Suddenly (Nearly) Summer -OR- Accumulating Congestus-ness in June

A hedge with curiously yellow leaves along the 1700 block of T Street NW, Washington, D.C., 8:17PM June 16, 2013.

I think this is a laurel hedge, but it could be a boxwood. I just can't tell.

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Home now at this late hour watching my usual TV reruns and eating dinner that I just made.* I went to the gym for the second night in a row, and I'm particularly tired. I jogged 5.17 miles (after doing 5.56 miles yesterday) and moderate weight-lifting for an hour. I only did 11 laps in the pool rather than the 17 yesterday. Oh, yes, apparently a lap is back AND forth in the pool rather than a single length of the pool, so I guess I need to go back to all my previous entries and cut the numbers I wrote for laps in half.

Updated 753AM 6/18/2013: In trying to look up the definition of a lap, I have come across conflicting information: this site states fairly definitively that a lap is one length of a pool, while this site states it is two. I dunno.

A Sunday early evening festive crowd on the upstairs deck at Nellie's, Washington, D.C., 7:06PM June 9, 2013.

I actually took this picture the preceding Sunday.

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*Dinner is a good mix of Tyson's grilled chicken strips (heated, of course), boiled rice in a bag, and steamed broccoli and carrots, all mixed together now in a bowl. And for drink is that flavored Vintage seltzer water I drink so much of. This bottle is Mandarin orange.

Speaking of dinner, D.C. gayborhood-style ...

Two guys at an outdoor table at Larry's Lounge eating dinner while talking to a third guy, Washington, D.C., 8:47PM June 16, 2013.

Unfortunately, the picture is typically blurry for my cellphone camera. Both seated guys were both holding their dogs in their laps and both were eating salads (the guys, not the dogs, but who knows in the gay world). Larry's Lounge doesn't serve food but Ron lets you carry in food. For that matter, folks carry in their dogs as well.

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Not only am I tired, I'm also feeling a bit fatigued and under the weather. I felt really crappy this morning, although I still got up and went to work. Part of this was due to too much drinking -- I had basically six drinks yesterday between Nellie's (two, one of which was a double courtesy the bartender) and Larry's Lounge (four). I was there with Gary, Kristof, Wendy, and John.

I'm going to take tomorrow off from the gym, which means I'll probably walk home and stop at No. 9 for a drink (or it's two-for-one special). (To my regular reader "D," stop by if you have a chance as I want to relate a tidbit.)

A cumulus congestus cloud billowing into the early evening warm June sky as seen from the 1300 block of U Street NW (with intervening light pole -- one of the new decorative ones being installed), Washington, D.C., 6:11PM June 17, 2013.

Actually, this cloud was precipitating rather vigorously about 5 miles to the SSE. You could see the rain falling from it. Furthermore, it was a short while before that overhead at L'Enfant Plaza as I left work.

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The night is a summery warm and humid one. There are widely scattered thunderstorms -- esp. down toward Charlottesville -- but none in the immediate D.C. area. It's 78F at the midnight hour at KDCA with a dew point of 71F, so it is quite humid. It reached 86F for a high. KBWI's respective numbers are 75F / 69F dew point after a high of 88F and KIAD's respective numbers are 70F / 65F dew point after a high of 87F.  These highs are 6F to 10F above normal.

Clouds and sky as seen through the boughs of a silver maple tree that grows in the corner of the grassy lot between my apartment building (Hampton Courts) and the Freedom Baptist Church** that fronts onto U Street NW.

**Freedom Baptist Church is under the spiritual guidance of the Very, VERY, VERY Right Reverend Dr. Gregory Baldwin. Culturally speaking, that church is OLD SCHOOL D.C., circa 1984. It's less than 100 feet from where I sit and yet in my 8 years living in this building, I've never gone inside it.

Of note, I found out that my apartment building was built in or around 1926, so it's older than I thought.

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This entry is going to be a brief one because not only am I very tired but also I need to be finished getting ready by 9AM tomorrow when a building-wide approximately 6 hour water outage starts for some plumbing work. This is earlier than my normal time (my work hours skew late).

