Friday, April 28, 2017

weekend thundershower risk... (pm.28.apr.17)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 61.0F (16.1C)
High temp: 79.2F (26.2C)
Rainfall: none

Today's high temp was the warmest (just barely) I've recorded in exactly one week, and is just slightly above normal for the last few days of April.  We started off with full sunshine this morning, but the mountain cumulus clouds were already starting to develop by 11:00am, which led to more scattered light thundershowers in the higher elevations to our north throughout the afternoon and early evening hours.  Even now, as the sun sets, things are still looking marginally unstable along the Dhauladhars, with quite a bit of cloudiness hanging on.

I guess 'marginally unstable' is the best way to describe the weather we've been experiencing the last several days -- with a mix of sunshine and mainly mountain clouds, and a daily round of generally weak showers/thundershowers that have barely brushed us here in McLeod.  As far as temperatures are concerned, it has been extremely pleasant and comfortable, and as we've expected, right in the acceptable range of 'normal' for this time of year.

A fresh upper-level disturbance is going to be dropping in from the northwest this weekend, and as of now, it's looking like it will cause our risk of some scattered showers and thundershowers to rise into the 40-60% range during the coming 48 hours or so.  A couple of the models are looking a little more potent than before... indicating the potential for at least a round or two of fairly significant precipitation (perhaps up to a half-inch/1.2cm) by the time the weekend is over.  We've already had much more rainfall than average for this month of April, thanks to that storm system back during the first week of the month, but it looks like there's some chance of picking up more before all is said and done.

Next week, as May arrives, things are still looking a bit on the unstable side, but with temps remaining very close to normal for the season.