Saturday, May 18, 2013

hottest yet... (am.18.may.13)>

We have full sunshine early on this Saturday morning.  Humidity is low, at 31%, and the overnight temp here in the upper part of town dipped to only 68.5F (20.3C), which is the mildest/warmest I've recorded this season.

Well, there's been plenty of advance warning about our building heat wave, as we've been watching this sprawling ridge of high pressure developing to our southwest for most of the past week.  Yesterday it finally poked into Himachal Pradesh, stabilizing our atmosphere after a rather long stretch of borderline unsettled weather, and allowing temperatures to rise to their warmest of 2013.  Very dry and warm air in the mid- and upper-levels of the atmosphere will become established across northern India over the weekend, which should prevent any showers/thundershowers from popping up over the mountains, though it's always a good idea to be prepared for rogue development if you're heading up to the higher elevations.

Temps at my location on Tushita Road below the mountaineering center usually reach or exceed 90F (32.2C) only a few times a year -- always between mid-May and mid-June.  The way things are looking now, it's likely we'll see at least a few days in a row of that kind of heat, with overnight temperatures becoming a bit on the uncomfortable side as well -- especially as we get into early next week.

If you're heading to HPCA stadium in Dharamsala for the IPL cricket match between Punjab Kings XI and the Mumbai Indians, expect the temperature for the coin toss and start of the match (3:30-4:00pm) to be around 96F (36C).  Sizzling, indeed.

The latest CURRENT FORECAST can be found on the tab at the top of the page.