Tuesday, May 31, 2016

may ending nicely... (pm.31.may.16)>

Tuesday's stats:

Low temp: 61.0F (16.1C)
High temp: 83.4F (28.6C)
Rainfall: none

Just a couple of lingering cumulus clouds are hanging along the peaks of the Dhauladhars this evening, otherwise our sky is mostly clear.  It's been a fine finish to May -- a month which has featured all kinds of drama -- with sunshine and warming temps the dominant themes of the day.  The expected mid-day build-up of clouds along the mountains never turned into anything to be concerned about, as humidity dropped from just over 60% early this morning, to about 30% during the late afternoon.

Well, last evening the discussion centered on how a radically warmer air mass was going to interact with a bit of lingering moisture along the mountains as this week unfolded.  It seems we've sailed through with flying colors today, which is the first day of what should be a major warming trend.  The most immense high pressure ridge of the summer season is just now starting to develop and push into western India, and by the weekend should be sprawled from the Arabian Sea into central China.  Temperatures throughout all layers of the atmosphere will be on the increase, with relative warmth extending even into the upper-levels of the atmosphere.  This should be a stable situation across a wide area -- though there is always concern and anxiety, honestly, about the wild cards here along the outer ranges of the Himalayas.

Overall, we should see temps climbing day-by-day to their highest levels of the season and the year, but an increase in haze is likely by the end of the week as well, along with at least a slight chance of some rogue thundershower development somewhere along the mountain slopes, mainly during the afternoon hours.  Yes, it is the middle of our north India Himalayan summer, and it should definitely feel that way during the coming week or so.

The forecast for the first week of June can be found on THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab above, along with the finalized MAY DAILY STATS, which are quite interesting.