Thursday, August 1, 2013

classic downpours... (pm.01.aug.13)>

*Update @ 8:05pm... I had almost exactly 2" (5.1cm) of rain between about 3:30 and 4:30pm this afternoon.  That's a very impressive one-hour total, and explains why there was so much water gushing through the streets and gulleys -- the most I've seen since I arrived back here on the 15th of July.  Calm now, but there could be more action developing overnight.

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Thursday's stats:

Low temp: 63.1F (17.3C)
High temp: 74.4F (23.5C)
Rainfall since midnight: 2.93" (7.4cm) -- as of 8pm

The past 24 hours have been about the most active of the past few weeks around here, with some classic heavy monsoon downpours that have set us off to a very fast start for the month of August.  I was caught out in the massive downpour this afternoon that dumped more than an inch of rain in about 25 minutes (as it was just getting started) at my location in the upper part of town.  The gulleys and nullahs were running heavily, and parts of Tushita Road and TIPA Road were virtual waterfalls, right around 4pm.  I haven't been able to get the total rainfall amount yet, but will post that later this evening.

Very early this morning, extremely heavy rain fell in the lower elevations below McLeod proper.  There was 4.5" (11.4cm) near Norbulingka, and 3.66" (9.3cm) in Dharamsala, as reported by the Indian Met Department.  Those amounts are roughly triple (+) the 1.26" (3.2cm) in my rain gauge up here during that time.   I suspect that the 24-hour gap may have narrowed considerably this afternoon, with the heavier rain occurring at the more up-mountain locations.

Anyway, we've experienced recently what monsoon is supposed to be about, after the rather lackluster performance of the past week to 10 days or more.

Although there will be more moderate to heavy showers scattered around the area through the weekend, there are hints that monsoon conditions may be on the wane again, overall -- until another major surge begins to move in around Monday of next week.  Technically speaking, we should be about half-way through the season now.

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