In case you missed it:
Some rain to fall on Thursday, most likely between 5 AM and 11 AM. Both the US models and the Canadian one have rain for us now, not much, but likely measurable. Best personal guess from the “pattern”: between 0.02 and .20 inches. This “pattern” is one where the Catalina Mountains are at the southernmost extension of much heavier rain/snow to the north, the clouds bank up on the west side of our mountains, and little Catalina-its-not-Tucson gets measurable rain whereas Tucson and places south do not. Jet core at 500 millibars (18,000 feet or so above sea level) will be passing just about overhead Thursday morning, and the wind at cloud levels during precip southwest to west-southwest. In the cooler half of the year, that jet core usually demarcates a sharp line between no precip (to the south) and precip on the north side of it when the core is oriented west to east. From IPS MeteoStar, this rendering for mid-day Thursday for illustrative purposes:
Adding to the rain excitement in the meantime will be scattered interesting clouds, windy conditions in the afternoons, and much colder air arriving during the daytime on Thursday.
To keep you occupied while waiting for rain, I now present an enigma. I shot this during a return flight from our B-23 aircraft as it ferryied back to Paine Field in Seattle after a study of emissions from the Mohave Power Plant near Kingman, AZ, September, 1983. Not sure of the location, might be eastern California or southern Nevada. On these kinds of ferry flights after a big field project, often with two bumpy, low-level flights a day, you don’t care where you are on the way home, you just wanna be home!
Might be a satellite calibration field of some kind. Even today this grid in rough terrain still amazes:
The End.
