Thursday, September 11, 2014

variability continues... (pm.11.sep.14)>

Thursday's stats:

Low temp: 59.5F (15.3C) -- at 3:30pm
High temp: 71.4F (21.9C)
Rainfall: 0.95" (2.4cm)

Our skies are partly cloudy at sunset this evening, and there's actually been a pretty good amount of sunshine during the last couple of hours.  Before that, our day featured totally sunny skies until the usual cloudiness started to develop not long after 9:00am.  Clouds, fog, and a few peeks of sun during the mid-day hours then yielded to very thick cloudiness and a period of fairly heavy thundershowers between 2:30 and 3:30pm.  The rain didn't last very long, but I measured nearly an inch (see stats above) at my location on Tushita Road just below the mountaineering center, along with a brief but steep dip in temperatures.

Obviously we're still dealing with the extreme variability of a late monsoon season air mass across our area -- from sunshine to clouds to heavy showers in a very short period of time.  As I've been saying for days now, there is still no decisive and definitive departure of lingering tropical moisture expected during the next few days at least.  That means we have to remain prepared for rapid changes and deterioration of conditions, despite some sunny starts to our days.

I'm watching with great interest the extended range computer model data, which has been showing hints of a more significant retreat of monsoon moisture, along with a stabilizing atmosphere as we move into the middle of next week.  Right now I'd say there is a possibility of an ON TIME withdrawal declaration of Monsoon 2014 during the next week to ten days or so...