Friday, May 27, 2011

showers around... (am.27.may.11)>

*update at 1:36pm... total rainfall since midnight = 0.50" (1.3cm).  thunder rumbling again now.

*update at 8:35am... i have a fresh 0.17" (4mm) of rain during the past 45mins or so.  moderate showers still in progress, but the fog has lifted, at least for now.

*update at 8:05am... since i posted an hour and a half ago, thick fog has rolled in, and we have some steady light to moderate rain showers in progress.  a massive area of showers covers much of himachal, moving very slowly to the east.  temp has dropped back to around 64F (17.8C).  it looks exactly like the middle of monsoon season out there at the moment!

(original early morning posting)...

it's cloudy and 69.5F (20.8C) just before sunrise this morning, with some light rain showers still scattered around the area.  we had a healthy round of thunderstorms move through between about 2:00 and 4:00am, which delivered exactly 0.20" (5mm) of rain here at the top of mcleod ganj.  i'm registering an overnight low temp of 64.2F (17.9C).

satellite photos show us directly underneath the latest in a series of upper-level disturbances moving through the western himalayan region... stirring up a fairly widespread area of showers and thunderstorms across punjab and himachal pradesh.  this activity will likely fizzle out this morning as it moves to the east, but we could see yet another round or two of showers and storms develop later today into this evening, after a little sunshine gets a chance to warm things up and destabilize the atmosphere again.

this system will have moved east of us by tomorrow... but a rather disturbed flow aloft is expected to continue through the weekend into next week.  this is very much a normal pattern for this time of year, with warming temps at the surface and just enough relatively colder air in the upper-levels to keep a chance of a thunderstorm in the forecast on just about any afternoon/evening...

FRIDAY: clouds alternating with a few peeks of sunshine.  not as warm, with scattered showers and thunderstorms in the area.
high: 24C (75F) *revised*

FRIDAY NIGHT: an evening thunderstorm possible... then becoming mostly clear overnight.
low: 19C (67F)

SATURDAY: sunny to partly cloudy skies.  slight chance of a PM thundershower.
high: 28C (83F)

SUNDAY: sunshine and a few clouds.  warm, with an isolated thunderstorm possible in the afternoon.
high: 28C (83F)

MONDAY: warm with lots of sun.  only a slight chance of a PM storm.
high: 29C (84F)

TUESDAY: sunny to partly cloudy... a better chance of a PM thunderstorm.
high: 29C (85F)