Saturday, April 13, 2013

mountain turmoil... (pm.13.apr.13)>

*Update @ 6:57pm... Maybe there are surprises yet to come tonight, but I think all of that mountain thunder action is steadily dissipating, with measurable rain looking unlikely in McLeod.  Despite all the ugly clouds, we never got more than a few sprinkles.

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Saturday's stats:

Early morning low temp: 59.4F (15.2C)
Afternoon high temp: 74.5F (23.6C)
Rainfall: trace

Threatening skies are all around us this evening, thanks to a long chain of thundershowers which developed along the Himalayan front ranges from northern Pakistan all the way into western Nepal.  So far we've only had gusty winds, a few sprinkles of rain, and a bit of thunder and lightning here in town, but we could get hit with a more substantial shower before all of this falls apart.  Earlier today we had partly to mostly sunny skies with the thermometer getting close to 75F during the early afternoon.

Classic springtime instability is responsible for the mountain cloud/thunder development this afternoon, with warmer air in the lower elevations rising into the colder air aloft and rapidly condensing.  The only thing keeping us from getting some major downpours of rain is the lack of available moisture in this April air mass.  We could see a repeat performance tomorrow, and possibly again on Monday, before an even more unstable situation develops starting on Tuesday.  It still looks like we could have a period or two of more significant thunderstorms during the mid-week period as colder air in the upper-atmosphere sinks into northern India, encountering the building summer heat just south of us.

Our temperatures during the coming several days will be almost entirely dependent on sunshine, and whether or not we get some rain.  If the sun can hold on, we'll remain rather warm -- but a thundershower with an hour or so of rainfall will cool things down very quickly.  Yes, typical April behavior for the most part.

Check the CURRENT FORECAST on the tab above.