The total was likely more, but at 3:30 AM it was 1.5 to 2 inches in the deepest spots, and likely had melted down to those levels overnight. One report, down Swan and Golder Ranch Dr way, was 3 inches on a deck after midnight! And its so pretty with all the Christmas lights around!
What a great rain and snow storm, too! It fell so gently, and at the same rate, R- to R– (“light rain”, and “very light rain”, as we used to code it) for a total of at least 0.59 inches–some snow in the gauge has to melt before the final total is known. While it seems a little high, the Bridge at Golder Ranch Drive and the CDO wash is reporting 0.98 inches!
The regionwide amounts are at the Pima County ALERT gauges rolling archive site.
Here’s the unusually steady way that our rain/snow fell. Normally a storm system is composed of “rainbands” with higher intensities, and lower intensities, or even no rain in between them (see Elliott and Hovind, 1964, Journal of Applied Meteorology) if you think I made that up for some reason.
All of the high gauges had snow, and the snow has clogged the gauge so that there are a lot of bogus zero or tiny amounts in our mountains. It would appear that the liquid water totals will be an inch or more when its all melted and gone into the gauges today.
Yesterday’s fast moving middle and high clouds; about 100-120 mph with delicate patterns
In case you don’t believe me, here is the text version of the TUS sounding at 5 AM AST, yesterday morning, December 31st, last year. I thought maybe seeing some numbers would do you some good. Remember what Lord Kelvin said: “He whose knowledge cannot be expressed in numbers has but a meager, insufficient kind.”
Also, Kelvin-Helmholtz waves1 are named after the famous physicist; the surfers at The Mavericks, and other big wave locations like to see giant K-H waves roll in and break.
72274 TUS Tucson Observations at 12Z 31 Dec 2014
—————————————————————————–
PRES HGHT TEMP DWPT RELH MIXR DRCT SKNT THTA THTE THTV
hPa m C C % g/kg deg knot K K K
—————————————————————————–
926.0 751 11.8 -8.2 24 2.23 0 0 291.3 298.1 291.7
925.0 748 11.6 -8.4 24 2.20 0 0 291.2 297.9 291.6
918.0 812 14.2 -9.8 18 1.99 58 3 294.5 300.7 294.8
909.0 895 14.0 -11.0 17 1.83 132 6 295.1 300.8 295.4
906.9 914 13.8 -11.0 17 1.83 150 7 295.1 300.9 295.4
874.3 1219 11.2 -11.5 19 1.83 180 15 295.5 301.3 295.8
850.0 1454 9.2 -11.8 21 1.83 180 17 295.8 301.6 296.1
819.0 1760 6.4 -12.6 24 1.78 184 26 296.0 301.6 296.3
812.1 1829 6.1 -13.6 23 1.65 185 28 296.3 301.6 296.6
782.3 2134 4.7 -18.2 17 1.17 200 41 298.0 301.9 298.2
772.0 2242 4.2 -19.8 16 1.04 202 43 298.6 302.1 298.8
762.0 2348 4.2 -32.8 5 0.32 204 46 299.8 300.9 299.8
753.6 2438 3.4 -33.6 5 0.30 205 48 299.8 300.9 299.9
728.0 2717 0.8 -36.2 4 0.24 210 48 300.0 300.8 300.0
725.6 2743 0.7 -33.1 6 0.33 210 48 300.1 301.3 300.2
714.0 2873 0.2 -17.8 24 1.33 212 48 301.0 305.3 301.2
700.0 3031 -1.3 -16.3 31 1.54 215 47 301.0 306.0 301.3
690.0 3145 -2.3 -15.3 36 1.70 216 49 301.1 306.6 301.4
673.0 3343 -2.9 -15.9 36 1.65 217 52 302.6 308.0 302.9
662.0 3473 -3.7 -14.7 42 1.86 219 55 303.1 309.2 303.5
654.0 3569 -4.7 -9.3 70 2.90 219 56 303.1 312.3 303.6
646.6 3658 -5.1 -9.8 70 2.82 220 58 303.6 312.5 304.1
644.0 3690 -5.3 -10.0 70 2.79 221 58 303.7 312.6 304.2
638.0 3763 -5.3 -13.3 53 2.16 223 59 304.6 311.6 304.9
631.0 3850 -4.9 -33.9 8 0.35 225 59 306.0 307.2 306.0
621.0 3975 -5.5 -43.5 3 0.13 228 60 306.7 307.2 306.7
606.0 4166 -6.9 -32.9 11 0.40 233 61 307.2 308.6 307.3
598.2 4267 -7.2 -41.0 5 0.18 235 61 308.0 308.6 308.0
592.0 4348 -7.5 -47.5 2 0.09 235 62 308.6 308.9 308.6
552.5 4877 -10.8 -48.1 3 0.09 235 68 310.8 311.1 310.8
510.0 5491 -14.7 -48.7 4 0.09 231 70 313.3 313.6 313.3
500.0 5640 -16.1 -48.1 5 0.10 230 70 313.4 313.7 313.4
498.0 5670 -16.3 -45.3 6 0.13 230 70 313.5 314.0 313.5
495.0 5716 -16.7 -36.7 16 0.33 231 71 313.5 314.8 313.6
487.0 5838 -17.9 -32.9 26 0.50 232 72 313.5 315.3 313.6
474.0 6041 -19.7 -31.7 34 0.57 234 74 313.7 315.8 313.8
472.0 6072 -20.1 -28.1 49 0.81 235 74 313.6 316.4 313.8
470.5 6096 -20.1 -25.8 60 1.00 235 74 313.9 317.4 314.1
467.0 6151 -20.1 -20.5 97 1.61 235 75 314.6 320.1 314.9
Begin 100 mph winds at these levels (444 mb, and 6525 meters) where the Altocumulus/Cirrocumulus were and over 120 mph where the Cirrus was (289 mb, and 9551 meters). The “82”in the first line is the wind speed in knots, which is 100 mph.
