Category: Sunrise

Nearby locations get shafted as summer thunderstorms go on for one more day

Looks now, in spite of a few Altocumulus clouds around that yesterday was the LAST day of our summer rain season in terms of having rain. Much drier air moving across Arizona from the west now. Kinda sad about it, still yesterday was GREAT, a final tribute in a way. Will have some stats tomorrow… Continue reading Nearby locations get shafted as summer thunderstorms go on for one more day

Isolated, but “volcanic”

Forgot the nice sunrise and another faint rainbow, two mornings in a row!  In case you missed them, again, here they are:   While yesterday’s Cumulonimbus clouds were sparse, their “overshooting” tops told you that they had pretty violent updrafts in them, ones that carried the top of the cloud past the tropopause (the boundary… Continue reading Isolated, but “volcanic”

A photogenic day, lots of action around, but not much rain here (0.01 inches)

Great rainshowers pummeled a few nearby areas yesterday;  Horseshoe Bend just NE of Saddlebrooke,  got 0.75 inches yesterday with another little pulse of water coming down the CDO later.  But once again Nature bobbed a rainy apple in front of us, only to jerk it away, to mix metaphors royally.  BTW, has there been a… Continue reading A photogenic day, lots of action around, but not much rain here (0.01 inches)

Sunset color today?

First, yesterday’s interesting clouds: Earlier Today You will soon notice a nice sunrise with a sky full of  clouds, Cirrus-ee ones, Altostratus, some Altocumulus tending toward lenticulars (red denotes cloud forms added after the sun came up and I saw them.) I am late today, not because I overslept some, but also because I wanted… Continue reading Sunset color today?

Looking for rain in all the wrong places…

Like in our best USA! models. Pretty upset this early AM to find that the US’s Weather Forecasting and Research-Global Forecast System (WRF-GFS) model run, a model costing millions of dollars BTW, ingested last night’s 5 PM AST global data, BUT then threw up an identical twin that matched the Canadian Enviro Can model output… Continue reading Looking for rain in all the wrong places…

Every which way but here

Of course, alluding today in the title to the great western movie with John Wayne… Every which way you looked yesterday afternoon, there was a great rainshaft.  1.85 inches fell in one hour at Picture Rocks Community Center yesterday afternoon,  2.01 inches total.  Several stations around the county had another 1-2 inches yesterday.  You can… Continue reading Every which way but here

Grazed and confused

Man, its tough to get rain here sometimes.  Not sure why we seem to be in a death zone for Cumulonimbus clouds lately.  Yesterday, a really great shower plodded toward Catalina and only to fade on the east side, and propagate off to the west and over the Tortolita Mountains (veered down the sideline, in… Continue reading Grazed and confused

Pretty skies, but no castellanus (again)

Apparently the castellanus formations went over during the nighttime hours when we couldn’t see them… But it was a fabulous day again of interesting high and middle cloud flecks anyway.   Below, a reprise of yesterday’s clouds starting with that delicate patch of Cirrus passing over the Catalina Mountains with its tiny fibers of Cirrus… Continue reading Pretty skies, but no castellanus (again)

The lenticular that came for breakfast and stayed for dinner

Some of you already know that there is a favored position for a lenticular cloud downwind from the Santa Catalina Mountains.   Yesterday, a little fluff of Altocumulus lenticularis kept reappearing all day!  It didn’t have the “classic” look of a lenticularis early on, but that’s what it was, hovering over the same spot, changing… Continue reading The lenticular that came for breakfast and stayed for dinner