Thursday, May 21, 2015

rare stability... (pm.21.may.15)>

Thursday's stats:

Low temp: 65.8F (18.8C)
High temp: 86.9F (30.5C)
Rainfall: none

It's one of those rare evenings around here when we have almost totally clear skies as the sun drops toward the western horizon.  There was only a moderate amount of cumulus development over the mountains for a few hours between the late morning and late afternoon, with no showers or thundershowers popping up.  That allowed the sunshine to be pretty much unhindered all day long -- providing us with the third warmest day of 2015.

The infinite amount of variables comprising the character of the atmosphere on a given day creates a situation in which perfect stability is indeed a rarity.  But today has come close.  There's obviously been very little conflict between temperatures in different layers of the atmosphere, and not enough moisture in this air mass to be lifted and condensed into very much cloudiness during the PM hours.  It looks like we might get away with the same kind of calm stability tomorrow (Fri), as our temperatures remain close to, or even a degree or two above average for this time of year.

We do have to keep an eye on some potential changes between Saturday and Monday, however, as some cooling aloft overruns this very warm air in the surface layers, leading to the return of some instability.  The risk of some scatttered mainly late afternoon through late evening shower/thunder activity will increase on Saturday, and continue on Sunday and Monday as well.  Those potential showers will be isolated to scattered -- and probably won't deliver more than minor amounts of rainfall.  Dry and seasonably warm conditions are expected again by Tuesday of next week...

Various tabs at the top of the page show more information about our general climate here in McLeod, along with THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK.