Friday turned cloudy by afternoon after some morning hazy sun, with temps holding in the mid 80s because of the clouds, then cumulus clouds bubbled up quickly in the late afternoon and early evening, and we got hit with the heaviest rain out of a thunderstorm between 1945-2000 (1.58″ for the day – with well over an inch falling in that 15 minute period, maxing out with a rain rate of 8.47″/hour @ 1954). I had over 40 strikes in an hour or so from my lightning detector. The Friday maximum temperature was 85.4° @ 1426, while the Friday minimum temperature was 71.0° recorded first @ 2021 as the storm was winding down. The dew point temperatures lowered a bit on the low end, ranging from a high of 75° @ 1132 down to a low of 68° @ 1918, during the beginning of the thunderstorm. The barometric pressure lowered some more from yesterday – the highest value being 30.14″ @ 0018 down to a low of 30.03″ @ 1745. The relative humidity rose a bit from yesterday’s values, ranging from a low of 67% @ 1306 up to a high of 95% at 2029.

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 arose in the late afternoon and got ready for the 1830 rummikub game. Storms were really crashing during our game, and we finally called it about 1940 as we all had to use the elevator and we were concerned that the power would fail and then the elevators wouldn’t work. Mobility of our senior group is limited, and walking the stairs would be problematic. But the power held, and all were able to return to our apartments. 

On Friday a change to our hot pattern started to change, with highs in the mid 80s and lows around 70° with partly cloudy skies and the evening thunderstorms where the temperature dropped to around 70° and held there overnight. On Saturday there is only a 20 POP for rain under cloudy skies, but most notably a much cooler high than we have had in quite a while, with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the upper 50s. Sunday is expected to stay cloudy and even cooler, with high temps in the mid 60s and lows around 60° and a 100 POP for rain with moderate NE breezes as the remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon rides along the front and into our area.. Monday through Wednesday will worm back up a bit into the low-mid 80s under partly cloudy skies and a 50-60 POP for scattered thunderstorms. Lows will be in the mid-upper 60s..

At 1217, Channel 4 radar is showing plenty of rain in most of Pennsylvania and westward out to Illinois where the circulation from the remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon is currently spinning. Other rain showers can be found out in the mountains of WV. All is set to converge on our area on Sunday. Tropical Storm Florence, should strengthen very soon to hurricane status. By Thursday it is progged to be a category 4 hurricane offshore but poised to approach shoreline areas in the Carolinas or possibly points north. It will be closely analyzed in the next several days.

At 1217, 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 skies, much cooler and damp.

Station Relative Location Temp  RH   DP     BP    Wind High/Low on Friday
VP2             Ground        67.9° 88% 65° 30.08″R NA    85.4°/71.0°

The total precipitation in the cocorahs gauge was 1.58″ through midnight Friday.
The VP2 tipping bucket recorded much more at 2.28″ through Friday.

WX Bug Lakewood 4500 ft, 66° 95% 65° 30.09″S ENE 6 G ENE 16
                            140° from station                  Fri Hi/Lo 89°/69°

Thursday’s precipitation was 1.58″
September precipitation total is 2.44″.
Year-to-date precipitation total 40.52″

The Lakewood rain gauge recorded 1.27″ of rain through midnight Friday. The September total precipitation total is still incorrectly showing 0.00″ with the 2018 year-to-date (YTD) amount still at 50.13″. 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 71.0° RH 95% BP 30.07″F DP 69.5°
Cloudy, mild, damp.

Good afternoon from the cloudy and cooler but dry for the moment home of the Walrus on this Saturday.