Tuesday, September 27, 2011

firmly stuck... (am.27.sep.11)>

the sun is shining early this morning... a consistent feature of the hour or two or three right after sunrise on every morning of the past week.  humidity is a bit higher than the past few days, at 80%, and we've had an overnight low temp of 60.6F (15.9C).  there has been 0.09" (2mm) of rain during the past 24 hours, almost all of that came yesterday afternoon just before 2:00pm.

well, this is our first full day being officially free of monsoon 2011, but i don't think it's going to make much difference.  i will be very surprised if we see any dramatic improvement over our recent scenario, which has been characterized by morning sunshine giving way to clouds by mid-day, and then a period of clouds and thick fog during the late afternoon and evening hours... with even a random thundershower or two roaming the landscape.

there are certain times of the year when "micro-climates" rule all along the himalayan chains... and the dhauladars are infamous for that, since they mark the sharp boundary between the extremes of the indian plains to the south-southwest and the high mountain environments further north and east.  these days we are simply victims of the effects of the lingering moisture that remains trapped all along the foothills and front ranges of the himalayas.  it only takes a couple of hours of morning sun to start the condensation process... leading to the clouds, fog and isolated showers.  it is looking more and more like we need another strong upper-level disturbance from central asia to sweep through here and clean things out... but there appears to be nothing like that on the horizon yet.

TUESDAY: partly sunny this morning, mostly cloudy by noon, with a brief, random thundershower possible during the PM.
high: 22C (72F)

TUESDAY NIGHT: clouds, fog and a lingering shower this evening, then clearning after sunset.
low: 16C (61F)

WEDNESDAY: a good amount of morning sun, then becoming mostly cloudy.  slight chance of a PM shower.
high: 23C (73F)

THURSDAY: mostly sunny in the morning, partly cloudy in the afternoon.
high: 23C (73F)

FRIDAY: partly to mostly sunny skies.
high: 23C (73F)

SATURDAY: morning sunshine, with some afternoon clouds.
high: 22C (72F)