Thursday, March 31, 2016

march bows out... (pm.31.mar.16)>

Thursday's stats:

Low temp: 59.4F (15.2C)
High temp: 73.9F (23.3C)
Rainfall: none

It's partly cloudy at sunset this evening -- we have a variety of low, mid-level and high clouds scattered across the area.  Once again we have achieved the highest temp of the season and the year, as the sunshine fought hard against occasional waves of mainly high clouds, and a moderate build-up of cumulus over the mountains during the afternoon.  There was no shower/thunder development in our immediate area today, though, unlike the isolated activity we've dealt with the last few days during the PM hours.

The biggest bubble of very warm air of this new spring/summer season is building across the heart of India right now.  We're on the northern fringes of that, with indications that it will seep northward up against the mountains during the next two or three days.  However, an upper-level disturbance organizing well to our northwest in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea will edge gradually eastward over the weekend, and will probably increase the prevalence of high cloudiness, while also keeping us flirting with at least a mentionable risk of some mainly afternoon/evening thundershowers.  Right now the models are showing the best chance of getting some significant rain shower and thunderstorm action between late Sunday and Monday.

All in all we are doing very well for this March-to-April transition period, with temperatures running a bit above normal, and no signs of any unseasonably cold weather in our future.  That's a far cry from what we were experiencing this time last year!  Check the archives (on the right column) if you're interested in seeing what was going on.

THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK has forecast specs, above.