Our last hope for rain in early Feb; a thin blue line (a 552 decameter one)

Blue, as in the 5520 meter height contour line as produced by a single run of the many NOAA GFS model re-runs with those little “perturbations” of the starting data.    Below, our only hope for rain here in Catalina is if the model run with a 552 decameter height contour over eastern Pacific across… Continue reading Our last hope for rain in early Feb; a thin blue line (a 552 decameter one)

Learning from clouds, or lack of them; and the storm ahead

You probably should go here for your Sutherland Heights forecasts, brought to you by that great weather provider,  Weather Underground1. Let’s begin with an exercise in excuses with this map from the Haight-Asbury District, aka, San Francisco State’s weather department, speaking of the 60s: What is interesting to cloud maven person, in looking back retrospectively… Continue reading Learning from clouds, or lack of them; and the storm ahead

A rainy, drizzly Catalina day; 0.69 inches in The Heights

Yesterday’s cold front packed a few more rain “calories” than expected….  Kind of wrecked my play on beer in yesterday’s blog title as a way of making fun of it, you know, “Front light”.    See rain amounts below. ————— But before that, a heads up:  1) More rain on way next week, at least a… Continue reading A rainy, drizzly Catalina day; 0.69 inches in The Heights

O, models, disappoint

Odile passed to the S and E of Cat land, leaving only 0.13 inches here in the Heights, the Sutherland ones.  Didn’t even get the half inch I hoped for.  Oh, well, we can be happy for the droughty areas of New Mexico that got the brunt of that tropical system as did portions of… Continue reading O, models, disappoint

Snowbirds may head back to Arizona as low temperature records fall in the eastern US in a few days

Forgetting about yesterday’s unforecast subdued afternoon convection hereabouts after about 1 PM), lets talk about the misery of others; the little crybabies that leave Arizona in the summertime, decimating its economy, so that they can be cooler and “happy” in northern climes (while dodging hail and tornadoes, we might add). Well, how about them birdies… Continue reading Snowbirds may head back to Arizona as low temperature records fall in the eastern US in a few days

A last WY rain adds to total; 0.17 inches in violent, short-lived morning storm

Our WY total has crested over 11 inches now.  Its at 11.08 inches for the water year ending on September 30th, still about 5.5 inches below normal with only dry days ahead.  Still it was nice to see a great thundersquall come through on the last day of the summer regime, though I was about… Continue reading A last WY rain adds to total; 0.17 inches in violent, short-lived morning storm

Distractions from disappointments; so many yesterday

Thought maybe a nice distraction from yesterday’s rain disappointment would be looking at some file boxes from the University of Washington’s Atmos. Sci. basement.  This shot taken a couple of days ago. Enjoy thinking about what might be in these boxes, and what you would do with the contents.  Have some extra coffee, talk it… Continue reading Distractions from disappointments; so many yesterday

Water, water everywhere in the sky, but not much fell on the ground

Yesterday was a disappointment.  Oodles of water up there above us, as represented by cloud bases somewhere around 15 Celsius  (59 F) yesterday morning, early Cumulonimbus activity–one was up toward Oracle by 10:37 AM–Oracle got 1.06 inches yesterday, but while the skies darkened over Catalina several times, they didn’t “unload.”  Maybe only once or twice… Continue reading Water, water everywhere in the sky, but not much fell on the ground

Clouds go round and round with a sprinkle-rain landing close by last night

One of the things I like to do when I am wrong, yesterday having predicted a trace to a few hundredths of rain last night from that disturbance going by to the south, is to spend a LOT of time talking about how close I was. Its true the zuperkomputer, the Beowulf Cluster, at our… Continue reading Clouds go round and round with a sprinkle-rain landing close by last night