Interesting sights; rain still on the Catalina event horizon

Too dark for the best sight, our 14-year old flat-coated retriever mix dog, at first seeming to be walking slowly up the dirt driveway in back of the house with another dog.  I could just make out two outlines.    I wondered whose dog had gotten out and was in our backyard?  Moving closer, I see that our dog is walking side-by-side up the dirt driveway, not with another dog, but with a javelina, like they’re buddies!  Then two more javelinas came out of the brush to join the slow walk uphill forming a peccary herd containing a dog!  After about 10 yards of this group slowly ascending the driveway toward me, the javelinas turned off into the brush.  Too dark for photos; dang.

—————————

Next, its raining in Tucson and I am eastbound on Prince Avenue about to turn left on to Oracle.   I was feeling good that its raining downtown, and it was not just here in Catalina that rain had fallen.  A car swerves across a lane in front of me to turn left on Oracle, and it turns out to be the best car ever evaluated by Consumer Reports!   Its the all electric Tesla Model S!

I am not a car buff, but this was a very great sighting for anyone knowing much about the direction cars are taking! Its made by a tiny company in Fremont,  California.  No gas used of course, its not a hybrid; you have to find a charging station.  But those stations are increasing pretty fast. You can go about 200 miles or so on a charge.

Anyway, if you have $90,000 or so, I think you should buy one right away.  No, really.  It would be worth it to be an “early adopter” and drive the market forward so that the price descends rapidly.

Yesterday morning in the rain, on Prince Avenue, a Tesla pulls in front of me! From the "Not-taken-while-driving" collection; this photo yours for $11,000.
Yesterday morning in the rain, on Prince Avenue, a Tesla pulls in front of me!  And, like me, they’re from Washington!
From the “Not-taken-while-driving” collection; this photo entitled, “Tesla in the Tucson Rain,” yours for $11,000 due to rain falling in Tucson simultaneously with a Tesla Model S sighting, an extremely rare combination of sights that your friends will envy.

————————

Sports AND clouds….

The Seattle Seahawks are in the Superbowl today.  The city where I worked is going bonkers over this because besides the team, they really like some of the players, like Russell Wilson whose really too small to be an NFL QB, and hasn’t been in jail ever.  The entire city has come together, including liberals and conservatives to root on the Seahawks! Reminds one of the afterglow of the first Gulf War when Arab cars were sporting American flags!

Cells in the rain

7:50 AM. Rainsahft indicates a buildup in the tops above. These were the kinds of cells that moved over Catalina during the early morning hours. Likely would have looked like soft Cumulonimbus clouds if on top in an aircraft.
7:50 AM. This well-defined rainsahft indicates a buildup in the tops above. These were the kinds of cells that moved over Catalina during the early morning hours. Likely would have looked like soft Cumulonimbus clouds if on top in an aircraft.

 

9:43 AM. Reflected light from the rain drops lingering on this blue palo verde gave it something of a lighted Christmas tree look.
9:43 AM. Reflected light from the rain drops lingering on this blue palo verde gave it something of a lighted Christmas tree look.
10:44 AM. As the sun launches convective currents on a breezy day, and with some resistance to cloud top heights, lines of clouds form, something we call a "cloud street." This one came all the way from the Tucson Mountains to the SSW of us. When showers start to fall from these clouds, the downdrafts in them usually dissipate the line and it become chaotic, as happened over downtown Tucson later that morning.
10:44 AM. As the sun launches convective currents and Cumulus clouds on a breezy day, and with some resistance to cloud top heights due to a stable layer, lines of clouds form, something we call a “cloud street.” This one came all the way from the Tucson Mountains to the SSW of us to just about over Catalina.   When showers start to fall from  clouds lined up like this (because the tops have gotten high enough to form ice), the downdrafts in those showers usually dissipate the line and it becomes pretty chaotic and broken up into cells,  as happened over downtown Tucson later that morning.

 

5:26 PM. By late afternoon there were some fabulous lighting scenes on the Catalinas, here looking NE toward Charouleau Gap.
5:26 PM. By late afternoon there were some fabulous lighting scenes under the Stratocumulus clouds on the Catalinas, here looking NE toward Charouleau Gap.

 

The weather ahead…

Looks like a minor rain in the works for Monday into Tuesday evening.  Probably will begin in the mid-day hours and probably will only produce a few hundredths to a tenths is all here in Catalina.  There’ll be more snow in the mountains, so that will be good to keep some of the creeks running.

The following storm, the one that looked substantial, has been diminishing in the model runs of the past day or so.  Dang.  The Enviro Can mod has given up completely on rain here in this trough that moves in on Thursday and Friday, the 7th and 8th.  Then, voila, the US one began to follow suit, though showing a less bountiful rain, but at least still has some beginning Friday the 7th and then has it dribbling into Saturday, the 8th (this from the 11 PM AST global run from last night).  Looking more like maybe a quarter inch of rain here in that one, but very dicey now in view of those Canadian calculations.  Sometimes their model does better than ours.

Still looking like a LONG, warm dry spell after next Saturday….

The End.

 

 

 

 

 

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.