It was a wet afternoon and evening Thursday in Mammoth with moderate to heavy rain in many areas that continued into the night.  Mammoth at the Village picked up .32 of an inch of rain while the Mammoth AP picked up .41.  Bishop’s precipitation was the most noteworthy with precipitation totals of 1.44 inches for 48 hour amounts for the days of July 11th and 12th. Not only was this a record for the dates but the consecutive two days combined were the wettest two days in any Summer at the Bishop Airport in 120+ years.

Fridays forecast is problematic as the sky’s are over developed this morning. This means that unless we get a few good hours of sunshine, the possibility of heavy rain is greatly diminished. So here we have a situation where areas of heavy rain will be focused only in areas where there is ample sunshine that creates good heating as there will not be much movement in the storms today.

High temps will be in the 70s today with lows in the 50s. If we do not get any meaning full sunshine today Friday, highs may only get into the 60s.

Focusing upon the synoptic pattern;  shows the beginning of a drying trend Saturday through Tuesday with Tuesday being a dry sunny warmer day with no precip in the forecast. Even through dew points are expected to be on the wane the next few days, added sunshine and heating may give a boost to rainfall, although lighter amounts. This would be especially true Saturday before enough dry air gets in the mix. Sunday and Monday shows just a chance or a slight chance of thunderstorms….Tuesday looks dry and warm.

 

Longer Range: Period 19th through 24th

High pressure will begin strengthening Sunday and especially Monday and Tuesday. However, over the central and southern part of the state, this will also act to suppress convection over the Eastern Sierra while temperatures soar to the mid 80s at resort levels and 105 in Bishop by Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Global Forecast System has the continental high strengthening to the east of Eastern California near the 4-corners states by Wednesday night. there is a good chance that the gates will open once again for Monsoon Moisture and Airmass Modification beginning Wednesday night and especially Thursday and Friday. This would redevelop a thunderstorm pattern once again prior to the following weekend. Thereafter, the GFS global model builds a 600+DM upper high at 500MB over the four corners states with the possibility of deep moisture.  With its outlook for the 600DM ISO height at 500MB pushing well into Southeast CA, extreme heat would develop again for Southern California Sunday or Monday and into Tuesday, around the 23rd of July. This pattern may bring a return of the 115 degree heat many inland valleys near the Downtown LA with 110 possible just inland from the coast..  Note: This is just an outlook and is subject to change this far out.

 

Dr Howard and the DWEEBS…………………..:-)