Putting raingauge away now…

A measly 0.01 inches is all we got here yesterday in a Seattle-like rain from an overcast that sputtered drops drown over a couple of hours, one that could barely wet the pavement, if we had any here in Sutherland Heights.  Of course, we surely drooled at the close call that drained Saddlebrooke yesterday afternoon (see below).  Probably washed more golf balls into the CDO wash like that storm did last year…

Also, 0.75 inches fell, too, where Ina crosses the CDO wash yesterday, “so close, and yet so far away”, as the song says.    Oh, well, another missed rain that I have to crybaby about1.  Will get some final pictures of the 2014 summer greening today before it fades away in the many dry days ahead to help make me feel better now that its over.

Here’s your cloud story for yesterday.  It was pretty neat one, full of hope, even if that hope was eventually dissipated unless you lived in Saddlebrooke…   The U of AZ time lapse film for yesterday is great, btw.

6:31 AM. I am going to say these are Altocumulus castellanus clouds, though they are a little low and large for that genera.
6:31 AM. I am going to say these are Altocumulus castellanus clouds, though they are a little low and large for that genera.

 

6:33 AM. This was a pretty scene... Here an isolated Ac cas rises up. Distant small Cumulonimbus clouds, weak ones, can be seen on the horizon.
6:33 AM. This was a pretty scene… Here an isolated Ac cas rises up. Distant small Cumulonimbus clouds, weak ones, can be seen on the horizon.

 

9:18 AM. Before long, those pretty Cumulus clouds were springing to life off the Catalina Mountains, the sky so blue behind them.
9:18 AM. Before long, those pretty Cumulus clouds were springing to life off the Catalina Mountains, the sky so blue behind them.

 

9:19 AM. A rare "High Temperature Contrail" (HTC) slices through some very thin Altocumulus perlucidus. This aircraft phenomenon has also been called, "APIPs" for Aircraft Produced Ice Particles.)
9:19 AM. A rare “High Temperature Contrail” (HTC) slices through some very thin Altocumulus perlucidus. This aircraft phenomenon has also been called, “APIPs” for Aircraft Produced Ice Particles.)  Recall that Appleman (1953) said that an aircraft couldn’t produce a contrail at temperature above about -35 C.   But,  he was WRONG.  They can do it in a water-saturated environment at much higher temperatures, even as high as -8 C (see Rangno and Hobbs 1983, J. Clim. and Appl. Meteor., available through the Amer. Meteor. Soc. for free, an open journal kind of thing.)
11:48 AM. Before noon, all thoughts of past glory was gone as the Big Boys arose in a hurry. What a dump here! The cloud, since it is not showing an anvil nor obvious fibrous appearance, would be a Cumulonimbus calvus
11:48 AM. Before noon, all thoughts of past glory were gone as the Big Boys arose in a hurry. What a dump here! The cloud, since it is not showing an anvil nor obvious fibrous appearance, still pretty cauliflowery even though the discerning CMJ would not be fooled by its icy composition, it would be a Cumulonimbus calvus (“bald”).
3:40 PM. Probably THE most hopeful scene of the day. A large complex of Cumulonimbus clouds was emerging from the Tucson mountains, heading in this direction. But more importantly, were the cloud bases forming over Oro Valley ahead of it, likely, it seemed to be pushed upward by the outflowing winds ahead of the distant cells.
3:40 PM. Probably THE most hopeful scene of the day. A large complex of Cumulonimbus clouds was emerging from the Tucson mountains, heading in this direction. But more importantly, were the cloud bases forming over Oro Valley ahead of it, likely, it seemed to be pushed upward by the outflowing winds ahead of the distant cells.  Also, that cloud bases were forming and extending westward from the distant cells offered another rain-filled scenario that could happen as they approached from the SW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4:14 PM. When the southwest wind arrived, it did in fact cause the clouds overhead to swell up like aphids on a Seattle rose bush, but as bad luck would have it, they were just to the north of us and over Saddlebrooke where they all all those amenities and don't really need a lot of rain.
4:14 PM. When the southwest wind arrived, it did in fact cause the clouds overhead to swell up like aphids on a Seattle rose bush, but as bad luck would have it, they were piling up just to the north of us and over Saddlebrooke where they all all those amenities and don’t really need a lot of rain.

 

4:40 PM.
4:40 PM.  After the first base dropped its load a little beyond Saddlebrooke, another cloud base darkened and expanded over Saddlebrooke, but this time, began to unload there.  Here, like the seldom seen pileus cloud, these strands of the largest drops being to pour out of the collapsing updraft.  You have about two minutes to see this happen because if you look away, the next time you look there will be nothing but the “black shaft.”

 

4:45 PM. A remarkable transformation. How can so much water be up there in a cloud?
4:45 PM. A remarkable transformation. How can so much water, you wonder, be up there in a cloud?

 

6:05 PM. As the threat of any significant rain faded away, there was at least some "lighting" excitement, produced for just seconds as the sun shone on this....Stratus fractus cloud.
6:05 PM. As the threat of any significant rain faded away, there was at least some “lighting” excitement, produced for just seconds as the sun shone on this….Stratus fractus cloud.  Again, you must be watching at all times to catch these little highlights.

 

6:58 PM. Time to say goodbye to Cumulus and Cumulonimbus clouds like these, until maybe next summer.
6:58 PM. Time to say goodbye to Cumulus and Cumulonimbus clouds like these, until maybe next summer.

 

The End.  Probably will go on a hiatus now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

——————–

1Its good to remember that there is a little crybaby in all of us, isn’t there?

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.