Monday, October 24, 2016

friendly autumn conditions... (pm.24.oct.16)>

Monday's stats:

Low temp: 56.5F (13.6C)
High temp: 67.3F (19.6C)
Rainfall: none

There's a little bit of haze in the air, otherwise we have clear skies as dusk transitions to darkness this evening.  The cloud build-up along the Dhauladhars made me a little nervous early this afternoon, as it almost looked like there could be some shower development not far uphill for an hour or two.  But those clouds began dissipating by around 3:00pm or so, and it was totally clear again by the time the sun hit the western horizon.  Other than that little interruption, we had another day featuring plenty of autumn sunshine, with humidity hovering a few points either side of 40%.

A fairly impressive amount of energy is rushing by in the upper-level flow right now, as the jet stream dips further southward than it has so far this season.  With colder air aloft and all that dynamic energy, we could be getting some shower and thundershower activity around here -- but a very limited moisture supply is keeping that from happening.  In fact, except for the very lowest levels of the atmosphere, this air mass is bone-dry, as it normally is from mid-October into at least mid-December.  It should stay that way, pretty much as far as the eye can see, so our precipitation potential will remain very small.

It's been interesting this month to watch the thermometer, as it so slowly and gradually dips lower and lower day by day.  It's obviously become quite a bit cooler during the evenings into the very early morning hours, and even with the sunshine, daytime temps are slipping incrementally as the month progresses.  But still, it is very mild and comfortable, compared to what we'll have to deal with by Christmastime through January into mid-February...

Lots of other information can be found on tabs above, including THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK.