Sunday, July 29, 2012

everywhere gray... (pm.29.jul.12)>

Plenty of clouds and fog around the area this evening, along with some patches of drizzle here and there.  I've only recorded a trace of rain since this morning's report, so we remain at 0.40" (1.0cm) since midnight, and just over one inch (2.6cm) in the past 24 hours or so.  There were some brief glimpses of sun again today, but clouds and fog definitely dominated -- my high temp in the upper part of town was able to struggle to just 73.0F (22.8C).

*Update @ 1015pm... Heavier rain again at the moment.  Rain gauge shows 0.60" (1.5cm) in the past two hours... but it looks like there is plenty more to come...

*Update @ 940pm...  Steady light to moderate rain, along with some thunder/lightning.  Now 0.49" (1.2cm) of rain since about 825pm at my location in upper McLeod Ganj.  No power.

*Update @ 904pm...  Thick fog, dead-calm wind, and rainfall intensity on the increase.  I have 0.17" (4mm) in the past 40 minutes.  Also a bit of thunder/lightning.

*Update @ 826pm... Brand new showers developing overhead and points south at the moment.  A few flashes of lightning as well.  Will update if development continues...

I was expecting more rain development today than we've seen so far.  This air mass is fully saturated, so all we're waiting for is some kind of a dynamic trigger to set things off.  Several times recently, that trigger has come in the form of cooling aloft after the sun sets, which creates just enough instability to allow all of this moisture-laden air near the surface to rapidly rise and condense into showers and thundershowers.  Whatever the case, it's very likely that we're not far away from our next round of moderate to heavy rainfall. I still think we could get slammed with a period of 2-3" (5-8cm)+ rains before the next 24-36 hours are up.

There are no major changes in the general weather pattern expected during the coming week.  If we're lucky, we'll get a period or two of sunshine here and there, along with humidity perhaps briefly dipping below 90% -- otherwise we'll remain very close to the saturation point most of the time, with occasional moderate to heavy downpours likely.  In other words, August should begin in roughly the same fashion that July ends...

SUNDAY NIGHT:
mostly cloudy and foggy at times.  a period or two of rain and thunder likely.
low: 19C (67F)

MONDAY:
mostly cloudy.  occasional fog, rain and thunder likely.
high: 22C (72F)

MONDAY NIGHT:
mostly cloudy and foggy.  a couple of periods of rain and thunder likely.
low: 19C (67F)

TUESDAY:
mostly cloudy skies.  periods of fog, rain and some thunder.
high: 22C (72F)

WEDNESDAY:
a couple of sunshine breaks?  otherwise clouds, fog, and a couple of showers/thundershowers.
morning low: 20C (68F)
daytime high: 23C (74F)

THURSDAY:
mostly cloudy and foggy.  occasional rain and some thunder.
morning low: 20C (68F)
daytime high: 22C (72F)

FRIDAY:
clouds, fog and some rain/thunder likely.  also good chance of some sun appearing.
morning low: 19C (66F)
daytime high: 23C (73F)