Tuesday started out in the very first hours of the day with numerous rumbles of thunder and occasional light rain till about 0400. Partly cloudy by sunrise, calm and quite warm and humid most of the day, with high temps reaching the upper 80s and dew points well up into the 70s. The stage was set for evening fireworks. Sure enough they came from the north up in PA (see featured image from Furlong PA about 20 miles NNW of Philadelphia from my friend Rich H received via email) , arriving in the early evening with some rumbles and lighter rain, but then about 2230 heavy rain, vivid lightning, loud booming thunder and strong winds at times fell for the next half hour. Lighter rain continued into the early AM hours of Wednesday, along with more thunder and lightning, albeit not as strong as earlier. Areas to my N and NE got hit harder with flooding rains (6″+ reported on the TV news just now) around the Frederick area, and other areas had strong winds at times. Not as powerful as Monday’s storms, possibly derechos, still they packed quite a punch and gave me more rain (1.13″) than on Monday. Severe thunderstorm warnings also followed south from PA into northern MD, then into my area and the DC/Baltimore region. The Tuesday maximum temperature reached 87.7° @ 1534, while the Tuesday minimum temperature was 63.6° @ 0134. The dew point temperatures rose still more from Monday, ranging from a low of 62° @ 0430 up to a high of a muggy 74° @ 1318 ahead of the storms. The barometric pressure lowered some from Monday, reaching the lowest value of the day of 29.81″ @ 1825 up to a high of 30.03″ @ 2218. The relative humidity lowered a bit today, ranging from a high of 97% at 0633 down to a low of 57% at 1558.

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 woke up partially while I got an apartment inspection in the mid-morning, then got up for good in time for calls from both Robin and Tracy on their ways to work. I called my sister out in Michigan about some domestic advice and to catch up on family news. I cleaned up a bit and started to follow the storms coming in.  I watched the very busy sports schedule for the evening, including the rain shortened/suspended game between the Nats and the Yanks. Since it was tied 3-3 in the 6th inning when the heavens opened up and never let up – the action will pick up where it left off on Wednesday at 1705. Also, the Caps played the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third game of the semi-final playoffs at home. But home cooking did no good, as the Caps lost 4-2. The weather even affected the hockey game, with the high dew points outside causing higher than normal humidity levels inside at the beginning of the game, when doors to the outside were open to let the fans in. The higher humidity can create fog on the ice (but didn’t tonight as far as I know) but at least they held the temperature of the ice surface within a degree (22.8° F) of what they like (22.0°F). This gives the skaters the best surface to skate on, both backwards and forward.

A good part of Tuesday was actually quite humid, sunny and hot. As I write this at 0445 there still is bit of light rain falling (0.04″ from midnight to about 0345) and very damp conditions outside. Wednesday through Saturday should be mostly cloudy and cooler (but plenty muggy) with highs in the mid 60s (Friday) to the mid 70s (Wednesday) with lows in the low 60s except mid 50s on Friday, with a 90-100% chance for rain or thunderstorms each day. Sunday may break through this slogginess with partly cloudy skies, highs in the mid 80s, lows in the mid 60s and only a 20 POP for precipitation. We continue to be in a persistent battle zone (along a stationary frontal boundary) fluctuating from mild to very warm temps and numerous threats of rain or thunderstorms the rest of this current week.

On the Channel 4 radar at 0524 shows lighter intensities of rain in the region particularly to my west in much of Virginia now.

As of 0524, 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:

Cloudy, damp, somewhat cool with scattered light rain showers at times – looks like another stormy day ahead……

Station Relative Location Temp   RH   DP     BP    Wind High/Low temp on Tuesday
VP2             Ground         66.1° 97% 65° 30.00″S NA    87.7°/63.6°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 1.13″ through midnight Tuesday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.01″ through midnight Tuesday as it continues to be clogged.

Tuesday’s precipitation was 1.13″
May precipitation is now 2.23″
Year-to-date precipitation total is 13.97″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 66° 100% 66° 30.04″S SSE 2 G SE 7
                            140° from station                         90°/63°

The Lakewood rain gauge reported 0.88″ of precipitation on Tuesday. May is now showing 2.29″ for the month and the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount is 17.09″. 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 Tuesday night the temperature from the VP2 was 67.4° RH 96% BP 29.99″R DP 66.2°
Cloudy, cool, damp, stormy at 2400 Tuesday

Good morning from the cloudy, damp, light rainy home of the muggy walrus early on this Wednesday.