Category: Sunsets

Grandson of “Frankenstorm” knocking on Heaven’s door (Catalina, Arizona)

Well, I think Catalina, AZ,  being next to the Catalinas, is “Heaven’s door”.   I think, too, to have a second consecutive thought,  that we’ll get more than an inch out of this Big Boy which is rare here in Catalina for a storm in the wintertime.  Not close in areal extent to the original “Frankenstorm” that struck the West Coast in January 2010 with record setting low pressure, but a potent one anyway.   In the January 2010 storm we received 1.41 inches the first day and 1.18 inches the second to “ice” a fabulous wildflower bloom that year.  We sure seem headed to a fabulous bloom season this year, too.

BTW, there has been a lot of rain in droughty Texas.   We are brothers/sisters in drought relief it seems these days.  How nice; adds to the holiday cheer.  Maybe the price of hay will go down..  It seemed interesting to throw something about Texas in there.  Here is a map showing that great TX rain of yesterday from WSI Intellicast1.  These radar-derived amounts precipitation are pretty much spot on–I’ve checked ground gages a number of times.  We should be seeing “green”,  1-2 inches) over much of AZ in the next couple of days, too.  So, the map below is like a preview for AZ.

Speaking of green, look at the “green-for-rain” in AZ in the lower right hand panel of this forecast for this afternoon ending at 5 PM MST.  During the prior 12 h, beginning at 5 AM MST, the entire State of AZ is virtually covered.   I am just beside myself when I see a map like this!  And look how far to the south of Baja California the circulation of the storm extends.  Its gorgeous to see this.   I guess there could be some flooding here and there, and some “snow birds” might complain about the “crummy AZ weather”, but….you can find people who will complain about anything.  See the whole wonderful model sequence of rain and mayhem in AZ here, and in much more detail from the U of A weather department, here.

Look, too, at how excited the National Weather Service, Tucson is!  They must have 50 bulletins out–be sure to keep reading them.  They are really having a lot of “fun” down there, too.

Late breaking storm bulletin:  We have sprinkles in the area (0425 LST).  Check this radar-cloud map out from IPS Meteostar.  What a great day this is going to be!  Enjoy.   Good chance we’ll see water in the CDO and Sutherland Washes, and maybe some snow mixed in with the rain as the storm closes out Tuesday evening now.

But is this storm the end of our “fun” weather?  Oh, no, my friend.  Another cut off low develops in our area after speeding down as a trough out of the NW in five days.   Another round of significant rain is likely, though not as much as this one.

Some cloud notes from yesterday, including some chat about the unusual streaks.

In that warm afternoon yesterday, it was so great seeing sheets of Cirrus and Altostratus (ice clouds, Altostratus with heavy shading) massing on the horizon, knowing that this time it was NOT just going to be a sky decoration for a nice sunset, but were clouds filled with stormy portent. You probably noticed the lack of sunset color due to the extensive coverage of those clouds upwind. No break allowed the sun to under light them, a sign of extensive clouds upwind to the southwest.

Also, unless you were blind you saw some unusual events in the thin Altocumulus (translucidus) layer yesterday: ice canals and splotches of ice produced by aircraft that flew in them. When so many happen as did yesterday mid-day, its a good bet those Altocumulus clouds, though comprised of liquid droplets, are terribly cold. While the TUS morning sounding did not pick up this mid-day layer, one can be confident that it was likely colder than -20 C or -4 F.

What you also saw was examples of how the presence of ice within a droplet cloud, causes the droplets to evaporate, and the ice crystals to grow and fallout, something that happens on our rain days. However, because there were so many ice cyrstals produced by these aircraft (almost certainly all jets) they compete for the tiny amount of water available at -20 C and form small crystals with little fall velocity.

So the trails of precipitation are very fine and don’t go very far. Here are some examples of that rare phenomenon, rare because for us to see it, takes a thin, cold water droplet cloud, and it has to be high enough so that aircraft are frequently penetrating it. One wonders why, in some of these cases, the trails yesterday were so long with an aircraft probably could have climbed or descended a couple of hundred feet to avoid flying in a light icing producing cloud (the Altocumulus layer composed of supercooled droplets)?  Note “ice optics” in ice canal in the first photo, a weak sun dog so I didn’t just make it up that the canal was ice.  I you wanna know more about this phenomenon, go here and/or here.

Wobbly storm drenches Catalina with 0.62 inches of rain!

