Thursday became mostly sunny mid-day but with high clouds, and middle-to high cloud overcast by evening, milder than yesterday with unfortunately a good part of our newly acquired snowpack melting away from the strong March sun. One more last memory of the full snowpack is reflected in today’s featured image taken on Wednesday afternoon. 

I must admit to an error in some of my Wednesday reports as to my total precipitation for Wednesday. I reported in one place near the beginning of the report a total of 0.69″ which was incorrect. The total amount should be 0.32″ as reported in other parts of yesterday’s report. I apologize for any confusion I caused. Thanks to my friend John W for pointing this error out to me.

Anyway, temperatures rebounded after sub-freezing upper 20s early AM minima to reach the low 40s by mid-afternoon. A 4 inch snowpack early melted off to a patchy 1 inch by the end of the day. The Thursday maximum temperature from the VP2 (43.4°) was recorded at 1552 while the minimum temperature (29.5°) was recorded at 0738. Dew point temperatures varied a bit more today but were pretty similar to yesterday, ranging from a high of 31° at 0000 down to a low of 22° much later at 2255. Relative humidity values predictably lowered later today (94% – 45%). Barometric values rose significantly today, ranging from an early low of 29.88″ at 0000 up to a high of 30.15″ much later at 2345.

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. The web address for my data on weather underground is: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KMDrockv200#history/ I contribute daily to cocorahs as Rockville 2.8 WNW, Station ID MD-MG-115 on https://www.cocorahs.org/ Please remember that Weather Underground does not report snow data, and reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge. I use the data I post to cocorahs as my “official” precipitation total each day.

I talked at length with Ray with a post mortem about our departed snowstorm, and the sale of The Weather Channel TV to Byron Allen about 10% of what was paid for it around 10 years ago ($300M vs $3.5B). I spoke with Robin late as she was taking my poorly feeling grandson Gideon to the Doctor’s with a 103° fever and associated discomforts – all vital signs checked out negatively and medications are doing their job and he is feeling better with better, more restful sleep and a relief to his discomforts experienced much of Thursday. I tried to get some science fair work done as this weekend is the last big one of the science fair season.

I continue to battle with the problem of sending out email through gmail and verizon through Thunderbird, as the outgoing SMTP mail server keeps timing out. Rebooting (warm or cold) keeps working as the only solution. I had a particularly bothersome problem getting one email out this evening, and it appears that certain graphics embedded in my emails are causing the problem. I will try and send out simpler emails with less computer graphics (I believe simple pictures and hyperlinks are not a problem thank goodness). 

Overnight Thursday into Friday was clear with temps dropping off through the 30s. The VP2 rain gauge started catching up with melted runoff that totaled 0.36″ for the day. That approximated the water equivalent for Wednesday, but the combined Tuesday/Wednesday VP2 rain gauge total of 0.82″ still fell short of the 2 day total from my cocorahs gauge of 1.01″. Mostly sunny skies are expected on Friday and partly cloudy skies on Saturday and Sunday with highs in the mid 40s and lows in the mid 20s. We might still have some icy spots early this Friday morning from snow melt refreezing but that should be the last of it. Sunny to partly cloudy skies are expected early next week, with highs in the mid 40s on Monday and lows in the mid 20s. Tuesday should feature highs around 50° under partly cloudy skies and lows around freezing.

On the Channel 4 weather website at 0612 radar is showing a clear picture over the 4 state mid-Atlantic region. The closest areas of rain are in parts of KY, TN and AL in the form of scattered rain showers. A storm is expected to track just south and west of our region over the weekend with only some clouds around as a result.

As of 0612, 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:

Clear, cold, snow patches only remaining unfortunately.

Station Relative Location Temp RH  DP    BP      Wind High/Low temp Thursday
VP2             Ground            31.8  67  22 30.17″S  NA     43.4/29.5

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.00″ through midnight Thursday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony showed 0.36″ snowmelt passing through the gauge through midnight Thursday.

Thursday’s precipitation was 0.00″
Two-day (Tuesday/Wednesday) storm total 1.01″
March precipitation is 1.45″.
Thursday’s snowfall 0.0″
March snowfall 4.5″
Snow on ground 1″ (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 12.0″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 8.08″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 31 60 19 30.13″R NW 2 G NW 9
                              140° from station                  43/27
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.47″ of precipitation on Thursday. It is now reporting a total of 2.76″ of precipitation so far in March and a 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 10.27″.

At 2400 obs Wednesday night the temperature from the VP2 was 37.3 RH 55% BP 30.15″R DP 22.6.

Clear, not as cold, spotty 1″ coating of snow on the ground as of 2400

Good morning from the clear, cold, less snowy home of the snowywalrus early on this Friday.