Wednesday, January 15, 2014

lack of coordination... (pm.15.jan.14)>

Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 40.8F (4.9C)
High temp: 50.5F (10.3C)
Precipitation: trace

Well... it has been another day of extremes.  There were clouds and some light fog around the area at sunrise this morning, which then gave way to a good amount of sunshine throughout the mid- to late morning hours.  But around noon, the low clouds and fog thickened up rapidly, leaving us with grey and gloomy weather for the entire afternoon.  We even had one or two sprinkles of rain thrown into the mix.  Today's high temp was above normal for mid-January -- believe it or not -- but that occurred during the late morning, before temps settled back to 45-46F (7.5C) for the rest of the day.  The clouds and fog are just now starting to break up after sunset this evening.

We're now reaching the midway point of the month of January, and we still haven't had a healthy dose of winter storm conditions, in spite of the frequent spells of cloudiness and threatening-looking skies.  It takes a few major factors coming together to produce a significant winter storm, and this year we seem always to be lacking something to make it all happen.  The upper-air pattern has been full of disturbances rippling through on a strong westerly flow at the jet stream level, but the few surges of moist air haven't been arriving at the right times to translate into significant rain or snow here at our elevation.  Today we had the moisture, but things have been very calm in the upper-levels of the atmosphere, for example.

I'm still banking on some nicer weather for tomorrow (Thu), as a weak ridge of high pressure builds in.  But -- the next upper-level disturbance/circulation should start to creep its way into northwest India by Friday afternoon/evening, then move across the area on Saturday.  The data still shows significant precipitation breaking out further to our east and southeast on Friday night and Saturday, but we could see some rain and/or snow shower development around here as well.  We need a coordinated synchronization between upper-level energy, the boundary between colder/milder air masses, and surging moisture from the south to get things cooking.... let's see what happens as the weekend gets nearer...

CURRENT FORECAST info can be found on the tab above.