Rain, and more of it

AZ Map of USGS gauges here (takes a couple of minutes to load); USGS AZ amounts here.

Pima County ALERT gauges here (Mt. Lemmon already at 0.67 inches at this hour!)

Rainlog.org here (best if used after 7 AM AST).

CoCoRahs here (best if used after 7 AM AST)

NWS rain totals here.

AZ agmet rain totals here.

I’m trying to keep you busy today. Maybe you’re retired and you don’t know what to do with yourself.  Well, today you can look at building precipitation totals in Arizona all day!  It will give you something to talk about.

In fact, occupying retirees with searches for precip data is why we have so many different sites that record precipitation.  We have a lot of retirees in AZ, low temperature refugees, and we need to keep them occupied and out of trouble.

Imagine how awful it would be if we had ALL of these rainfall amounts in ONE place and you could look at them all immediately, or have a map plot of all these sites and amounts?  Imagine just CoCoRahs and Rainlog.org being friends and cooperating together and just having one site for their rainfall collections?  It would be like the Berlin Wall coming down, precipitationally speaking.  Oh, well, that’s not gonna happen.

Oh, yeah, the Heights of Sutherland here in wonderful Catalina, AZ?

Got 0.17 inches overnight.  “Main bang” still ahead, quite a long ways ahead, considering the passing showers we have now.  Doesn’t look like the major band will get here until after midnight, then pound on us most of the day tomorrow.  This prediction from the Huskies of Washington’s Weather Department model seen here.

So being on the toasty side of the cold front, should be a pleasant, mostly  day with dry spells in between showers, and maybe, if the low clouds break a little, with fabulous middle and high cloud patterns associated with the powerful jet stream overhead (winds at Cirrus levels today and tomorrow should be over 100 mph!)  Have camera ready.

Range of amounts from this front, a little in the withering stage as it goes by tomorrow,  here in The Heights of Catalina, 0.4 to 1.5 inches, median guess 0.95 inches.  Just too cellular in nature to be sure you get hit with all that’s possible, so you fudge on the downside some.

HOWEVER, just viewed the accumulated precip from our great U of AZ mod and it shows about 1.5 to 2.5 inches here, with the model run ending at 1 PM tomorrow–with more still falling!  Wouldn’t that be fantastic!  Certainly we’d have water in the CDO.

Precip totals ending at 1 PM tomorrow!

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These mod forecasts do tend toward the high side, but I would be very pleased if more than my highest estimated amount (1.5 inches) fell.

So, what’s happening now?  Check this loop of radar-sat imagery combo map.

As you will see, rain’s piling up like mad in central AZ just to the west of us.  Amounts, according to radar,  already well over an inch just for the last few hours according to NWS storm total radar loops from PHX and Yuma.  Hah, Yuma!  How often does that radar see amounts over an inch in winter?

Below, the Intellicast 24 h radar-derived precip totals ending at 5 AM AST:

24 h rain from radar, ending at 5 AM AST.
24 h rain from radar, ending at 5 AM AST.

I suppose we’ll be complaining soon about too much rain….

 Yesterday’s clouds

So much was happening skyward yesterday!  So much so, its probably best seen through the U of AZ Weather Department’s time lapse movie here.  Its really great and shows all the complications of a day where clouds are moving in at different levels, and there are lots of wave clouds (lenticulars) over the Catalinas to marvel at.

DSCN6320
6:59 AM. Altocumulus patches and pastel Cirrus announce a new day.

 

DSCN6326
7:06 AM. A few minutes later, Altocumulus perlucidus join the color display.

 

11:07 AM. Once again, the rarely seen Cirrus castellanus ("cumulus in a Cirrus) that I seem to notice every week here...
11:07 AM. Once again, the rarely seen Cirrus castellanus (“Cumulus in a Cirrus) that I seem to notice every week here…

 

11:44 AM. Hover clouds (Ac len) over the Catalina.
11:44 AM. Hover clouds (Ac len) over the Catalina, Altostratus above.

 

1:14 PM. Barging in from the south, the next lower layer, Stratocumulus and Cumulus, bases touched Ms. Mt. Lemmon.
1:14 PM. Barging in from the south, the next lower layer, Stratocumulus and Cumulus;  bases touched Ms. Mt. Lemmon. Sky darkened rapidly and almost eerily right after this.
4:22 PM. The occasionally seen Seattle June sky, overcast with threatening clouds that don't do anything, and with mild temperatures. Tops 0f these clouds were right at the normal ice-forming level here, -10 C (14 F), and by evening, virga and light rain began to fall from them as they deepened up a bit more.
4:22 PM. The occasionally seen Seattle June sky, overcast with threatening clouds that don’t do anything, and with mild temperatures. Tops 0f these clouds were right at the normal ice-forming level here, -10 C (14 F), and by evening, virga and light rain began to fall from them as they deepened up a bit more.

The weather way ahead

More rain as month closes out.  If you don’t believe me, a theme here, check this image out:

Valid for 5 AM AST, November 30th. Of course, I'm not going to show you the actual rain map, I want you to go from this as a bonafide Cloud Maven, Jr. (CMJ). I've noticed that some of you have not yet ordered your "Dri-Fit" TM "I heart spaghetti" tee shirts... What's up with that?
Valid for 5 AM AST, November 30th. Of course, I’m not going to show you the actual rain map, I want you to go from this as a bonafide Cloud Maven, Jr. (CMJ). I’ve noticed that some of you have not yet ordered your sophisticated “Dri-Fit” TM,  “I heart spaghetti” tee shirts… What’s up with that?

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.