Thursday, August 29, 2013

big downpours... (pm.29.aug.13)>

*Update @ 9:15pm... Not raining here at the moment, but my total for the day is now 2.69" (6.8cm).

*Update @ 8:13pm... Concerned about the massive amount of water running down through gullies and nullahs right now.  Rainfall during the last 5 hours or so is turning out to be among the heaviest of the past several weeks.  Please be careful if you're venturing out.

*Update @ 7:47pm... We've been getting more moderate rain showers during the past hour, and even some periods of heavier rain mixed in.  My total rainfall since midnight has now reached 2.31" (5.9cm).  Mid- and upper-level winds pushing lots of moisture up against the mountains this evening.  Will update if this continues....

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Thursday's stats:

Low temp: 63.5F (17.5C)
High temp: 71.1F (21.7C)
Rainfall since midnight: 2.69" (6.8cm) -- as of 9:15pm (updated) 

It's turned out to be quite a day, with the action centering around a one and a half hour period of rain during the late afternoon which dumped nearly 2" (5cm) at my location in the upper part of town.  There was heavy run-off and drainage happening in the gullies and nullahs between about 4 and 5pm -- definitely one of the most significant of the season from what I observed.  Otherwise, clouds alternated with peeks of sun and a few other very brief/light periods of showers throughout the day.  It's mostly cloudy again as sunset approaches, and rain has started falling again.

This morning I said I'd be surprised if we got more than 1.5 to 2 inches (4-5cm) of rain before Friday night, so I guess I'll have to admit I'm surprised with the the magnitude of this afternoon's downpour.  But then again, that's what monsoon season is all about -- getting hit with rain showers of pretty much any intensity, pretty much at any time.  This latest surge of tropical moisture has been building steadily since Tuesday afternoon, but should start to relent/retreat once again sometime tomorrow (Fri) or tomorrow evening.  We've already reached the normal amount of rain for a typical August, so anything more from this point forward goes into the surplus category.

The calendar page will flip from August to September this weekend, which should coincide with a drying trend during the first couple of days of the new month.  But -- it appears that moisture will thicken up again and rain chances increase quite soon thereafter.

Be sure to check out the tabs at the top of the page for the CURRENT FORECAST, MONSOON 2013 RAINFALL, and other info.