Wednesday, October 16, 2013

questionable afternoons... (am.16.oct.13)>

We have a crystal clear sky at sunrise this morning.  My temperature is 58.5F (14.7C) here in the upper part of town, and the humidity stands at 62%.  There has been no rainfall overnight, but I have recorded 0.10" (3mm) during the past 24 hours, thanks to a period of light thundershowers yesterday during the middle of the afternoon.

The weather pattern is finally, slowly, gradually falling into line with something more typical for the season.  It's been a step-by-step process which began late last week, as the total character of the atmosphere from the surface into the upper-levels continues to change.  The deep tropical moisture which was pushed out of our area during the middle of September, only to return less than one week later, has now been shoved far enough to the southeast that there is very little chance it will be able to sneak back this far northwestward.  In addition, the flow throughout most layers of the atmosphere has turned more westerly, and eventually northwesterly, which will assure the continued arrival of drier continental air from central Asia.

However, as we have seen the past two days, our afternoons remain full of surprises.  Despite the drier and more stable air filtering in, what little moisture remains has been stirred up by strong morning sunshine and condensed into clouds and even isolated thundershowers along the front slopes of the Dhauladhars.  We've had rapid clearing during the early evenings, but it's been a little touch-and-go for a few hours during the middle of the day.  I really think this drier air is going to keep claiming more and more time and territory as we head toward the end of the week -- just be aware of some moodiness during the afternoons.

The CURRENT FORECAST, the OCTOBER 2013 RAINFALL, and other wx info can be found on tabs above.