I'm going to refrain from the political-themed entry I intended to write with a focus on the NSA surveillance; the OFFICIAL Washington party-line response facilitated by the D.C. media / pundit establishment with its excessive focus on Edward Snowden (rather than the surveillance issue).

For his part, Snowden is hiding in Hong Kong (or wherever) for fear of American retribution in the form of psychological (if not actual) torture and solitary confinement for life (if not the death penalty) on wildly exaggerated charges that scintillate The Washington Post editorial and op-ed crowd and aging media "establishmentarians" such as Bob Schieffer, Richard Cohen, and Tom "WAWH WAWH WAHW" Brokaw.

Then there is the serious and systematic disappointment in Obama, as suggested by the steep fall in his approval rating, particularly among young people, and certainly in part because of the NSA story. 

I'll refrain from any opining. However, I will link to the transcript of this online chat on the Guardian site with Snowden on Monday.

Apropos of nothing except I'm intrigued by it (as I stare at it on my Michelin North America Road Atlas), above is a Google aerial image of Lake Nipigon in Ontario (just north of Lake Superior). If you do the Google zoom in on this, you will see a puffy cumulus cloud over what I think is Billings Island. It's the white speck toward the top of Lake Nipigon sort of in the middle of it.

A much closer image of that puffy cloud -- which is about a half mile wide, so it is definitely a towering cumulus / cumulus congestus cloud -- over Billings Island in Lake Nipigon.

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Oh, and I did want to mention the fun it just might be watching the GOP Establishment try to corral the base in its "bulging-eyed maniacal" state into supporting ANY kind of immigration reform bill, and how that will play out in the cult-like House GOP caucus.

Hydrangea bush with pretty flowers growing in the 1700 block of T Street NW, Washington, D.C., 8:08PM June 16, 2013.

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I should also mention that my blogging schedule may be light this week. I'll try to update the blog on Wednesday night. I'm not taking the computer home tomorrow (Tuesday) night and Thursday night is the Billy Idol concert I'm attending with Andrea at Wolf Trap.

My achy fatigue has increased as I've written this and my congestion seems to be increasing. I need to go to bed.

'Night.

--Regulus

Washington Weekend Wayward Wanderings, Late Night Bar Visits, and General Indecisions

A crowd at Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., on a Friday evening, 6:10PM June 14, 2013.

There were two guys playing music -- sort of a jazz piece -- and folks were listening to them.

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Just a quick Sunday early afternoon update ...

I'm trying to figure out ("determine" -- to use a Federal agency loaded word) whether to take a bike ride or go to the gym today. I haven't gone since Thursday to the gym. However, my intention is to go three days in a row (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) this upcoming week. (Thursday I am going with Andrea to the Billy Idol concert! Yay!)

The Washington Monument encased in its a two skeletons of scaffolding -- one entirely and the other almost up to the top -- as seen on a pleasant early afternoon from underneath the DOE Forrestal Building, Washington, D.C., 12:09PM June 14, 2013.

The scaffolding is to carry out repairs needed as a result of the the August 2011 earthquake.

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If I go to the gym today, I'll take off one of the above mentioned three days. If I take a bike ride, I'll bring the bicycle on the Metro either to King Street or, alternatively, to Bethesda and ride back on the Mount Vernon or Capital Crescent Trails. The trouble is I have no lock for the bike at this time (not that those really deter anything in and of themselves). I cannot get one because I am VERY low on money this pay period through the 25th.

Trees lit from beneath by flood lights in a yard in the 1400 block of Q Street NW, Washington, D.C., 12:22AM June 15, 2013.

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The weather is sunny and pleasant today with highs around 85F. There is also a good chance of showers and thunderstorms tonight into tomorrow. There is still no sign of that hideous blazing heat and disgusting humidity that has characterized the past three summers here in Washington, D.C.

I know, I know: George Will / House GOP Teabagger / Right-wing Talk Radio / Fox News Bubble global cooling.

