Sunday, April 21, 2013

a calm finish... (pm.21.apr.13)>

Sunday's stats:

Low temp: 49.6F (9.8C) -- around 6:30am
High temp: 71.6F (22.0C) -- shortly after midnight
Rainfall: 1.12" (2.8cm)

Our skies have cleared out nicely this evening, with just a few patches of high clouds as we approach sunset.  Today's rainfall total was the most I've recorded since the 24th of March (exactly 4 weeks ago), when we picked up a massive 2.47" (6.3cm).  It's by far the most we've received during April, and gets us a lot closer to the average April total of 1.9" (4.9cm).  The temperature forecast was a total fail for today, as clouds and showers kept us way cooler than expected -- the high for the day actually occurred in the wee hours of the morning before the thunderstorm erupted.

The first in what could be a significant series of upper-level disturbances was the trigger for our thunderstorm development around 4:30am, as a bubble of moist air surged northward.  After a few days of very dry air, we now have a more humid air mass in place, providing fuel for more shower and thundershower development during the next several days.  The upper-air pattern has now shifted into a more volatile phase for us, steering occasional disturbances across northern India, and up against the mountains.  It's going to be really hard to get the timing of individual waves of energy, and the computer models are really no help at all -- so just be aware that we could get hit with a few periods of rain and thunder in the midst of alternating clouds and sun this week.

This air mass is warm enough to support temperatures well into the 70s(F), but as we saw today, that potential can't be realized if/when clouds and showers dominate the daylight hours.  We'll have to watch it on a day by day basis!

The latest CURRENT FORECAST can always be found on the tab at the top of the page.