Wednesday was a partly cloudy day with increasing dew points and temps just a bit lower than yesterday. Storms and showers were in the area, but except for a very light shower in the early AM (0.01″) no rain fell the rest of the day, though it did rain in other locations in the area. Temperatures only fell to the upper-mid 60s in the early AM but rose to the upper 70s by late afternoon. We only cooled off a bit into the mid 70s by midnight. Overnight into Thursday skies have clouded up as dew points have climbed into the low 70s, one of those typical muggy summer nights in this part of the country. The Wednesday maximum temperature was 79.1° @ 1748, while the Wednesday minimum temperature was 67.4° @ 0329. The dew point temperatures started out in the upper 50s but rose into the low 70s by the afternoon, ranging from a low of 58° @ 0000 up to a high of 73° @ 1734. The barometric pressure dropped significantly all day over Tuesday’s values – the highest value being 30.13″ @ 0001 down to a low of 29.85″ @ 2327. The relative humidity rose quite a bit from yesterday’s, ranging from a low of 66% at 0000 up to a high of 91% at 2302.

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 precipitation data reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge. I actually use the data I post to cocorahs from my 4″ cocorahs gauge I read manually as my “official” precipitation total each day.

I had a long conversation with Ray over current weather patterns (the upcoming heat wave), our new overseas weather friends and instrumentation and exchanged long emails with my 2 overseas weather friends in Wales and Norway. I watched the Orioles loss to the Mariners 8-7 over in Baltimore, where it did rain lightly at times during the game. I also exchanged emails and texts with Marty, as we discuss the items of his next visit over here to get some weather station changes done. 

Wednesday was partly to mostly cloudy (late) with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid-upper 60s with just a very light early AM shower, relying on my VP2 weatherlink software for precipitation timing. Thursday should be partly cloudy once again with highs warming up into the upper 80s and lows in the mid-upper 60s with only a 20 POP for a shower. Thereafter we will be commencing to start our heat wave. Sunny on Friday with highs in the low 90s and lows around 70°. Saturday looks get even hotter with highs in the mid 90s with lows in the low 70s under sunny skies. Sunday and Monday will have the same weather as Saturday, both days with highs in the mid 90s and lows in the low 70s under hot, sunny skies as we enter July, our traditionally hottest month of the year.

At 0517, Channel 4 radar is showing a bit of shower activity out to our west in the mountains of SW VA, WV, SW PA and western MD but those showers will probably dry out by the time they get here, and perhaps just give us a temporary increase in clouds in the morning. Large areas of showers and storms are currently located over the Metro NY/NJ area at this time.

At 0517, 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, warm and muggy

Station Relative Location Temp  RH    DP      BP   Wind High/Low temp on Wednesday
VP2             Ground        73.2°  92% 71° 29.80″F NA     79.1°/67.4°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.01″ through midnight Wednesday. The VP2 tipping bucket had 0.01″. I think the generally greater amount in the VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge recently has been at least partially due to its proximity to a dense evergreen tree that frequently drips down and then blows the “catch” into the gauge. I mostly use this gauge to tell me when and how hard it rained. Marty will be visiting soon and make some necessary changes to the rain gauges that should help improve performance.

Wednesday’s precipitation was 0.01″
June precipitation 3.77″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.19″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 73° 95% 72° 29.84″F Calm W 11
                            140° from station                     80°/68°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.01″ of rain on Wednesday. June total precip is reported as 8.36″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount now at 34.39″. I definitely continue to believe that 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 Wednesday night the temperature from the VP2 was 75.2° RH 91% BP 29.87″F DP 72.4°
Cloudy, warm , muggy at 2400 Wednesday

Good morning from the cloudy, mild and muggy home of the Walrus early on this Thursday.