Wednesday, June 8, 2016

temperamental and moody... (pm.08.jun.16)>

Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 62.8F (17.1C) -- during rain/hail @ 3:50pm
High temp: 78.8F (26.0C)
Rainfall: 0.82" (2.1cm) 
*all updated @ 8:05pm

Things are looking rather bright and feeling pleasant out there at the moment, with thundershowers having rapidly dissipated during the last hour or so.  The back-and-forth swings between clouds, sun, and showers/thunder/hail have been frequent and numerous today.  The clouds and sun were battling it out all morning, but it wasn't until shortly after noon that there was a little thunder, along with just some spotty sprinkles of rain.  More substantial showers kicked in right around 2:00pm, with the heavier downpours and short periods of small hail mainly between about 3:30 and 5:00pm.  But even then, we had peeks of sunshine.  Definitely a jumbled mess.  Humidity was up -- averaging just above 50%, while temperatures were down -- the first time I've recorded a high temp below 80ºF (27ºC) since the 30th of May.

Today was the fourth day in a row, and the fifth out of the last six, with measurable rainfall.  Our atmospheric components are obviously in a major state of flux, as the moisture content of this June air mass increases, in conjunction with the strong heating associated with the approach of the summer solstice.  Extremely hot air not far at all downhill from us (96ºF/36ºC in Gaggal, for example) is being lifted upward along the mountain slopes after just a few hours of daytime heating, and condensed into rapidly building cumulus, which in turn become cumulonimbus (thunderheads).  Whatever semblance of stability that the models were hinting at during this latter part of the week may not materialize at all -- so be aware of the good chance of more of this off-and-on, hit-and-miss thundershower development.

Even with the shower threat, there will still be some periods of steamy sunshine.  If we can cobble together a few hours in a row of that, then temps will still have no trouble rising well into the 80s(F)/near 30ºC.  With the increased humidity of late, our mugginess factor is and will be on the rise.

THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK is located on a tab above, and you can also follow this year's delayed monsoon advance on the SUMMER INTO MONSOON tab.