The above could be a headline in the Catalina Cryer; but that erratic storm that sent sheets of middle and high clouds over us everyday for a week it seemed, finally came through with a stupefyingly good rain.  I just could not believe how that storm kept “giving” all day and into the evening yesterday, ending with a dramatic sunset while rain still fell (see below)!  This is where a meteorologist can be in awe and excited all day, commenting over and over again to those in his presence about how amazed he is about dank and dark skies producing ANOTHER splurge of light to moderate rain!  I’m still excited.   (Very odd behavior, especially when you have visitors from Seattle.)

But recall, at times, and on some models, no rain was in the numerical crystal ball on some runs just before this happened, while on the other hand, a few days before it happened, this kind of drenching rain was predicted several times in some model runs.  All these model fluctuations due to the erratic nature of the upper level configuration, main jet stream to the north, our storm like a spinning top, wobbling around out there in the eastern Pac.  And that scenario was giving the models and us AZ  “precipophiles” headaches and hope, but ultimately, wonder.  This storm will be emblazoned in this writer’s mind forever because of how great it “came through” for us here in SE AZ.  Take a look at the map below for last evening just as the rain was concluding, where you can see a frontal rain band is about to drench Cabo San Lucas, and the upper low center is positioned off central Baja; pretty darn unusual.  (Note: the air is flowing along the greenish “height contour” lines, so it goes from the north on the west side of the low, and usually descends, while on the east side it curls around and goes NEward, with rising motion with sheets of clouds produced, as shown here.)

Combining this rain with our other two November drenchers of just under half an inch each, we have finally had a month with ABOVE normal rainfall at 1.45 inches, at least for us in Catalina where the November average is 0.97 inches.   Sometimes it seems like above normal rain can’t happen anymore here with the droughty spell we’ve had.  But more on that and climo maybe tomorrow.  In the meantime, the latest 24 h regional totals will be here when the site is back up. Before the site crashed, Mt. Sara Lemmon had already gotten over an inch of rain as of late yesterday afternoon.

 

PS:  That next rain, only yesterday predicted for Sunday, November 20th?  Its gone.  Like the endless “puddle” seen on the highway on a hot day, that  “puddle” of rain like the one on the highway that always moves farther away, has now also been moved farther away to November 22-23rd in the models.  Don’t count on it!

Below, our dramatic sunset of yesterday.  Streams of rain off the AZ room frame the sun in front of a messy backyard.  But I will straighten it up today, I promise!

The End.

A pleasant 0.03 inches

Not sure even the dust noticed, but we had a brief shower around 8:30 PM that actually measured with 0.03 inches!  After the spectacular sunset, indicating a large clearing to the WSW, it seemed doubtful we would even get that.  But, what do I know after these past few days?

Below, an example of a nice sunset due to Altostratus clouds (overhead);  “file footage” really, since I had a rare missed shot of that one last evening).

With rain still out to the west and north of us right now (go here to see this 12 h loop of clouds and radar echoes from IPS Meteostar) there is still a chance of more measurable rain later today or overnight.  Still, the configuration aloft will not be favorable for anything of consequence; likely we’ll just a few more hundredths.  But, what do I know#2?

Also, you will see something dreadful regarding that possibility of rain.  A blast of clouds riding on a high level north wind coming out of Nevada and Utah, heading straight for our little system around northern Baja, that will try to keep any rain to the south of us.  The models, such as this one from the University of Washington, have us just on the north edge of any precip.

As so often happens, our models seem to always see another rain in the future, rains that so often fail to materialize.  This time the rain “mirage” is for Sunday, November 20th.  Oh, well, something to think about.

Have some climo data for Catalina, about 35 years worth and will be posting that in the next day or two.  Past records help you dream about what could be in a winter or summer.  Can you imagine that little ol’ Catalina has had almost 30 inches of rain in a year a couple of times? Imagine how the washes ran!

The End.

Thunder-rooskie

With a thunderstorm at 7 AM LST yesterday mainly toward Saddlebrooke, you may have thought, “What a thundery day this will be!  It will be like Cherrapunji during the Indian-Bangladesh monsoon season when it rains and thunders all day and inches of rain pile up!”

And of course, it wasn’t going to be like that at all, rather it was the famous deceptive weather “play” called, “thunder-rooskie”, whose first derivative was executed in a Nebraska in a fubball game in which the ball was not hiked by the Big Red offensive team, but was left on the turf for some lineman to pick up while all of the other players were too busy pushing each other around to notice the “egg” just lying there.   (Actually, the name of that trick play was “fumble-rooskie”, as students of the game will know.)  At least here in Catalina, we did get measurable rain in the morning, pretty refreshing, too, of 0.04 inches.  Lots more toward SB.