The view from my apartment overlooking my little stretch of Washington, D.C., 9:41AM June 14, 2013.

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Concerning money, my net pay has gone DOWN about $150 since November for the following reasons: expiration of the payroll tax cut; apartment rent increase; and increasing my 401k withholding from 2 to 4 percent.

The payroll tax expiration took away about $50. The rent increase was $65, although at $1,113 per month INCLUDING utilities, that's still not bad for the Dupont Circle / U Street corridor area in 2013. 

The 401k increase was about $35. Yes, there is a match of almost that amount and the money is still "mine" but keep in mind this is deferred to some unspecified point in the future and depends on the vagaries of a rigged casino known as the stock market run by corporate oligarchs and speculators and after assorted middle-men have collected their "rentier class" fees.

I know this is the kind of reality that Wall-P and its corporate stooge sort think is the Best of All Possible Worlds.

"Eh. Eh. The Dow is up 18% in the past 52 weeks. By the transitive power invested in money, we therefore conclude that existence is 18% better --"

Oohhh, shut-up, Wall-P, you thimble-full of corporate stoogery. Did The Staff allow you to have an opinion on something?

Anyway, I should get a 2 to 3 percent raise in July, but we shall see.

The evening sky above the house at 1421 T Street NW, Washington, D.C., 7:36PM June 9, 2013. (This was taken last Sunday.)

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On Friday night, I went first to No. 9 and then over to Windows, where I had not been in about 2-1/2 years. The place was as bad as ever: a hot, sweaty, karaoke fest. The gay guys who go there tend to be old and/or fat. There was much shrieking but little, if any, talent on display. Some of the folks there were in a manic drunken frenzy.

The exterior of Larry's Lounge, Washington, D.C., 9:22PM June 9, 2013. (This was taken last Sunday.)

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Thereafter, I went to Larry's Lounge. I must say: Ron and Gunther have really been successful in turning the place into a Friday night gay bar with lots of attractive guys, although as 20-something gay sorority boys, their collective attitude leaves something to be desired. The customer profile at Larry's is very mixed -- straight, gay, old, young -- and the place seems to be doing quite well.

Interior of Larry's Lounge, Washington, D.C., 1:33AM June 15, 2013.

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I actually went back to Larry's Lounge last night after having been at Nellie's earlier. But to back up the story, I met Quill yesterday around 530PM. She came to my place. We went to a nice dinner at Dupont Italian Kitchen (downstairs from aforementioned Windows).

Interior of Larry's Lounge, Washington, D.C., 1:35AM June 15, 2013.

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While inside the restaurant (having a nice dinner), she got to see stride by two members of the D.C. Gay Mafia in their 17th Street domain: first, "M. Wade Tipamillyun" sauntered by with a group of guys in costume followed by "Oooza the Unloved Crow Creature." 

M. Wade Tipamillyun was "making an appearance" and holding court next door at Cobalt. The way it works is that people come up to him and he gives them an "audience" while he steeps in his own self-aggrandizing sense of 17th Street gay royalty. This includes posing with exaggerated stances. There was also a new faux-hawk haircut and that tattoo sprawling out under a dark gray t-shirt across arms as thick as tree trunks. But I'm already violating my informal pledge (mentioned in my previous entry) to cease talking about them in this forum, partly because I don't care anymore. At this point, it's more out of habit that I discuss them than anything else.

As for Perruzza, he just looked kinda miserable walking by himself, and I wondered later if he even has anybody in his D.C. life who genuinely likes him just for the sake of who he is as a human being, and NOT in his position?

A lone figure at the corner of U and 17th Streets NW, Washington, D.C., 3:01AM June 15, 2013.

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Anyway, thereafter, we went to No. 9 for a little while and then Gary picked us up and we went to Nellie's. Quill left around 1030PM while Gary and I stayed until around midnight. The place filled up / was packed and we left to go to Larry's Lounge. I then got home around 240AM. And there you have it.

