Friday, May 1, 2015

summer's advance... (pm.01.may.15)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 54.3F (12.4C)
High temp: 76.2F (24.6C)
Rainfall: none

It's been a fantastic day -- and we have mostly clear skies as the sun sets.  What a way to kick off the month of May!  Sunshine was abundant, and the anticipated afternoon cloud development over the mountains never really got out of control.  According to satellite pics, there were a couple of isolated showers along the mountains to our north and east, but we never had an issue with that here in McLeod.  Temperatures were warmer than expected, and only a degree or two below normal for the April/May transition.

The instability factor this afternoon turned out to be small -- but it's always very tough to call what kind of cloud/convective development will occur over the Dhauladhars when there is relatively cooler air hovering in the upper-levels of the atmosphere.  Models are still projecting a bit of disparity tomorrow afternoon, which means that despite the generally nice and sunny conditions, it's a good idea to be aware of the potential for isolated thundershower development somewhere around the area after about 2:00 or 3:00pm.

By Sunday, warming at the surface will be complemented by warming in the upper-levels as well, and that should erase most of the PM instability potential.  And from the current vantage point, most of next week looks good -- apart from a slight risk of an isolated thundershower on a random afternoon.  In addition, a large ridge of high pressure covering all of central and northwest India should give us the warmest temps of the season thus far... probably even a bit above normal for the first week of May.

Check archived posts on the right column of the page for comparison of dates during the past five years -- and get a look at THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK (tab above) for forecast details.