Tuesday, October 8, 2013

just depressing... (pm.08.oct.13)>

Tuesday's stats:

Low temp: 64.0F (17.8C)
High temp: 68.0F (20.0C)
Rainfall: 0.09" (2mm)

It's cloudy and hazy with some patchy fog at sunset this evening, at the end of what has been a pretty dismal day.  There were only a few short periods of sunshine early this morning, otherwise the clouds and fog were the major players, keeping temperatures from moving much at all.  Our isolated showers did indeed manifest, mainly between 1:00 and 2:00pm, but the total in my rain gauge in the upper part of town was just a shade less than one-tenth of an inch.  The humidity never dropped below 83%, which should come as no surprise.

A strong bubble of high pressure aloft is the only thing preventing us from getting a lot of widespread heavy rain here along the front slopes of the mountains -- considering how moisture-packed this air mass is.  It is so warm in the upper-atmosphere right now that the moisture gets lifted only in the mid-levels, then forced back down, allowing only isolated shower development, and preventing thunder/lightning altogether.  This situation will be changing during the next 24-36 hours, however, as some slightly cooler air aloft starts to filter in, increasing the instability factor.  Expect an increasing chance of some heavier showers, along with the thunderstorm risk returning as well, as we progress through the mid-week period.

The dissatisfaction with our October weather thus far is pervasive, and you can almost feel the depressed moods around town, as we all try very hard to get through this.  If it makes you feel any better -- I did some digging through the historical records last night and found that there was more than 23" (58cm) of rain in Dharamsala during October of 1955.  At just over 2" (5cm) for this month so far, at least we're not in that league (yet).

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