Looking south down 17th Street from V Street NW, Washington, D.C., 2:29AM June 16, 2013. Yes, this is one block north of the picture directly above it and nearly 24 hours later.

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OK, that's all for now. I'm still not entirely sure whether to bike ride or go to the gym. Decisions, decisions ...

--Regulus

Friday Night Musical Interlude June 14th, 2013 "Losing Old Faith, Finding New Way" Edition

Jazz tenor saxophonist Ben Webster performs (with accompaniment) a wonderful version of the 1937 song "Where Are You?" on his Soulville release (1957).

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This is my Friday Night Musical Interlude along with a brief update.

"Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers, Toulouse Street release, 1972

This is a 1975 video and looks every bit of it. Sorry for the scrolling Japanese at the bottom at the beginning.

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I just finished my laundry, made and ate dinner (and did the dishes), and thoroughly revised this entry. I revised the entry for reasons I do not particularly want to delve into in this public forum.

I will say that it is probably very nearly time for me to drop outright and for good the entire MH topic and everything and everyone associated with it. I think at this point the best thing is to leave the subject in the past with all the feelings and drama. True, I never actually left D.C. and started anew elsewhere, but now it is kind of immaterial.

Above: Photograph of Imara and me at the National Arboretum here in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2013 and that I wrote about in this entry. This was one of the pictures that Jake took with his excellent camera, but he only sent them to me this past week.

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The view of the dome of the U.S. Capitol Building as seen from the top of the forested hill called "Mount Hamilton" in the National Arboretum about 3 miles away on April 6, 2013.

The trees actually bloomed "on time" this year rather than day / weeks ahead of schedule thanks to the lack of the now-usual excessive warmth -- hence they were bare in early April.

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Lastly ... somehow this is appropriate ...

"If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" by Sting on his Ten Summoner's Tales release (1993)

I love the video, too, as it plays on Medieval English and Church imagery and Arthurian tales.

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OK, that's all for now. I do intend to update this blog over the weekend, although I really would like to try to catch up on the backlog of entries / pictures I have.

--Regulus

"... Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing" -OR- It was just a small sort of D.C. derecho, dear

The view from the top of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building looking to the west toward the U.S. Capitol Building and down the Mall with the scaffolding-covered Washington Monument also visible as well as downtown D.C. as the storm (with torrential downpours) approached around 4PM, June 13, 2013.

A SECOND and more dramatic looking layer of scaffolding is being erected to encase the Monument to fix it of its Aug. 2011 earthquake damage.

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OK, there are a few things I want to talk about but I'm going to refrain INCLUDING the non-"derecho" MCS event today in the D.C. area. Basically, the dynamics, instability parameters, and timing were all off. However, the Huffington Post has a summary article with some very nice pictures. In addition, I actually took some pictures of one of the very same cloud structures around 410PM.

A massive towering cumulus / cumulus congestus or maybe just outright cumulonimbus cloud "front" that swept across D.C. as it was already located to the southeast, 4:15PM June 13, 2013. I took this picture.

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I should note that KBWI had a big thunderstorm with 1.30" of rain in two events and KIAD had 0.31" while KDCA "officially" only 0.02". KDCA has returned to its normal ways. This means that the annual "surplus" KDCA developed is likely to vanish quite quickly.

Here is another picture of aforementioned cloud as seen with the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground, around 4PM, June 13, 2013, source here.

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The Sterling LWX NWS web page showing the weather advisories in effect as of 2:36PM EDT June 13, 2013. Note the tornado and flash flood warnings in effect as well as the general severe thunderstorm watch and flash flood and flood watches.

I'm not sure why the tornado watch was dropped for a severe thunderstorm watch in a day of "moderate" severe risk and at several tornado warnings. This is because there were some tornado warnings in effect as the system passed through.

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The LWX NWS radar in (more dramatic looking) enhanced composite mode, 3:32PM EDT June 13, 2013.

