Wednesday was cloudy, cold and rainy (0.50″) most of the day, with some freezing as temps hung right under and at the freezing mark much of the day. But icing of roads and sidewalks didn’t seem to be that much of a problem in my neighborhood, but in areas further north icing was a big problem and cancellations and delays of most school systems in the region were definitely in evidence. Today’s featured image shows a mostly wet parking lot from across the street with some ice in spots, taken about 0730.  Temps were around 30° in the early AM but rose above freezing most of the afternoon, if only above 32.0° then 33° later. The Wednesday maximum temperature from the VP2 (37.3°) was recorded at 2009 while the minimum temperature (30.4°) was recorded at 0627. Dew point temperatures rose a bit today, ranging from a low of 23° early at 0243 up to 35° at 1910. Relative humidity values pretty high all day (96% – 68%). Barometric values started out high but dropped much of the day, ranging from a high of 30.50″ at 0013 down to a low of 29.96″ later at 1547.

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

I am posting daily to 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 remember that Wather Underground does not report snow data, and reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge.

I tried to observe the precipitation as much as I could during the day, but never really saw it rain very hard, just steady, with precious little icing observed from my limited observation area here in my apartment. I watched some of the Purdue/Ohio State game, a thriller won by Ohio State by a point or two very late in the game. I spoke with Tracy briefly on her way to work, then Ray for some more observations research to pass on to Bobby Miller (his home internet is down – 1800 obs are desired as that is his daily COOP observing time) I also spoke with Marty on a variety of items, including his significant ice accretion he experienced (as Ray did also). Eventually for dinner later I cooked up a good meal of yummy baked fresh salmon, a baked potato and creamed spinach in the microwave which I put on top of the baked potato and was delicious. For dessert I had a honeybell orange with a few triscuits and mixed nuts much later. I had some prune juice and regular low-sodium V8 around dinnertime. I did have my usual vitamins, supplements and water later in the evening.

We cleared up overnight, as temps around freezing at midnight dropped into the low 20s by morning sunrise. Sunny skies should return on Thursday and turn colder, with highs in the mid 30s and lows in the low-mid 20s. Friday should warm up a bit again, under mostly cloudy skies with high temps in the mid 40s and lows in the mid 30s. Saturday should turn cloudy with an 80 POP for PM light rain, highs around 50° and lows in the mid 40s. More rain on Sunday (100 POP) with highs in the mid 50s and lows in the mid 30s (late) . On Monday there should be partly cloudy to cloudy skies with (40 POP) PM showers, highs in the mid 40s and lows around the freezing mark.

On the Channel 4 weather website at 0841 radar is showing some scattered light snow showers over parts of WV with light snow over northern Illinois around Chicago at this time.

As of 0841, 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:

Sunny skies and cold this morning.

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP    BP     Wind High/Low temp Wednesday
VP2            Ground         24.6  69  16 30.49R   NA      37.3/30.4

There was 0.50″ of precipitation in the cocorahs gauge on Wednesday through midnight obs. There was ice starting to form inside the gauge when I went to swap out the gauge right after midnight. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.34″ of precipitation on Wednesday through midnight. Funny thing happened on the “timing” of Wednesday’s precipitation. My spreadsheet showed all 0.34″ falling at 1635, with a tremendous rain rate of 9.29″/hour. But actually what happened I believe is that some ice formed at the small hole on the bottom of the VP2 gauge, blocking up the accumulation in the gauge most of the day till 1635 when the ice must have unblocked itself, and the “dam” let loose all at once. I haven’t experienced this phenomenon very much through the past few years.

Wednesday’s precipitation 0.50″
February precipitation is 1.83″
February snowfall 0.0″
Snow on ground 0.0″ (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 5.2″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 3.66″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 23 67 13 30.41″R WNW 7 G NW 14
                            140° from station                          36/29

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.25″ of precipitation on Wednesday. It is now reporting a 1.28″ monthly (February) and 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 3.52″, mysteriously up only 0.06″ inches from yesterday’s report.

Temperature from the VP2 at 2400 was 30.7 RH 77% BP 30.49″F DP 24.5. Partly Cloudy, breezy and chilling down.

Good morning from the sunny, cold, drying up but snowless Walrus on this Thursday morning.