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Nice weather we’re having….

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Has added up to more than an inch here in Sutherland Heights/Catalina after last night’s MCS went by (Mesoxcale Convective System), aka, “doozie”.   Looks like almost three inches has fallen on top of Ms. Lemmon, too!

This MCS  blew up out there late yesterday afternoon to the southwest and west of us, and then the blast of wind, estimated here to over 40 mph in the strongest puffs, roared in about 8 PM last night.

Would have seen a nice “arcus” or line cloud with that wind, too had it been daylight.

Squall lines in the Plains States are often like that, the wind, the pounding rain/hail, then a few hours of “stratiform rain”, after the wind dies down and the arcus cloud and heavy rain have ended.  Even looked like an eastern Plains State evening in July, if you’ve ever been there with the leading heavy ice cloud ejecting toward us as the sun went down.

4:49 PM.
4:49 PM.  Classic appearance of an incoming squall line, as so often seen in the summer months in the EASTERN portions of ND, SD, NE, KS, OKC, etc, where nighttime rain and thunder occurrences rule at that time of year.   In the higher western portions of those states, the storms occur earlier in the afternoon, often starting out there, then merging into lines as the late afternoon progresses.  Nice if you like lightning at night, and you’re in Sioux Falls, SD, or OKC.
5:27 PM. Getting closer. Local tragedy was occurring as a home off Lago del Oro was burning up, left foreground.
5:27 PM. Getting closer. A local tragedy was in progress as a home off Lago del Oro was burning up, left foreground.

 

We interrupt this presentation for a public service reminder concerning some drops that fell yesterday afternoon:

“Its not drizzle, dammitall!”

3:32 PM. As the drops began to fall in a 5-minute shower, I thought about those wrongful people out there that might have called this "drizzle" as the first few drops fell.
3:32 PM. As the drops began to fall in a 5-minute shower, I thought about those wrongful people out there that might have called this “drizzle.”.

OK, something like the above is probably a little too adult for children to say, but, of course, we adult cloud mavens we like to say it whenever we can to educate people in an emphatic way.

Drizzle drops, which have to be very close together unlike these,  would not even be large enough to cause visible spotting on pavement, and barely,  or don’t make a splash at all in a puddle of water.    Too, drizzle falls from SHALLOW, low-based clouds with a broad droplet spectrum.  It doesn’t fall from Cumulonimbus clouds, or Altocumulus castellanus virgae, Altostratus, etc.

This oft repeated message here is repeated again because a meteorologist friend of mine repeatedly called the  “sprinkles” we had here two days ago, “drizzle.”  As a result, our friendship is on “hold” for time being.  You really have to clamp down on the errant things that people say about weather phenomenon.  I try not to say too many myself.

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Had a nice rainbow after that afternoon period drizzle (hahah)  went by that dropped 0.03 inches:

3:43 PM.
3:43 PM.
5:48 PM. Nice shaft and rainbow toward the Gap. Was hoping to get a LTG bolt infused with the rainbow, make thousands of dollars on it, but, it didn't happen.
5:48 PM. Nice shaft and rainbow toward the Gap.  Was hoping to get a LTG bolt infused with the rainbow, make thousands of dollars on it, but, it didn’t happen.   But,  a terrific scene anyway.

 

See some LTG off to the NW now.  Should be more of that around this afternoon.

The End.

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