We now have fair skies, dry, but and warm conditions with temperatures in the low 70s at 0521. Friday looks to be cloudy and rainy/stormy (90 POP with a flash flood watch in place for severe weather/heavy rain starting in the afternoon and really getting going in the evening) with highs around 80° and lows in the mid 60s. My 67th birthday Saturday looks wonderfully cool,  with highs in the upper 60s and a 40 POP for continued rain and clouds with some sun possible by late in the day, lows in the upper 50s Saturday night. Sunny and drier conditions should return on Sunday and Monday, with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s, lows in the low 60s. There is the likelihood of 1-3 inches of rain on Friday, and 2-5 inches for the Friday/Saturday time period.

I have an additional personal commentary as I remember coolish days on my birthday, but I just think this weather the next few days are just one of those extreme days that average out with the hot days and get lost in the long term monthly averages. I moved to my current location in Dec 2016 after living in a Gaithersburg townhouse since Dec 1978. I kept daily records of precip and temp for all those years there, and interestingly enough my record high for the 29th was 98 from 2011 and the record low was 56 in 1989. My lowest max temp recorded on the 29th was 68 in 2001. Also interestingly enough my wettest birthday date was 0.93″ just last year, with another daily record the next day on the 30th with 1.51″ I wonder if we will exceed those amounts this year. What if the patterns were similar for 2 years in a row. Odds are against it, we probably had a wet two days from heavy thunderstorms and not an organized system like this year. I looked at my cocorahs record for that time period and actually found that 0.58″ fell on 7/28 for a 3 day total of 3.02″. Wonder if we will exceed that this year. My records for those dates indicate a warm, humid, thunderstormy period, high temps around 85-90 and lows around 70. So with this “coolish” system this year it certainly doesn’t sound very similar to last year. But I would still like to see what the patterns looked like a year ago. Weather – isn’t it really interesting ??

On Channel 4 radar at 0521, rain is still developing and a good distance away to my W and SW over WV, TN, KY, and OH at this time. Look for it to develop and move into our area during the day on Friday. 

As of 0521 EDT, the data from the VP2 is coming from the ground radiation shield about 4 feet off the ground just under and out from the balcony and the Taylor has been replaced with the Radio Shack thermometer for the time being (on the balcony – max temps especially read too high).  The data from the Lakewood Country Club WXBug station and the USG VP2 station across the street are as follows :

Station     Relative Location      Temp    RH    DP         BP        Wind   High/Low temp today
VP2                 Ground               72.5     94    70      29.82S      NA    86.1/71.2       

Radio Shack    Balcony               76.6                                                  89.2/74.1   

There was no rain recorded today (cocorahs gauge on ground below – in between the US and State Flagpoles out a bit from my balcony)    

July precipitation is now 5.90″.

Year-to-date (YTD) precipitation total is 23.45″                                                                                               

VP2 Across the street (USG)     72.7      94    71      29.85S      NA     86.6/M   

There was no rain recorded in the USG gauge on Thursday. 

WX Bug     Lakewood 4500 ft,     74      84.6   68.6   29.84S     W 2    G W 9     
                   140° from station                                                              86/71

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded no rain on Thursday.

Temp on the VP2 at 2400 was 75.9 RH 88% BP 29.84R  DP 72.4 The Radio Shack thermometer was 80.4°.

Good morning from the cloudy, dry for now, warm and humid Walrus early on this Friday.