444.0 6525 -22.7 -24.5 85 1.19 235 82 315.8 320.0 316.1
433.2 6706 -22.7 -24.7 84 1.20 235 86 318.1 322.3 318.3
431.0 6744 -22.7 -24.7 84 1.21 235 86 318.5 322.8 318.8
417.0 6987 -24.1 -26.3 82 1.08 235 85 319.8 323.6 320.0
400.0 7290 -26.1 -30.5 66 0.76 235 83 321.0 323.8 321.1
392.0 7436 -26.9 -31.4 66 0.71 235 82 321.8 324.4 321.9
381.9 7620 -28.4 -32.5 68 0.66 235 81 322.2 324.6 322.3
345.0 8342 -34.5 -36.7 80 0.48 235 86 323.4 325.3 323.6
337.0 8505 -35.9 -39.2 72 0.38 235 87 323.7 325.2 323.8
324.0 8777 -38.3 -40.0 84 0.36 235 89 324.1 325.5 324.1
307.0 9144 -41.9 -43.8 81 0.26 235 92 324.1 325.1 324.1
305.0 9188 -42.3 -44.3 81 0.25 235 93 324.1 325.1 324.1
300.0 9300 -42.7 -44.9 79 0.23 235 96 325.1 326.0 325.1
293.0 9459 -43.3 -45.8 76 0.22 236 97 326.4 327.3 326.5
Cirrus likely here:
289.0 9551 -43.7 -45.3 84 0.23 236 98 327.1 328.1 327.2
287.0 9598 -44.1 -47.7 67 0.18 236 98 327.2 327.9 327.2
283.0 9692 -44.7 -48.6 65 0.16 237 99 327.7 328.3 327.7
281.0 9739 -44.7 -47.7 72 0.18 237 99 328.3 329.1 328.4
275.0 9883 -45.7 -50.1 61 0.14 237 100 328.9 329.5 328.9
261.0 10228 -48.3 -51.5 69 0.13 239 102 330.0 330.6 330.1
255.0 10381 -49.5 -53.0 67 0.11 239 103 330.5 330.9 330.5
250.0 10510 -50.5 -55.5 55 0.08 240 104 330.9 331.2 330.9
246.0 10615 -51.5 -57.5 49 0.07 240 104 330.9 331.2 330.9
231.0 11019 -55.5 -58.8 66 0.06 242 106 330.8 331.1 330.8
224.0 11214 -56.1 -63.1 41 0.04 243 107 332.8 333.0 332.8
211.0 11592 -58.3 -66.3 35 0.02 244 108 335.1 335.2 335.1
206.0 11743 -57.5 -65.5 35 0.03 244 108 338.7 338.8 338.7
201.4 11887 -56.3 -68.9 19 0.02 245 109 342.8 342.9 342.8
201.0 11898 -56.2 -69.2 18 0.02 245 109 343.2 343.2 343.2
200.0 11930 -55.9 -69.9 16 0.02 245 109 344.1 344.2 344.1
191.9 12192 -57.8 -74.0 11 0.01 245 98 345.1 345.2 345.1
189.0 12288 -58.5 -75.5 10 0.01 345.5 345.5 345.5
185.0 12422 -58.5 -76.5 8 0.01 347.6 347.7 347.6
OK, images being corrupted again as they are imported into Word Press, something that started a few days ago. You can see the corruption by the linear shadings in these first two photos
Quitting here. This is pretty frustrating when you put in so much work trying to be silly, but at the same time also want to have great, and interesting photos!
May resume blog someday when this problem is fixed.
Just cold ahead for the next 24-48 h followed by a nice warming trend. No rain now in sight over the next two weeks, outside of a few mountain snow flurries tomorrow. “Trough Bowl” seems to be shifting eastward, which means repeated cold snaps east of the Rockies. It be replaced by a humping ridge over us, something that means the storm track is bumped up to the Pac NW and northern Cal.
The End
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1K-H waves:
