Friday, May 2, 2014

summer character... (am.02.may.14)>

There are a few thin patches of high cirrus clouds around the area, otherwise we have mostly clear skies just before sunrise on this second morning of May.  Our overnight temperatures have remained very mild -- my low temp has been 67.3F (19.6C) -- and there has been no rainfall since last report.  The humidity stands at 32%.

The upper-air pattern has changed so dramatically in the last couple of weeks, fast-forwarding us into summertime after many weeks of languishing in an in-between phase.  The main issue is that the stronger upper-level steering currents (also known as the jet stream) have shifted way to our north, as a general ridge of high pressure has established itself across a large part of south Asia.  This has provided us with significantly warmer temperatures the last week to ten days or so, while keeping us clear of any major storm systems.

But now we have the more nuanced issues of the summer/pre-monsoon season to deal with, which center on subtle differences in temperatures between different layers of the atmosphere which can trigger pockets of instability along the mountains.  Some slightly cooler air aloft has already started to move in during the past 24-36 hours or so, and with very warm air in the lower-levels, it looks like we're going to be dealing with daily episodes of cloud build-up and shower/thundershower development over the mountains.  Some of that will occasionally sneak downhill and affect us, so we're going to have to be prepared for that through the weekend into at least the middle of next week.

We could see our temperatures drop several degrees in the event of a significant round of thundershowers at some point, otherwise intermittent sunshine will keep this air mass seasonably warm.

CURRENT FORECAST details are available on the tab above.