The “heat wave” continues as July begins. We easily topped the 90° mark today. In fact our 94.8° high today was the hottest temperature so far this year. We had a brilliantly sunny day, with a strong heat ridge over much of the Eastern US. The sinking air inhibits much if any cloud development. Overnight into Monday skies have remained clear with lows near sunrise staying in the mid 70s. The Sunday maximum temperature was 94.8° @ 1638, while the Sunday minimum temperature was 71.1° @ 0615. The dew point temperatures rose some today, ranging from a high of 77° @ 1251 down to a low of 67° @ 1528. The barometric pressure lowered slighly from Saturday’s values – the highest value being 30.10″ @ 0843 down to a low of 30.01″ @ 1804. The relative humidity was just about the same as yesterday’s, ranging from a high of 93% at 0709 down to a low of 42% at 1528.

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 marched on all day Sunday. A heat advisory for the entire region (except for the higher mountains to the West) has been posted. What made it worse was the rise of the dew point temperature in the afternoon when values were mostly in the mid-upper 70s. The heat index (feels-like) temperature maxed out at 108° at just about the same minute as the highest air temperature for the day around 1638. Sunday did not quite make it to the predicted high of 97° (actual high temp of 94.8°) with lows in the low 70s as we have headed into July, traditionally our hottest month of the year. Monday should be sunny and hot with highs around 98° and lows in the mid 70s. Tuesday will be partly cloudy but a few degrees “cooler” with highs around 94° and lows in the low 70s. Fourth of July Wednesday should be partly cloudy and a tad “cooler” with highs around 90° and lows in the low 70s. Thursday looks to be partly cloudy with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the low 70s. At this point, it appears that Friday most likely will put an end to our 10+ day dry streak with an 80 POP for thunderstorms with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s. But stay tuned, that could change as we get closer to Friday.

At 0550, Channel 4 radar is showing no action at all in the 4-state Mid-Atlantic region.

At 0550, 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:

Fair, warm and muggy

Station Relative Location Temp   RH   DP      BP   Wind High/Low temp on Sunday
VP2           Ground           74.7° 94% 73° 30.05″S NA      94.8°/71.1°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.00″ through midnight Sunday. 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″
July precipitation total is 0.00″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.19″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 73° 100% 73° 30.09″S Calm NW 2
                           140° from station                        97°/69°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of rain on Sunday. June total precip is still being reported as 8.37″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount 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 Sunday night the temperature from the VP2 was 78.7° RH 83% BP 30.06″S DP 73.1°
Clear, warm, muggy at 2400 Sunday

Good morning from the clear, warm and muggy home of the Walrus early on this Monday. Is it hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk? See today’s featured image, from Summer Science/Green Kid Images on a search on the internet.