Sunday, March 8, 2015

still under the gun... (pm.08.mar.15)>

Sunday's stats:

Low temp: 36.9F (2.7C) 
High temp: 53.2F (11.8C)
Precipitation since 7:00am: 0.50" (1.3cm)
24 hour precipitation: 0.82" (2.1cm)
*updated 9:50pm

It's cloudy at dusk this evening, and there are a few sprinkles of rain around the area.  We've had a lot of variability in conditions today -- with much more sunshine than expected during the morning into the early afternoon, followed by a turn to overcast skies, some thunder, and brief light rain showers as we moved into the mid- to late afternoon hours.  Winds have been very strong and gusty on occasion throughout the day.

The main brunt of this latest storm system may be yet to arrive, with the upper-level low pressure circulation now centered just west of us, to the northwest of Lahore, Pakistan.  Rain and thunderstorm development was not nearly as widespread as computer models were projecting today, but satellite pics this evening are showing rapid development to our south and west, which will likely impact us overnight.  Strong dynamic energy, very cold air aloft, and a moderate amount of moisture being pulled up against the mountains should team up to give us a potentially very stormy night.  Temperatures will fall further during the coming 12 hours as well... keeping the risk of some frozen forms of precipitation (small hail and sleet) in the forecast through Monday morning.

Rain chances should gradually diminish by Monday afternoon, and I think we'll see that risk totally come to an end after dark.  A rapidly developing ridge of high pressure will then dominate our weather pattern on Tuesday and Wednesday, triggering a significant warm-up that will still, unfortunately, not get us up to the kind of temperature readings we should be experiencing this time of year.  But it will be at least a step in a positive direction.  More instability and unsettledness enters the picture again by late Thursday or Friday -- but at this point it's not looking like a significant storm system.

Keep up with the forecast specifics on THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab above.