Last chance for August rain#2

That would be today….  🙁

First, this sight yesterday afternoon was interesting to me and I thought you should see it.

2:09 PM. Multi-strands of rain pour out of large cloud base. You won't see such tiny features like this very often. Usually represent very large drops, formerly hail or soft hail we call graupel.
2:09 PM. Multi-strands of rain (aka, “dancing strands”) pour out of large, firm cloud base in Oro Valley.   You won’t see such tiny features like this very often. Usually represent very large drops, formerly hail or soft hail we call graupel up higher.  There are in this type of cloud always very tiny strands of graupel and hai aloft like this, but not so separated and so dense as here.  The ones aloft might only be 10 yards (“meters”, if you’re thinking outside of football) wide.  The rest of the rain shaft on the far right is in the fading mode, decreasing as the Cumulonimbus cloud above has exhausted its liquid water fuel (the part above the rain; its just rain, its “rained out”, no real cloud until much higher up when you get into the ice part, snowflakes.)

Second, it would appear that I hit the “publish” button before I intended to, before I really got going and figured out what I was going to say.  I was no where near that button!

Third, this will be an assembly job, if anyone is out there, this piece will be gradually coming together, the nuerous errors being corrected on the fly, if it ever really does come together….

Maybe I will deflect attention with a spaghetti plot, get people wondering about that. Yeah, that’s a good idea. They won’t know what to make of it while I think up something to write.

Valid September 9th, 5 PM AST.
Valid September 9th, 5 PM AST.  I think you should really consider this today; talk to your friends about it.  You might want to go to NOAA and look at all of them, to see how this one gets to this point.  I strongly recommend that you do that.

Next, here is some rain data from Pima County.   Then,  some from the USGS.  Dan Saddle, up there on Oracle Ridge looks to have gotten the most in a nearby gauge in the Catalinas, with 0.83 inches measured.  Was that really the most that fell up in our mountains yesterday.  Of course not!  Not enough gauges to hit all the cores that struck those mountains, and its without doubt than 1-2 inches fell in the best ones.

2:10 PM.
2:10 PM.
2:10 PM. Looking at a second core.
2:10 PM. Looking at a second core.
2:17 PM. Combining cores.
2:17 PM. Combining cores.
2:21 PM. Dancing strands storm joins the fray from the west, dark base about to unload.
2:21 PM. Dancing strands storm joins the fray from the west, dark base about to unload.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion, Q. E. D.

In spite of the numerous heavy shafts of rain around yesterday, none formed above Catalina, except at the north end of town over there by Edwin Road where they had quite a dump in the middle of the afternoon. Only 0.12 inches here in the Heights of Sutherland. Still it was nice to see those Cumulonimbus blossom into such majestic clouds yesterday. So, today may be it for them, at least close to us. Here are a few more sights from yesterday’s fine day:

6:06 AM. Day started with some fine-looking Altocumulus castellanus, which, according to my cloud chart, one that can be found in fine school catalogs everywhere, it might rain within 6-96 hours. Worked out pretty well yesterday.
6:06 AM. Day started with some fine-looking Altocumulus castellanus, which, according to my cloud chart, one that can be found in fine school catalogs everywhere, it might rain within 6-96 hours. Worked out pretty well yesterday.
9:34 AM. Of course, the best indicator of a good Cumulonimbus day ahead is tall spindly clouds like these. Shows the atmosphere is loaded with instability, or, if you really want to get fancy, CAPE (Convective Availiable Potential Energy). Clouds are going to mushroom up very easily, and way past the ice-forming level where rain will form.
9:34 AM. Of course, the best indicator of a good Cumulonimbus day ahead is tall spindly clouds like these. Shows the atmosphere is loaded with instability, or, if you really want to get fancy, CAPE (Convective Availiable Potential Energy). Clouds are going to mushroom up very easily, and way past the ice-forming level where rain will form.
10:32 AM. And within the hour, rain was falling beyond the C-Gap.
10:32 AM. And within the hour, rain was falling beyond the C-Gap.
11:34 AM. A siting of the seldom seen "pileus" cap cloud on top of a rapidly rising turret. They were all over the place yesterday, but are "seldom seen" since they last only a few seconds as the turrets punch through them.
11:34 AM. A siting of the seldom seen “pileus” cap cloud on top of a rapidly rising turret. They were all over the place yesterday, but are “seldom seen” since they last only a few seconds as the turrets punch through them.
12:18 PM. This pretty sight of Cumulus congestus with a remnant of a thin tower that had shot up and glaciated.
12:18 PM. This pretty sight of Cumulus congestus with a remnant of a thin tower that had shot up and glaciated.
12:34 PM. Within a few minutes, those two congestus clouds had erupted into this beauty toward the north end of town.
12:34 PM. Within a few minutes, those two congestus clouds had erupted into this beauty with another pileus cap toward the north end of town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, that’s it. The End.

By Art Rangno

Retiree from a group specializing in airborne measurements of clouds and aerosols at the University of Washington (Cloud and Aerosol Research Group). The projects in which I participated were in many countries; from the Arctic to Brazil, from the Marshall Islands to South Africa.