4.63 inches; enhancing our historic storm due to “further review”

First, a tedious note about the Big One of two days ago.

While the Davis Vantage Pro 2 tipping bucket gauge registered a whopping 4.18 inches, a smaller plastic gauge from CoCoRahs here had 4.63 inches, after subtracting some rain (half an inch) I forgot to dump due to a brain cramp.  A neighbor a couple hundred yards away here in Sutherland Heights, measured 4.65 inches in her gauge, and I now think that the 4.63 inches is the correct amount of rain for this spot.  This goes with two other reports of 4.48 inches at Our Garden, and another one of 4.50 inches just a bit on the west side of Lago del Oro Parkway, and the 4.59 inches at the Samaniego Peak ALERT gauge just E of us.  We seem to have been in the heaviest band of that storm!  (Makes up for all the misses during the summer.)

The Vantage gauge is mounted above the ground, and some loss occurs due to wind, and also when the rain falls too hard, the tipping bucket can’t keep up.  The CoCo gauge is ground mounted, and is protected from wind by surrounding natural desert vegetation (aka, “weeds”).

Below, from the University of Arizona’s rainlog.org, is a map of rain totals in our area and the northern areas of TUS. (The Our Garden  and Samaniego Peak totals of 4.48 and 4.59 inches, respectively, don’t show up because they are not members of rainlog.org but probably should be so’s we can get all the rain we want to see in one site! I have added those values

Ann TUS rainfall 9-9-2014 fell prior day

Rain totals for September 8, 2014. The green values are for Our Garden and Samaniego Peak, along with the revised total for Sutherland Heights. Recall a neighbor here measured 4.65 inches!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, from CDO at Wilds Road videos I took in heavy rain as the Sutherland Heights rain started to eclipse 3 inches, this larger wave that formed.  I think it could have been surfed.

10:55 AM. From a frame of a video taken at the CDO wash and Wilds Road intersection, this monster. Must have been 6 feet high!
10:55 AM. From a frame of a video taken at the CDO wash and Wilds Road intersection, this monster.  Must have been 6 feet high in total height!  So, you CAN “surf Arizona!”

Yesterday’s clouds

First of all, it was real disappointing to see so much haze in the air after so much rain! Not sure where it came from yet, will have to do some back trajectories to find out, but later…

6:14 AM Sunrise Cumulus
6:14 AM Sunrise Cumulus
6:54 AM. Crepuscular rays outline a Cumulus turret.
6:54 AM. Crepuscular rays outline a Cumulus turret.
6:54 AM. Distant Cumulonimbus offers hope for a similar scene later in the morning over the Catalinas, a scene that was NOT realized.
6:54 AM. Distant Cumulonimbus offers hope for a similar scene later in the morning over the Catalinas, a scene that was NOT realized.
8:17 AM. A great example of crepuscular rays and bad air.
8:17 AM. A great example of crepuscular rays and bad air.
12:53 PM. Promising Cumulus congestus that really went nowhere.
12:53 PM. Promising Cumulus congestus that really went nowhere.
2:03 PM. However, it was not a completely rainless day. Some clouds got thick enough to rain lightly. In this Arthur's opinion, this rain was due to the collision with coalescence rain process, not the ice one which I deem with a 51% confidence level.
2:03 PM. However, it was not a completely rainless day, as can be seen, “dead ahead.” Some clouds got thick enough to rain lightly. In this Arthur’s opinion, this rain was due to the collision with coalescence rain process, not the ice one which I deem with a 51% confidence level.
4:26 PM. Kind of losing interest in the whole day now as Cu disappear in favor of an Altocumulus opacus deck, one originating right out of Norbert if you saw the satellite imagery.
4:26 PM. Kind of losing interest in the whole day now as Cu disappear in favor of an Altocumulus opacus deck, one originating right out of Norbert if you saw the satellite imagery.

 The weather ahead

Still pretty confident in more summer rains and tropical air after the current dry spell of a few days, this partly associated with the next tropical storm, likely to be named “Opal” or something like that with an “O” as it takes shape.  Of course, we could look up what name it will be, but it will be named soon enough, so why bother?Its already a numbered tropical depression (a weak area of low pressure) down there off Guatemala now.

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.