Monday, March 3, 2014

the next downturn... (pm.03.mar.14)>

Monday's stats: 

Low temp: 39.7F (4.3C)
High temp: 52.5F (11.4C)
Precipitation: none

It is mostly cloudy this evening, at the end of the nicest day we've been able to enjoy since the middle of last week.  Apart from some occasional patches of high, thin cirrus clouds, there was lots of sunshine until the mid-afternoon, when the clouds began to thicken up.  Temperatures are still a far cry from normal for early March, but are at least milder than what we were dealing with over the weekend.

These clouds recently are associated with the next weather system which is going to put an end to our very brief respite.  An upper-level circulation over northern Afghanistan is going to move only slightly during the next couple of days -- drifting as far as northern Pakistan and northwest parts of Kashmir before dissipating.  The issue is... we still have a good amount of latent moisture in the atmosphere left over from our last storm system, while some milder air tries to push in from the south, and another batch of colder air attempts to sag southward.  All of that puts us in a potential battle zone for some shower development later tonight, all the way into Wednesday.

Computer models are keeping rainfall amounts considerably below what we've just experienced, but I think we could still get some periods of moderate rain before this system winds down by Wednesday evening.  Some thunder is also not out of the question, with yet more accumulating snows in the higher elevations to add to the massive snow pack up there already.

There are still hints of a fairly respectable warming trend by the end of this week, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like our air mass will dry out enough to give us a 'sure-thing' period of dry and sunny weather.  Even so, the way things are looking right now, there could at least be a bit of spring in the air by the weekend.

Check the CURRENT FORECAST details on the tab above.