So wha-happened?  First, that mostly stratiform overcast helped keep temperatures down; only 91 F in Catalina yesterday.  100 F have sent volcanic explosions of Cumulonimbus clouds into the sky, but, except in a few isolated areas and on the White Mountains, that didn’t really happen.  Too damn cool.

Also, when you have a disturbance strong enough to produce rain and the rare morning thunderstorm, more often than not it is replaced during the daytime by dryer air asscoiated with an attendant couplet of descending air motion, and a little of that happened yesterday, too.  So, rain and thunder at dawn are often associated with disappointing afternoons here in Cat Land.  Naturally, I hoped for more, seeing those low cloud bases topping Samaniego Ridge, even during the afternoon.  But other than an occasional, and very brief tower, they did not even make it to the height where ice forms and rain falls out.

Here’s the rest of our muggy, but dry day:

 

Drops away!

As a photographer, you like to develop a niche.  My niche, of course, if you follow this site, is gray matter overhead, an amorphous, gray balls.  Now yesterday was a great day for adding something to my collection since a Cumulus base, one that was clearly headed for better things than just being a Cumlus cloud, developed almost straight overhead, giving me a great chance for another “signature shot.”  See below.  I don’t know of any other photographer that specializes in this kind of shot; kind of sad, really.

Once again, you’ll have to click on the image to get a proper size, and hold your monitor over your head.  People seem to enjoy doing this.  Make sure your plugs and connections to the monitor are long enough to do this maneuver.  Sometimes I forget to tell people this, and then they get mad when an external hard drive falls on the floor when performing this maneuver and it won’t work anymore.  Sorry.

Of course, I monitored this base and kept shooting ( you never know which one will be the best) it, and then, there came the strands of the first drops out the bottom, that fabulous moment so few photographers catch because it is VERY subtle.  Next photo, if you can detect it!

OK, this is probably too hard for you to see much in the second shot, though I can see something.

How about a bit later, when its obvious?

Pretty cool, huh?

I was really hoping for those giant drops, but the initial shaft was just a hair to the east, and so while it rained HARD, the main load was dumped toward Sutherland Wash to the east.  But, we did get 0.16 inches here. See next photos

What were seeing in this emergence of a fall streak is the overhead transition from a Cumulus congestus to a Cumulonimbus calvus to Cb capillatus.  Eventually only the “hair”, that is, the fibrous ice cloud is left up there.  The whole bottom two thirds of the cloud has rained out.  Since there were so many Cumulus clouds that went through this transition yesterday, we were left with a huge amount of what would be called, probably should stretch your tongue before trying to say this so you don’t injure it, “Altostratus cumulonimbogenitus.”  Here’s the great sunset shot showing mostly that mass of ice cloud up there (underlit by the ray of sun).  Enjoy once again!

 

 

 

 


 

Anyone for sprouts?

Man, I wanted some sprouts so BAD yesterday afternoon!  But, no, it looked like there weren’t going to be any.  The air seemed to be too dry near the tops of the small Cumulus clouds that populated our sky until 3:30 PM LST.  But then, voila, sprouts!  Little acorns grew into huge cauliflowers!  And then, voila#2, those sprouts reached the “glaciation level” and well beyond it, where the tops suddenly transformed into ice, meaning that there is hail/graupel and snow that will fall out of the bottom of those clouds and melt into RAIN!

While we didn’t get any here in Catalina yesterday, it was still a spectacular sky for us to enjoy.  Here are some examples, in case you missed them, which, if you are in Colorado, Montana, or New Hampshire, or somewhere like that, you CERTAINLY did and will want to see this.  First, a failed cloud.   Tried to sprout as best it could, but didn’t have what it takes.  Sky pretty discouraging at this point because it was 100 friggin’ degrees and the Cumulus clouds were acting like they had cold bottoms; they weren’t sprouting in response to the ovenly weather, to continue a theme.

But then,  when I wasn’t looking and had really kind of given up, voila#3, here was this “glaciated” tower (3rd photo)!  It was stunning!  I missed this because, as a man with feelings,  I was preoccupied with the vets “rassling” with our horse, trying to poke him with huge needles (photo included as a human interest diversion in case you’re already tired of seeing cloud pictures.)

Off we went, with more cloud sprouts and glaciation!  The Cumulonimbus “calvus” shown on the right (5th photo, the one after the horsey shot) with palo verde tree in foreground, virtually went “volcanic”; a huge cloud explosion ensued after this shot, 16 minutes later (4:44 PM LST).  You can really see this happen at the movies here, presented by the University of Arizona Department of Atmospheric Meteorology.  “Two thumbs up.”

And, of course, we had another memorable sunset to clog our already overloaded brains.

