Saturday, March 8, 2014

mildest of the year... (am.08.mar.14)>

A bright and sunny Saturday morning is poised to get underway shortly, with mostly clear skies just before the sun peeks over the mountains.  I've recorded an overnight low temp of 46.8F (8.2C) here in the upper part of town, and there has been no precipitation since last report.  The humidity reading this morning is just 37%.

Milder air throughout all layers of the atmosphere continues to show up here along the Himalayas of northern India, and that should provide us with our warmest temperatures of 2014 today, and possibly the warmest since about the first half of December.  Of course that's not saying a whole lot, considering the fact that our temps have been languishing far below normal since around the 3rd of February.  But as long as the sunshine can hang on for the majority of the day, it should be quite pleasant compared to what we've experienced over the course of this long winter season.  There is a risk of a bit of shower development somewhere over the mountains again this afternoon -- depending on whether or not some instability issues kick in -- so be aware of that.

I'm a bit flabbergasted with the way the computer models are depicting our next storm system, which will be affecting us as early as tomorrow (Sun).  A wave of upper-level energy is now dropping southeastward across the Caspian Sea, and will develop into a very dynamic upper-level low pressure circulation over extreme northern Afghanistan by very late tomorrow night.  It is then projected to move slowly eastward into central Pakistan and then northwest India by Wednesday morning.  This sets us up for a rather long period of potentially wet and stormy weather -- with some moderate to heavy rainfall amounts, strong thunderstorms, and very gusty winds at times.  Warmer, moisture-laden air will be drawn northward into this system's circulation, making it take on more of the characteristics of a springtime storm system.

Showers and thunderstorms could break out anytime on Sunday, with several waves of rain, thunder, and gusty winds all the way into Wednesday.  It will be interesting to follow this next episode of weather drama...

CURRENT FORECAST info can be found on the tab above.