Monday, May 25, 2015

heat streak continues... (am.25.may.15)>

We have a hazy sky at sunrise this morning, with just a few clouds lingering around.  For the second night in a row we had a bout of thundershowers which produced a lot more thunder and gusty winds than actual rainfall.  In fact, my rain gauge is barely wet at the bottom -- so there's no measurable precipitation to report.  Currently, the temperature is a balmy 72F (22C), but we did bottom out at 66.7F (19.3C) during a thundery episode around 3:00am.

It's been above 80ºF/27ºC for the last seven days in a row, and it certainly doesn't look like that streak is going to come to an end anytime soon.  But this is the time of year for it -- and it's usually the third week of June before our temperatures begin trending downward for the long haul, as we start easing into the monsoon season.  There could be some temporary relief in the form of a period of thundershowers -- and that possibility will exist again today into tonight.  Some upper-level energy and a minor pool of moisture have been teaming up to ignite at least isolated thundershowers during the PM into the overnight hours the last couple of days, but then temperatures have been rebounding very quickly thereafter.

Our air mass should be generally stable between Tuesday and Friday, but even then we can't rule out an isolated PM thundershower popping up at some point during the late afternoons or evenings.  Otherwise, there should be plenty of summer sunshine, as our temps top out very close to 90ºF/32ºC.  Of course it remains a lot hotter than that just downhill from us...

Check out THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK on the tab at the top of the page.