Monday, August 22, 2016

poised on the brink, again... (pm.22.aug.16)>

Monday's stats:

Low temp: 66.2F (19.0C)
High temp: 75.0F (23.9C)
Rainfall: trace -- as of 5:20pm

The fog is extremely thick out there as I begin to type this evening, but there has been so much extreme variability between sun, clouds, fog, and very light rain showers/drizzle today -- who knows what might be happening by the time I get this posted.!  A major blast of sunshine early this morning boosted the high temp to 75ºF (24ºC) at my place in the upper part of town, but clouds and fog rapidly developed by the latter half of the morning, which led to occasional very light doses of rain during the afternoon and early evening hours.  Since mid-afternoon there has been a lot of shower and thundershower development across Himachal Pradesh, but as of this moment the heavier stuff has avoided us.

The vast array of data, and its advertisement of an increase in frequency and intensity of rain showers this week has so far failed to deliver -- at least here immediately on top of McLeod Ganj.  This is about the third time this monsoon season that we've had to sit on pins and needles waiting for the next significant surge of tropical moisture to manifest in heavier rainfall activity, and I have to admit it is not my favorite thing.  Still, all those models and all that data are pointing to a major increase in daily rainfall rates, effective immediately, and lasting through the weekend into early next week.  So we really could see the tables turn at any moment.

With less than two inches (5cm) of rain in the last week, the rain gauge is definitely very thirsty again.  Check tabs above for the AUGUST RAINFALL tally to see the numbers for yourself.