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Please read this outstanding Friday NYT op ed "Sympathy for the Luddites" by the great Paul Krugman. Long story short, the quasi-fascistic corporate oligarchs (sorry, NSA eaves-droppers in your terror-mongering private contractor "monstrous infinity," I meant to say the "hero 'job creator' capitalists") -- those who have ruined Planet Earth and its biosphere, and damaged Human Civilization, and thus the evolution of the species -- have created a "higher education" scam in America that in the year 2013 exists solely to create an ever-expanding class of indentured servants who are purchasing a "product" (or service) -- a college degree, even a graduate one -- of ever more dubious value. It is one that is at once the bare minimum needed for the typical would-be office cubicle worker to avoid a life of total poverty but simultaneously a vehicle to no where. Nice job, America.

Prof. Krugman doesn't go into all that -- he focuses on the decreasing value of higher education for workers who as recently as the 1990s were supposd to be part of the new informatin elite economy, who would thrive while the working class fell ever farther behind. Still, though, that's how I see the larger point.

Yet another picture of aforementioned giant cloud -- as seen looking south along L'Enfant Promenade toward the fountain in Benjamin Banneker Park -- at 4:12PM June 13, 2013.

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OK, that's all for now. I'm going to bed now. I went to Larry's Lounge where I met Gary, Kristof, and John, and had an invigorating political conversation with a young Danish man who is a flight attendant for SAS.

Yours truly in the elevator of my Hampton Courts building, Washington, D.C., 12:33AM June 14, 2013.

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My next planned entry will be Friday evening (my Friday Night Musical Interlude). I've got about 70 pictures in a backlog of at least five entries to post. I really should have a moratorium on "new" entries and just complete the ones I've not yet finished.

--Regulus

You say "derecho," I say "MCS," but let's not say "heat burst" -OR- Adventures in June Weather

The Great Lakes sector radar mosaic at 0428 UTC (12:28AM EDT) June 13, 2013 showing the mesoscale convective system (MCS) over northwestern Ohio, northeastern Ohio, and southern / central Michigan that may bring violent weather to the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas by mid-to-late morning (itself an unusual time for such weather).

Of course, this presupposes the MCS holds together or reforms east of the Appalachians rather than simply dissipating.  The antecedent set up is not the same as in the June 29, 2012 "derecho" MCS. For one thing, it is no where near as hot and the atmosphere as unstable. And the timing is all off, too.

We shall see.

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OK, much too late for an entry. It was a long day ... I had a good multi-part gym workout, in particular a 5.6 mile jog and half mile / 33 lap swim ... and then I came home (shortly after 11PM or 12-1/2 hours after I left home) and made dinner. 

I do want to note that there is much discussion of a possible severe weather outbreak or even multiple outbreaks across the D.C. area later this Thursday. I suggest you either go to the Sterling LWX National Weather Service website, or for more pithy, concise, media-like coverage, the Capital Weather Gang.

There is also flash flood watch out as well for the D.C. area for all day Thursday into Thursday night.

The weather advisories in effect for the Sterling (LWX) NWS county warning area (CWA) valid at 1243AM EDT June 13, 2013.

I can't tell the difference in the shading between a flood watch and flash flood watch. As it is, the D.C. area is under the latter rather than the former.

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The Hi-Res NAM and WRF models showing Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) at a 4-km resolution for parts of the mid-Atlantic region including the Baltimore/Washington area issued at 12Z 12 June 2013 and valid 18Z June 13, 2013.

This actually shows quite high CAPE -- but I don't think it's as high as on June 29, 2012.

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I personally dislike the term "derecho" since that is more a description of the sensible weather -- a big, powerful, straight line wind that meets a particular set of criteria -- rather than what it really is -- a mesoscale convective system (MCS) or (if the MCS meets certain criteria) a mesoscale convective complex (MCC).

Above is the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) / NWS categorical outlook for severe weather issued at 6Z June 12, 2013 valid for Day 2 (June 13, 2013) showing our area in an unusual "moderate risk" of severe weather.

The moderate risk is about as high as we ever get -- and very unusual for a day 2 outlook. The "high risk" is typically reserved for the monster tornado outbreaks on the Great Plains in April and May.

