Final storm total here 2.31 inches

0.48 inches fell after 7 AM yesterday, a nice addition to the 1.83 inches already “in the (raingauge) can”, with a 0.01 inches dollop overnight here in Catalina/Sutherland Heights, slightly more and less here and there, with several inches in the local mountains.  That addition brought our storm total to 2.31 inches, about 2.5 times normal for the month of November which averages only 0.96 inches.

Recall that at the beginning of the month, it was deemed by the Climate Prediction Center of NOAA that we in SE AZ would experience below normal precip.  But this just shows how HARD it is to predict monthly precip anomalies in semi-arid and arid regions where ONE good storm of just a day or two, can blow the forecast (thank goodness!)

Much harder to blow a monthly forecast in places like Seattle where monthly totals are based on many rain days, and if you only had 25 days with rain in a month instead of 30 due to some storm deflecting pattern, then it might turn out to be a droughty one  (hahahahaha, kidding my Seattle reader).   Those CPC forecasts have a greater chance of verifying in wetter areas where one rogue storm won’t blow those forecasts up.

Also recall that this season we have no La Nina nor an El Nino to hang our climate forecasting hat on. Makes it tough as well.

If Carl Sagan was a meteorologist today, he would be describing our 2-day November drought bustin’ storm as one worth “billions and billions and billions” where nearly every corner of our drought-impacted State got substantial rains.  Should help, too, with wildflower eco-tourism in the spring;  at least some wildflower blooms now guaranteed.

Should be a gorgeous day today with deep blue skies punctuated by fluffy Cumulus clouds, some tall enough to form ice and produce virga and light showers here and there; not likely to measure here, though.  Lots of Stratocumulus1 around early before breaking up into Cu.

Next rain chance?  As November closes out into the first coupla days of December.

Yours and mine; the weather and clouds of yesterday

7:31 AM.  Doggie Zuma notes R- OCNLY R, decides to return to house.
7:31 AM. Doggie Zuma notes R- OCNLY R (light rain occasionally moderate rain) forming puddles, decides to return to house. Dog photo likely to increase web traffic…..

 

DSCN6449
10:48 AM. Light to moderate rain continued for another few hours while the back edge of the band was just over the horizon to the west!
12:12 PM.  Clouds beginning to lift above ground, Catalinas plainly visible.
12:12 PM. Clouds (Nimbostratus) beginning to lift above ground, Catalinas plainly visible.  SOmetimes this scene is described in aviation parlance as, “Ceiling ragged”, cloud bottoms becoming visible because not much precip is coming out anymore.  So this is a horrible report to read, “CIG RGD”, often due to cloud tops descending in height, and/or much drier air moving in, both suggesting, as it did yesterday, that  the worst of storm is over.
2:40 PM.  One of the great sights after a storm are the sun glints due to water on the Catalina Rockies.  Hope you caught some of this yesterday.
2:40 PM. One of the great sights after a storm are the sun glints due to water on the Catalina Rockies. Hope you caught some of this yesterday.
2:41 PM.  "Standard issue" crevice cloud.  You'll see this over and over again on Sam Ridge.  And, as suggested, a great place to hike to, then go in and out of cloud, one that can remain there for hours.
2:41 PM. “Standard issue” crevice cloud. You’ll see this over and over again on “Sam” (Samaniego)  Ridge. And, as suggested, a great place to hike to, then go in and out of cloud, one that can remain there for hours.  Remember how you used to play hide and seek in the fog when you were little?  BTW, fogs are real dense when they’re full of pollution, more fog droplets to cut visibility down. So that’s the kind of fog you want to play in and see if you can run away in and disappear in it from your brother.
3:56 PM.  And as the storm clears, we get these wonderful highlights on the Catalinas.
3:56 PM. And as the storm clears, we get these wonderful highlights on the Catalinas.
4:42 PM.  As the sun set, our second band of showers approached, consisting of heavy Cumulus (i.e., congestsus) and small Cumulonimbus clouds with shafts of rain.
4:42 PM. As the sun set, our second band of showers approached, consisting of heavy Cumulus (i.e., congestus) and small Cumulonimbus clouds with shafts of rain.

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1 Stratocumulus: “flat Cumulus”, a cloud name oxymoron

By 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.