionally come from these type of systems, but are more likely to come from scattered hit-and-miss thunderstorms. Again, a south or east low-level wind flow favors heavy precipitation (June and July 1989 had a persistent pattern like this and the result was severe flooding in the area from thunderstorms), while a west to north wind can often break apart or dissipate lines of thunderstorms or storm cells coming in from those directions. Of course, there are exceptions, such as in the Frostburg Tornado of June 2, 1998, when southeastward-moving severe supercells crossed the Allegany Front, unleashing an F4 twister, two other tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds in the county.
Severe weather can and usually does happen a few times per year. The primary threat is damaging thunderstorm winds. These can be straight-line winds, or, occasionally, tornadoes. Other damaging wind events can occur from strong fronts or intense Nor' Easter type storms that have a tight pressure gradient. Damaging winds are observed, on average, 2-3 times per year, while hail is usually seen, on average, once or twice per year, with thunder observed, on average, between 30 and 40 times in a typical year. Ice (sleet and freezing rain) is usually seen close to a dozen times per year, often due to cold air damming just east of the Alleghany Front, and ice storms can cause tree and power line damage, snarl travel and create dangerous conditions for days. Fog is the most common weather phenomenon, occurring over 70 days a year on average, and can be particularly dense on the mountain ridges. In May 2003, extremely dense fog caused a massive 90-vehicle pile-up on Big Savage Mountain just west of Frostburg, killing 2 people and injuring dozens.
The most common type of severe weather event in the area, by far, is flooding. This is due to the high probability of intense rain events and the rugged terrain. Flood events most often occur due to rapid snowmelt topped by heavy rains (most notably in March 1936 and January 1996, when devastating floods hit the Cumberland area), remnants of tropical systems (such as Hazel in October 1954, Agnes in June 1972, Juan in November 1985, Fran in September 1996, and Frances and Ivan in September 2004), or slow-moving or training (multiple storm cells repeatedly following the same track), intense thunderstorms (e.g. August 4, 1978 when 4.12" fell in Cumberland in 2 hours, the storms of June & July 1989, the storms of late June 1995 when over 6 inches fell in Westernport and 5 inches fell just east of Cumberland; September 11, 2000, when a storm dumped 5+ inches of rain on LaVale and west Cumberland, the Memorial Day flood of 2002, when a stationary storm dumped 4 to 5 inches of rain on Baltimore Pike just east of Cumberland, and July 13, 2005, when a thunderstorm dumped 3 inches of rain in 1 hour in Cumberland). Other weather hazards are from the opposite - droughts, causing water shortages and more dangerously, forest fires. The most notable recent forest fire events occurred in 1987, 1991 and 2001. Damaging winds can occur from thunderstorms. One of the worst storms ever struck the area on April 9, 1991, when a line of severe cells hammered the area with 80 mph winds, hail and funnel clouds, knocking the power out for days and causing very severe and widespread wind damage. Thunderstorms can also produce large hail. The worst hail storms occurred on June 18, 1997, when golfball sized hail pelted our backyard, and baseball-sized hail destroyed many cars at a nearby dealership, and on June 2, when quarter-sized hail covered the ground and accumulated. Lightning has also caused damage - a storm on Aug. 31, 1993 blew out our TV for days; on May 7, 1999, our church in Cumberland was struck, and on July 13, 2005 Tim Thomas's station in Cumberland was hit by lightning.
Tornadoes are extremely rare, but they do occur in Allegany County. Frostburg has been hit several times by tornadoes, most notably on July 5, 1969, and June 2, 1998. The 1998 tornado did over $5 million in damage and was rated F4, the first ever F4 in the state of Maryland. This was just one of three tornadoes that hit Allegany county that evening. Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured or killed.
For more information and actual data from my LaVale station, click HERE.
