Saturday, December 28, 2013

High Cloudiness Returns


The year 2013 is coming to an end here in southeastern Arizona with a whisper wrt the weather. We are reduced to watching the temperature and also cloudiness. The forecast may be for sunny skies today (Saturday, December 28th), but it looks like a band of high clouds from the eastern Pacific will move across the state today. This comes after 5 consecutive days during which the campus web cam didn't show even a hint of clouds. Above is the 7 am MST water vapor image from this morning, which shows a band of high clouds extending from an upper disturbance (at about 20 N and 140 W) northeastward across the western U.S.


The early run of the WRF-NAM at Atmo forecasts much diminished incoming solar radiation during the afternoon (graphic above is valid at 3 pm today) and enhanced outgoing long-wave radiation (below is OLR forecast valid at 5 pm MST). Both forecasts indicate a very distinct back edge to the band of high cloudiness.


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