Monday, March 9, 2015

milder air to arrive... (pm.09.mar.15)>

Monday's stats:

Low temp: 35.2F (1.8C)
High temp: 47.6F (8.7C)
Precipitation since 7:00am: 0.42" (1.1cm)
Storm total: 1.90" (4.8cm)

Just a few clouds dot the sky at sunset this evening, after a gorgeously sunny late afternoon and evening.  There was some very welcome sunshine this morning, but clouds thickened again during the early afternoon, leading to a rather rambunctious round of thundershowers between about 2:30 and 3:45pm which produced more of that small hail and sleet that we've seen so much of this month.  Bright sunshine reappeared around 4:00pm, as we finally were able to say goodbye to this storm system that's been with us for the past 48 hours.  Temperatures are running about 16F/9C below normal for the date.

March has been extremely wet, stormy, and cold up til now, but there are some positive trends showing up.  Our recent storm system is now a thing of the past, as a ridge of high pressure aloft is already aggressively trying to build into northern India in its wake.  Temperatures throughout all layers of the atmosphere will be on their way upward during the next two or three days -- but unknown factors concerning some mainly high cloud development may keep us from fully taking advantage of that warm-up.  Nevertheless, we should be able to enjoy the mildest temperatures of this month so far... between tomorrow and Friday.

There will be a broad trough of low pressure easing in from the west by the end of the week, however.  That's going to bring us an increasing chance of at least some scattered rain shower activity over the weekend, while stopping our warming trend dead in its tracks.  There is really no definitive turn to a long-term drier/warmer scenario in our near future, I'll have to say.

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