Thursday, August 1, 2013

arrival of august... (am.01.aug.13)>

*Update @ 3:32pm... A heavy rain shower in progress.  Satellite pics show a thin band of showers stretching all along the front slopes of the Dhauladhars.  This is a very typical kind of situation for mid-monsoon, but one which hasn't been happening so often in the last several weeks.

*Update @ 7:27am... The battle for August between 'uphill' and 'downhill' begins -- just had a report of 4.5" (11.4cm) overnight near Norbulingka.

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It's mostly cloudy at sunrise on this first morning of August, but the rain has stopped for now.  Last evening's showers dissipated well before midnight, but then a more intense area of rain and thunder developed overhead during the very early morning hours.  I received 0.94" (2.4cm) up here on Tushita Road below the Mountaineering Center since last report -- bringing my 24 hour rainfall total to 1.26" (3.2cm).  That's still not a heck of a lot, but it's more than I've recorded in over a week.

So, July ended with a total of 25.25" (64.1cm).  That's a little over 12" (30.5cm) below normal.  Interestingly enough, June was about 11" above normal, so our total for the entire monsoon season is very close to historical averages -- perhaps just a shade below.  Downhill, it's a different story.  Reports from Dharamsala and near Norbulingka indicate that they had very close to normal amounts of rainfall for July.  What a different a few kilometers and a few hundred meters of elevation can make -- in either direction!

All of this morning's data suggests that we could be under the gun for more significant rain during the next 24 to 36 hours which could bring another inch or two.  It does look like it may quiet down again over the weekend -- but honestly, computer models have been flipping and flopping all over the place during the past week or so, and haven't been very on top of things.  Our micro-climate features, which are barely picked up by any of the computer models, have been in charge recently.  Stay tuned...

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