Tuesday featured a transitional day, but in reverse order from Monday, with clear skies in the AM and cloudy skies in the PM with even a light shower (T) in the mid-afternoon that fell as a bit of snow in other locations in the region, along with some other frozen types of precipitation. Temperatures remained seasonably cold all day. Temperatures fell to 30° in the AM up to the low 40s in the mid-afternoon. The Tuesday maximum temperature from the VP2 (41.0°) was recorded at 1406 while the minimum temperature (30.0°) was recorded at 0724. Dew point temperatures remained relatively low today, ranging from a low of 17° very early at 0046 up to a high of 29° at 2203. Relative humidity values lowered a bit today (74% – 41%). Barometric values continued to soar today in the AM, reaching a personal record high since I started the station at this location at 30.83″ at 0938. The old record was 30.80″ on January 9, 2017. The readings started to fall in the late AM into the PM hours, reaching a low of 30.58″ at 2352.

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 Weather Underground does not report snow data, and reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge.

I got my act together to get out my first DC-AMS Chapter email to make my first plea for volunteer judges for several upcoming science fairs. Feedback so far has been slow, and I am not sure that many of the member email addresses are correct in the master email list. I talked with Marty over a few things, and messaged with fellow blogger Jeff Taylor out in Portland OR as the drama unfolded from the slopes of Mt Hood, where a climber fell some 700-1000 feet and died. The weather looked fine from the great feed the Weather Channel provided up close and personal from the snowy slopes. Late word I heard that four more climbers were having troubles getting off the mountain, ahead of a snowstorm coming tomorrow. 

We started the day clear/sunny with temps just below freezing. In the early afternoon clouds moved in and scattered areas of a variety of precipitation types moved in. I only observed a few sprinkles, I didn’t see any snowflakes. The clouds have gradually lifted and currently early this Wednesday morning have partly cloudy skies with temps around the freezing mark. Partly cloudy and warmer on Wednesday with highs in the mid 50s and lows in the upper 40s. Thursday should be even warmer under mostly cloudy skies and only a 20 POP for a shower with highs rising up to the upper 60s and lows in the upper 50s. Friday should cool off a bit, especially late but still mild and cloudy most of the day with highs in the upper 50s and lows falling into the low-mid 20s with a 60 POP for AM light rain as a frontal system passes through the region. Colder and cloudy on Saturday with highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid-upper 20s with a 90 POP for PM snow. Not sure at this point how much we will be getting. On Sunday we should have partly cloudy skies and milder, with highs in the upper 40s and lows around 30°

On the Channel 4 weather website at 0430 radar is showing rain showers and possibly some thunderstorms well to my SW over sections of TN and a bit of KY.

As of 0430, 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:

Partly cloudy and cold early this morning.

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP   BP     Wind High/Low temp Tuesday
VP2            Ground           32.2  86  29 30.47F   NA     41.0/30.0

There was a trace of precipitation in the cocorahs gauge on Tuesday through midnight obs. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.00″ as it doesn’t record trace amounts.

Tuesday’s precipitation T
February precipitation is 3.19″
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 5.02″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 31 86 27 30.41″F SSE 4 G S 7
                                140° from station                          41/27

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of precipitation on Tuesday as that WX Bug gauge also doesn’t record trace amounts. It is now reporting a 3.33″ monthly (February) total and 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 5.57″ up 0.04″ from yesterday’s report.

At 2400 obs Tuesday night the temperature from the VP2 was 35.8 RH 69% BP 30.59″F DP 26.6. Partly cloudy and cold.

Good morning from the partly cloudy, seasonably cold, and dry Walrus early on this Wednesday