Friday, May 13, 2016

summer variables... (pm.13.may.16)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 63.5F (17.5C)
High temp: 84.2F (29.0C)
Rainfall: none

Temperatures went crazy across the area today... warming very dramatically and much more aggressively than expected.  My high temp on Tushita Road just below the mountaineering center was just over 8ºF (4.5ºC) warmer than yesterday, and the warmest I've recorded since the 2nd of May.  We had nearly 100% sunshine all morning, though there was a respectable amount of cumulus development along the mountains during the mid-day and afternoon hours.  Humidity dropped significantly today as well, and fell to around 30% during the mid- to late afternoon.  As sunset approaches, it's partly cloudy.

But things may not be as calm and quiet as they appear.  Current satellite pics indicate a cluster of showers and thundershowers to our northwest, extending from extreme northeastern Pakistan through southwestern Jammu & Kashmir, and just now trying to cross into extreme northwestern Himachal.  With daytime heating coming to an end, these thundershowers could quickly fizzle out, but we stand a chance of catching a bit of that action later this evening.

Mid-summer heat is building across the heart of the Indian sub-continent, and it looks like we'll experience some of that ourselves during the next several days.  However, there's still some moisture remaining here along the mountain slopes, and also some upper-level energy rippling along the west-northwesterly flow aloft.  So -- we have to remain aware of the risk of a period of thundershowers at some point, even though it's going to be feeling summery again.

SUMMER INTO MONSOON (tab above) talks about our general weather scenario this time of year, and THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK has all the forecast details...