Wednesday, March 5, 2014

the news is better... (pm.05.mar.14)>

Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 41.5F (5.3C)
High temp: 50.0F (10.0C)
Rainfall: 0.12" (3mm)*

There's a mix of sunshine and lingering clouds across the area just before sunset this evening, but there have been some light rain showers as recently as about 5:30pm.  It has been nice to get some random glimpses of sunshine today, but there have also been several periods of sprinkles, drizzle and light rain showers as well.  Late this afternoon we had both sun and showers occurring simultaneously.  Temperatures have been fluctuating between 40 and 50F (5-10C) all day, depending on the variable sky conditions.

The upper-level disturbance responsible for our recent cloudy and damp weather is centered over extreme northern Kashmir this evening, and will soon be moving out of the picture.  We never did get any significant amounts of rain in our immediate area from this system -- at my house I've recorded only 0.20" (5mm)* in the past 48 hours -- but the clouds have been fairly persistent, as have the continuing very cold temperatures for early March.  There's still the potential for some scattered showers this evening, before our weather pattern begins to shift again.

The flow in the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere is going to turn more to the west and northwest late tonight, signaling an improving outlook for us during the next few days.  There will be gradual warming getting underway starting tomorrow (Thu), which should continue into the weekend, with more hours of sunshine as well.  Unfortunately, lingering moisture combined with marginal instability due to some very cold pockets of air aloft will keep us from being 100% worry-free about the potential development of some afternoon showers/thunder over the mountains during the coming days.  Still, it's looking much better, overall.

Further ahead, we could have another period of wetter weather early next week, but our air mass should be taking on more and more of a springtime feel over the course of the next 10 days or so.

*updated @ 7:55pm

CURRENT FORECAST details can be found on the tab above.