Wednesday, January 8, 2014

under-performance... (pm.08.jan.14)>

*Update @ 8:22pm... We have totally cloudy skies, with a temp of 42.4F (5.8C) and a humidity reading of 57%.  There is still no precipitation (rain/snow) happening here at our elevation, despite the impressive-looking satellite pics, and the upper-level system over northern Pakistan. (?)

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Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 41.0F (5.0C)
High temp: 48.4F (9.1C)
Precipitation: trace

At sunset this evening it is mostly cloudy.  And it is not raining.  Or snowing.  There have been some heavy snow showers up along the Dhauladhars off and on since early this morning, but down here in McLeod, we've only had a couple of brief flurries of snow (mid-morning), a couple of periods of drizzle and sprinkles of rain, and a brief rain shower during the early afternoon.  That's it.  Despite the cloud cover which persisted during about 98% of the day, the significant rain has obviously not materialized.

There is a mature comma-shaped storm system which shows up nicely on satellite pics this evening, with its circulation center now located over eastern Afghanistan.  So far it appears that nearly all the precipitation with this system has been in the form of snow -- in the higher mountain elevations across the western Himalayan region.  Low-level moisture has been desperately lacking -- unlike with the two previous storm systems this winter -- and that has kept rain/snow development from occurring below about 7500ft (2300m).  Of the few different computer model projections, they are ALL showing at least 1cm (0.50") of rain and/or melted snow in our immediate area by tomorrow morning (one model showing much more), so I guess we get to wait a few more hours and see if we can somehow get this storm to produce something for us!

The other factor in play involves the secondary upper-level disturbance which is now located over the middle of the Caspian Sea, and could end up becoming a stronger dynamic circulation than this first one.  It will arrive on Friday and linger into Saturday morning, bringing very cold air aloft which will generate enough instability for some potentially significant rain/sleet/snow shower activity at the start of the weekend.

It's Himalayan winter weather at its unpredictably finest -- and it's driving me insane.  I'll do my best to update according to the latest computer model data/technology vs the ground truth realities.

CURRENT FORECAST info is located on the tab at the top of the page.