Ground Hog Day Friday started out relatively mild with a bit of light rain during the first few hours of the day, but a projected turn to a period of snow till sunrise did not materialize unfortunately. Temperatures just dropped all day, the winds picked up to produce low wind chills, and mostly sunny skies dried us out once again. Temperatures started out in the upper 30s in the very early AM and just kept dropping almost unabatedly all day, though there was a minor PM Max of 25.0° at 1455. The Thursday maximum temperature from the VP2 (39.4°) was recorded at the very beginning of the observation day at 0000 while the minimum temperature (18.6°) was recorded almost 24 hours later at 2350. Dew point temperatures started high in the very early AM with the remaining clouds and light rain before the cold front blew through after which the dew pts just kept lowering the rest of the day, ranging from a high of 37° at 0000 down to 4° later at 1536. Relative humidity values started out high in the very early AM, but once again dropped the rest of the day (94% – 43%). Barometric values rose all day, ranging from a low of 29.92″ at 0159 up to a high of 30.48″ much later at 2359.

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. I contribute daily to cocorahs as Rockville 2.8 WNW, Station ID MD-MG-115. Please remember that Weather Underground does not report snow data, and reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge.

I slept in a good part of the afternoon, as our usual Friday rummikub game was cancelled due to most of the regular players either being sick, having appointments, or just not wanting to travel between buildings in the cold winds. I got phone calls from Tracy on her way into work from one location to the other and Ray about our new hand-held anemometer we both got today (Ray’s second one actually).

I have a rough picture of me holding it out into the wind from my balcony on late Friday afternoon in today’s featured image. It is my new “Hold Peak” hand-held anemometer I received on Friday through Amazon delivery. It currently is on a big sale, more than half off at about $23. The 1.1 MPH reading I recorded late Friday afternoon is shown in faint blue lettering in the white (lighted) box just below the very large, very sensitive propeller blades. The temperature (about 24° as I recall is displayed below the wind speed, but is even lighter and very difficult to see in this picture unfortunately.

I worked some more on organizing my 2017 spreadsheet data, and getting some backlogged April data caught up so I can finish out the year and produce an annual summary. .

We stayed cloudy and damp for the first few hours overnight, with temps first dropping slowly through the 30s then quicker through the 20s with increasing winds towards sunrise and most of the rest of the day, bottoming out in the upper teens by late evening into obs. Tonight (overnight) is clear with lows in the mid teens. Saturday should be sunny with highs in the mid 30s and lows in the upper 20s. Right now Sunday looks cloudy with a 100 POP for rain (Initial QPF stats show us getting about 1/2 inch of rain but that remains to be seen , with highs around 40° and lows in the mid 20s. Monday should be sunny with highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s. Tuesday should turn mostly cloudy with high temps in the mid 40s and lows in the mid 30s. Wednesday looks cloudy and rainy (90 POP) with high temps around 50° and lows in the upper 20s.

On the Channel 4 weather website at 0603 radar is showing clear returns in the 4 state mid-atlantic region. Closest precipitation are scattered areas of light snow over parts of the Great Lake States in including Western NY State, much of MI, and a bit of IN and IL at this time.

As of 0603, 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 WXBug station are as follows:

Clearing skies and colder this morning.

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP BP Wind High/Low temp Thursday
VP2            Ground         14.1  73  7 30.52S NA 39.4/18.6

There was 0.05″ of precipitation in the cocorahs gauge on Friday through midnight obs. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.05″ of precipitation on Friday through midnight.

Friday’s precipitation 0.05″
January precipitation final total is 1.83″
February precipitation is 0.20″
Friday snowfall 0.0″
January snowfall total was a meager 1.4″.
Snow on ground 0.0″ (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 5.2″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 2.03″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 9 91 7 30.44″R Calm G Calm
                           140° from station                  38/16

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.04″ of precipitation on Friday. It is now reporting a 0.16″ monthly (February) and 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 2.40″ up 0.16″ from yesterday’s report.

Temperature from the VP2 at 2400 was 18.6 RH 58% BP 30.48″R DP 6.3. Clear and cold, lighter winds.

Good morning from the clear, colder, dry but snowless Walrus early on this Saturday morning. Once again, the unscientific hype out of a ground hog hole in Punxatawney PA early Friday morning reported that the ground hog saw his shadow so that allegedly means 6 more weeks of winter. Believe that and I have some beachfront property out in Kansas to sell you…