Tuesday, April 7, 2015

better days ahead... (pm.07.apr.15)>

Tuesday's stats:

Low temp: 47.5F (8.6C)
High temp: 58.1F (14.5C)
Rainfall since 7:00am: 0.12" (3mm)
24 hour rainfall: 0.30" (8mm)

The weather stinks.  It's cloudy this evening, with occasional light rain showers.  That has been the case virtually all day long -- a lot of cloudiness with off-and-on drizzle and light showers.  Rainfall amounts have been very minor, but there haven't been very many hours without something falling from the sky.  On top of that, our temperatures were even cooler than expected... on the order of 12-15ºF/7-8ºC cooler than normal for early April.

A weak but very broad circulation in the upper atmosphere extends from northern Pakistan into northern India at this hour, with a pool of air in the upper-levels that is ridiculously cold for this time of year.  Slightly warmer air to our south has been trying to creep northward, but as it comes underneath that cold air aloft, it immediately condenses into clouds and showers.  This scenario is one of the hazards of the spring season around here, and it can only be solved by an intrusion of warmer air moving in aloft.

That is indeed what should be happening during the coming 24 to 36 hours... so it's still looking like we will see some major improvement kicking in during the day on Wednesday, and especially by Thursday.  We've been looking forward to this for several days, so I certainly hope things progress without too much difficulty.  There will still be periods of showers and perhaps a thundershower or two overnight -- with the risk of a couple of showers tomorrow (Wed) as well.  But I do think the sun will do a better job at presenting itself, allowing us to warm up a few degrees.

Thursday and Friday are looking much much better, as warmer air throughout all layers of the atmosphere pushes into our neighborhood.  There are some questions marks on Saturday and Sunday, in the form of some mainly afternoon/evening thundershower development, but even so, our temps should be much closer to normal for the season.

Details can be found on THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab above.