Wednesday continued our cloudy (see today’s featured image), muggy, occasionally showery (0.11″ – but no thunder) pattern that looks to hold into the weekend. Temperatures held in the mid 60s for a late PM minimum after rising into the low 70s in the mid-afternoon.  Light rain and clouds are continuing into the early AM hours of Thursday. Areas to my N and NE got hammered again Wednesday evening, with the Frederick area being particularly hard hit once again, with major flooding in town that have prompted “state of emergency” decrees. The Wednesday maximum temperature reached 72.1° @ 1440, while the Wednesday minimum temperature was 65.1° @ 2324. The dew point temperatures were a tad lower than yesterday, but still high, ranging from a muggy high of 70° @ 1348 down to a low of a damp 64° @ 2235. The barometric pressure rose some from Tuesday, reaching the highest value of the day of 30.03″ @ 1115 down to a low of 29.97″ @ 1856. The relative humidity rose quite a bit today and remained high all day, ranging from a high of 98% at 0553 down to a “low” of 92% at 1459.

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 got up early (for me) for my 1030 AM Dentist appointment with the apartment shuttle picking me up out front at 0930. I had a successful checkup and cleaning and was back to my apartment by noon and started work on my April data spreadsheet in the afternoon after a late breakfast of cereal and a banana with a pot of coffee. I also communicated with several of my old high school classmates on email and by phone, as a big 50th year reunion of my class of 1968 is coming up fast on June 2. Great to open up communication lines that have been mostly closed since graduation 50 years ago. The festivities will take place in the Morristown NJ area over that weekend, which logistically will probably be challenging for me to be able to make due to my current status. 

Clouds, occasional rain showers, mugginess persisted all day on Wednesday. As I write this at 0745 there still is bit of occasional light rain falling at times (about 0.61″ from midnight to about 0630 according to a local weather underground station a couple of miles to my north at Muddy Branch Park) and a full overcast sealing in all this moisture. Thursday through Saturday should be mostly cloudy and mild (but plenty muggy) with highs in the mid 60s (Friday) to the mid 70s (Saturday) with lows in the low-mid 60s except mid 50s on Friday, with a 90-100% chance for rain or thunderstorms each day. Sunday may break through this slogginess with partly cloudy skies, highs in the low-mid 80s, lows in the mid 60s and only a 20 POP for precipitation. Monday resumes clouds and an 80 POP for thunderstorms, with highs around 80° and lows in the low 60s. We continue to be in a persistent battle zone (along a stationary frontal boundary) fluctuating from mild to warm temps and numerous threats of rain or thunderstorms into the first half of the coming weekend.

On the Channel 4 radar at 0903 shows parts of the four-state region still in the rain, particularly strong to the W and SW over sections of VA and WV, areas just to the south over central VA, and areas to the NE over Baltimore and points N and E at this time. All cells appear to be moving from SW to NE, in the general moist SW flow much of the mid-Atlantic is currently under.

As of 0903, 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:

Cloudy, damp, somewhat cool with scattered light rain showers at times – looks like another rainy day ahead……

Station Relative Location Temp   RH   DP    BP      Wind High/Low temp on Wednesday
VP2               Ground          65.2° 96% 64° 30.00″R NA    72.1°/65.1°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.11″ through midnight Wednesday. The VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge under my balcony recorded 0.01″ through midnight Tuesday as it continues to be clogged. Much thanks to my friend Rich H for giving me tips and tools to combat this clogged gauge problem, which I hope to address soon.

Wednesday’s precipitation was 0.11″
May precipitation is now 2.34″
Year-to-date precipitation total is 14.08″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 64° 100% 64° 30.01″R ENE 3 G E 6
                              140° from station                         72°/64°

The Lakewood rain gauge reported 1.43″ of precipitation on Wednesday. May is now showing 3.72″ for the month with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount now at 18.52″. I still believe at times the great disparity 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 Wednesday night the temperature from the VP2 was 65.1° RH 97% BP 29.97″F DP 64.2°
Cloudy, cool, damp at 2400 Wednesday

Good morning from the cloudy, damp, occasionally light rainy home of the muggy walrus early on this Thursday.