Author: Art Rangno

Retiree from a group specializing in airborne measurements of clouds and aerosols at the University of Washington (Cloud and Aerosol Research Group). The projects in which I participated were in many countries; from the Arctic to Brazil, from the Marshall Islands to South Africa.

Toad’s night out; 0.93 inches

What a superb rain that was here in Cat land!  The early signs, which I pointed out to a friend well before it happened, fully developed, “behemothic” Cumulonimbus capillatus incus clouds before noon.    Take a look at some of the early “warning” developments.  I included a baby Cumulonimbus capillatus cloud just for the heck… Continue reading Toad’s night out; 0.93 inches

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Part of a rainshaft downspout pushed out into the sun.

Rain dump truck; 0.73 inches

As per my photographic niche, I began to capture some promising bottoms of clouds yesterday afternoon around 2 PM.  The first shot shows a promising cloud (so-so sized Cumulus congestus) drifting westward over Mt. Sara Lemmon.  The next shots show the progression in the appearance of the bottom (my specialty) before the dump truck was… Continue reading Rain dump truck; 0.73 inches

Thunder-rooskie

With a thunderstorm at 7 AM LST yesterday mainly toward Saddlebrooke, you may have thought, “What a thundery day this will be!  It will be like Cherrapunji during the Indian-Bangladesh monsoon season when it rains and thunders all day and inches of rain pile up!” And of course, it wasn’t going to be like that… Continue reading Thunder-rooskie

Drops away!

As a photographer, you like to develop a niche.  My niche, of course, if you follow this site, is gray matter overhead, an amorphous, gray balls.  Now yesterday was a great day for adding something to my collection since a Cumulus base, one that was clearly headed for better things than just being a Cumlus… Continue reading Drops away!

Everywhere but here

What a great cloud day yesterday was with thunder on the Catalina Mountains by 10 AM. It seemed so promising for a major rain here in Catalina. But no, shafts to the left, shafts to the right. In fact, we were “surrounded” on three sides by shafts at times, but only residuals of those shafts… Continue reading Everywhere but here

Promising fizzle

  If you looked outside to the south and upwind of Catalina later yesterday afternoon, after a disappointing day of Cumulus development over the Cat Mountains, you saw this behemoth of a top protrude out of a mass of cirriform clouds beyond Pusch Ridge.   Excitement begins.  Can it hold up long enough to reach… Continue reading Promising fizzle

Sprouts, and not much more

Here they are, reflecting the heat island of Mt. Lemmon yesterday, repeated narrow surges of heat and cloud sprouting upward, and only one reaching the level where ice formed, and a little snow fell out–second photo.  Go here to the U of A fubball-practicing Wildcats Atmospheric website to see the whole interesting sequences of pulses… Continue reading Sprouts, and not much more

11 (hundredths)

While we would have liked to have had our rain amplifier turned up to more than 11, as Nigel Tufnel might say, but we got this amount out of an unusual situation in which you often miss rain.  The cloud that did it formed virtually overhead and rained itself out without moving.  Best dump of… Continue reading 11 (hundredths)