Friday, March 22, 2013

weekend action... (pm.22.mar.13)>

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After two weeks "out of station", as they say, I am back in McLeod and excited to get back on top of our weather situation.  After checking my automated thermometers, I was surprised to see that temperatures never warmed up much more from what we were already experiencing during the first week or so of the month.  Between the night of 8 March and the morning of 22 March I recorded a low of 45.3F (7.4C), and a high of 70.0F (21.1C).  That low temp most likely occurred during the rainy spell between Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

Today, the sunshine during the first half of the day boosted our high temp up to 68.7F (20.4C) -- but that is just a shade lower than normal for this stage of March.  We've had thickening clouds during the afternoon, and it remains mostly cloudy as we approach sunset this evening.

A period of active weather is on the way this weekend, thanks to a sprawling upper-level disturbance which is currently centered well to our west over northern Afghanistan.  It looks like this system will be gradually shifting eastward between now and Monday morning, further destabilizing our atmosphere and bringing us increasing chances of some showers and thundershowers.  Right now, the best rain chances appear to be from Saturday night through Sunday night, with amounts in the neighborhood of 3cm (1.2") possible.

Although there should be some improvement starting on Monday, the weather pattern is expected to remain on the unsettled side through most of next week.  That means we'll continue to see alternating sun and clouds, along with a chance of some random thundershowers, mainly during the afternoons.  Temperatures should be balancing out below normal for the season.

Your updated CURRENT FORECAST can be found on the tab above.