Above is the just-released Day 1 outlook available from here (the link is regularly updated and will be valid in this way just today). As you can see, it still shows our area in a moderate risk.

Again, we shall see.

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Oh, yes, I wanted to note this highly unusual Great Plains weather event the on Tuesday morning. It occurred over central Nebraska between 2AM and 6AM. It was a "heat burst" and it resulted in temperatures spiking as much as 26F -- reaching a ghastly 99F at Grand Island Regional Airport at 5:10AM before falling back down.

Central Nebraska ASOS and AWOS observations of temperatures and dew points before and after (during) heat burst, June 11, 2013.

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The heat burst occurs when a nighttime dissipating thunderstorm still has sinking air associated with it -- resulting in adiabatic compressional heating. Here is a discussion from the Hastings, Nebraska NWS site. The write-up doesn't use the word "adiabatic," but that's what this is. I found out about it from this CWG entry.

An image capture of a Tweet containing a temperature plot in the morning of June 11, 2013 at Adams Central High School in Hastings, Nebraska.

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OK, that's all for now. I my next entry will have to wait until tomorrow or Friday evening, although I may update this entry later Thursday.

--Regulus

Leafy Green Sunday Suburban Bike Ride Scenes and Monsoon Monday -OR- Two Days in June

Updated 9:01AM 6/11/2013: See below.

An old train trestle in Rock Creek Park in the area of Montgomery County between Chevy Chase, Kensington, and Silver Spring, Md., 3:36PM June 9, 2013.

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This is just an abbreviated update, only a small part of what I initially wrote.

I'll try to post an update on Tuesday night. I had intended to post a full entry tonight, but it's just too late. Also, the topic about which I wanted to write -- Edward J. Snowden and his actions and the American Government's (and Official Washington's) reaction(s) -- is somewhat sensitive and I don't want to delve into that now. There is too much to write about and my own feelings are hard to state without sounding really angry and incendiary, and I don't want that. It may be that I just have to censor myself on this topic for a few important reasons.

A couple walking on the Rock Creek Trail in or near Kensington, Md., 3:33PM June 9, 2013.

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Updated 901AM 6/11/2013: However, I will say this: I think Snowden is highly courageous and has done a terrific service, as has Glenn Greenwald, in showing what a dystopian reality we have entered with NSA and the larger corporatized surveillance / police / military state spy on everything at all time. But the Empire with its top 0.1% oligarchical over-class values is livid, enraged, not to mention frenetic that its workings have been brazenly exposed, and it wants vengeance. Snowden may expect even worse that the psychological and psycho-sexual torture meted endlessly upon Bradley Manning.

And Official Washington -- showing how phony is the corporate media entertainment complex-enforced red/blue split when it comes to this surveillance / police / military state reality -- will only cheer this along, facilitated by a useless corporate media. And to that question posed, astonishingly (given its role in Official Washington) in a piece in The Washington Post online: Has the US become the type of nation from which you have to seek asylum? In this case, given what awaits Snowden, the question answers itself. If we're lucky, though, maybe Obama will give a really good speech.

Rock Creek Trail / park with the spires of the Mormon Temple in Kensington, Md., poking up above the leafy green trees, 3:27PM June 9, 2013.

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So instead, let me just note that I made my "maiden voyage" bike ride taken on Sunday after I purchased a used but in very good condition bicycle from my top boss, or rather, her husband, who met me at Grosvenor Park Metro and then drove me over to Beach Drive / Rock Creek Park off Strathmore Avenue. I then rode back home over the next two hours on a circuitous route, getting the feel for the bicycle, stopping at an outdoor market / eatery on Connecticut Avenue right next to Comet Ping Pong.

I probably rode about 12 miles or so. Oh, and the bicycle has NOT yet been stolen.

An area called Rays Meadow near East-West Highway in Silver Spring or maybe Chevy Chase (there really aren't clear boundaries on some of these areas except for postal "Zip" codes), 3:38PM June 9, 2013.

