Tuesday, April 16, 2013

turbulent tuesday... (am.16.apr.13)>

*Update @ 2:37pm... Thundershowers have been fairly numerous but brief so far today.  My rain gauge here on Tushita Road shows only 0.10" (2mm) in spite of it all.  At one point (right around 2pm) I had sunshine, thunder, rain, and even some very small hail all happening simultaneously.  This atmosphere should remain extremely unstable into this evening.

*Update @ 9:27am... Turbulent indeed.  Sunshine overhead at the moment, but also increasing thunder to the southwest as things change on a moment-by-moment basis.  I won't be able to post updates for the next few hours, but be prepared for sudden changes today.

*Update @ 8:31am... Still lots of clouds around, but no sign of any thunder or rain.  The latest satellite pics indicate that the early morning thundershowers to our west have dissipated.  We may have to wait until the afternoon for re-development, which was the initial expectation anyway.  Currently: 64.9F (18.3C).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skies have quickly become mostly cloudy early this morning, with some thundershower development lurking off to our west.  I've recorded a mild overnight low temp of 59.5F (15.3C), though it's up to 63.6F (17.6C) as of 7am.  The humidity level has been fluctuating, but remains rather low at 37%.

Our latest weather system is moving in faster than expected.  An upper-level disturbance bringing in a pool of much colder air in the upper-atmosphere is centered in extreme northern Pakistan, and will sweep across Kashmir and Himachal today and tonight.  Slightly warmer air at the surface is surging northward as this colder air aloft moves in -- creating some significant instability.  Scattered showers and thunderstorms are already occurring to our west and north, so we'll have to be on the lookout for some of that action during the coming 12-18 hours or so.  I'm still concerned about the lack of decent moisture available to produce much in the way of significant rainfall, but computer models this morning are hinting at 1cm (0.40") as a possibility.

A couple of thundershowers are still possible on Wednesday, but very dry air will be sweeping in quickly, even if the air mass remains slightly unstable.  This dry air intrusion should set us up for very nice conditions during the latter part of the week, with another shot at some passing thundershowers perhaps by late Saturday.

Temperatures today will be entirely dependent on the sun vs. rain battle, but should settle back into a very pleasant and near normal range after this system moves out.

Your CURRENT FORECAST is always available on the tab above.