Friday, September 27, 2013

not much hope... (pm.27.sep.13)>

*Update @ 8:37pm... I have 1.23" (3.1cm) here in the upper part of town.  It seemed like more than that to me, which could have been the case around our area.  It seems our storm was very isolated, and right on top of us, as evidenced by the latest satellite pics -- thanks to our precious Dhauladhar thunder machine. 

*Update @ 8:06pm... I only glanced at the rain gauge as I was trying to get in my door, but it seems there has been around 1.1" (2.8cm) since this major thunderstorm erupted over our heads around 6:50pm.  Will post the total once things calm down.  There is relatively warm air in the upper atmosphere right now, so we had no hail, and not much wind with this.  Only steady light rain, thunder and lightning at the moment.

*Update @ 6:57pm... A very heavy thundershower has developed overhead during the past couple of minutes.  Raining very heavily, and lots of thunder and lightning.

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Friday's stats:

Low temp: 62.4F (16.9C)
High temp: 70.0F (21.0C)
Rainfall: trace -- as of 4:00pm (update to follow)

Clouds and fog are prevalent across the area this evening just before sunset, with some scattered light showers as well.  Up until 4:00pm there had been nothing measurable registering in my rain gauge, but I think we may have picked up a few hundredths of an inch since then, so I'll update later this evening.  Today's sunshine was again limited to the early and mid-morning hours, with a rapid build-up of clouds before noon leading to our being pretty much totally socked in since about 2:00pm or so.

Unusual factors for this late in the month of September continue to dominate the weather scene.  The resurgence of tropical moisture that moved northwestward back into much of northwest India last weekend has not budged at all since the early part of the week.  That has kept our humidity mainly in the 70-90% range, and provided plenty of fuel for cloud/fog/shower development after a few hours of morning sunshine.  If you sleep past 10am, then you've probably seen very little of the sun during this entire week.  In addition to the moisture, the flow in the mid- and upper levels of the atmosphere has been very inactive, as the main branch of the jet stream remains well to our north across central Asia into northern China.  This pattern has prevented much drier autumn air from sweeping southward and displacing this leftover tropical murkiness.

Most of the computer model data is trending gradually toward an overall drier atmosphere over the course of the next 5-6 days -- and that certainly should be the case since October is just around the corner.  However, I am stunned that there doesn't appear to be a really strong weather system that would absolutely and decisively push out this moisture.  In the meantime, I think we all know what to expect -- some morning sun, followed by increasing clouds and then the random/scattered shower action during the PM hours.  The whole thing is getting old.

Check the CURRENT FORECAST details on the tab above.