Sunday, June 26, 2011

a reprieve... (pm.26.jun.11)>

not a bad evening in progress... with clouds, patchy fog, and a few peeks of sun.  a decent end to an otherwise wet and dismal day.  between 11am and 4pm i recorded 0.79" (2.0cm) of rain, which, added to the 0.13" (3mm) before sunrise this morning, gives us a total of 0.92" (2.3cm) for the day.  temperatures have moved little all day long... but we finally reached a high of 71.6F (22C) late this afternoon.

i think we'd all agree that monsoon 2011 has gotten off to a rip-roaring start, with 4.62" (11.73cm) of rain falling since genuine monsoon conditions set in on thursday.  that's an average of 1.2" (3cm) per day, which is actually very close to the daily average expected over the course of the entire 10-12 week season.  humidity was 100% for much of the day, but has settled back to around 90% this evening.

it's refreshing to get a break this evening... but there are ominous signs for the coming week.  there is a massive amount of tropical moisture in the air all across northern india, and a series of weak upper-level disturbances are forecast to drop southeastward during the next few days... creating a very unstable airmass.  expect some very heavy rainfall totals (perhaps 5-8"/12-20cm) by friday.  unless we can get some sunshine during the morning and mid-day hours, temperatures will have a hard time climbing above 73F (23C) this week.

by the way, there was an official monsoon declaration in delhi and the remainder of punjab and haryana today... leaving only parts of rajasthan and gujarat out of the action.

SUNDAY NIGHT: partly to mostly cloudy skies.  chance of a period of thundershowers overnight.
low: 19C (67F)

MONDAY: clouds, fog and a little sunshine mixed in.  another round of rain and thunder likely.
high: 23C (73F)

TUESDAY: cloudy and foggy with rain and thunderstorms likely.
high: 22C (72F)

WEDNESDAY: occasional moderate to heavy rain... otherwise mostly cloudy and foggy.
high: 22C (71F)

THURSDAY: partly to mostly cloudy with some showers in the area.
high: 22C (71F)

FRIDAY: a mix of clouds, fog and a few peeks of sun.  a period or two of rain likely.
high: 22C (71F)