Monday, May 9, 2016

muggy for early may... (pm.09.may.16)>

Monday's stats:

Low temp: 64.8F (18.2C)
High temp: 77.9F (25.5C)
Rainfall: 0.09" (2mm) -- updated @ 8:05pm

It's cloudy, thunder is rumbling, and we have some random light sprinkles/showers of rain around the area this evening.  There was also a short period of rain showers during the 2 o'clock hour this afternoon -- but so far, the rainfall tally has been barely measurable.  Humidity was up into the 50-55% range today, with hazy sunshine this morning giving way to mostly cloudy skies by about 1:00pm.  Although it was still not even 80ºF/27ºC today, it's felt quite muggy and sticky with the rising humidity.

The latest satellite pics show a few clusters of thundershowers strung out along the Himalayas -- from Srinagar all the way to western Nepal.  They should be dissipating this evening as the sun sets and the atmosphere cools, however.  An expansive area of warm air in the upper-atmosphere is sprawled from the northern Arabian Sea into the northwest third of India, with a weak northwesterly flow aloft riding along the northern edge of it.  There is also a very impressive amount of moisture in this air mass, for this time of year, and it is going to be nudged up and along the foothills and ranges of the western Himalayas all week long.  With daytime heating and the help of some minor ripples in the upper-level flow, the stage is set for an increasing risk of at least scattered showers and thunderstorms during the coming several days -- with some heavy downpours possible on any given day, starting tomorrow.

It's definitely not normal to see this much moisture availability during the first part of May, so humidity will be running higher than we're used to experiencing this time of year.  Limited sunshine and the higher humidity are holding temps down a bit, but any spells of sun will keep the mugginess and sultriness in the air.

You can check forecast details all the way into early next week on THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK tab above.