The End.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching rain come out of the Arizona summer sky

Here is a sequence of photos showing the development of a rainshaft from a prior “doing nothing” cloud base.  For a long time, it appeared that these dark clouds, bottoms of Cumulus clouds, were too raggedy, not contiguous enough in a nice, large and dark region indicating a wide updraft, one  that might push cloud tops to the “glaciation” level where ice forms magically and spreads throughout the cloud top.   Our Cumulus clouds,  at this warm time of the year,  must climb to about 20,000 feet or more above sea level, or to the -10 C (14 F) level,  before the liquid cloud drops in them will freeze to ice, and then only some cloud drops do.   Those first ice particles, surrounded by drops that have not yet frozen,  become hail or “graupel” (aka, “soft hail” you can mash between your fingers) as they collide with those unfrozen drops as they begin to fall out.

So, no rainshaft, no tops to 20,000 feet or more, no matter how dark the clouds may look.   At least for a long time yesterday, they did nothing.  You’re thinking, “What a waste!”  and, “So close!” (to precipitating).  I did, for sure,  as I thought a chance for rain in the area was going to be missed.

But then, there it was (look hard, straight above the tree near the middle of the 2nd photo) !  A thin strand of rain dropping out of those dark bases, a strand that quickly became a downspout, then a huge rainshaft clobbering,  maybe Saddlebrooke!  Very nice, dramatic to see.

Here’s the main sequence of that.  First the line of non-raining cloud bases is shown, and then the cloud base area where the shaft began to fall out.  After that, it lengthened, broadened into a full rainshaft.  Notice the curvature to the left as it went down toward the ground, showing the N wind underneath cloud base.  This is SUCH an exciting time because you’ve been waiting and waiting for something to happen and begin to wonder whether it will at all.

We only got a trace, a few drops.  But the air cooled nicely, followed by another fabulous Arizona sunset producing that little bit of paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why was there a line of clouds like that shown over Cat land yesterday evening?

Clash of the “outflow” winds from thunderstorms in the area, that were meeting below that line of cloud bases.  That wind clash passed through this location at 6 PM LST when the wind shifted from the southwest to the north.   Above these kinds of clashes, the air is forced to rise and enhanced clouds, or a line of clouds forms. Some areas got over 2 inches yesterday between Colossal Cave and Benson.  Check these amounts out here.

Here’s one of last evening’s sunset, for a little color,  “Arizona gold” in here to break up all the gray:

Peachy!

Sunset, anyway, even if only a few drops of rain fell last evening.   Nice lightning to the south, too, 9-10 PM.

However, yesterday afternoon, we had some examples of really “bad” cloud bases.  They were trying to make me think we might have a repeat of the day before’s cloudburst by darkening themselves up.  While Mr. Cloud Person (me) was almost fooled, he wasn’t really at all.

Lets replay yesterday afternoon….  Here in the summer, of course, we look to the east (NE through SE) and over the Cat mountains for guidance in storms, for prognostic purposes, not to the west during the summer rain season.  This is especially true in the late afternoon and evening when our chance of rain is peaking.  We often see the sky loading up with dark cloud bases somewhere over there.  Its pretty darn neat, and can happen in only a few minutes. These are often storm complexes, clusters of Cumulonimbus clouds,  that done sprung up over the White mountains or other terrain earlier in the day, and are being re-inforced/ are propagating westward by the outflow winds that accompanied them.  Those winds near the surface shove the air above it upward creating new clouds.  Sometimes we’ll see an especially low cloud on the more moist days, called an “arcus” cloud, a ribbon of cloud that rides above and near the front of the outflow wind.

OK, those clouds that feinted rain late yesterday for a time.  First, we’ll start when you were getting really excited and running around telling the neighbors that, “Hay!” (a lot of them have horses), “It looks like it might rain again this evening!  Look at those clouds over there over the Cat mountains!” You’re loud, but you’re not exactly screaming, since you are holding back a little; you know about those “fakery” cloud situations where the bases fall apart, don’t congeal into a large, solid mass.   You’re holding back just that bit of excitement.  I am proud of you.  Here’s what got you going:

This is looking pretty damn good, but its not there yet.  Why?  First, while there is an OK, keep an eye on base over the Cats, its got some thin spots, some brighter areas near the darkest areas.  Note the little bright spot in the middle of the closest larger base.  Fakery right there.  You know this cloud is not going anywhere in spite of its overall darkness underneath.  Also, you really don’t see any sharp edged indicating newer) rainshafts.  Blobs of smooth sky, even with rain, are associated with dying cloud masses, and if that’s what coming at you, you may not get ANY rain because it may have all fallen out before it gets to you with our slow summer winds up “top.”

