Wednesday, March 26, 2014

unstable atmosphere... (pm.26.mar.14)>

Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 53.1F (11.7C)
High temp: 60.6F (15.9C)
Rainfall: trace

We have a partly cloudy sky at sunset this evening, with some towering cumulus clouds producing some widely scattered thundershowers to our east and south.  There has been a lot of variability in sky conditions today -- plenty of cloudiness, but also some nice periods of sunshine (especially during the mid- to late afternoon hours).  There were even some sprinkles and a brief very light shower during the early afternoon, but not enough to register a measurement in my rain gauge.

This wet and unseasonably cool month of March is getting down to its final days, and it looks like we've got more unstable and unsettled weather to deal with before all is said and done.  The upper-level flow (which steers the general pattern) will contain a few more disturbances between now and Saturday, and that's going to keep us watching for some isolated to widely scattered shower development during the coming 24-36 hours, with the chance of rain increasing further on Friday and Friday night.  The risk of significant rainfall of perhaps an inch (2.5cm) or so exists between late Thursday night and early Saturday morning.  Otherwise, expect the sun to be eclipsed by periods of cloudiness more often than not between now and the first part of the weekend.

According to the latest extended range computer model data, there should be a ridge of high pressure building across north India by late Saturday into Sunday.  This should set us up for a few days of warmer and generally dry weather as we shift into April -- but it may not last much longer than that before yet more rainy weather threatens.

The CURRENT FORECAST details can be found on the tab at the top of the page.