Daily update- Wednesday, January 6, 2016

NWPAC outlook, 06 JAN

Icy cold hangs on in the north, while it cools down just a bit in the central as well. The south keeps cranking out the heat, and the tropics are warm and muggy, but quiet.

NORTH

Icy chill stays put today in, Mongolia, portions of northernmost China, and eastern Russia as cold high pressure settles into the region. In fact, another push of Siberian air is making its way into Mongolia today, and will reinforce the deep freeze over the northernmost portions of the region over the next few days. Areas to the south are warming up slightly, but it’s only in word, and certainly not in “feel”. Areas north of a line from Seoul to Beijing to the province of Inner Mongolia will find it difficult to get above the freezing mark today, while locations in the extreme north can forget about it altogether. This is good news for the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, which kicked off yesterday.

Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival

There’s plenty of cold air in place to make certain the sculptures stick around through the festival. Clouds will be plentiful in Tokyo and a few sea effect rain showers could fall along shoreline prefectures of the Sea of Japan. Cooler weather, as well as clouds and rain, will be served up in parts of central and eastern China as moisture combines with a stalled frontal system lingering nearby.

CENTRAL

A fetch of moisture is interacting with a stalled frontal system near Taiwan today, helping conjure up a few clouds, showers, and occasional patches of heavier rain, across Taiwan, southern China, and northern Indochina. Temperatures will hold mostly steady across the region, with cooler temps where the rain falls, and warmer ones where the sun shines. The mid-range forecast shows many days of rain ahead for locations in the central region, as another push of cooler air makes its way into the region next week.

SOUTH

Hot temperatures stay locked in for residents of the southern region today with an average high temperature of 32.2C (90F). Humidity levels are a tad bit lower in the Philippines and eastern Indochina with the seasonal northeast monsoon in place, but this “mixed-bag” monsoonal feature also tends to bring in weak pulses of tropical energy occasionally. Some mid-level moisture is moving through the area to the east, but a stable regimen above and below is keeping the convection suppressed. At the surface, drier air is in place, so we are getting some very comfortable nights, followed by torridly hot days. That trend will continue today across the south, with northern locales seeing mostly fair skies and spotty clouds, while locations in Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia will see ample moisture available for thunderstorms to fire up in the afternoon heating.

TROPICS

Heat and humidity continues to settle in across most of the tropics, with the more northerly locations of the Marianas and Wake Island seeing conditions a bit drier and cooler at times due to continental intrusions. Guam will see a few showers today, but will join Wake as the coolest spot in the tropics. Weather is improving in the eastern Marshall Islands and central Micronesia, but one moderate ripple of energy is tracking slowly to the west in eastern Micronesia, along the I.T.C.Z. (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone), affecting the Marianas and portions of Micronesia. Everyone else will see scattered clouds and plenty of sunshine.

Have a great Wednesday!!

Courtesy: CIMSS, HKO, Tropical Tidbits, Intellicast, Weather.com, MeteoEarth