Wednesday, July 16, 2014

the latest deluge... (am.16.jul.14)>

There was 4.15" (10.5cm) in my rain gauge when I checked it at about 6:50am -- but I'm sure that amount has increased significantly just in the past 20 minutes, since it continues to rain fairly heavily.  New development of heavy rain showers began very quickly between 9 and 10 o'clock last evening, and as far as I know, it has been raining for most of the night, with some intense thunder and lightning at times as well.  Otherwise it's cloudy and foggy early this morning as humidity hovers around 95%.  I'm recording an overnight low (and current temp) of 64.9F (18.3C).

Satellite images are showing a massive area of rain and thunderstorms covering nearly all of Himachal Pradesh, as well as the southwestern half of Jammu & Kashmir.  It looks like a lot of people are waking up to a deluge this morning.  We had about a 16 hour period of relatively calm and quiet weather yesterday, but we knew it wasn't going to last long.  This air mass is packed full of deep, rich, tropical moisture, and as it gets lifted against the mountain slopes, it's being wrung out right on top of us.

The best time frame for more waves of heavy rainfall will continue through Friday, with one computer model showing some impressive rains into Saturday as well.  There will probably be more breaks in the action from time to time, but conditions will remain favorable for these classic monsoon conditions to develop and redevelop for most of the remainder of this week.  Remember to be aware of the potential for some landslides and washed-out roads around the area!!

CURRENT FORECAST details are on the tab above.