Monday started out cloudy and relatively cool in the upper 60s, then rose into the low 80s by mid-afternoon. Storm clouds built rapidly in the later afternoon hours, and a brief heavy thunderstorm hit around the 1700 hour. Lots of loud thunder and impressive lightning and brief heavy rain (max rain rate 11.52″/hour @ 1654) yielded 0.75″ which was the total for the day, as skies cleared fairly quickly and temps, cooled down into the upper 60s/lower 70s from the storm and remained there the rest of the day. Overnight into Tuesday skies remained clear and temps fell well down into the 60s, really nice out there when I checked my rain gauge in the early morning hours. The Monday maximum temperature was 83.4°@ 1545, while the Monday minimum temperature was 68.7°@ 2328. The dew point temperatures lowered a bit, mostly into the lower 70s down to the mid 60s, ranging from a high of 73° @ 1334 down to a low of 66° @ 1647. The barometric pressure were roughly the same as rose from yesterday’s values – the highest value being 30.04″ @ 0108 down to a low of 29.91″ @ 1542. The relative humidity was also about the same as yesterday, ranging from a high of 97% @ 0716 down to a low of 65% at 1457.

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 got a sad email from Olive Blackburn down in Tampa Florida. Tom Blackburn’s wife Olive reported that my long time friend Tom Blackburn passed away from cancer on July 24. I believe he was in his 80s. I sent out emails and a facebook message to many of his friends through the years, but in case I may have missed a few friends, I am posting it here also. If interested, I can email you his home address if you want to send a sympathy card. He ran the Metropolitan Washington Climate Review (MWCR) for many years, and was the National Cooperative Observer Program Manager for the NWS, also for many years. Tom sold me my first 4 inch lake region/cocorahs gauge back at a NOAA open house in October 1975, where he was recruiting new members for the MWCR. He also sold me my first “sixes” Taylor Max-Min thermometer to also use with my daily climate records that I reported monthly to the network. The busy days with the network were pre-internet/pre-email, so I recorded all my monthly data for Tom and many others through paper records and then communicated them through post-office mail. In recent years Tom and I exchanged most data through email, at least on my end with occasional feedback from Tom, but I still got his MWCR similarly styled Mid-Florida Storm Network reports monthly through post office mail. Tom suspended production of these reports over the past few years due to declining health, particularly due to a fall off his roof trying to do too much for an 80 year old man about 5 years or so ago.

Monday had lots of clouds and a late afternoon brief heavy thunderstorm that cooled things down nicely the rest of the day, and even slowly dried us out a bit. High temps were in the low 80s, lows in the upper 60s, esp late in the evening. Skies are sunny to partly cloudy at times on Tuesday with a 40 POP for PM thunderstorms and highs in the low-mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s. Wednesday and Thursday should heat up a bit to around 90° under mostly sunny skies on Wednesday and partly cloudy skies on Thursday, with lows in the upper 60s to around 70° and only a 10 POP for rain. Friday looks to keep similar temperature patterns from Wed/Thu but partly cloudy skies and a 60 POP for PM thunderstorms. Saturday looks partly cloudy, warm and humid with highs in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 60s with a 40 POP for PM thunderstorms.

At 1225, Channel 4 radar is showing several rain showers in much of Pennsylvania, slowly rotating counterclockwise around an offshore LOW (NJ coast) – therefore heading south towards Maryland. Our 40 POP for storms today is from this action, hit or miss brief showers/storms that won’t be as heavy in most locations today.

At 1225, 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:

Partly cloudy skies, still comfortably mild and only moderately humid and dry at the moment.

Station Relative Location Temp RH   DP    BP    Wind High/Low temp on Mon 
VP2        Ground           77.9° 71% 68° 29.97″S NA     83.4°/68.7°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 0.75″ through midnight Monday. The VP2 tipping bucket recorded 1.16″ during Monday. A rather large max rain rate of 11.52″/hour was recorded at 1654.

Monday’s precipitation was 0.75″
August precipitation total now at 3.02″
Year-to-date precipitation total 33.43″

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 78° 64% 65° 29.99″F NNW 3 G NNW 6
                            140° from station                Mon. Hi/Lo 85°/66°

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 0.42″ of rain on Monday. The August total precipitation is still being reported as 2.11″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount at 47.28″. 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 Monday night the temperature from the VP2 was 68.8° RH 95% BP 29.94″S DP 67.3°
Clear, pleasant and dry.

Good early afternoon from the partly cloudy, mild, and moderately humid but dry home of the Walrus on this Tuesday.