Friday was a mostly cloudy, colder day that featured mid-day to late afternoon light snow and sleet that put our outdoor views in a decidedly festive, traditional holiday “mood.” It was beautiful! Please see the featured image  picture taken at about 1500 while still snowing lightly (but very hard to see it falling) looking out into the somewhat snowy courtyard from my ground floor party room in my building . It remained cold, well below freezing all day.  The altocumulus cloud deck of the early morning lowered enough to change into a stratocumulus overcast – the kind of overcast that looks like snow is going to start falling anytime! The Friday minimum temperature from the VP2 (22.8°) was recorded at 2054 while the maximum temperature (28.7°) was recorded at 1126. Temps rose a bit in the evening up to mid 20s by midnight obs time. Dew point temps ranged from 12° at 0000 up to 23° at 1508. A modest dew point rise occurred as the snow was moving in – from about 15° around 1130 up to about 22° an hour or so later. Relative humidity values rose quite a bit today (93% – 51%). Barometric values varied much less than yesterday, ranging from a high of 30.15″ at 0249 down to 29.96″ later at 1633, at about the end of the snow.

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

I am also now on weather underground. My ID is KMDROCKV200 and my station is called “Gardens of Traville.” Data is online, normally just about in real-time. I contribute daily to cocorahs as Rockville 2.8 WNW, Station ID MD-MG-115. Please take note that Weather Underground does not report snow data, and reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge. 

Milder over the weekend with sunny skies on Saturday and highs in the mid 40s, lows in the upper 20s, then partly cloudy on Sunday, with highs in the mid 40s and lows in the low-mid 30s. Monday and Tuesday look partly cloudy and milder, with highs in the low 50s on Monday and upper 50s on Tuesday, lows in the 35-40 range.

On the Channel 4 weather website at 1032 radar is showing scattered snow shower action over much of the lake effect snow regions of PA, NY, OH and MI at this time. Moving SEward, nevertheless it will dry up before it gets to our immediate area, as the mountains to my N and W wring out the remaining moisture originally picked in its travels over the Great Lakes.

As of 1032, the data from the VP2 (coming from the ground radiation shield about 4 feet off the ground just under and out from the balcony) and the Lakewood WXBug station are as follows :

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP    BP       Wind  High/Low temp today
VP2              Ground          37.1  60 24  30.19R     NA     28.7/22.8

There was 0.03″ of melted precipitation in the cocorahs gauge on Friday. The snowboard yielded a total snowfall of 0.2″. There was a trace of snow on the ground at midnight. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony registered no precipitation on Friday, as the frozen accumulation doesn’t run through the tipping spoons to register anything until it warms and the snow melts, which will probably occur during the day on Saturday. I will report any amount that registers whenever that occurs in the future.

December precipitation is 0.43″ through midnight obs Wednesday.

December snowfall is now 3.3″. The seasonal snowfall total is 3.3″.

Year-to-date precipitation total is 38.94″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 37 51 20 30.12S   SSW 7 G SW 15
                              140° from station                           28/20

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded no precipitation through midnight on Friday. Remember, as is the case with my VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge, these automatic devices do not record frozen amounts, as explained above. They are now reporting 0.53″ of precipitation falling up to this point in December, and a grand total of 39.87″ of rain for the year-to-date value. That is a gain of 0.06″ from what they reported yesterday. Further study and research will have to be done to figure out where that 0.06″ amount came from.

Temp from the VP2 at 2400 was 24.2 RH 93% BP 30.05R DP 22.6. Mostly clear, cold and dry but icy underfoot at midnight.

Good morning from the sunny, milder and soon to be a snow-less Walrus (again) not so early on this Saturday morning.