Thursday was still quite warm, but a tad bit cooler than Wednesday, and generally dry but getting a bit damper late, with mostly sunny skies but some fair-weather cumulus dotted the sky during times in the afternoon. Overnight into Friday skies were mostly to partly clear with static dew points in the mid 60s. Lows at sunrise were warm, in the upper 60s but with more still reasonably comfortable dew points in the mid 60s. The Thursday maximum temperature was 88.6° @ 1603, while the Thursday minimum temperature was 68.9° @ 0655. The dew point temperatures were low early, but rose gradually in the afternoon and evening, ranging from a low of 53° @ 0554 up to a high of 66° @ 2015. The barometric pressure rose above yesterday’s values – the lowest value being 30.06″ @ 0003 up to a high of 30.21″ @ 2228. The relative humidity values lowered on Thursday, ranging from a low of 36% at 1622 up to a high of 74% at 2341.

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.

Thursday was mostly sunny with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s. Friday the 13th should be partly cloudy with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the mid 60s. The weekend looks hot, as both Saturday and Sunday will have sunny to partly cloudy skies and highs in the low-mid 90s and lows of 70° – 75°. Monday should continue the heat, with highs in the mid 90s and lows in the mid 70s. The 40 POP for PM thunderstorms for Monday has been replaced with just an isolated (20 POP) shot at a shower. However, right now Tuesday looks to have a 60 POP for PM thunderstorms with highs around 90° and lows in the upper 60s. Hopefully we will get some much-needed rain on Tuesday.

At 0821, Channel 4 radar is clear within the 4-state mid Atlantic area. The closest showers are off the Carolina coast, and also in parts of central Ontario off of Lakes Huron and Superior. Hurricane Chris has left our area totally and is dying a slow death in the hurricane graveyard of the cold North Atlantic.

At 0821, 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:

Mostly sunny skies but with scattered high clouds, warm and dry with slowly rising dew points

Station Relative Location Temp  RH   DP     BP Wind High/Low temp on Thursday
VP2              Ground          71.7° 85% 67° 30.25″S NA 88.6°/68.9°

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″
July precipitation total is 0.02″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.29″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 72° 84% 67° 30.26″S ENE 2 G NNW 7
                              140° from station                           89°/67°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of rain on Thursday. The precip records continues to report a July monthly total precip of 0.39″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount at 34.79″. 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 74.0° RH 75% BP 30.21″S DP 65.6°
Mostly clear, warm, dry at 2400 Thursday

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