Sunday, June 7, 2015

sun, thunder, warmth... (pm.07.jun.15)>

Saturday's stats:

Low temp: 59.9F (15.5C)
High temp: 82.0F (27.8C)
Rainfall: 1.05" (2.7cm)

There are some leftover clouds sprawled along the Dhauladhars this evening -- residuals from this afternoon's thundershower action.  Otherwise it's very pleasant as we watch the sun sink toward the western horizon.  Abundant sunshine this morning allowed our temps to warm quickly, with quite a lot of cloud development over the mountains by the noon hour.  By about 2:15pm there were some sprinkles of rain, and then a major downpour with thunder and some very small hail lasting from about 2:20 until 3:10pm.  It was only about 50 minutes -- but it was an impressive dumping nonetheless.  The sun returned quickly to provide us with a nice and comfortable late afternoon and evening.

We've had a lot of sunshine the last couple of days, along with temperatures which are moving back toward the normal range for the season.  However, those lingering pockets of colder air aloft have kept the atmosphere unstable during the afternoon hours over the mountains, so we've cashed in on the concern about PM thundershower development.  As June progresses, the likelihood of more significant shower activity begins to increase in advance of the monsoon.  Overall, our general weather pattern favors very warm and mostly dry conditions, but there is enough latent moisture in the air that we have to be on alert for thundershower development in the vicinity of the mountains on any given afternoon.  But like today, if we get a period of rain, the sunshine shouldn't be too far away.

Temperatures have been rising steadily the last three days, and should continue that trend as we head into the middle of the week.  It's a little unusual that we've failed to record a 90ºF (32ºC) temp this season, but I still think there's a chance of that happening this week.

Check tabs above for the forecast details, along with plenty of other info.