Tuesday, April 22, 2014

we've waited so long... (pm.22.apr.14)>

Tuesday's stats:

Low temp: 58.5F (14.7C)
High temp: 72.2F (22.3C)
Rainfall: none

This could definitely be the most pleasant evening of the entire spring/early summer season and the year as well.  We have only a few high clouds scattered around, along with some dissipating cumulus over the mountain peaks at sunset this evening, with comfortable temps and low humidity.  There was a good build-up of those cumulus clouds over the Dhauladhars this afternoon, and perhaps a random isolated shower up there.  Also, we had some patches of high, thin cirrus clouds at times.  But -- the sunshine remained the dominant feature here in McLeod throughout the day, allowing us to reach yet another new high for the season and for 2014.

There's a weak little upper-level circulation located right along the Punjab/Pakistan border right now, but it's really puny.  Even the high cloud development today was less than expected.  I am very pleased to report that our general pattern continues to look favorable as we progress through the week, with lots of definitive warming occurring throughout all layers of the atmosphere, forcing the main branch of the jet stream well to our north, and keeping us out of the storm track that we've been stuck in for month after month.  This is the transition that normally occurs by the latter part of March, but as you know if you've been following this blog, we've been consistently lagging about 3-4 weeks behind the normal schedule of events this season.

We still have to watch the sun/cloud issues during the coming days, but as this air mass continues to warm up, it looks like we remain on track to push toward 80F (26C) by the early part of next week.  I think we could see a slightly better chance of a couple of scattered showers or thundershowers in the area between late Friday and Saturday night, otherwise the shower risk should be confined to the mountains above.

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