Our two day storm on Thursday and Friday started affecting our area just prior to obs on Thursday, with a dramatic, quick increase in the winds into the gale/storm category, and played havoc at key times with my cable TV, internet, and eventually my electric power. It kept me from posting my Thursday report at my usual time early Friday, so with this report early Saturday I am going to produce a briefer summary for Thursday in addition to my usual report for a very windy Friday. I just hope I can keep everything straight! I had brief intense showers just prior to Thursday’s obs, with a max rain rate of 0.61″/hour recorded at 2354. Lighter rain extended into most of the first hour of the day on Friday. The wind really howled overnight, and knocked out internet and TV from time to time mostly briefly, until around 0700 when I gave up and went to bed as the outage was much longer. Also at 0700 Friday I had a horizontal wind-driven light snow shower that didn’t accumulate at all (Temperature was around 36° at the time of the snow). Partly to mostly cloudy skies on Friday with continuous high winds blowing made for a most uncomfortable day to be outside, and my usual walk over in the mid-afternoon for my weekly rummikub game to Building A revealed a lot of small branches blown down, along with a few shingles from the roof. Some lawn furniture got re-arranged. After early AM lows in the mid 30s, high temps reached the low-mid 40s by mid-afternoon. The Friday maximum temperature from the VP2 (49.4°) was recorded at 0002 while the minimum temperature (35.9°) was recorded at 0657 during the snow shower. Dew point temperatures fell later in the day, ranging from a high of 49° at 0000 down to a low of 22° at 1753. Relative humidity values started out high early, but then dropped later in the day (97% – 49%). Barometric values started rising at midnight and peaked just about 24 hours later, ranging from a low of 29.47″ at 0000 up to a high of 30.05″ very late at 2255. The storm’s lowest pressure reached 29.45″ late on Thursday at 2315.

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 was not able to post to any of these internet apps for Thursday, but have done so now, completing the efforts with the posting of this msg.

I worked on some science fair communications both days, and must report that a very popular Northern Virginia science fair scheduled for later today (Saturday) had to be cancelled due to the effects of the windstorm. They lost power for quite a while, and also lost their running water at the fair facility.

We had partly cloudy skies early on Thursday but then clouds by evening, with a bit of light rain in the early evening and a bit more substantial rain late just prior to obs (a total of 0.17″ of rain in my cocorahs gauge on Thursday). Late on Thursday evening the wind dramatically increased as predicted and warned on (We were under a high wind warning through most of Friday). An official peak wind gust was recorded at the Montgomery County Airpark of 54 MPH, and another official gust of 71 MPH at Washington Dulles airport. An unofficial PWG of 69 MPH somewhere in Gaithersburg was reported by local TV media on Friday during some part of the day, probably in the AM. I could not find the actual location of that PWG unfortunately. There was a horizontal wind-driven light wet snow shower between just prior to 0700 till around 0800 that did not accumulate at all. The low temp for Friday occurred during this snow shower (35.9°).  Saturday should be partly cloudy and not quite as chilly nor quite as windy, with highs in the upper 40s and lows around 30°. (Our high wind warning has been changed to a high wind advisory earlier Saturday morning) Sunday should be sunny with lessening winds, temps fairly similar to Saturday. Monday should be seasonable and sunny, then rain showers should be returning on Tuesday (40 POP for PM showers) and Wednesday with an 80 POP for rain. More seasonable temps mostly in the 40s for highs, around freezing or a bit lower for lows both Tuesday and Wednesday.

On the Channel 4 weather website at 0719 radar is showing scattered showers off the mid-Atlantic coast in the Atlantic Ocean, moving away from my area.

As of 0719, 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, colder, drying out for the moment.

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP    BP     Wind High/Low temp Thursday and Friday
VP2            Ground         33.8  66  23 30.12R   NA    49.4/35.9 (Friday)
                                                                            53.9/46.4 (Thursday)

The total rainfall in the cocorahs gauge was 0.17″ through midnight Thursday. There was an additional 0.03″ of precipitation in the gauge through midnight Friday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony had 0.11″ and 0.03″ respectively through midnight Friday.

Thursday’s precipitation was 0.17″
Friday’s precipitation was 0.03″
February total precipitation was 4.80″
March precipitation is 0.20″.
February snowfall 2.0″
March snowfall T
Snow on ground 0 (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 7.5″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 6.83″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 30 65 20 30.05″S NNW 11 G NNW 26
                            140° from station                           49/34

Highest PWG I saw at Lakewood on Friday was 47 MPH.

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.13″ of precipitation on Thursday and 0.02″ on Friday. It is reporting a total of 0.60″ of precipitation so far in March and 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 8.11″.

At 2400 obs Thursday night the temperature from the VP2 was 49.2 RH 97% BP 29.47″R DP 48.5. Cloudy, a bit milder, showery, with high winds kicking in.

At 2400 obs Friday night the temperature from the VP2 was 37.3 RH 58% BP 30.04″S DP 23.9. Partly cloudy, colder still windy.

Good morning from the not so cloudy, colder with lessening winds for the Walrus early on this Saturday. I am wiped out right now and must close this report out with no more input from me at this time. If you want some data that I haven’t posted that you know I have, please let me know. Thanks!