Thursday, January 30, 2014

winter excellence... (am.30.jan.14)>

The sky is 100% clear at sunrise this morning.  I'm recording a low temp of 44.8F (7.1C), and there has been no precipitation overnight.  Humidity has been hovering in the 35-40% range.

We've now had a full seven days without so much as a drop of rain or a flake of snow or any trace of moisture of any kind -- and it looks likely that we'll finish out the month of January on this very dry note.  The upper-level flow is flat and devoid of any kind of significant disturbances, and it will stay that way for the next 48 to 60 hours or so.  Although there are no clouds whatsoever anywhere near us at the moment, we could see some patchy cloud development in the midst of the sunshine later today and/or tomorrow -- but probably not enough to spoil this run of very fine mid-winter weather.  Temperatures have been consistently above normal for the season, and will stay in that range as we transition into February.

I hear talk around town about winter being over, etc... and that always makes me wince this time of year.  It's a bit similar to hearing talk in late August about the monsoon being over.  We do have some significant changes lurking just around the corner that will return us to wet and colder weather by early next week.  A strong batch of upper-level energy will be dropping east-southeastward across the Caspian Sea and into Afghanistan and northern Pakistan between Saturday and Monday, and that's going to set the wheels in motion for storm development all across the western Himalayan region.  Currently it appears that our best chance of rain (with snow not far above) will occur between Sunday night and mid-day Tuesday.  I'm watching each new set of computer model data/projections as it comes in, and will keep you updated.

CURRENT FORECAST details can be found on the tab above.