Tropical Storm Hanna raced across Southern New England early Sunday morning, packing gusty winds and heavy rainfall. Most places around the state saw 3-5″ of rain, with isolated 6″ amounts. The strongest winds were observed early Sunday morning as the storm’s center moved through, with a gust to 28 MPH recorded here in Hingham. Down on the Cape gusts ranged from 45-55 MPH. Overall, the prior forecasts for the storm verified nicely (see below).

No major damage was reported, but numerous reports of minor flooding and wind related problems did surface around the state. Power outages were limited to coastal areas for the most part. The center of the storm, just before passing offshore, moved very close to Hingham, as our pressure bottomed out at 29.43″ early Sunday morning.  Please share your storm reports or pictures to be posted online: weather@hinghamweather.com

August 2008

This was a pretty cool August, with only a few days of 80s and no days of 90s. Thunderstorms were common for the first half the month, but tranquil weather dominated the second half of it.

Average High: 77.5
Average Low: 61.5
Average Temperature: 69.5

High: 84.2
Low: 53.4
Rainfall: 4.23”

August 2007

Average High: 82.3
Average Low: 63.4
Average Temperature: 72.8

High: 94.1
Low: 50.7
Rainfall: 0.77”

August 2006

Average High: 78.4
Average Low: 62.3
Average Temperature: 70.4

High: 96.8
Low: 52.7
Rainfall: 5.56”

August 2005

Average High: 80.5
Average Low: 63.6
Average Temperature: 72.1

High: 95.4
Low: 58.3
Rainfall: 9.45”

August 2004

Average High: 80.1
Average Low: 61.2
Average Temperature: 70.7

High: 90.7
Low: 52.2
Rainfall: 6.34”

Thousands of people living on a south China island fear rising sea levels may soon take their homes and their livelihoods. The sea is eating into the 25-square-kilometer Weizhou Island, submerging beaches, coastlines and buffer forests. The 15,000 residents of the island, 20 nautical miles south of Beihai City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have seen the seawater creeping inland for the past decade. “In the bay area were buffer forests, but the seawater has crept 60 to 70 meters into the island,” said 76-year-old resident Zhou Ziquan. Jiang Taile, a restaurant owner, said he once drove his car on the beach up to 40 meters away from the present water line, which is spotted with the stumps of trees that have died in the salt water. The beach area was full of seawater even at low tide, said Jiang. Chen Xiangxu, a Weizhou Town construction official, said seawater had made inroads of more than 100 meters at some sites. The high tides even splashed the windows of homes behind the island’s levees, said Chen. Many residents worried that the island would be eaten away, Chen said, but they were yet to consider moving their homes. High tides were gradually getting higher according to records, said Li Wuquan, head of the State Oceanic Administration’s Beihai Oceanic Environment Monitoring Center. Global warming was believed by experts to be a key cause of the rising seas, but there were also human factors. The protective coral reef has been destroyed by the taking of coral for money and fishing with explosives. Tourist diving at scenic sites also affected the reefs. “Little remains of the coral reef, which helped prevent erosion in the shore area around the island,” said Jiang. The official said the township government had banned fishing with explosives near the reef and been cracking down on coral harvesting. Some coastal areas have been listed as special protection areas. [RSOE]

Tropical Depression 8 formed in the Atlantic early Thursday morning, and by midday was Tropical Storm Hanna. The storm will pass North of the Leeward Islands, but may become a hurricane as it continues toward the Northwest over the next several days.

Tropical Depression 7 formed on Monday morning in the Caribbean Sea, and rapidly strengthened to Tropical Storm Gustav by afternoon. The storm struck Haiti on Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane. Although the storm weakened after this landfall, the storm is now back to hurricane status and is expected to continue strengthening through the weekend. Later in the weekend, and into early next week, Gustav will be located in the Gulf as a major hurricane. Landfall is expected somewhere along the Northern Gulf coast on Monday or Tuesday. You can track the storm at www.hinghamweather.com

Yet again the South Coast of Massachusetts found itself in the midst of severe weather on Tuesday afternoon. Just a week after a waterspout was spotted in Dartmouth, a microburst battered Acushnet. Tuesday’s microburst brought winds of 80-100 MPH according to the National Weather Service. Those winds brought down countless trees near the New Bedford Reservoir, some in the 30-45′ height range. The diameter of most of those trees was in the 16-30″ range. Residents reported seeing a funnel cloud in the area (which would seem reasonable, since our StromTracker Radar picked up high levels of rotation in the storm as indicated by the TVS symbol which appeared on the radar). Furthermore, residents said hail to the size of golf balls rocked the town for about a minute during the storm. Below you will find the radar image from the time of the microburst (3:30-4:00 PM) as seen by our StormTracker radar, complete with the Tornado Vortex Signature indicating the rotation in the storm (the red triangle), and the large hail/heavy rain potential (the purple reflectivity colors). Do you have pictures or reports from the storms? E-mail weather@hinghamweather.com

As if we have not had enough rain this summer, even more fell on Friday. The morning brought a few light showers, and through much of the early afternoon skies remained mostly cloudy with a few peaks of sun. By the mid to late afternoon areas of heavy rain and embedded thunderstorms began to move through the region. Norfolk County was hardest hit, with flooding reported in Norfolk and Walpole. In Wrentham, a power plant was flooded along with parts of Route 1A as well. Parts of Plymouth County saw torrential rainfall too, including South Hingham. Here at HinghamWeather.com we recorded 1.50″ of rain through early evening. In nearby Abington the rain was heavy enough to cause flooding which forced Washington Street to be closed for a time. Send in your storm reports and pictures to: weather@hinghamweather.com

Tropical Storm Fay formed near Hispaniola on Friday, and is currently impacting the state of Florida. Fay moved through the Keys on Monday with squally weather, but certainly nothing which they haven’t seen before. Southwest Florida is in line for landfall on Tuesday, and by that time Fay will be near hurricane strength.

The National Weather Service says that a waterspout hit parts of coastal Dartmouth today. The waterspout occurred between 11:30 AM and 11:45 AM on Monday in the Apponagansett River and in Apponagansett Bay. No one was injured in the storm, but the waterspout did flip and partially sink 7 boats. It is estimated that the waterspout, which is basically a tornado over water, was 25 yards wide. The storm and its rotation was picked up nicely on our StormTracker Radar as we watched it here in Weather Control.

Tropical Depression 5 formed in the Northern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. The storm will continue to parallel the Louisiana coastline early this week, and it is expected to gain Tropical Storm status. Landfall is currently forecast to take place sometime on Tuesday along the North Central Texas coast.