The “heat wave” continues as June comes to a close! We easily topped the 90° mark today for a grand total of 4 days of doing that during June. At least we had another day of slightly cooler AM min temps in the upper 60s. We had a brilliantly sunny day, with a strong heat ridge over most of the Eastern US. The sinking air inhibits much if any cloud development. Overnight into Sunday skies remained clear with a bit of high clouds with lows by sunrise staying in the lower 70s. The Saturday maximum temperature was 92.4° @ 1620, while the Saturday minimum temperature was 68.6° @ 0558. The dew point temperatures were in the mid 60s to lower 70s, ranging from a low of 65° @ 0549 up to a high of 72° @ 0836. The barometric pressure rose from Friday’s values – the highest value being 30.11″ @ 0922 down to a low of 30.04″ @ 2005. The relative humidity was just about the same as yesterday’s, ranging from a high of 91% at 0618 down to a low of 46% at 1557.

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 continues! Saturday was sunny and hot with highs in the low 90s and lows in the upper 60s. Sunday will be sunny and hot with highs around 97° and lows in the low-mid 70s as we head into July, traditionally our hottest month of the year. Monday should be partly cloudy and hot with highs around 98° and lows in the mid 70s. Tuesday will be sunny but a few degrees “cooler” with highs around 93° and lows in the low 70s. Fourth of July Wednesday should be mostly sunny and a tad “cooler” with highs around 90° and lows in the low 70s. Thursday looks to be partly to mostly cloudy with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the low 70s.

At 0625, Channel 4 radar is showing no action at all in the 4-state Mid-Atlantic region. The closest action are showers out in parts of the Midwest, including the states of WI, IA, MN, SD, and to the south in MO, KS and OK at this time. That area is on the western edge of this heat ridge, and more than likely will head north of us into the north edge of the ridge in the next few days. There should be little to no rain here for the next several days.

At 0625, 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, warm and dry (with only hazy cirrus skies)

Station Relative Location Temp  RH  DP     BP     Wind High/Low temp on Saturday
VP2              Ground          71.2° 91% 69° 30.07″S NA      92.4°/68.6°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.00″ through midnight Saturday. 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.

Saturday’s precipitation was 0.00″
June final precipitation total is 3.77″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.19″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 69° 100% 69° 30.11″R Calm WNW 2
                              140° from station                        95°/66°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of rain on Saturday. June total precip is reported as 8.37″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount now at 34.41″. These figures should be final ones for all of June. 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 Saturday night the temperature from the VP2 was 77.4° RH 77% BP 30.07″R DP 69.6°
Clear, warm, muggy at 2400 Saturday

Good morning from the sunny, warm and dry home of the Walrus early on this Sunday.