Monday, February 17, 2014

something nicer... (am.17.feb.14)>

It is totally clear as the sun begins to brighten up the eastern sky on this Monday morning.  The temp is up to 37.0F (2.8C) at the moment, but I've recorded an overnight low of 35.2F (1.8C).  There has been no precipitation overnight, but about one inch of snow and ice pellets during the past 24 hours, thanks to our impressive period of thundersnow late yesterday afternoon.  The humidity this morning has dropped to 40% -- the lowest in a few days.

After what will probably go down in the record books as the coldest and snowiest days of this winter season, we're in line for a little bit of a treat today and Tuesday.  A very robust ridge of high pressure is already building across northern India, with much milder temperatures arriving throughout all layers of the atmosphere.  High pressure ridges are stable weather features, preventing much upward/convective motion and thus, keeping cloud and precipitation development at a minimum.  The way it's looking right now, we should see a lot of sunshine today, with the potential for some high clouds spreading in from the west on Tuesday.  Temperatures will warm up dramatically from our recent icebox conditions -- but will probably still remain a few degrees below normal for this stage of February.  Believe it or not, high temps on average should be getting close to 60F (16C) by now.

A new series of upper-level disturbances will start showing up on Wednesday, putting us back into a phase of unsettled weather which will last through the weekend.  The extended range data is hinting at a significant storm system with more rain and snow potential for late Friday through early Sunday, so we'll have to be keeping an eye on that development this week.

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