Wednesday, May 6, 2015

air quality issues... (am.06.may.15)>

The current temperature of 65.8F (18.8C) is also the overnight low here at my location on Tushita Road below the mountaineering center.  We've had no rainfall since last report, and the sky is clear at sunrise.

I say the sky is clear, but there is an increasing amount of haze and smoggy junk creeping northward and uphill, in association with this very warm and stagnant air mass in place across most of northwest India.  A big sprawling high pressure ridge like this, is by its very nature stable, and is keeping smoke and dust and pollution trapped in the lowest layers of the atmosphere.  It's going to take a good round of showers and thunderstorms to recycle the air mass and clean it up a bit -- but that's going to be hard to come by in the near future.

The data is showing a turn to a bit of instability along the mountains as we move through the latter half of the week, so there is at least a slight risk of some isolated afternoon shower/thunder development along the Dhauladhars.  Otherwise, we will continue to see sunshine and occasional clouds, along with these above average temperatures.  We've set new marks for the warmest temps of the year the last couple of days, and it looks like we could climb another couple of degrees at least, between today and Friday or Saturday.

A large batch of moisture is being projected by most of the computer models to creep northeastward from the Arabian Sea by Sunday -- and then to hang around for much of at least the first half of next week.  That could cool us off a bit, and bring in a better chance of some showers and thunderstorms.

THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab at the top of the page has forecast details.