Wednesday, March 30, 2016

characteristics of spring... (pm.30.mar.16)>

Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 55.8F (13.2C)
High temp: 72.6F (22.6C)
Rainfall: 0.07"  (2mm)

The sky is almost totally clear during this half-hour before sunset, at the end of a day featuring some extreme variability.  We've had the expected back-and-forth between sunshine and clouds throughout the day, but we have also had the expected random shower/thunder development along the front slopes of the Dhauladhars during the afternoon hours.  Actually it was touch-and-go for nearly two hours -- between 1:50 and about 3:45pm -- with a few periods of brief rain showers, rumbling thunder, and even a couple of brief episodes of hail.  The amount of water in my rain gauge was very small, but it was definitely a noticeable punctuation mark in the middle of the day.  There was enough sun working on this mild air mass to boost temps to yet another new high for the season and the year.

This fairly typical springtime weather is expected to continue as we close out March and move into April.  Our westerly flow aloft will tilt to a bit more of a southwesterly component as the weekend arrives, and that may give us more in the way of high clouds, while also ushering in an even warmer air mass.  The afternoon thundershower potential will remain with us right into the weekend as well... but any periods of rain will be short-lived.

Models are trying to show more of a widespread shower and thunderstorm scenario between late Saturday and Monday, as a stronger upper-level disturbance moves across the western Himalayas, just to our northwest.  But at this point it's still not looking like that impressive of a storm system.  Temps will probably cool off just slightly next week.

Forecast details for the coming week can be found on THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab at the top of the page.