Saturday AM was sunny and seasonably cold but then classically progressive increasing clouds took over in the afternoon, lowering and thickening as our small snowstorm moved in by late afternoon and the early evening. Temps were around freezing in the early AM then rose into the low 40s by midday, then slid on off through most of the 30s the rest of the day. Snow (2.3″) fell between about 4 and 8 PM (approx), with mixed precip interspersed and before and after. By late evening skies had turned foggy with intermittent drizzle with temps running between 32° and 33° overnight. The Saturday maximum temperature from the VP2 (42.8°) was recorded at 1223 while the minimum temperature (31.7°) was recorded at 0713. Dew point temperatures ranged from a low of 22° at 0725 up to a high of 32° at 1457. Relative humidity values were high much of the later PM hours, during the snow then later in the fog but were lower in the AM (96% – 53%). Barometric values started high early today, then lowered later in the snow and fog, ranging from a high of 30.39″ at 0857 then fell off the rest of the day, reaching a low of 3.06″ at 2339.

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 arose late today roughly in time for the start of the snow. Before going to bed, I was admiring the early stages of the increasing cloud patterns of mid-day/early-mid afternoon. I talked extensively with Ray about the growing problems being discovered by a study of the official MD coop records. Also interacted a bit with Jeff Taylor and Marty Brumback about it. I got a bit more DC-AMS Chapter Science Fair work done, responding to emails received as replies to emails I sent on Friday. Besides observing the snow falling beautifully at times, I caught some Olympic action and some college basketball. 

We started Friday clear/sunny and seasonably cold, but with increasing clouds through early afternoon and then light-moderate snow late afternoon into early evening with about 2.3″ of wet snow falling amidst temps falling through the upper and mid 30s down to the lower 30s by the evening. We had quite a bit of fog, some dense, overnight from Saturday into Sunday. Sunday should be partly cloudy with AM clouds and PM sun with highs in the upper 40s and lows around freezing. Monday looks clear early then clouds in the PM with it looking like temps hovering around the 50° mark all day and a 40 POP for PM showers. On Tuesday another warm up under partly cloudy skies (AM clouds/PM sun) with highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid 50s. Wednesday will be warm again (mid 70s) with lows in the upper 40s. Thursday should cool off, with highs around 50° and lows around 40° and an 80 POP for rain.

On the Channel 4 weather website at 0952 radar is showing a few small areas of light snow over parts of central NY state, plus the last of our Saturday snowstorm with snow and rain offshore of Massachusetts and NH, and snow over much of downeast Maine at this time.

As of 0952, 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:

Mostly cloudy, seasonably cold, fog lifting and damp (but not precipitating)

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP     BP    Wind  High/Low temp Saturday
VP2             Ground           34.9  97 34 30.41R   NA    42.5/31.7

There was an undetermined amount of precipitation in the cocorahs gauge on Saturday through midnight obs. I will come up with a best estimate very soon. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.00″ because the unit doesn’t have a heating element to melt the snow to determine the water equivalent. It is showing 0.04″ of rain since midnight, which must be a bit of melting.

Today’s feature image is of a foreboding snowman casting a spell over my rain gauge, and voiding most of its contents somehow. The kids building the snowman trampled the snow underfoot all around the area, including most of the area around my snowboard. I did manage to get a 2 inch depth reading off one of the very few relatively pristine sections of the board.

Saturday’s precipitation NA at this time
February precipitation is 3.42″ + NA 2/17 amount
February snowfall 2.3″
Snow on ground 2.0″ (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 7.5″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 5.25″ +NA 2/17 amount

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 34 100 34 30.37″R S 4 G S 4
                              140° from station                       41/29

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of precipitation on Saturday. Same reason as my VP2 gauge. It is now reporting 3.81″ for a monthly (February) total and 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 6.05″.

At 2400 obs Saturday night the temperature from the VP2 was 33.0 RH 96% BP 30.05″F DP 32.0. Cloudy, cold, foggy with drizzle.

Good morning from the mostly cloudy, seasonably cold , and drying out Walrus early on this Sunday. Image below is from 7 AM today, looking NE through the fog and snow from my balcony. Temperature at the time was 31°.