Wednesday, April 15, 2015

a period of variability... (am.15.apr.15)>

We have a clear sky at dawn this morning, though it is still quite hazy.  I'm recording a low temp of 56.5F (13.6C), and there has been no precipitation overnight.

There were a few brief sprinkles of rain scattered around the area for a little while yesterday afternoon, but it was not nearly enough to register a measurement in the rain gauge.  That made six days in a row without measurable rainfall.  We've had to deal with extensive haze and patches of low cloudiness for the past couple of days, however, due to unseasonably warm air in the upper atmosphere lying on top of relatively cooler air closer to the surface.  That phenomenon is known as an inversion, and it has robbed us of the kind of nice sunshine we enjoyed for several days previously.

Our weather pattern is much better than it was for about 11-12 days in a row back at the very end of March and early April, but we're still not totally free and clear and worry-free.  In fact, computer models are showing the potential for a couple of periods of showers and/or thundershowers both today (Wed) and Thursday, in the midst of a mix of sun and clouds.  The risk of rain seems to drop again for most of the weekend, but then an upper-level disturbance easing in from the west-northwest will re-introduce a fairly good chance of some shower and thundershower action by Sunday night, lasting through Monday.

Temperatures the last couple of days have slipped back below normal, though not too unpleasantly cool.  All the models are showing a significant warming trend kicking in again as we progress into the weekend -- though we're going to need to come up with a better percentage of sunshine to get back into the 70-75ºF/21-24ºC range.

Check THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab above for forecast details.