Here are some monthly and annual statistics (means and extremes), based on data from my station (1992-2008, with sporadic data prior to 1992) and the Cumberland Police Barracks dating back to 1948:
Month Temp MaxT MinT Precip Snow Fog Sleet Glaze Thunder Hail D-Winds
Jan 30.3 39.5 21.2 2.86 11.2 4.6 1.6 1.5 0.2 0.1 0.2
Feb 32.9 43.2 23.7 2.71 9.2 2.6 1.8 1.1 0.3 0.1 0.3
Mar 41.0 52.7 29.4 3.84 7.6 5.1 1.5 0.4 0.8 0.1 0.2
Apr 52.1 65.2 39.1 3.71 0.8 3.9 0.3 0.2 2.8 0.2 0.3
May 61.2 74.6 47.9 4.07 T 7.0 0 0 4.8 0.2 0.1
Jun 69.4 82.5 56.2 3.62 0 6.2 0 0 6.3 0.4 0.4
Jul 73.3 85.9 60.6 3.64 0 7.4 0 0 7.6 0.2 0.1
Aug 71.9 84.5 59.3 3.35 0 10.2 0 0 6.0 0 0
Sep 64.6 77.4 51.9 3.48 0 9.5 0 0 2.2 0.1 0.1
Oct 53.7 66.5 40.9 2.97 T 6.9 0.1 0.1 0.8 0 0.1
Nov 42.8 53.2 32.5 3.27 2.2 5.1 0.8 0.3 0.7 0 0.2
Dec 33.4 42.2 24.6 2.99 6.9 4.4 1.4 0.9 0.3 0 0.3
Year 52.2 64.0 40.5 40.52 37.9 72.9 7.5 4.5 32.7 1.4 2.3
Extremes (and dates by year)
Month Max Min Ext Max Ext Min MaxPrec MaxDay MinP MaxSnow MaxDay
Jan 43.1 (50) 19.3 (77) 78 (50) -16 (94) 7.84 (96) 2.17 (96) 0.45 (55) 42.9 (78) 23.5 (96)
Feb 40.9 (76) 22.4 (79) 76 (85) -9 (61) 6.29 (86) 2.06 (00) 0.40 (02) 36.5 (03) 18.0 (03)
Mar 48.2 (73) 29.4 (60) 85 (98) -2 (60) 8.49 (93) 2.39 (93) 0.84 (06) 29.0 (99) 20.5 (93)
Apr 58.0 (54) 46.1 (97) 93 (76) 16 (97) 7.92 (64) 3.57 (93) 0.84 (71) 8.5 (66) 8.0 (66)
May 67.8 (91) 54.3 (97) 96 (96) 26 (66) 8.63 (68) 3.10 (60) 0.29 (64) T (89) T (89)
Jun 73.1 (94) 64.0 (58) 102 (51) 33 (66) 9.43 (72) 3.48 (55) 0.68 (66) 0 -
Jul 77.2 (99) 68.7 (01) 103 (88) 40 (66) 8.75 (89) 3.10 (04) 0.70 (83) 0 -
Aug 76.3 (95) 67.5 (92) 102 (83) 38 (82) 7.08 (78) 3.05 (75) 0.73 (57) 0 -
Sep 69.8 (70) 57.4 (49) 100 (53) 26 (57) 9.87 (96) 5.20 (96) 0.08 (85) 0 -
Oct 60.2 (71) 47.5 (88) 93 (53) 18 (69) 9.22 (76) 4.64 (54) 0.23 (63) T (08) T (08)
Nov 49.0 (75) 33.5 (96) 86 (82) 6 (58) 10.72 (85) 3.50 (96) 0.19 (98) 18.3 (95) 9.0 (67)
Dec 41.4 (71) 22.1 (89) 76 (82) -10 (83) 6.30 (69) 2.80 (92) 0.29 (55) 34.0 (69) 20.0 (92)
Year 54.8 (90) 47.9 (58) 103 (88) -16 (94) 59.05 (96) 5.20 (96) 29.81 (63) 83.2 (60-61) 23.5 (96)
Data are based on my data from 1989-2009 and Cumberland Police Barrack data from 1948-2005. Dates (years) are listed as the last date of occurrence and may have also been observed on one or more previous occasions. Some of the data is estimated based on data from nearby stations such as Cumberland and Frostburg.
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