*Update @ 8:43pm... I now have 0.90" (2.3cm) for the day. It has been raining moderately all evening, with a few minutes of heavy rain thrown in now and then. Not sure our over-saturated ground can handle too much more of this. The big gully near my house is running heavily right now.
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Wednesday's stats:
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Wednesday's stats:
Low temp: 62.4F (16.9C)
High temp: 67.9F (19.9C)
Rainfall: 0.58" (1.5cm) -- as of 7:30pm (updated)
There are light to moderate rain showers in the area this evening, with thick cloud cover and some patchy fog. We've had much less rain today than yesterday, and it didn't even really get going until after 2:30pm. In fact, although it was mostly cloudy, we had zero fog until about 1:00pm, as humidity dipped to about 85%. For this time of year, we could call that a 'reprieve'! It has been getting cooler by increments recently -- today's high temp was the coolest I've recorded since I returned here on the 15th of last month.
A lot of people have been talking about whether or not we might have an early withdrawal of monsoon conditions this year, since the arrival/onset was more than 2 weeks early. An early arrival does not necessarily ensure an early departure, and extended range data is not reliable enough to tell us what might be happening a month from now. September 15th or so is the historical average for monsoon withdrawal from Himachal Pradesh, but surprisingly, we've had withdrawal dates later than that each and every year since 2005. Check this link from the IMD site to see their official monsoon page. Once you reach the page, look for 'Withdrawal' on the left-hand column to choose/click through the various years and see the maps for yourself. According to the law of averages, we are certainly due for an early withdrawal year -- so let's see if we get lucky in 2013.
Back to the near term... an upper-level disturbance is flirting with northern India right now, causing our upper-level winds to shift to more of a southwesterly direction. This is pumping moisture up against the mountains and keeping us susceptible to occasional downpours. I'm not seeing much of a change until early next week, when it looks like we could actually get a break for at least a couple of days in a row.
Details can be found on the CURRENT FORECAST tab above.
