Wednesday, April 25, 2012

sun and shower... (pm.25.apr.12)>

There are a few sprinkles and scattered very light showers around the area this evening, under partly to mostly cloudy skies.  I even saw my first rainbow of the season a few minutes ago (just after 6pm).  So far, the showers have been barely enough to wet the streets... but I'll be keeping an eye on the rain gauge during the next few hours.  A fantastic several hours of sunshine from mid-morning into mid-afternoon allowed the high temp to reach 77.2F (25.1C) in the upper part of town.

** Update @ 8:42pm... Rainfall this evening (between 5:30 and 8:30pm) has amounted to 0.10" (3mm) here at the top of McLeod Ganj.**


**Update @ 9:40pm... Still some off and on showers.  Now 0.18" (5mm) in the rain gauge.  Unfortunately, satellite images haven't been coming in during the past 2 hours... so I can't see what's going on!

If you've been following along recently, I think the situation has been spelled out often enough.  Seasonably warm air at the surface -- a seemingly never-ending procession of weak disturbances and pools of colder air in the upper-levels of the atmosphere, and thus, reliably unstable conditions nearly everyday during the afternoons and evenings.  There is no indication that this pattern is going to relent... even as we get into the coming weekend.  Rainfall amounts are expected to be generally quite light, so the situation is really more of a nuisance than anything else.  On the bright side, our temperatures have been very close to normal for the latter part of April, and that should be the case for another couple of days or so.

Then... there are some seriously bizarre things happening on the extended computer model weather charts.  A very intense upper-level disturbance for this time of year (looks more like a mid-March system) is forecast to drop in from the northwest on late Saturday through Monday.  Although moisture will probably be lacking, it should bring us an even better chance of thundershowers, along with a drop in temperatures...

WEDNESDAY NIGHT:
a couple of showers and possibly a thundershower this evening.  otherwise partly cloudy.
low: 16C (61F)

THURSDAY:
a mix of sunshine and occasional clouds.  an isolated late PM thundershower?
high: 26C (78F)

THURSDAY NIGHT:
risk of an evening thundershower, otherwise clear to partly cloudy.
low: 17C (63F)

FRIDAY:
partly cloudy and warm.  chance of a thunderstorm developing in the afternoon.
high: 26C (78F)

SATURDAY:
both sun and clouds.  better chance of a few showers and thunderstorms around.
morning low: 17C (62F)
daytime high: 24C (76F)

SUNDAY:
partly cloudy with a good chance of a couple of thundershowers.  not as warm.
morning low: 15C (59F)
daytime high: 23C (73F)

MONDAY:
both clouds and some sun.  breezy and unseasonably cool, with a risk of a passing thundershower.
morning low: 14C (57F)
daytime high: 22C (71F)