The next photo is 20 minutes later.  Its look that bit better, but in all that time, no rainshaft has dropped out of this stuff.  Nor has the cloud complex gotten much closer.  No rainshaft equals no cloud tops colder than -10 C (14 F) above that base (about 20,000 feet yesterday), and that means while dark, the clouds are not terribly deep.

Why aren’t they yet?  Not enough push underneath, warmth, etc.  This lack of progression is of some concern.   Of course, this can change in a hurry, but increasing concern develops that this could go bad.  A lot of time with not much happening is quite bad, really.  The next photo is about 6:19 PM.  While the cloud base is looking formidable, still pretty solid, a rainshaft has STILL not developed indicating cloud tops are going nowhere, man!  Dammitall, to cuss that bit! Starting to get that “rejected” feeling:  “Well, you thought I (that vaporous mass) was going to do this, but I’m not.”  You think about the screaming you did at your neighbors…  Could be embarrassing. In the last photo, ten more minutes later, its over, finished.  The cloud base has shrunk in size, is starting to look raggedy, still no rainshaft, etc. etc.  You begin thinking of this cloud fakery in terms of spheres of equestrian processed hay.  But, you did hold back that bit, you didn’t go all out because you had seen this happen before.  I am proud of you.

The End.

“Back in Black”, cloud bases, that is

Few people know that Angus Young, lead singer for AC/DC, was quite the weather nut and many of his songs, such as “Back in Black”, are actually about clouds and storms.  Thought you’d like to know so that when you get your old AC/DC albums out, they’ll have a little more meaning to them…  What about the AC/DC song, “Hell’s Bells”, you ask?  Its interesting that you have asked me about that.   Here’s the story behind that one:  well, that was about a forecast of rain that didn’t materialize there in Australia. Its mostly desert there, like here.  Mr. Young was pretty upset about it, apparently.

Some cloud bottoms for you from yesterday.  Nice to see the return of the summer rains.  Only 0.07 inches here, but I was quite happy to see that heavier showers fell elsewhere,  all around me,  in fact,  and perhaps in droughty areas that needed more rain than I do (face turning red, fist pounding table).  No, it REALLY was good to see others get more rain than me, and watch the summer “spectacle of the rainshafts” way off in the distance underneath those Cumulonimbus clouds.  I like spectating rather than participating, that is, being inside those rainshafts (face turning red, fist pounding table).

On with the picture show:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That sunset scene last evening;  the slot of clearing that allowed the yellowish sunlight to bath the rocky faces of the Catalinas, followed by sunset color in the underlit clouds overhead. Can one’s thoughts not shift away from self and problems, to the joy of being here in this special place?

The End.

Colorful

Both the rainbow last evening, and in a momentary language lapse below….

A once-severe severe thunderstorm with warnings out at one time, whimpered into Catalina last evening giving us just sprinkles or, in aviation parlance, “RW–” (meaning, “very light rain shower”) And long with it, one of our memorable sunset views of the rocky faces of the Catalinas.  Total rain?  A “trace”; i.e.,  not measurable, but drops fell.

Once again I will take this opportunity in the event of very light rain consisting of sparse drops to educate:  Its not “drizzle”, DAMMITALL!

My apologies; probably shouldn’t cuss while educating.

What IS “drizzle” then?  The People of Earth, well those people represented by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization, have officially defined “drizzle” as “fine, close together drops that virtually FLOAT in the air.”   They are LESS THAN 500 microns (micrometers) in diameter (about five human hair widths) at their greatest size.   The smallest size is 200 microns, since drops much smaller than this do not fall fast enough to qualify as precipitation.  Note, some researchers have termed drops from as small as 50 microns to 100 microns, “drizzle” drops.

If any TEEVEE weather presenter uses “drizzle” in the context of RW– (sprinkles)  type of rain, please turn off the set immediately, change channels, send in some angry e-mails to this “pretender”.  Find a weather presenter approaching the status of a “real meteorologist” who knows his precipitation!  In this vein, let us recall the memorable words of the National Science Foundation sponsored program, “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and one of the little Disney Studios produced ditties, Water Cycle Jump:

“Your brain is on vacation, if you don’t know about precipitation.”

Feeling better now.

(This ditty,  my favorite one, of course, from that program….)  ((On second thought, I REALLY liked the “Smells Like Air Pressure”,  the Disney cover of Nirvana’s, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” too.  Very funny and yet educational!))

PS:  Remember in the olden days, when, say a baseball manager excoriated an umpire using “colorful” language?  Cussing was quite “colorful” back then.