Monday, July 4, 2016

sun loses the battle... (pm.04.jul.16)>

Monday's stats:

Low temp: 64.2F (17.9C)

High temp: 75.1F (23.9C)
Rainfall: 1.20" (3.0cm) -- thru midnight

At the moment we're enveloped in very thick fog, with visibility less than about 50m where I am in the middle of town.  It's a far cry from what we were enjoying early this morning, with almost full sunshine until about 9:00am when the cloud development got going.  Rainfall today, so far, has been confined to just a few periods of mainly light showers between about 12:15pm and 2:30pm, and again a few sprinkles during the last half hour or so.  Humidity was as low as 69% during mid-morning, but has risen above 90% again this evening.


We got our little respite, but those are usually relatively short-lived this time of year -- and I know we are all very thankful for the hours of dry weather and sunshine that we can manage to scrape together.  The weather pattern this week is not what I would call an intense monsoon pattern, but there is a moderate degree of elements in place to keep us in and out of showers/downpours, with no day allowing guarantees of no rain.  I meticulously comb through all the computer model data twice a day, but I can honestly tell you that the models are little or no help this time of year, as the tropical soup interacting with the elevation gradient along the mountains often produces significant rains totally overlooked by models - OR - squashes development projected by the models. It can go either way.  That's why we just have to roll with it and be constantly on guard and prepared for rapid changes and sudden showers.


As I mentioned a few days ago, our temps have already settled into an early monsoon season rhythm, and won't vary more than about 8-12ºF (5-7ºC) from day to night.  Personally, the pleasant/comfortable temps are what I like most about this time of year...


It's time to post, but I will say that the rain has picked up again in the last ten minutes or so, which should boost our rainfall total for the day.  Check back for updates tonight.