Category: Ice crystals

Tropical fetches

Flash: Very light rain (R–) falling at 5:30 AM!  Amazing…  Won’t measure though, as thickest clouds are already sliding away.  But still, great to see, to smell the scent of rain in the desert, and feel the drops in this little surprise sprinkle! ————————— Forgetting about that last big bust, namely the last big trough… Continue reading Tropical fetches

April showers and why

From your Pima County ALERT gauges, these 24 h totals ending at 3 AM this morning (covers the whole storm): Gauge                        24                Name                        Location     ID#      minutes    hours           —-     —-       —-        —-       —-         —-       —————–            ——————— Catalina Area     1010                   0.04      Golder Ranch                 Horseshoe Bend Road… Continue reading April showers and why

Weather “stagecoach” full of storm presents set to arrive on Friday

Don’t really need me anymore.  Everyone’s on top of this ” incoming” now, set to begin in the area overnight on Thursday, the one you’ve  been reading about here since maybe last October I think.  So, feeling sad today, also because it looks like its going to be a bit too warm for snow, which… Continue reading Weather “stagecoach” full of storm presents set to arrive on Friday

Fog and Cumulus; Mr. Frosty ahead?

An unusual sight yesterday:  bulging dawn Cumulus fronted by fog.  These Cumulus (not spawned by ground currents) suggest instability aloft, a rapid decline in temperatures with increasing height, which allows the buoyancy of “warmish air” in-cloud  surrounded by cooler air to go up,  whilst fog1 suggests the opposite; cold, damp, heavy air that can’t go… Continue reading Fog and Cumulus; Mr. Frosty ahead?

Sequence in C; Cirrus spissatus

Some nice CIrrus spissatus and the rare Cirrus castellanus yesterday (something I say a lot here in old AZy).   Here is half hour sequence of a patch of heavily precipitating Cirrus spissatus,  kind of a cloud oxymoron.  I thought it was pretty spectacular even if you don’t care one wit about it.  (Hahaha,  “wit” instead… Continue reading Sequence in C; Cirrus spissatus

“Gray skies, nothing but gray skies, from now on”

Well, at least much of today anyway. The title for today is from Gershwin, of course, and the version of a song he later changed to “Blue Skies” (really old version here)–this was after he moved from New York, an extremely cloudy state, to southern California (“Hollywood”,  in 1936) where weathermen can sleep for six… Continue reading “Gray skies, nothing but gray skies, from now on”

Some answers to pop ice quiz yesterday and, enhanced science content

I thought today I would provide some answers to yesterday’s pop “ice-Q” quiz a new expression I just now made up except that I just now also found out that its already “out there” for a computer graphics card and some refrigerators. But ignoring that fact completely, you might try using it in a sentence… Continue reading Some answers to pop ice quiz yesterday and, enhanced science content

Smoke attack

It was hard to see all the smoke around yesterday morning after the two previous stunning days with high visibility.  I was thinking I had never seen so much smoke in Catalina as I saw yesterday morning.  Here is some photos of that awful event:   In the afternoon, the smog was gone, mixed through… Continue reading Smoke attack

Morning smog bank invades Catalina, smokes up clouds real good

I wonder if you noticed the blackish smog layer to the south and southwest of Catalina yesterday?  Usually it stays down that way, flowing peacefully toward the northwest from Tucson across Marana and Avra Valley, an area where a close meteorologist friend and his wife just bought a house even though they knew this happens… Continue reading Morning smog bank invades Catalina, smokes up clouds real good