Wednesday, October 9, 2013

some thunder... (am.09.oct.13)>

It is partly to mostly cloudy and hazy at sunrise this morning.  My temperature in the upper part of town is near 64F (17.8C), and the humidity 89%.  I started hearing thunder just after 3:00am, with some occasional thunder and lightning continuing until around 6:00am, but I never had more than a couple of drops of rain at my location.  According to the latest satellite pics, it looks like someone may have been hit hard in the northwestern quarter of Himachal, so let me know if it was you!  That trace of rain overnight leaves the 24 hour total at 0.09" (2mm).

The big ridge of high pressure which has been overhead since the latter part of the weekend is now showing signs of breaking down, and will have totally relinquished its grip by 48 hours from now.  The thundershower development during the early morning hours is a sign the atmosphere is starting to get more unstable, after several days in a row in which the moisture was trapped in the low-levels, providing us with lots of low clouds and fog, but only isolated shower activity.  Be aware of the potential for a round or two of more substantial thundershower action both today (Wed) and Thursday -- and I'm starting to think that risk could linger into Friday as well.

Computer models are now trending toward a significant reduction in the moisture content of the air across northwest India by late Friday, and especially into Sunday and Monday.  The upper-air flow is projected to shift to west-southwesterly, which is a classic 'drying-out' scenario for us.  Of course, we're all fed up with having our hopes dashed over and over again this year.... so we get to employ patience again as we watch to see if there might be some improvements on the horizon.

CURRENT FORECAST details are available on the tab at the top of the page.