Friday, August 30, 2013

robust august... (pm.30.aug.13)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 63.0F (17.2C)
High temp: 68.5F (20.3C)
Rainfall since midnight: 0.93" (2.4cm) -- updated at 740pm

Fog is very thick this evening, and we've had a couple of brief but quite heavy showers in the last half hour (right around 6pm).  Although the rain hasn't been as heavy as it was yesterday, there have been a couple of periods of healthy showers since mid-afternoon.  The sun hasn't appeared as much as I had hoped, as clouds and fog have been the dominant features of the day thus far.  At my location in the upper part of town, the humidity hasn't dropped below 93%.

The past week has been a classic example of the character of monsoon season in McLeod Ganj.  Between last Friday and Monday, we had barely over 1" (2.5cm) of rain, with several hours of lower humidity and some nice sunny breaks.  But starting on Tuesday, average humidity began to rise again, clouds and fog thickened up, and rainfall rates started creeping upward.  We've now had close to 5" (12.7cm) since Tuesday afternoon which almost erases the memory of the dry spell we were in the midst of back at the very beginning of the week.

It sill looks like there will be another drying trend getting underway this weekend.  Although it won't stop raining altogether, I think we'll see the daily totals diminish, especially on Sunday and Monday.  Please don't leave the umbrella behind, but expect at least a subtle turn to brighter weather for a couple of days.  Thereafter, the upper-level weather pattern is showing some potential shifts that will eventually lead to a change in seasons here in the western Himalayas.  Stay tuned as we follow what that could mean for us.

CURRENT FORECAST details and other weather info can be found on tabs at the top of the page.