Saturday's stats:
Low temp: 34.3F (1.3C)
High temp: 40.2F (4.6C)
Precipitation since midnight: 1.70" (4.3cm)
Precipitation since Fri morning: 3.19" (8.1cm)
SNOWFALL: 0.8" (2.0cm)
*precip amounts updated thru midnight
*precip amounts updated thru midnight
Those are a lot of statistics to take in, but it's been that kind of weekend. We've had a very large amount of precipitation since early Friday morning -- and with the rule-of-thumb that one inch of rain is equal to ten inches of snow, it's a straightforward calculation to see that there has been close to 30 inches (2 and a half feet) of snow up-mountain from us, where temps have been cold enough to keep the precip entirely in frozen form.
Here in McLeod, we stayed just a bit too warm today -- even though it's been the coldest day of the season -- to allow the few hours of beautiful snow to translate into any actual accumulation. I had about a half inch of slush on my terrace and on tree branches at my location in the upper part of town, with reports of around 4-5 inches of snow in the Dharamkot area. But, in the main market of McLeod, it was just wet wet wet, despite the big snowflakes during the early afternoon.
The deep low pressure system responsible for this wintry weather is still located over northern Pakistan, due west of Srinagar. As it very slowly wobbles east overnight and Sunday, it will weaken, and moisture availability will gradual diminish. Still, if temps dip a bit lower overnight into Sunday morning, we still have a chance of getting a few inches of snowfall here in town.
Further ahead, quieter and brighter conditions are expected next week, though there will be some afternoon instability caused by lingering very cold air in the upper-levels of the atmosphere. Temperatures should be not far from normal/average -- keeping the winter chill around.
