It was a mind-boggling, hiking-challenging -30 F at Grand Canyon AP yesterday morning. Overhead of Flagstaff, at 5 AM MST yesterday it was -38 C (-36 F) and that temperature was the lowest temperature at 500 millibars in all of the US. It is really, really rare to see -38 C over Arizona! … Continue reading Arizona: Colorado temperatures, Colorado clouds
Sky Guide cloud chart poster and points of sale
Switzerland of Arizona
…sort of. Today’s storm ended after dumping a fabulous 1.03 inches here in “Catalina Heights.” Though it snowed very lightly here for several hours, the ground and the air were just a bit too warm for accumulations. However, the heavy precip dumped a heavy snow cover on the Catalina mountains just to the… Continue reading Switzerland of Arizona
Seattle comes to Catalina
Yes, if you’re from Seattle or the west side of the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, you are going to feel especially at home today. Its dark, even with the sun up, low ceilings and visibility, steady light rain mixed with snow, temperatures in the mid 30s to low 40s, well, that’s home… Continue reading Seattle comes to Catalina
Colorful announcement of a storm
This glorious sunrise today about 7:30 AM announces in its way that a strong storm is on the way. Why? First of all the clouds, “altocumulus lenticularis” are the lower, rippled clouds, combined with a higher, solid layer of altocumulus and altostratus clouds demonstrates that the air is moist to saturated over a great depth… Continue reading Colorful announcement of a storm
Catalina-Smog before the storm
Those of us awaking this morning were literally a-palled by the amount of smoke around. Not even Twin Peaks was visible, some 10 miles to the SW. See examples of smog in the photos below. Where did it come from? Back trajectories, ones that end in Tucson as of this morning at 5 AM shown… Continue reading Catalina-Smog before the storm
Welcome
Many of us here in SE Arizona will not be outside today no matter how nice it is because of historic sports emergencies that will require viewing of the TEEVEE at all times. However, if we do go outside to BBQ some hot dogs or prepare other similar worthwhile foods common to “football day”, there… Continue reading Welcome
Cirrus clouds overhead now
These clouds, the very first ones usually precursors of disturbances, are overhead now with the airways crossing Arizona evident in the “condensation trails” (contrails) showing their positions. FORTUNATELY (the writer despises contrails), there are few overhead of Catalina-Tucson area because there are few airways overhead. Most of our contrails are to the north of us,… Continue reading Cirrus clouds overhead now
Widipedia: Definition
A cloud is a visible mass of droplets of water or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere are studied in the nephology or cloud physics branch of meteorology.