Category: Virga

Let’s look at March, now that its already underway; cloud and weather talk, too

First, a water year (Oct-Sept) update.   You won’t like it: One caveat about February’s total: It might be as much as 0.25 inches higher since a good bit of snow during the historic February 20th storm probably did not get into the Davis Vantage Pro gage located some six feet above ground level where… Continue reading Let’s look at March, now that its already underway; cloud and weather talk, too

Pancakes with ice; testing your ice IQ

AKA, Cumulus humilis virgae, or, with virga. While there were plenty of small Cumulus around yesterday, it wasn’t until after 1 PM that trace amounts of virga could be seen starting to emit from them as they got colder during the day. I think I did, too.  By the end of the day, cloud BOTTOMS… Continue reading Pancakes with ice; testing your ice IQ

Snow and golf; a brief tirade, and yesterday’s clouds and why

I smiled seeing the groundskeepers scurrying about, sweeping and scraping snow off the courses and environs at the Dove Mountain golf tournament yesterday.   I was smiling because the golf culture here is so different from that in Seattle, Washington, much more “pampering” here.   Due to frequent inclement weather in Seattle, we have to toughen… Continue reading Snow and golf; a brief tirade, and yesterday’s clouds and why

“The Ghost of Perlucidus” (along with some history)

On a movie-sounding title theme again today, or this title could be the title of a bedtime story for kids, one that alludes to the Greek citizen bee keeper, Perlucidus, due to his early work in distributing hives, honey and honeycombs.  Some cloud patterns resemble honeycombs, and so when Luke Howard decided to create a… Continue reading “The Ghost of Perlucidus” (along with some history)

Models converge; less is none

Oh, me.  I guess its great to be big enough to congratulate a people smarter than your people.  The Canadian model, a version of that used by the people of Europe, has seemingly won the battle of the Arizona rain question.  Almost no rain in Arizona is now predicted through the end of September in the… Continue reading Models converge; less is none

Clouds of yore, well, those on Thursday, April 26th

Kind of got distracted with chores after the big trip to NC and didn’t get to this until today…    If you can remember as far back as April 26th, we had a “FROPA” (“frontal passage” in weatherspeak) that day.   The U of A weather model indicated beforehand that the bases of the clouds… Continue reading Clouds of yore, well, those on Thursday, April 26th

“Back in the (cloud) saddle again”

Who can forget those profound words of Aerosmith and Steve Tyler, “I’m BACK in the saddle again”?  Just the way he says, “I’m BACK…”  is really something.  Well, if you can’t remember anything anymore, here’s a reminder.  Wasn’t that great “rockumentary” movie by Rob Reiner, “Spinal Tap” about these guys?  BTW, pilots on VFR flew… Continue reading “Back in the (cloud) saddle again”