Thursday was clear/sunny early, but by mid-afternoon clouds developed ahead of a line of showers/storms heading SE from the midwest that fell in the early evening (0.02″) in a light thundershower about 1900. The Thursday maximum temperature reached 81.2° @ 1623 just ahead of the showers, while the Thursday minimum temperature was 58.6° @ 0420. The dew point temperatures rose from Wednesday, particularly in conjunction with the showers, ranging from a low of 51° very early @ 0000 up to a high of 68° @ 1907. The barometric pressure lowered from yesterday, reaching the highest value of the day of 30.07″ @ 0009 down to a low of 29.80″ @ 1805, just prior to the shower. The relative humidity rose a bit from Wednesday, ranging from a high of 90% at 0636 down to a low of 56% at 1626.

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.

On Thursday I had a busy day. I met my friend Laura for lunch at noon at Cava Mezze, just down the street from my apartment, for a great Greek lunch experience and of course, great social conversation with Laura. I got back about 1330 and worked on printing my 100 questions for the evening trivia session I would be giving the questions to our group of seniors over in Building A. The shower just so happened to hit as I was traveling over from my Building B to Building A just before 7. I picked up a great box of chocolates from our friend Mary Alexander who had became ill this week and couldn’t attend our session. She is just one floor below me and we met at the elevator. We had a small but lively session and I think the questions went over well and were enjoyed by all. I eventually had a tuna sandwich later in the evening, along with a bit of orzo and seafood salads. I had a few chocolates later on for dessert. I watched the Yanks loss to the Red Sox 5-4, the last of the 3 game series this week. The Yankees took the first 2 games of the series, so I believe they are tied for first place now with the same record of 26-11. Still doing lots of cleanup and got a load of trash down to the recycling center very late in conjunction with my rain gauge check. Much more cleaning to do but it is slowly getting there!

Thursday remained cloudy during most of the evening but cleared off overnight and now on Friday morning with have sunny skies and mild temperatures. Friday should be partly sunny with highs around 80° and lows around 60°. Saturday should heat up under partly cloudy skies, with highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 60s. On Sunday we should cool off considerably under mostly cloudy skies with a 60 POP for scattered thunderstorms, highs in the mid-upper 60s and lows in the mid 50s. Monday should find partly cloudy skies, warmer with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s and a 40 POP for more scattered thunderstorms. Tuesday should be mostly cloudy and warm, with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s, and a 20 POP for an isolated shower possibly.

On the Channel 4 radar at 1007 shows a clear screen over the 4 state mid-Atlantic region. Closest precipitation are showers/storms in parts of the Midwest, over sections of Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa at this time.

As of 1007 , 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:

Mostly sunny, dry and seasonable – looks like it will be a nice day for Friday …

Station Relative Location Temp  RH   DP     BP    Wind High/Low temp for Thursday
VP2            Ground         72.0° 63% 59° 30.05″R NA   81.2°/58.6°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.02″ through midnight Thursday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.00″ through midnight Thursday – I got to unclog it sometime real soon!

Thursday’s precipitation was 0.02″
May precipitation is now 0.13″
Year-to-date precipitation total is 11.87″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 72° 57% 56° 30.07″R NW 2 G NW 10
                            140° from station                       83°/58°
The Lakewood rain gauge reported 0.00″ of precipitation on Thursday. May is now showing 0.31″ for the month and the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount is 15.12″. 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 Thursday night the temperature from the VP2 was 64.4° RH 80% BP 29.90″R DP 58.1°
Partly cloudy, mild at 2400 Thursday

Good morning from the now partly cloudy, seasonable, dry home of the walrus mid-morning on this Friday.