Monday, April 16, 2012

a warmer week... (am.16.apr.12)>

It is partly cloudy at sunrise this morning... with satellite photos showing a batch of showers siding by to our south, across extreme southwestern Himachal Pradesh.  I've recorded only a trace of rainfall during the past 24 hours, along with an early morning low temp of 54.1F (12.3C).

As we plunge into a new week, it looks like the main event will be a gradual warming trend.  Temperatures are expected to warm both at the surface and aloft, as a ridge of high pressure builds across the northwest half of India... taking us back to normal and even a bit above, by the middle of the week.  The secondary event of the week will be the continued risk of some random shower and thunderstorm activity.  In spite of this building ridge of high pressure, there will be a few weak disturbances in the upper-air flow which, combined with warmer air attempting to displace the colder air aloft, could set off an occasional round of thundershowers.  At this point, it looks like Tuesday and Friday hold the best potential for a bit of rain, but frankly, it could occur on any given afternoon or evening.  As always, factor that into your mountain exploration plans.

By the weekend, the computer models are forecasting another large upper-air disturbance to begin edging into northern India.  It's too early to tell what this will mean for us... but for now we should expect the chance of significant rainfall to be on the rise once again...

MONDAY:
sunny to partly cloudy and mild.  an isolated PM thundershower?
high: 22C (71F)

MONDAY NIGHT:
risk of an evening thundershower, otherwise partly cloudy.
low: 14C (57F)

TUESDAY:
a mix of sun and clouds, with a couple of showers or a thunderstorm possible.  warmer.
high: 23C (74F)

WEDNESDAY:
sunshine and a few clouds.  still that isolated PM thunder risk.  warm-up continues.
morning low: 15C (59F)
daytime high: 24C (76F)

THURSDAY:
both sunshine and some clouds.
morning low: 16C (61F)
daytime high: 25C (77F)

FRIDAY:
partly cloudy and warm.  chance of a thunderstorm, mainly in the PM.
morning low: 17C (63F)
daytime high: 26C (78F)