Sorry that I missed posting my report for Friday so I will try to include important data and highlights from Friday in addition to my normal report for Saturday. Friday featured a partial day of more warmth before a midday quick burst of rain (0.09″) fell with the FROPA blowing through that dropped our low 70s that was recorded just before the showers into the 50s by mid-afternoon and bottomed out in the mid 30s by Saturday morning. Some of my friends in the region reported a thunderstorm with this FROPA activity mid-day Friday. I had a brief burst at 1034 that recorded a max rain rate of 5.05″/hour. (Today’s featured image was actually from Friday afternoon’s GLOBE CLOUDS observation of the chaotic sky from the FROPA that had just passed through. You can really see 3 cloud levels of a variety of cloud types that I thought were particularly interesting. This view is looking to my east from my balcony overhang) 

Saturday was cooler and sunny, with highs in the upper 50s and lows in the mid 30s. The Friday maximum temperature from the VP2 (71.8°) was recorded at 1203 and the Saturday maximum temperature from the VP2 (58.2°) was recorded at 1801 while the minimum temperature for Friday (43.2°) was recorded at 2358 while the min for Saturday (36.6°) was recorded at 0630. Dew point temperatures dropped throughout most of the 2 day period, ranging from a high of 61° at 1005 Friday down to a low of 24° later on Saturday at 1523. Relative humidity values dropped similarly (91% – 59% on Friday, 71% – 28% on Saturday) . Barometric values started out low early on Friday morning (29.70″ at 0554) up to the max for Friday of 30.19″ at 2359, then peaked at 30.37″ at 1100 on Saturday before starting to fall once again to 30.09″ late at 2353. The image below is of one of our trees in the first stages of spring budding. There are dogwood, forsythia and redbud trees (my best guess) in bloom right now and I will try to feature them and more if additional species pop out this month. I think I caught snippets of each in this picture taken Saturday afternoon with my Cloud observation pictures.

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 does not report snow data, and reflects what is recorded automatically through the tipping bucket VP2 gauge. I use the data I post to cocorahs as my “official” precipitation total each day.

I was busier on Friday with a haircut up at the Hair Cuttery in Damascus from Samantha, one of my daughter’s friends in the late morning, then drove (courtesy of Mike) through the rain showers from Damascus to La Mexicana on Shady Grove Road to pick up some leftovers from Tracy and have a quick Tex-Mex lunch there with Mike served by my daughter Tracy. We left La Mex in plenty of time to get back to my apartment and my 1500 rummikub game over in Building A. On Saturday I had a much less eventful day the highlight of which was watching the not always exciting national college basketball semifinals on Saturday evening, won my Michigan over Loyola of Chicago 69-57 and Villanova over Kansas 95-79. These winners will meet for the championship Monday evening. 

Overnight Saturday into Sunday skies have been cloudy and not as cool as the previous evening, holding around the 50° mark all night. Mostly cloudy but it should be dry with seasonable temps during the day on Sunday, with highs around 60°. Overnight a 70 POP for mixed rain/snow with lows in the mid-upper 30s. A winter weather advisory for snow accumulating mostly on grassy areas has been posted just to my north and west for overnight Sunday into Monday morning. This system is pretty small and will be out of here by sometime Monday afternoon. High temps should remain cool for early April in the low 50s, lows around the 40° mark. Tuesday should be partly cloudy in the afternoon after a 60 POP for AM showers, highs around 60° after mild mid 50s for lows. Wednesday features more AM showers (70 POP) and wind, highs in the low 60s and lows in the low-mid 30s. Thursday should be mostly sunny and cool, with lows in the mid 30s and highs only in the low 50s. It certainly looks like a cool, damp week to start April off to a rough beginning.

On the channel 4 weather radar website at 1020 a ragged broken line of scattered light rain showers associated with our next FROPA that can be found in the mtns to my west/northwest, running from NY southwest through PA, WV, KY and points further to the SW at this time. .

As of 1020, 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:

Cloudy, mild, dry

Station Relative Location Temp RH DP    BP   Wind    High/Low temp
VP2             Ground         54.1 52  37 30.05″S NA  71.8/43.2 (Friday)
                                                                          58.2/36.6 (Sat)

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.09″ through midnight Friday. Nothing additional fell on Saturday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.14″ through midnight Friday. Once again nothing additional fell in the tipping bucket on Saturday

Friday’s precipitation was 0.09″
Saturday’s precipitation was 0.00″
March (final) precipitation total is 1.62″
April precipitation 0.00″
Friday and Saturday’s snowfall was 0.0″ (I will continue to report snow in April as this first week looks to have a few chances for snow, amazingly enough)
March snowfall 4.5″
April snowfall 0.0″
Snow on ground 0 (reported to the nearest half-inch)
The seasonal snowfall total is 12.0″.
Year-to-date precipitation total is 8.25″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 52 47 32 30.04″F     SE 3 G ESE 6
                           140° from station             Highs 60/34 (Sat) 72/42 (Fri)
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.17″ of precipitation on Friday and 0.00″ on Saturday. It is now reporting a total of 3.37″ of precipitation in March and a 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount of 10.87″.

At 2400 obs Friday night the temperature from the VP2 was 43.2 RH 70% BP 30.19″R DP 34.1.

At 2400 obs Saturday night the temperature from the VP2 was 49.1 RH 53% BP 30.04″F DP 32.7.

Partly cloudy, still mild at 2400

Good morning from the cloudy, mild home of the snowless walrus on this Easter Sunday. Happy Easter to all, and watch out for tricks today – it is also April Fool’s Day. No tricks from me with this report, but in light of me trying to condense two reports into one, I very well may have some unintentional “tricks” included. If I missed posting any data from Friday that you want, just let me know.