Thursday, August 11, 2016

heaviest rain in two years... (pm.11.aug.16)>

Thursday's stats:

Low temp: 61.7F (16.5C)
High temp: 67.1F (19.5C)
Rainfall: 6.17" (15.7cm) -- updated @ 7:55pm

TODAY'S RAINFALL AMOUNT IS THE LARGEST DAILY TOTAL I'VE RECORDED THIS YEAR, AND LARGER THAN ANY DAILY TOTAL LAST YEAR AS WELL.

That's something remarkable, no doubt.  The heaviest rain came in two distinct doses -- the first was during the very early morning hours, just over an inch and a half (4.0cm), but the main show was the extended period of heavy to very heavy rain which gradually got going between 8:00 and 9:00am, and reached it's zenith between roughly 9:30am and 12:30pm.  During that 3-4 hour period, there was a little more than 4 inches (10cm) of rain deposited in my gauge in the upper part of town.  Lingering periods of showers throughout the afternoon added another half inch (1.2cm)+ to that mammoth total for the day.

If you're a regular reader, you know that we've been talking about LOWER daily rainfall rates since Monday, and according to all the model guidance and trends, that was supposed to continue into Saturday.  But all of that speculation and expectation got totally up-ended and demolished today, reminding us of the basic flaws in computer model data, while also humbling the meteorologist.  I couldn't have been more surprised by such a massive dumping of rain -- and it wasn't an isolated event either, as most of northwestern Himachal Pradesh was included in the action.

The model data is STILL showing lower daily rainfall totals through the weekend into early next week, but here in the very middle of the monsoon season there is obviously enough moisture around to translate into extremely heavy rains when the wind trajectories and the mountains slopes click just right.  But I think we are all very much in need of a break...

Follow the rainfall tally on tabs above, and compare those numbers to last year's monsoon if you have an obsession for stats.