The “heat wave” broke today after 7 days with max temps of 90° or more but it was still muggy as the “cold” front took a while to get through the area. We “only” topped out at a 84.7° high, helped out by a lot of clouds around most of the day with late clearing in the evening. The max heat index temperature also really dropped today with a computed 92° @ 1715. Showers to our west came through by late morning into the afternoon, but were light and widely scattered about. I only had a trace of rain in some light drizzle. We had a sunny morning but clouds increased some in the afternoon which once again put a lid on temperatures later in the afternoon. Storms and showers from the northwest over Frederick came close enough to give us a few rumbles of thunder in the late afternoon but alas no rain once again. The heat ridge we had been under has thankfully gone and is giving way to more pleasant temperatures and dew points over the weekend. Overnight into Saturday skies have been partly to mostly sunny/clear with lows near sunrise in the low-mid 60s and dew points in the low 50s. The Friday maximum temperature was 84.7° @ 1715, while the Friday minimum temperature was 76.2° @ 0548. The dew point temperatures stayed high most of the day but dropped off nicely late, ranging from a high of 76° @ 0000 down to a low of 62° @ 2328. The barometric pressure reached its peak early today but lowered later in the afternoon but rising again in the evening on Friday – the highest value being 30.17″ @ 0007 down to a low of 30.06″ @ 1616. The relative humidity was high early but started to drop off late, ranging from a high of 92% at 0511 down to a low of 53% at 1956.

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.

Our heat wave thankfully ended on Friday. Early in the day dew point temperatures in 70s gave way to lower low 60s dew points late in the evening. Air temps only hit the mid 80s in the afternoon. The weekend is looking good – Saturday is going to be mostly sunny with highs around 80° and lows in the upper 50s with comfortable NE breezes while Sunday should continue sunny and a few degrees warmer than Saturday, low 80s for highs and around 60° for lows. Monday starts to warm up under sunny skies, with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the mid 60s. Tuesday 90° high temps return under mostly sunny skies, with lows in the upper 60s. Wednesday should be mostly sunny and a bit cooler, with highs in the mid-upper 80s and lows in the mid 60s.

At 0833, Channel 4 radar is showing our Friday shower activity has moved well south over North Carolina, while offshore of the Carolina coast a tropical system is spinning over the open ocean, but is expected to finally scoot off to the NE and out of harm’s way.

At 0833, 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 skies with high clouds in mostly southeasterly quadrants, pleasantly mild and dry

Station Relative Location Temp  RH   DP     BP     Wind High/Low temp on Friday
VP2             Ground           66.2° 61%  52° 30.34″R NA     84.7°/76.2°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was a Trace through midnight Friday. The VP2 tipping bucket had 0.00″ as it doesn’t pick up on Trace amounts. I think the generally greater amount in the VP2 tipping bucket rain gauge recently has been at least partially due to its proximity to a dense evergreen tree that frequently drips down and then blows the “catch” into the gauge. I mostly use this gauge to tell me when and how hard it rained. Marty will be visiting soon and make some necessary changes to the rain gauges that should help improve performance.

Friday’s precipitation was a trace
July precipitation total is 0.02″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.21″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 66° 54% 48° 30.34″R NE 9 G NE 15
                              140° from station                         85°/75°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of rain on Friday. The precip records have been updated from earlier in the week but I don’t know where they got all the monthly rainfall they are now reporting – they are now carrying a July monthly total precip of 0.39″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount now at 34.79″. I definitely continue to believe that at times the disparities 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 Friday night the temperature from the VP2 was 76.5° RH 61% BP 30.16″R DP 62.0°
Partly Cloudy, still warm but drying out at 2400 Friday

Good morning from the mostly sunny , pleasant and dry home of the Walrus early on this Saturday.