Cloudy , mild AM with light showers, FROPA, slow clearing, winds increase and temps drop throughout PM – update for West Rockville Maryland on Wednesday, April 4 2018

Cloudy , mild AM with light showers, FROPA, slow clearing, winds increase and temps drop throughout PM – update for West Rockville Maryland on Wednesday, April 4 2018

Wednesday was a day literally cut in half with a cloudy, warm (up into the high-mid 60s), light showery late AM (0.05″ – see parking lot image featured image for today) associated with a mid-day FROPA that turned the PM hours into dropping temps, increasing winds ( A wind advisory was posted mid-day for winds gusting to 50 MPH till 7 PM – my friend Ray temporarily lost his weather station when it was knocked down by the strong winds), slow clearing up and drying out. The Wednesday maximum temperature from the VP2 (67.6°) was recorded at 1102 while the Wednesday minimum temperature (40.7°) was recorded at 2359. Like yesterday but even more extreme, there was another reversal of the normal daily temperature pattern. Dew point temperatures really rose in the late AM with the showers, then really dropped off most all of the PM hours, ranging from a high of 59° at 1054 down to a low of 21° at 2014. Relative humidity values rose sharply again in the AM hours but then dried out in the PM (96% – 34%) . Barometric values started out at their lowest point mid AM (low of 29.53″ at 0946), then gradually rose the rest of the day much later in the late PM to 30.07″ at 2358.

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 had a relatively early start to the day, as I had to take a 1130 shuttle ride to Kaiser to get a blood test at the very busy lab there. I even took a few cloud observations there and sent them in through my IPhone while waiting for my return ride pick up after the test was completed. One of these pictures is displayed below, looking WNW. They were mostly stratocumulus clouds but with a small line of cumulus in the bottom right of the photo. 

I didn’t get around to emailing my February data out to my weather associates and networks, but did get my friend Ray’s brief February and March summary to the NJWO for WEATHERSHELTER publication. I was also busy doing other email and database work. 

Overnight Wednesday into Thursday skies were clear with diminishing winds that allowed temps to fall through the 40s and most of the 30s to around the freezing mark at sunrise. Thursday should be mostly sunny and cool, with lows in the mid 30s and highs only in the low 50s. Friday should be cloudy with highs in the mid 60s and lows in the mid 30s. Saturday’s forecast has firmed up even more with cloudy skies and a 100 POP for snow, highs in the mid 30s and lows in the low-mid 20s. Sunday should be mostly sunny and a bit milder, with highs in the low-mid 40s and lows in the lower 30s. Winter is not quite done yet, as Monday should be cloudy and colder with a mixture of rain and/or snow (80 POP), highs around 40° and lows in the mid-upper 30s.

On the channel 4 weather radar website at 0904 shows scattered snow showers in many of the typical mountainous and lake effect areas of WV, PA and NY currently. Our result from this will be a few scattered cumulus during parts of the day.

As of 0904, 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 sunny, cold, and drying out. This morning’s low temp was 32.7°

Station Relative Location Temp  RH    DP     BP      Wind High/Low temp Wednesday
VP2            Ground         36.9°  49% 19° 30.23″R   NA    67.6/40.7

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.05″ through midnight Wednesday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.07″ through midnight Wednesday.

Wednesday’s precipitation was 0.05″
April precipitation 0.17″
Tuesday’s snowfall was 0.0″ (I will continue to report snow in April as this Saturday and then possibly next Monday looks like a good chance for it.)
April snowfall 0.0″
Snow on ground 0 (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 12.0″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 8.34″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 37 43 17 30.21″R WSW 4 G W 9
                            140° from station                  67/39
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.05″ of precipitation on Wednesday. It is now reporting a total of 0.36″ of precipitation for April and a 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 11.24″.

At 2400 obs Monday night the temperature from the VP2 was 40.7 RH 50% BP 30.07″R DP 23.5.

Clear, colder, dry at 2400

Good morning from the now partly cloudy, cold, drying out home of the snowless walrus on this Thursday.

2 thoughts on “Cloudy , mild AM with light showers, FROPA, slow clearing, winds increase and temps drop throughout PM – update for West Rockville Maryland on Wednesday, April 4 2018

  1. My featured image in today’s post is not showing for some reason. It shows in my working copy but not in the final published version. What went wrong? I normally do not have a problem with this. I can’t spend any time right now trying to figure it out, I have to get some sleep. Thanks to anyone who can give me some possible insights on what went wrong. Kevin

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