Remember now you can get the new VP2 location data on Weatherlink.  You can access the data through http://www.weatherlink.com/user/walrusman444

I woke up in the mid afternoon with some calls, including one from Ray, and one a bit later from Tracy as usual on her way to work. I also talked even later with Robin when she was also on her way to work. Good to get caught up with them after my three day hiatus since last Friday. Marty and I took many many pictures on our trip, and experienced great people, places and weather types in abundance. It is too much to detail here, but we did have an all day party at Dave Lesher’s house in Canaan Heights WV at 3715′ elevation where we met Josh Bremmerman of Garrett County MD for the first time – another mountain snow climate enthusiast who is now developing as a weather observer and data collector like Dave, Marty and I. We discussed snow measuring techniques, old climate records, instrumentation for measuring typical meteorological variables, and so much more. On Sunday Marty and I drove south and drove up the eastern slope road to the top of West Virginia at Spruce Knob (4863 feet). It was 84 at the base in Riverton WV at 1370 ft, and 72 when we first reached the top of the mountain. We stayed for almost 2 hours and the summit temp ranged from 68 to 74 while we were there, as recorded on a few different calibrated thermometers. A beautiful red spruce forest at the top, and the trees are stunted in the very exposed area of the summit from the strong winds that occur there often. On the way home we took the southern route on route 48, with spectacular cuts made to construct the recently opened road, along with some great cumulus congestus buildups along the way. We took Whites Ferry into Maryland then visited our weather observer friend John O only a few miles SE of the Maryland side of the Ferry terminal. We never had met him in person but it was absolutely great to meet him and see his farm located weather instruments with great siting. I can’t really go into any more of the trip here, and I am unintentionally leaving a lot out of this brief highlighted description. Pictures from the trip will be posted soon.  I had my usual food intake on Tuesday, and continue to work on catching up on everything as much as I can. Just can’t do it all in one day. “Weatherquack” is up and running, but while I was away I could not post my usual daily weather blog like this one (since Thursday). I also had to work on filling in missing data in my records for the days while away, and I am still in the middle of this process.  I hope to see many of you on Weatherquack http://www.weatherquack.com real soon – it is completely free and easy to use once you complete your registration and a short ramping up period.  I also drank some H2O from my ginormous water bottle throughout the evening and early morning hours.

We now have clear and dry skies with temperatures in the low-mid 70s at 0547. Wednesday looks sunny and hot with highs in the low 90s with lows in the low 70s. Thursday looks partly cloudy and hotter, with highs in the mid 90s and lows in the mid 70s. Partly cloudy, hot and dry on Friday and Saturday, with highs continuing in the mid 90s and lows in the low mid 70s Partly sunny and still hot on Sunday, with highs in the low mid 90s, and lows in the low-mid 70s. 

On Channel 4 radar at 0551, the Eastern US is generally free from any rain echoes at this time.

As of 0551 EDT, the data from the VP2 is now coming from the ground radiation shield a few feet off the ground just under and out from the balcony and the Taylor has been replaced with the Radio Shack thermometer for the time being (on the balcony – max temps especially read too high).  The data from the Lakewood Country Club WXBug station and the USG VP2 station across the street are still operating and reporting, and are as follows :

Station     Relative Location      Temp    RH    DP         BP        Wind   High/Low temp today
VP2                 Ground               72.5      95    71      30.05S     NA      91.3/72.0

Radio Shack    Balcony              76.1                                                   99.3/74.7

There was 0.39″ of rain recorded today (cocorahs gauge on ground below – in between the US and State Flagpoles out a bit from my balcony)

July precipitation is now 3.94″.

Year-to-date (YTD) precipitation total is now 21.49″

VP2 Across the street (USG)     73.6     94     72     30.08S    N/A     94.2/73.2    

There was 0.25″ of rain recorded in the USG gauge on Tuesday. (Max rain rate 0.80″/hr @ 1555)

WX Bug     Lakewood 4500 ft,     73     86.4  69.4   30.07S    Calm    G  SW 10
140° from station                                                                93/74

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.09″ of rain on Tuesday.

Temp on the VP2 at 2400 was 75.0 RH 91% BP 30.07R  DP 72.3 Radio Shack thermometer was 79.0°.

Good morning from the mostly clear, warm, dry but muggy Walrus early on this Wednesday.