Wednesday, January 15, 2014

temperamental... (am.15.jan.14)>

There is patchy cloudiness and also some areas of fog out there at sunrise this morning, with a temp of 41.2F (5.1C) and 82% humidity.  I've recorded a low temp of 40.8F (4.9C) here in the upper part of town, along with 0.03" (1mm) of rain, thanks to those few showers late last evening.

We're still dealing with a very progressive and changeable weather pattern, as the amplitude of the upper-level flow continues to flip-flop between weak troughs of low pressure and ridges of high pressure.  What this means in normal language is that our air mass has not been able to stabilize for any length of time, and there is a subtle battle between cooler/drier and milder/more moist air which is keep us subject to frequent periods of cloudiness and even some random sprinkles and light showers.  The latest disturbance will be moving out today, however, and will be replaced with one of those weak high pressure ridges during the coming 48 hours or so... which may allow us to get a bit more sunshine, especially tomorrow into early Friday.

Then, the next storm system will develop across northern India by Friday evening, and linger through Saturday.  There is a rather strong upper-level circulation expected to move in from the west, while a lot of moisture gets transported northward.  At this stage, the computer model data is projecting a fairly widespread outbreak of precipitation to occur just to our east -- with us remaining on the western fringe of it all.  It's worth keeping a close eye on, as things could easily shift one way or another by the time the weekend arrives.

Get the CURRENT FORECAST details on the tab at the top of the page.