Thursday, May 31, 2012

sweltering... (am.31.may.12)>

Hazy summer sun is dominating the sky again on this Thursday morning.  My overnight low temp here below the mountaineering center in the upper part of town was 77.7F (25.4C).  Without digging through all of my personal records from 2002, I can still say I'm fairly certain this is close to the warmest, if not THE warmest low temp I have ever recorded here.

Yesterday's high of 91.0F (32.8C), according to my records, is the warmest of the past three years at least.  It's a rare and normally short-lived event that we experience this category of heat up here above 1800m/6000ft.  Today could be even hotter, depending on what will be happening in the upper-atmosphere as the day wears on.  We're watching a rather disorganized disturbance drift in from the west-northwest, which features some gradually cooler temperatures in the upper atmosphere.  It's likely that some pockets of instability will develop -- possibly as early as this evening -- leading to the risk of some isolated or widely scattered showers and thunderstorms.  The prospect of significant rainfall doesn't look promising, but the atmosphere could get stirred up enough to get something going... right through Saturday.

Any shower/thunder activity will allow the cooler air aloft to be brought down to the surface, so right now I am optimistically trimming our temperatures by a few degrees starting tomorrow.  Don't expect any major cooling trend, though, as it looks like we'll remain very close to the peak of summer warmth into next week...

THURSDAY:
HOT... with a mix of hazy sun and a few clouds.  some late PM thunder?
high: 34C (93F)

THURSDAY NIGHT:
risk of a shower or thunderstorm in the area.  otherwise partly cloudy and warm.
low: 23C (74F)

FRIDAY (arrival of June):
a mix of sunshine and clouds.  not so hot, with a thunderstorm possible.
high: 32C (89F)

SATURDAY:
still a chance of a shower or thunderstorm in the area, otherwise partly cloudy and warm.
morning low: 22C (71F)
daytime high: 31C (87F)

SUNDAY:
sunny to partly cloudy.  isolated PM thunder?
morning low: 22C (71F)
daytime high: 30C (86F)

MONDAY:
sunshine and a few clouds.  still plenty warm.
morning low: 22C (72F)
daytime high: 31C (87F)