Wednesday, March 15, 2017

fickle and fluctuating... (pm.15.mar.17)>

Wednesday's stats:

Low temp: 45.1F (7.3C)
High temp: 55.9F (13.3C)
Precipitation: 0.06" (2mm)
*stats updated thru midnight

Our recent warming trend gained more ground this morning, under the influence of bright sunshine and blue skies, but high clouds began streaming in from the west around the noon hour, leading to a very gray and overcast afternoon, with temperatures dipping again.  Then, we've had some sprinkles and very light rain showers off and on this evening.  A day of variety, for sure.

A weak upper-level disturbance is responsible for the deteriorating weather conditions since mid-day, and will bring us a continuing risk of a few light rain showers overnight and on Thursday.  In fact, as we've been talking about the last few days, the overall pattern remains an agitated one, even though there are no major storm systems threatening.  That means we can get used to more fluctuations between sunshine and cloudiness, along with rain shower chances worth noting -- off and on -- all the way into Sunday and Monday.  Rainfall amounts should remain light when those showers do pop up.

Temperatures have risen slowly and steadily since last Sunday, but we're still not very close to normal for mid-March.  Extended range models are showing an impressive ridge of high pressure building across the India subcontinent by the middle of next week, however, and that gives us hope of experiencing our first real taste of springtime warmth this season.