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As for Monday, I had a regular work day and a full gym workout including 5 miles of jogging on a 3 to 5 percent incline (total elevation gain was 965 feet over 55 minutes), weight-lifting, and swimming 33 laps or just a tad over half a mile.

A large house with a towering oak tree at the corner of Rittenhouse and 33rd Streets NW, Washington, D.C., 4:03PM June 9, 2013. This is in far upper Northwest D.C. in an area of the city called Chevy Chase in the three-syllable alphabet (here three syllable "R"). It is near the Maryland / Montgomery County / Chevy Chase border.

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Someone stole my umbrella at the YMCA, which kind of pissed me off, except it was "my fault" for leaving it in the open in the locker room where you can hang coats. I also left my jacket there but it is old and was drenched, so no one stole it. Also, I found that umbrella on the Metro recently, so I guess this is part of the Circle of Life.

Two blocks farther south at the corner of Patterson (three syllable "P") and 33rd Streets NW, Washington, D.C., is this lovely looking house with its pretty residential setting. A house in D.C. such as this easily goes for $2.5 million. This was at 4:04PM June 9, 2013.

The three syllable Q street is Quesada Street NW.

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As for the umbrella, it was very needed. We had a tremendous deluge of rain today (or rather, on Monday). National Airport (KDCA) actually had approximately 2.8 inches of precip. (I don't have the final numbers), enough not only to put June into surplus for the full month by the 10th but also for the year. This would appear to be the first yearly surplus since December 31, 2011. It also felt like a rainforest in terms of humidity and wetness.

 

It appears as though KBWI had about 1.80" and KIAD had "only" about an inch. KDCA clearly had the jackpot.

Torrential downpour as seen along 17th Street by the Mayflower Hotel, 7:10PM June 10, 2013. I was walking to the gym -- my computer wrapped in two large plastic bags and instead my bookbag, touted on my back but under my jacket and under an umbrella. The computer stayed dry. Little else did.

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I'll post the final numbers in an update to this entry. Actually, here are the numbers (even before I post this entry):

The Sterling LWX county warning area (CWA) advisories as of 1:56PM June 10, 2013 showing a flash flood watch in effect for the region.

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KDCA
June 10th: 2.77" (Daily Record)
Old daily record: 2.27" in 1945

Month: 5.84" +4.59" (1.25")
Year: 18.42" +1.21" (17.21")

Last year through 6/10/2012: 11.99"

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The Sterling LWX county warning area (CWA) advisories as of 3:10PM June 10, 2013 showing now a tornado watch in effect for the region, not to mention two separate flash flood warnings (the dark crimson) in effect for the District of Columbia and Baltimore City and the nearby suburbs of both on a SW-NE line. The tornado watch was mostly a precautionary move though there were a couple radar suggested tornadic storms.

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KBWI

June 10th: 1.80"
Month: 4.91" +3.68" (1.23")
Year: 18.77" +0.51" (18.26")

Last year through 6/10/2012: 12.35"

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Stormy sky over L'Enfant Plaza, Washington, D.C., 2:17PM June 10, 2013.

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KIAD

June 10th: 0.98"
Month: 3.56" +2.17" (1.39")
Year: 17.55" -0.66" (18.21")

Last year through 6/10/2012: 13.42"

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A (blurry) image of the evening downpour at 17th St. and Rhode Island Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 7:13PM June 10, 2013. This is across the street from the YMCA.

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KDMH:

June 10th: 3.22"
Month: 5.70" +4.55" (1.15")
Year: 19.86" +2.62" (17.24")

Last year through 6/10/2012: 11.14"

Of note, that KDMH (the Maryland Science Center) does not yet have a full 30-year record.

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OK, that's all for now, except I promised Chris T. that I would post two more Alabama pictures he sent me that he took over the weekend. So without further ado ...

Here is the first one showing the water tower in Demopolis, Alabama on June 9, 2013.

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And here is (as Chris described it) a "hidden diamond" of an Episcopal Church in Demopolis, Alabama, June 9, 2013.

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OK, that's really all for now.

--Regulus