Friday, May 27, 2016

classic summertime... (pm.27.may.16)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 66.0F (18.9C)
High temp: 88.1F (31.2C)
Rainfall: none

There are a few clumps of pathetic-looking scraggly cumulus clouds along the mountains as daylight starts to fade this evening, otherwise our skies are mostly clear.  It has been a classic mid-summer day here in our part of the world, with all the sunshine we could want or need, only that feeble mountain cloud development from late morning onwards, very warm temperatures, and low humidity.  In fact, the humidity never got above 28% today, and that made the heat quite tolerable.  My thermometer says that we had one of the top five warmest high temps of the season and the year thus far.

A uniform northwesterly flow in the upper-levels of the atmosphere -- the level that determines and drives weather patterns -- has prevailed the last few days, and will continue to dominate through the weekend into early next week.  However, there are indications that a surge of more moisture-laden air will approach from the south during the coming 36 hours or so, as some slightly cooler air sinks in from the north in the higher levels.  This combo will give us another period of instability, especially by late Sunday, lasting into Tuesday.  At this point, I'm not expecting the kind of wet spell we dealt with earlier this week, but I do think the risk of some isolated/scattered showers and thunderstorms will be on the increase again.  Here along the front slopes of the north Indian Himalayas, smart people remain prepared for sudden changes, even if things are looking tranquil -- something to keep in mind the next few days.

Computer model data is showing a massive ridge of summertime high pressure building from Pakistan into the northwest third of India by Wednesday and Thursday, with humidity dropping again, and temps perhaps soaring to new highs for 2016...

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