The heat started to come in on Thursday, but not too badly on this first day with highs in the mid 80s but lows in the warm low 70s, which was only the fourth time during the month. Clouds were lacking for the most part, esp in the morning, but some fair weather cumulus started to develop in the afternoon. Overnight into Friday skies remained clear to at most partly cloudy with lows by sunrise in the upper 60s. The Thursday maximum temperature was 85.3° @ 1711, while the Thursday minimum temperature was 72.5° @ 0558. The dew point temperatures started out in the lower 70s but fell slightly in the upper 60s by evening, ranging from a high of 73° @ 0004 down to a low of 68° @ 2252. The barometric pressure lowered a bit from Wednesday’s values – the lowest value being 29.80″ @ 0234 up to a high of 29.93″ @ 2222. The relative humidity rose a bit from yesterday’s, ranging from a high of 95% at 0655 down to a low of 62% at 1705.

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.

Our heat wave has come! Mostly sunny on Friday with highs in the low 90s and lows around 70°. Saturday should be partly cloudy and hotter with highs in the mid 90s with lows in the low 70s. Sunday will be partly cloudy, Monday will be sunny with both days having high temps in the mid 90s and lows in the low 70s as we enter July, our traditionally hottest month of the year, on Sunday. Tuesday will be sunny with highs in the low 90s and lows around 70°.

At 1817, Channel 4 radar is showing no action at all in the 4-state Mid-Atlantic region. The closest action is in widely scattered locations with mostly light showers in downeast Maine and the Maritimes, central ON, Florida and western MN. Not much movement with most of those shower areas.

At 1817, 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:

Sunny, very warm and moderately muggy

Station Relative Location Temp RH    DP      BP    Wind High/Low temp on Thursday
VP2             Ground           87.0° 54% 68° 30.02″S NA      85.3°/72.5°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.00″ through midnight Thursday. The VP2 tipping bucket also had 0.00″. 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.

Thursday’s precipitation was 0.00″
June precipitation 3.77″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.19″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 89° 44% 64° 30.07″F WNW 4 G W 8 
                              140° from station                       86°/72°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of rain on Wednesday. June total precip is reported as 8.37″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount now at 34.41″. I definitely continue to believe that at times the disparities 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 72.8° RH 84% BP 29.93″R DP 67.7°
PCloudy, warm , moderately muggy at 2400 Thursday

Good afternoon from the sunny, very warm and muggy home of the Walrus late on this Friday.