Saturday started out partly cloudy, muggy and very warm through the mid-afternoon. Cumulus clouds were building fast and by mid-afternoon we had mostly cloudy conditions with storms/showers moving in. Thunder and lightning started to affect the area around 1600 but I kept missing the rain till finally around 1800 I had a brief thundershower (0.10″) that fall intensely for a few minutes (1.00″/hour Max Rain Rate @ 1805 – yes indeed my tipping bucket started working again today, though it still under-reported at 0.05″). Temperatures warmed up into the upper 80s to near 90° and the muggy low 70s was as low as we could get in the early AM. The thundershower did bring our temps back down into the muggy 70s during the evening. The Saturday maximum temperature reached 88.9° @ 1429, while the Saturday minimum temperature was 71.9° @ 0615. The dew point temperatures rose more as the day wore on, ranging from a low of 67° @ 0002 up to a high of 74° @ 1117. The barometric pressure lowered more from Friday – highest being 29.90″ @ 0002 down to a low of 29.81″ @ 1510. The relative humidity was high in the early AM and during the late afternoon with the thundershower, but lowered significantly in the early afternoon with the increase in heat, ranging from a low of 54% at 1314 up to a high of 94% at 1947.

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 emailed out my April data and summary to around 90 of my closest weather friends finally. I hope to post my data and summary here on my blog later on today.  I spoke with Ray a few times all through the day about our storm action this weekend, and he updated me on how he will be obtaining basic observational data and maps/charts so he can put out a forecast for his local clientele, mostly fishermen out on the Bay and farmers. I did a lot of email work with many around the country, and watched updates about Sub-Tropical Storm Alberto on TWC and other places on cable and the internet. 

Saturday was partly cloudy muggy and quite warm through to about 1500 or so, then clouds took over the rest of the day, with a light thundershower around 1800. Overnight into Sunday we remained cloudy and muggy, but dry so far. Starting out on a warm note around 72° in the early AM, temps should rise into the mid 80s by Sunday afternoon with some sun before the clouds move in similar to what happened on Saturday. Sunday increases our PM thunderstorm chances to an 80 POP with lows in the mid 60s under mostly cloudy skies from mid-afternoon on into the evening. Memorial Day Monday should be a bit cooler, cloudy, with highs in the mid-upper 70s and lows in the mid 60s but with only a 20 POP for rain. As we return to work on Tuesday, cloudy skies continue with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the upper 60s, again with a 20 POP for rain. Wednesday should be cloudy once again, with highs in the mid-upper 70s, lows in the upper 60s and a 60 POP for showers. We may be impacted by the rainy remnants of Alberto late in the week, but not a sure thing at this point. The situation will have to be monitored as we proceed along and the storm figures out where it wants to go.

On the Channel 4 radar at 0720 is showing only a few shower areas well to our east out over the Atlantic Ocen off the MD/VA coast, larger areas of showers/storms in the NJ/NY/eastern PA area, moving away from this area. There are some remnant light showers out over western MD and PA at this time, but probably won’t make it to the Metro DC area over the next few hours. Storms will fire up in the afternoon to our W and SW and start moving in. We are under a flash flood watch in the region until 2200 EDT Sunday evening.

As of 0720, 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, warm, and muggy at the current time.

Station Relative Location Temp   RH   DP    BP     Wind High/Low temp on Saturday
VP2             Ground         72.4° 94% 71° 29.91″R NA    88.9°/71.9°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.10″ through midnight Saturday. The VP2 tipping bucket started working again, but is still under-reporting as it only recorded 0.05″ for the whole day. The max rain rate of 1.00″/hour @ 1802 is probably not too accurate but it does give a mark for when the shower occurred.

Saturday’s precipitation was 0.10″
May precipitation is now 6.01″
Year-to-date precipitation total is now 17.75″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 72° 99% 72° 29.96″R Calm G SW 8
                            140° from station                       92°/71°

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of precipitation on Saturday. May is still showing 7.02″ for the month with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount still at 21.82″. I continue to 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 Saturday night the temperature from the VP2 was 72.4° RH 92% BP 29.88″S DP 69.9°
Cloudy and muggy at 2400 Saturday

Good morning from the cloudy, warm and humid home of the walrus on this Sunday.