Wednesday was a calmer day, partly cloudy with scattered cumulus dancing about the sky, and a bit warmer than Tuesday due to more sun. It dried out from a humid beginning to a comfortable evening. The Wednesday maximum temperature reached 79.8° @ 1630, while the Wednesday minimum temperature was 64.3° @ 2359. The dew point temperatures fell as the day wore on, ranging from a high of 69° @ 0813 down to a low of 59° @ 1830 and then again just prior to midnight observation time. The barometric pressure lowered from Tuesday – lowest being 29.92″ @ 0258 up to a high of 30.10″ @ 2215. The relative humidity was very high very early, but lowered significantly by the afternoon, ranging from a high of 98% at 0043 down to a low of 53% at 1700.

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.

I had one of those topsy-turvy days and kept going all morning into the afternoon then crashed till early morning Thursday. I tried to work on some backlog weather data and other miscellaneous stuff, and also spoke with Tracy on her way to work and Robin and Gideon from face time briefly. I spoke with Ray a few times, Marty briefly, as I also spoke with my sister out in Michigan for a while. We all were going over my Doctor appointment from Tuesday through the visit report I shared with them, and planning ahead for some changes the Doctor was suggesting to me.  I missed the most excellent 7th game of the playoff series between the Caps and Lightning, won by Washington 4-0 to win the series 4 games to 3 and head into the Stanley Cup Finals where the Caps will face the new team on the block, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, starting Monday night from the city that never sleeps out west.

Wednesday was a gradual improvement from morning mugginess, afternoon broken to scattered cumulus buildups (see featured image) to evening relatively cool and less humid conditions. Temperatures maxed out around the 80° mark and fell into the mid 60s by midnight. Thursday has been sunny and dry, without any clouds in the sky every time I have looked out my windows as of mid-afternoon. Starting out on a cool note in the upper 50s, it has risen into the low 80s in the mid-afternoon as I write this on Thursday mid afternoon with not a cloud in the sky. Lows tonight should be around 60°. Friday should be mostly sunny and a bit warmer, with highs in the mid-upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s. At the start of the Memorial Day weekend on Saturday we should see partly cloudy skies with highs up in the mid-upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s and a 90 POP for PM thunderstorms. Sunday keeps up our PM thunderstorm chances (80 POP), temps maxing out in the mid 80s, lows in the mid 60s under partly cloudy skies. Memorial Day Monday should be a bit cooler, partly cloudy, with highs around 80° and lows in the mid 60s but still a 40 POP for PM thunderstorms.

On the Channel 4 radar at 1545 is showing no precipitation in the 4-state mid-Atlantic region. The closest rain is well south over the mountains of eastern TN and western NC, plus parts of GA and SC.

As of 1545, 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:

Sunny, warm, dry with no clouds in the sky at the current time.

Station Relative Location Temp   RH   DP     BP     Wind High/Low temp on Wednesday
VP2            Ground         83.3°  32% 50° 30.16″F   NA     79.8°/64.3°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.00″ through midnight Wednesday.

Wednesday’s precipitation was 0.00″
May precipitation is 5.91″
Year-to-date precipitation total is 17.65″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 83° 27% 45° 30.21″F ESE 2 G ESE 11
                            140° from station                    (est) 81°/63°

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.41″ of precipitation on Wednesday. It is catching up a bit from the way under-reporting of the rain on Tuesday. May is now showing 7.02″ for the month with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount at 21.82″. 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 64.3° RH 82% BP 30.11″R DP 58.7°
Clear and dry at 2400 Wednesday

Good afternoon from the totally clear and sunny, warm and dry home of the walrus on this Thursday.