Yesterday: less Cu, more Strato; today, more Cu, less Strato

Punctuation:  its hard.   Not sure about that in the title. Oh, well.  Kind of sad that English is my first language, too.

Yesterday was definitely more Stratocumulus-ee (clouds flatter than expected) than anticipated, which hurt since it was foretold here that it would be Cumulus-ee day.   And there was but the slightest evidence of any ice around, something that was also expected.  So the record of almost always being right on weather and clouds (i.e., >50% of the time) took a hit, which hurt, to repeat something about personal feelings.

Too, with noticeable breezes at times, the sky almost completely overcast at mid-day as well, and the temperature well below 80 °F, it seemed darn COLD for late April.

Today, looking ahead, the air cools over us again as it did two days ago as a puddle of cold air slams down the interior of the West Coast and into AZ, and we should see some nice, photogenic Cumulus/shallow Cumulonimbus this afternoon, and, since the coldest tops will be well below -10 °C, there should be some virga and light showers around.  So, another chance today for a little measurable rain here in Catalinaland before April closes out.  The jet stream at mid-levels remains south of us, too, a critical aspect for cool season rain in the Great SW.

With more instability today than yesterday, there should be some more sun around compared to yesterday since holes due to downward moving air around the upward moving air in cumuliform clouds will be out there.   Looking forward to today!

Still looking for the good rains next week as extra jumbo-for-May trough crashes into Cal from the Pac.

Yesterday’s clouds

In reverse order, today.  They imported that way, and am too lazy to move them all.

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6:49 PM. Looking toward Romero Canyon. Very nice lighting and shadows on our beautiful Catalina Mountains. Hard to believe that enough folks voted to cut off views like this when Oracle was widened and sound walls were put up in front of their homes to save, oh, 2-3 decibels is all, AZDOT said.
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6:49 PM. Nice lighting on Samaniego Ridge as the sun went down.
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4:23 PM. Nice “muffin-like” Cumulus over Ms. Mt. Lemmon producing a huge shadow. (hahah; its the cloud overhead left that’s causing the shadow. Kind of a dramatic shot I thought.
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3:15 PM. Lots of cloud coverage by those flattened tops (Stratocumulus cumulogenitus) with small to moderate Cumulus clouds below.
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3:12 PM. Thought I saw just that slight veil of ice (center), but maybe “grasping for a seed and swallowing a camel” here.
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1:06 PM. Looking NNW at Cumulus cloud with flattening tops due to an inversion lurking north of Saddlebrooke village.
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1:06 PM. A mix of Stratocumulus with small Cumulus clouds below lurk over and west of the Catalinas.
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7:35 AM. “Regular” Altocumulus with underlying Stratocumulus lurk to the north.
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7:29 AM. Altocumulus lenticulars lurk behind the Catalinas.

 

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.