Category: The weather ahead

The Tucson storm passes by Catalina like so many other September storms

With continuous thunder and threatening skies for Catalina, the mammoth Tucson storm that dropped a record 2.83 inches for the wettest day ever in September at the International Airport passed by Catalina early yesterday afternoon.  Here’s what a fraction of it looked like (using a bad ISO setting, darn it).  Also at the TUS AP… Continue reading The Tucson storm passes by Catalina like so many other September storms

Whiteout!

Check this out for yesterday at 6:05 and 6:15 PM.  First, part of the precursor FULL rainbow to the east of Catalina.   (In most locales a rainbow to the east would mean the storm has passed.)  The second shot was taken at the height of this magnificent storm.  I thought I had seen it… Continue reading Whiteout!

“Pyrocumulus”, an awful sight yesterday evening

There may have been some sharp eyed folks that saw a great looking Cumulus congestus in the distance off to the NNE of Catalina yesterday.   The shots below were just before 7 PM LST.  Perhaps there was a shower or thunderstorm on the Mogollon Rim. Sadly, even I was fooled for a few microseconds… Continue reading “Pyrocumulus”, an awful sight yesterday evening

“Smells like desert snow”

Seattle’s Curt Cobain might have said something like this if he had lived in the desert.   Alluding, of course, here to the SEATTLE teen angst band, Nirvana, and their big hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. BTW, a song covered later by Bill Nye the Science Guy in an educational ditty,  “Smells Like Air Pressure”.  But… Continue reading “Smells like desert snow”

“Send in the clouds”….then the wind, the rain, the cold front, the snow

Too bad Steven Sondheim wasn’t a meteorologist.  He might have written some great weather songs.  Instead, he chose to write about “clowns.” Hmmmm.  Perhaps he WAS thinking about some weatherman in those days when he used the word “clowns.”  Who can forget that the LA Times  headline about weather forecasting in 1981;  the headline that… Continue reading “Send in the clouds”….then the wind, the rain, the cold front, the snow

Bloggin’ cold, maybe snow here in Catalina

But first, “storm” 3 of six as foretold many days ago by our wonderful numerical models having “billions and billions and billions” of calculations (to use a numeric phrase made popular by the late Carl Sagan)  is going to pass over today.  Hoping for a sprinkle late in the day, but virga seems likely in… Continue reading Bloggin’ cold, maybe snow here in Catalina

“Little snowstorms in the sky, I think I’d like to have some pie”

You’re probably smiling now remember singing this little ditty as a kid, maybe singing it with your friends on the bus, whenever you saw “Altocumulus floccus virgae” clouds such as are pictured in the first photo.   Wasn’t it great when you saw these kinds of clouds while on a vacation trip and mom and… Continue reading “Little snowstorms in the sky, I think I’d like to have some pie”

More about holes-in-clouds while we’re waiting for the AZ rain in a few days

There have been a coupla comments on that aircraft effect in clouds blog of a coupla weeks ago and so I thought I would follow up with this sequence from the Atmos Sci Building rooftop at the University of Washington where I spent most of my time instead of at my desk.1 Here is a… Continue reading More about holes-in-clouds while we’re waiting for the AZ rain in a few days