Tuesday, January 14, 2014

continuing variability... (pm.14.jan.14)>

*Update @ 8:44pm... Rain shower in progress -- and it may even be enough to measure in the rain gauge.  Current temp is 45.9F (7.7C).

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Tuesday's stats:

Low temp: 44.4F (6.9C)
High temp: 53.8F (12.1C)
Precipitation: trace

The threatening skies which have been so common recently are with us this evening, as thick, dark clouds linger just after sunset.  We did manage to get a good amount of sunshine for much of the morning into the early afternoon, but the clouds thickened up again by 2:00pm or so, and there was a brief light rain shower and some very gusty winds in the area between 4:00 and 4:30pm.  I even saw a rare January rainbow to the northeast during the late afternoon.  Temperatures are running a bit above normal for the season.

A series of weak upper-level disturbances and associated pools of much colder air aloft continue to interact with some milder air at the surface, leading to unstable conditions here along the mountains of Himachal Pradesh.  But despite the build-ups of clouds we've seen so frequently, we still can't seem to get this atmosphere to yield any significant precipitation for us.  Heavier snow showers have been occurring in the higher elevations, but not down here where the vast majority of us live.  We'll still have to be on the lookout for a period of showers overnight, and maybe an isolated shower on Wednesday -- but that's about it.

The brightest period of the whole week is expected on Thursday into early Friday during a break in this parade of disturbances -- but then we'll get to watch for the next upper-level system as the weekend arrives.  Right now computer models are keeping significant rain/snow away from us (again), but there are a lot of complex variables assembling, and it wouldn't take much to bring about a shift in the scenario.

All the details can be found on the CURRENT FORECAST tab above.