Being my 67th birthday on Saturday, you would think I would have had a busy, fun day. Well I had to do some priority cleaning in the late morning with my cleaning engineer Loly coming over off schedule to help me restore my apartment to living levels in the bathroom and bedroom. Changing the mattress cover was particularly difficult. The process took about an hour, with additional time needed for washing and drying my comforter.  After Loly finished and left, I started getting phone calls from old friends like Keith A from the Washington Weatherline, Marty, then Rocky S right after he finished a hike up in the Colorado Rockies, then Tracy on her way into work, then later with Robin and my friend Bob C. I also had birthday wishes through emails and FB messages from friends and family from all over. I took considerable time to try and thank all those who sent me birthday wishes, and customized each message as best I could. I had a toasted bagel with cream cheese and leftover turkey breakfast sausage that was delicious, along with a pot of hazelnut creme coffee. I then resumed email and FACEBOOK messaging, and also checked on how much rain fell in the area yesterday and today. Later in the evening I had a sandwich of turkey pastrami, SW BBQ turkey breast, cheese, pickles, chipotle mayo and mustard on rye along with some orzo and potato salad.  Later still I had some triscuits and a klondike bar.  I also drank lots of water from my ginormous water bottle throughout the evening and early morning hours.

We now have clear skies, apparently dry for the moment, and pleasantly cool with temperatures in the low 60s at 0620. Sunny and drier conditions should return on Sunday through Tuesday, with highs in the 80° to 85° range and lows in the low-mid 60s. Most of the new week should be dry, but with increasing chances as we move towards the next weekend. 

On Channel 4 radar at 0623, rain has moved well to the south, lying off the Georgia/South Carolina offshore and straddling through northern Florida at this time. Pretty unusual to see a cold front push as far south as Florida this time of the year.

As of 0623 EDT, the data from the VP2 is now coming from the ground radiation shield about 4 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 as follows :

Station     Relative Location      Temp    RH    DP         BP        Wind   High/Low temp today
VP2                 Ground                62.0     72    53      29.97R    NA      73.7/65.3       

Radio Shack    Balcony               67.8                                                  78.6/71.8   

There was 0.54″ 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 9.36″.

Year-to-date (YTD) precipitation total is 26.91″                                                                                               

VP2 Across the street (USG)      62.9    71     53     30.01R     NA      73.9/66.1   

There was 0.10″ of rain recorded in the USG gauge on Saturday. The max rain rate recorded at the USG gauge was 0.02″/hr @ 0100. The data from USG appears to be seriously underreporting again today, along with a lower max rain rate than expected.  

WX Bug     Lakewood 4500 ft,       61     63.2  49.7     29.97R   NW 3   G NW 11     
                   140° from station                                                                  74/65

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.42″ of rain on Saturday.

Temp on the VP2 at 2400 was 65.3 RH 68% BP 29.93R  DP 54.5 The Radio Shack thermometer was 71.8°.

Good morning from the clear, dry, cool Walrus early on Sunday morning.