Saturday, June 20, 2015

humidity going higher... (pm.20.jun.15)>

Saturday's stats:

Low temp: 59.2F (15.1C)
High temp: 77.9F (25.5C)
Rainfall since 7:00am: 0.24" (6mm)
24 hour rainfall: 1.35" (3.4cm)

We have partly cloudy and hazy skies across the area this evening, as our humidity levels continue to rise.  The average relative humidity during the past few hours has been in the 65-70% range -- and that's the highest I've recorded this summer season.  We had the expected fluctuations between clouds and sun today, and also the expected period or two of rain showers which were confined mostly to the mid-afternoon.  You can see from the rainfall stats above that we've had a pretty hefty total since late last evening.  Although my high temp was below 80ºF today, it seemed warmer -- due to the significant rise in humidity.

All I can say this evening is that the weather charts continue to show us pushing steadily toward monsoon conditions here in Himachal Pradesh.  An increasingly moisture-laden air mass is sneaking northward, as some slightly cooler air in the upper-levels of the atmosphere starts to sink southward into northern India.  This is the perfect combination of ingredients to set off occasional rather widespread areas of rain and thunderstorms across the Himalayas of northern India -- and it looks like that's likely to happen all the way through most of next week.  Wednesday and Thursday are looking particularly ominous at this point.  None of this is very much out of the ordinary, as the final week to ten days of June are typically a transition period into the monsoon season.  We've been preparing ourselves for this, and now the time is near.

On the bright side, extended range charts are showing some kind of respite/retreat of deeper moisture and instability by next weekend -- so that could provide us with a break in the action before the monsoon gets firmly established.

Check the tabs at the top of the page for details on the forecast and the advancing monsoon.