Saturday was close to a perfect summer day. Not “fall-like” but rather like summer weather should be. The muggies finally left overnight into Saturday. We had some high clouds to the SE sky in the early AM from the remains of the front dragging the last parts of it totally through our local skies but sunny the rest of the day. Overnight into Sunday skies have been sunny/clear with lows near sunrise in the upper 50s with dew points in the mid-upper 50s. The Saturday maximum temperature was 79.1° @ 1629, while the Saturday minimum temperature was 63.8° @ 0711. The dew point temperatures really lowered overnight and stayed that way the rest of the day, ranging from a high of 62° @ 0000 down to a low of 51° @ 0626. The barometric pressure soared higher again today – the lowest value being 30.16″ @ 0000 up to a high of 30.35″ @ 1115. The relative humidity really lowered today, ranging from a low of 39% at 1615 up to a high of 70% at 2352.

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 really was put into the past on Saturday. At midnight observatiion time the dew point temperatures that were in the low 60s gave way to low 50s by sunrise and held there most of the day. Air temps only hit the upper 70s in the afternoon. The whole weekend is looking good – 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 (low 90s actually) under mostly sunny skies, with lows in the upper 60s. Wednesday should be mostly sunny and a bit “cooler”, with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s. Thursday looks to be a duplicate of Wednesday, as far as temperatures and sky conditions go

At 0805, Channel 4 radar is showing no action within our 4-state region and through most of the Eastern US save for the SE and Gulf coasts where tropical systems and the old front has stalled out.

At 0805, 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, pleasantly mild and dry

Station Relative Location Temp  RH   DP      BP      Wind High/Low temp on Saturday
VP2            Ground        65.6°  78% 59° 30.39″R    NA        79.1°/63.8°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.00″ through midnight Saturday. The VP2 tipping bucket also had 0.00″. 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.

Saturday’s precipitation was 0.00″
July precipitation total is 0.02″
Year-to-date precipitation total 22.21″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 66° 73% 58° 30.37″R N 1 G NNW 8
                            140° from station                     80°/63°
The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.00″ of rain on Saturday. 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 Saturday night the temperature from the VP2 was 67.9° RH 70% BP 30.34″R DP 57.8°
Sunny, cooler, dry at 2400 Saturday

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