Friday, March 24, 2017

aggressive warming ahead... (pm.24.mar.17)>

Friday's stats:

Low temp: 59.4F (15.2C)
High temp: 72.1F (22.3C)
Precipitation: trace

We're completing our third day in a row in which the high temperature has exceeded 70ºF/21ºC, though yesterday was just slightly warmer than it was today.  Once again we saw a lot of back and forth between sunshine and cloudiness, and also a very brief spell of thunder and some fleeting sprinkles of rain -- both occurring between about 2:00 and 3:00pm.  This evening at sunset we have mostly clear skies.

Temperatures since Wednesday have been a bit above normal, but we should be warming up even further over the weekend into about the middle of next week, as the huge ridge of high pressure across central India pokes northward again.  I think there is a chance we could even nudge the 80ºF/27ºC mark by Tuesday, which is a normal high temp for the very end of April or the first few days of May.  Our atmosphere will be generally stable until the latter part of the week... though a random/isolated PM thundershower is not impossible on any given day.  But really, it seems that the main theme of the coming five or six days will be UNSEASONABLE WARMTH, along with a variable mix of sunshine and mainly high clouds.

This evening's extended range data is showing some very frightening stuff for the first few days of April -- a strong upper-level storm system bringing in much cooler temps and an extended spell of wet weather.  Let's hope the models change their minds, as that's still quite a long way into the future...