Friday, May 15, 2015

the next pattern shift... (am.15.may.15)>

We're waking up to partly cloudy skies this morning, with the temperature hovering near 60ºF/16ºC.  There have been a couple of periods of thundershowers between late last evening and the wee hours of this morning -- but I've got just 0.25" (6mm) in the rain gauge to show for it.  The overnight low here in the upper part of town was 55.9F (13.3C).

A very slow-moving series of upper-level disturbance/circulation centers has been the dominant influencer of our weather scenario since Monday -- and I've recorded 1.55" (3.9cm) from the several periods of showers and thundershowers that have moved through during the week.  This morning's satellite pics show the last remaining circulation center parked just about right on top of us at the moment, with a continued very slow movement eastward today.  That means we still have to be aware of the risk of more isolated to widely scattered thundershower development for yet another day... in the midst of a mix of clouds and sunshine.  Temperatures should be just a bit warmer, but still a few degrees cooler than normal for mid-May.

If all goes according to plan, the new high pressure ridge waiting in the wings should start to push in from the west-southwest tomorrow (Sat), with dramatic warming throughout all layers of the atmosphere over the weekend into early next week.  Our temps should quickly rise above normal again by Sunday, with the warmest numbers of the season and the year possible on Monday.  However, there are also indications that we could see some mainly late afternoon and evening thunderstorm development entering the picture, especially Tuesday into Wednesday.

The details can be found on THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab at the top of the page.