Friday, July 31, 2015

a late july surge... (pm.31.jul.15)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 63.5F (17.5C)
High temp: 69.0F (20.6C)
24-hour rainfall: 4.42" (11.3cm) -- as of 7:55pm

Ahhhh.... home sweet home.  I just arrived back in McLeod this morning -- just in time to be a part of the largest 24 hour rainfall total of this monsoon season.  Most of it occurred during the overnight hours, as has been the trend recently, but we've had a good amount of mainly light to moderate rain off and on during the day as well.  The heavy rainfall totals of these last couple of days of July will allow us to end the month very close to normal/average, after a rather sluggish start.  If you haven't already been following along, you can keep tabs on a running total of this monsoon's rainfall by checking the MONSOON 2015: RAINFALL TALLY tab at the top of the page.  My very astute weathergeek deputy (who wishes to remain anonymous, I think) did an impressive job monitoring the rain gauge in my absence!

We're getting into the 'middle of the middle' of the monsoon season, as far as historical averages are concerned, so it's no surprise that we've had so much rain the last couple of days, along with an atmosphere that remains very close to the saturation point (90-100% humidity).  The upper-level pattern is basically featureless, as the subtle nuances of a tropical weather pattern dominate most of the Indian subcontinent.  This will keep surges of deep tropical moisture lapping up against the mountains, and weak disturbances in the mid- and upper levels of the atmosphere drifting through the area.  There are hints of some kind of a break in the action towards the middle of next week, but if that does occur, it shouldn't last more than a few days.

Remember, the average date of monsoon withdrawal here in our area isn't until around the 15th - 18th of September, so we are stuck with this for another seven weeks.  Might as well get used to it.