Friday was mostly cloudy with some occasional brief sunny breaks later in the AM and PM but early AM rain (0.60″) fell entirely (as best I could determine) between about 0300 and 0630. Temps remained cool, with highs reaching the low 60s after lows in the early morning hours in the low 50s. The Friday maximum temperature was 61.8 @ 1736 while the Friday minimum temperature was 52.1 @ 0631. The dew point temperatures rose a bit today, ranging from a low of 42 @ 0000 up to a high of 53 later @ 1547. The barometric pressure remained relatively low again today, reaching its daily maximum value of 29.86″ at 0000 down to its low for the day of 29.74″ later @ 1903. Relative humidity started out relatively low at midnight but rising quickly in the early AM rain, reaching its low at 53% @ 0000, then rapidly increasing in the early AM rain to the daily high of 95% a bit later @ 0614.

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.

Friday was mostly cloudy and seasonably cool, with the early AM rain. Overnight into Saturday skies cleared and the temps dropped very close to the dew point temperature, and right after sunrise around 0720 dense fog rolled in, limiting my visibility to no more than 0.1 mile. See today’s featured image. The building in the picture is only about 100 yards away, right across the street. (Please see also another picture of the dense fog immediately below.)

This fog should burn off within the next hour or so, and we should have a partly cloudy day on Saturday and seasonably warm with highs in the mid 70s and a 20 POP for an isolated shower. Low temps should be around 40°. Sunday will be partly cloudy and much cooler with highs in the mid 50s, lows in the upper 30s. Monday should be partly sunny with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the mid-upper 40s. Tuesday at the start of May should start warming up, with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the low-mid 50s under mostly sunny skies. Wednesday warms up even more, under mostly sunny skies with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the low 60s. Outlook for the rest of the week looks to have this early season hot spell to continue with highs in the mid-upper 80s, lows in the 60s under mostly sunny skies, increasing humidity by Thursday with the threat of rain/storms on Friday as a front approaches and should work to cool us off a bit in time for the weekend.

On the Channel 4 radar at 0838 scattered showers and a few embedded thundershowers are tracking SE from the NW 1/3 of PA, western NY and eastern OH. We may get an isolated shower on Saturday afternoon from this ragged line of precipitation.

As of 0838 Saturday, 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 WX Bug station are as follows:

Dense fog, cool and quite damp.

Station Relative Location Temp RH    DP     BP       Wind High/Low temp Friday
VP2            Ground         53.0° 97% 52° 29.84″R   NA      61.8/52.1

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.60″ through midnight Friday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony only recorded 0.03″ through midnight Friday, severely under-reporting probably due to blockage of leaf and bud matter in the collecting cone of the gauge. Since midnight it has recorded an additional 0.01″ of rainfall probably a very small, partial drip through from the backed up water in the gauge. It may very well start to catch up later as the water starts seeping more significantly through the blockage.

Friday’s precipitation was 0.60″
April precipitation 3.56″
April snowfall 0.0″ (will be reported till the end of April – Sadly I just brought in my snowboard Friday night)
The seasonal snowfall total is 12.0″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 11.73″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 52 100 52 29.83″S Calm G ESE 5
                            140° from station                   64/51
The Lakewood rain gauge reported 0.45″ of precipitation on Friday. It is now reporting a total of 3.75″ of precipitation for April and a 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 14.62″. I still believe at times the great disparity between the Lakewood WX Bug station precipitation amount total for the month and year and my cocorahs gauge based data is that the Lakewood precip values are estimated/adjusted from radar.

At 2400 obs Friday night the temperature from the VP2 was 55.1 RH 86% BP 29.78″S DP 51.2
Clear, mild, damp at 2400

Good morning from the foggy, cool, and damp home of the snowless walrus early on this Saturday.