Monday, February 11, 2013

mild wx continues... (pm.11.feb.13)>

Monday's stats:

Early morning low temp: 45.7F (7.6C)
Afternoon high temp: 58.1F (14.5C)
Rainfall: none

It is partly cloudy early this evening, after a day of sunshine battling through a fairly persistent layer of thin, high cloudiness.  There was enough sun to boost my high temp on Tushita Road to its warmest of 2013, which was a nice way to kick off Tibetan Losar.

Although we have a mild air mass in place, the upper atmosphere is becoming increasingly unsettled, with several weak disturbances at the jet stream level moving from the Middle East into the western Himalayan region.  That's what triggered the high clouds today, and what will keep us from enjoying completely sunny skies as the week goes on.  There could be a few light rain or snow showers in the higher elevations, but it still looks like we'll escape any rainfall here in the immediate McLeod area until the end of the week.

By Friday, there will be changes.  The latest couple of runs of the computer models are painting a more ominous-looking picture from late Friday through Saturday night, with a potent storm system expected to move across northern India.  Although precipitation amounts shouldn't be anywhere close to what we experienced just a week ago, significant rain and snowfall is looking more likely, with a blast of much colder air expected Friday night into Saturday as well.  Despite the comfortable temperatures this week, it is definitely too early for us to be saying a final goodbye to winter!

MONDAY NIGHT:
partly cloudy skies.  still rather mild for the season.
low: 8C (47F)

TUESDAY:
a mix of sun and mainly high clouds.
high: 14C (58F)

TUESDAY NIGHT:
partly cloudy and mild.
low: 9C (48F)

WEDNESDAY:
both clouds and sun.
high: 15C (59F)

THURSDAY:
still a mix of sunshine and clouds.  warmest temps of 2013?
morning low: 10C (50F)
daytime high: 16C (60F)

FRIDAY:
becoming mostly cloudy with an increasing chance of some rain showers by PM.  turning much colder by evening.
low: 6C (42F)
high: 16C (60F)

SATURDAY:
mostly cloudy and much colder, with a good chance of a few periods of rain and/or snow.
low: 2C (35F)
high: 7C (44F)