Tuesday, May 3, 2016

hoping for some rain... (pm.03.may.16)>

Tuesday's stats:

Low temp 68.5F (20.3C)
High temp: 76.2F (24.6C)
Rainfall: trace

Our sky remains mostly cloudy just before sunset this evening -- and we would have to categorize the entire day as 'mostly cloudy', with only the most fleeting glimpses of sun.  It's also been very smoggy, with low visibility throughout the day.  Due in large part to that lack of sunshine, there was very little movement on the thermometer, providing us with a cooler day -- the coolest in fact since the 24th of April.  I heard some faint rumbles of thunder just before 3:30pm, and then there were just a few sprinkles of rain between 3:30 and 4:00pm.

Our recent streak of unseasonably warm weather has obviously come to a dead halt, as a changing upper-level pattern and an influx of moisture join forces.  The main energy and circulation in the upper atmosphere is now over northwestern Afghanistan, and will wobble in our direction during the next 36 hours or so, before dissipating.  At the same time, we've got a fairly impressive blob of moisture from the Arabian Sea surging into northwest and northcentral India.  The risk of some scattered shower/thunder action is on the increase right now, but according to all the available info/data, it still looks like the rainfall will indeed be scattered and short-lived for the most part.  We're now on our tenth day in a row without measurable precipitation, the sky is full of dust and smoke and haze, so it would definitely be nice to get enough of a rain shower to clean things up and settle the dust.  Let's hope.

It's really hard to call the proportion of clouds to sun during the next several days, with such a disturbed air mass in place.  Temps will approach or surpass 80ºF/27.5ºC if we can get several hours of sun, but we'll be stuck significantly below that if the clouds don't break.  Looking further ahead, another building ridge of high pressure will probably usher in another big warm-up over the weekend...

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