Friday, May 3, 2013

warm and dry... (pm.03.may.13)>

Friday's stats:

Early morning low temp: 60.6F (15.9C)
Afternoon high temp: 79.3F (26.3C)
Rainfall: none

We have mostly clear skies across the area this evening, after what has been perhaps our most summer-like day of the season.  Despite a bit of a build-up of rather flat cumulus clouds over the mountains this afternoon, the sunshine was firmly in control, humidity very low (25-38%), and temperatures matching the warmest of 2013, which just occurred on Wednesday.

Today has been a good example of what late April and early May are supposed to be like -- with a relatively stable, dry and warm air mass firmly in place all across the western Himalayan region.  This kind of day has been fairly rare this season, but it's possible that we may be seeing more of these in the near future.  Warming will continue from the surface into the higher levels of the atmosphere during the next couple of days, while humidity remains very low.  But -- there is a weak and disorganized upper-level disturbance expected to drift across northern India on Sunday and Monday which, combined with a slight increase in moisture, could produce a couple of random showers or thundershowers.  If our recent track record is any indication, this air mass isn't going to yield significant rainfall, but keep in mind that minor potential -- just in case.

As I've been mentioning, the latest computer model data is projecting 40C+ (104F+) for Kangra, starting on Sunday and lasting into at least the middle of next week.  This translates into temps in the low-mid 80s(F) for us way up here at 1800m/6000ft -- and that's actually a bit above normal for this early in the month of May.  Stay tuned...

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