Friday, October 18, 2013

better and better... (pm.18.oct.13)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 58.6F (14.8C)
High temp: 70.0F (21.1C)
Rainfall: none

A beautiful sunset is just wrapping up, with mostly clear skies across the area.  We started with lots of sunshine again today, with a build up of clouds over the mountains during the afternoon, which led to some rumbles of thunder and some isolated showers in the higher elevations between about 3:00 and 4:00pm.  The sunshine definitely held the majority today though -- allowing my high temp in the upper part of town to reach 70F for the second day in a row.

Even though the afternoon instability over the mountains hasn't been totally squashed, our overall weather scenario is an entirely different universe compared to what we were dealing with just a week ago.  Average daily humidity is now down to around 50% or so, and we're seeing the sun for at least several hours a day -- consistently and regularly.  A brisk westerly flow in the upper-levels of the atmosphere is pretty well established across northern India, with drier air continuing to filter in at the mid- and lower-levels.  The weather charts are now looking pretty 'typically October', as a long-term autumn pattern finally settles in.

Having said that, I am still a bit on edge about the mountain instability factor during the afternoon hours.  Clouds and isolated showers/thunder are still being generated up there between about 2 and 5pm or so -- indicating that colder air aloft is interacting with a bit of lingering moisture and warmer air at the lower levels.  Computer models aren't picking up on this activity, so we'll just have to keep watch day by day until that dynamic is erased.  Temperatures should be cooling slightly more at night, but will remain pleasantly mild during the daytime, thanks to the greater proportion of sunshine.

Check all of the CURRENT FORECAST details on the tab at the top of the page.