Boring but intersting day behind us

Well, it seems that the WP spell checker doesn’t work on titles. Intersting. Oh, well, “intersting” gives today’s cloud harangue a folksy, accessible aura I think.

So not much happened yesterday. Kind of dank with that mid-level Altocumulus overcast, a few sprinkles-its-not-drizzle¹ here and there most of the day. I noticed I didn’t take even 100 photos, a photographic measure of local sky boredom. Three hundred plus? Now that’s a really great day!

Here’s what we had, the first photo of the day just after 9 AM (a little slow off the mark due to boredom):

9:13 AM. Altocumius opacus, some light precip coming out beyond Pusch Ridge. But that big clearing, filled with huge Cumulus portent was a fine sight. — 9:13 AM. Altocumius opacus, with a lower patch of Stratocumulus with some light precip coming out beyond Pusch Ridge. But that big clearing on the horizon, filled with huge Cumulus portent was a fine sight.

9:30 AM. Going down Oracle toward Tucson, that gritty looking rain haze was apparent on Samaniego Ridge. People often don't realize how much we descend when going into Tucson from Catalina-its-not-Tucson, but I think this shot demonstrates that incline. — 9:30 AM. Going down Oracle toward Tucson, that gritty looking rain haze was apparent on Samaniego Ridge and on Ms. Lemmon. It was nice to see.

Was going down to the south part of Tucson, well, South Tucson, to look at a car for sale on Craig’s List. Since yesterday was so boring, will show shot of that car to break up the boredom to follow. The sellers wanted $3,000 for it. I thought it was a little high after I saw it up close. Looked like it had been sitting there awhile, maybe 10 years, too:

10:06 AM. Car for sale, $3,000. Maybe they meant pesos, or rupees. — 10:06 AM. Car for sale; $3,000. Maybe they meant pesos, or rupees. I deferred. Missed a lot of lack of action in Catalina, too, in the hours it took to go take a closer look down Tucson way. Real nice folks, though, were offering it. Cute story about how they met. He was from Bremerton, WA, called down to complain about some work she had done, and then decided to move to Arizona and next door to her! Gossip content always jacks up ratings and that’s what we’re into here. What would we do if we didn’t have titillating gossip? (This is a true story, BTW.)

12:32 PM. Altocumulus lenticularis, produced by an air bounce off the Catalinas, embedded in Altostratus — 12:32 PM. Altocumulus lenticularis clouds (hover clouds that don’t move), at left and at center above the dark tuft. The lenticular clouds were produced by an air bounce off the Catalinas. They formed at the base of an Altostratus layer. Other patchea of Altocumulus clouds are seen in the distance. The dark tuft in the foreground was first beginning of a Cumulus cloud near the Catalinas (Cu fractus), but it went nowhere.

4:18 PM. That Altocumulus lenticularis, still hanging on. — 4:18 PM. That Altocumulus lenticularis, still hanging on, though it has moved in position a bit.

For a terrific view of yesterday’s clouds and those lenticulars that recurred over and over again, to be redundant, go to the U of AZ time lapse movie for yesterday. It also demonstrates how breezy it was up there at cloud levels compared with our normal sluggish summer flow, and how complex behaving clouds are even when they appear dank and uninteresting.

Of course, we had a nice clearing, and some Cumulonimbus clouds arose in the distance toward the border during the mid and late afternoon. And as the sun went down, another thick patch of middle clouds started coming across the Catalinas with light rain, and with that, a rainbow appeared. Quite nice.

6:30 PM. A rainbow briefly appeared as another patch of lightly raining As/Ac clouds approached producing a segment of a rainbow just beyond the Catalinas. — 6:30 PM. In case you missed it again, a rainbow briefly appeared as another patch of lightly raining As/Ac clouds approached

Seems like a nice place to quit inserting photos.

Today?

Very light rain over the past 2 hours, and so we’ve accumulated another 0.03 inches on top of the 0.42 inches yesterday. U of AZ mod run from 11 PM last night seems to think we’re in for a pretty good rain day today. Seems to be predicting something around 1.5-2 inches on Samaniego Ridge before midnight (mod run not done yet, either!) Well, these forecasts tend to run on the high side, but still, this could be a fabulous day here in the tropical river we’re in! Charging camera batteries now….

BTW, flow is now from the south, and so you’ll want to be looking toward Pusch Ridge for “incomings.”

The End.

————————

¹Another reminder about the difference between “drizzle” and rain. You must know this. Sprinkles isn’t drizzle!