System vanquishes sun for three days! Produces 2.28 inches in The Heights!

While on the first day, January 29th, the sun was only blocked by mid-level clouds, the rainy ones on January 30th and 31st provided a rain amount to remember here in the Sutherland Heights (and elsewhere–numerous records broken),  2.28 inches recorded over 24 h ending at 7 AM for the past three days,  beginning with the 30th:

0.19, 1.56, and 0.53 inches, ending this morning.

Weeds and wildflowers really happy, as will be free range cattle and horses that get out of their pens in the days and weeks ahead.

———-experimental module———————–

We have an interesting experiment in progress, one we didn’t know we were going to have re wildflowers this spring.

A local wildflower expert on a public TEEVEE station here was quoted as saying that NOVEMBER rain was critical to wildflower displays.  Hmmm.  OK, but we had a RAINLESS NOVEMBER here!

So, no wildflowers?  A limited display?  Some key ones don’t come up at all because November was rainless, while October, December and now January had generous rains?

I don’t think so.  My take is that everything will be hunky dory.  HELL, no one will be able to tell that November was rainless in our upcoming wildflower displays.

But the reader must be advised royally in this editorial side bar, that the writer is a cloud-maven, not a flower-maven as was expert quoted on public TEEVEE.

So, let the experiment unfold before our very eyes!  A chance for all to learn things!  Ans, how fun is that?

———————–end of experimental module——————

Too, I wonder how often three sunless days have occurred in southern Arizona?  Was probably a rare event that these past three days mimicked Seattle or other Pac NW sites west of the Cascade Mountains in winter so well.

BTW, in an important climate note concerning the Pacific Northwest, it rains more in Eugene, OR, aka Duckville, more than in Seattle, in case you’re a football player and are deciding between the Washington Huskies and the Oregon Donald Ducks prior to the upcoming LOI Day,  the National Holiday celebrating when high school kids sign Letters of Intent about where they are going to play college football.

And, continuing a high school theme,  don’t forget to watch football today;  the Seattle Seahawks,  who live right next door to the University of Washington Huskies, will be playing in a big game, so maybe you could get some valuable autographs while playing for the Huskies….  Just a thought.

Back to yesterday……

I think the most surprising part was how nearly stationary rain echoes kept giving all day yesterday.  So often, where clouds are almost stationary, they just rain out and thin.  But it just kept coming, at least here in Catalina.  And, as the storm came to a close, the expected sight of a frosty Lemmon appeared late in the day due to the gradually lowering snow level as the clouds suddenly lifted when a dry north wind rushed in.  Should be more of that dry north wind today.

No rain in sight now….  Corrals can dry out, which would be good.

BTW, by later yesterday the local washes were running reel good.  In case you missed the flows, here are some floody scenes:

1:48 PM. Here a Catholic priest in non-traditional garb inspects the CDO wash at East Wilds Road.
1:48 PM. Here a semi-retired Catholic priest in non-traditional garb inspects the CDO wash at East Wilds Road.

 

1:49 PM. Looking downstream from the CDO wash and E Wilds intersection.
1:49 PM. Looking downstream from the CDO wash and E Wilds intersection.
1:56 PM. Perhaps you're a person that prefers upstream views of flooding situations. Well, here it is, the CDO Wash looking upstream at East Wilds Road in Catalina. Trying to please everybody here.
1:56 PM. Perhaps you’re a person that has a preference for upstream views of flooding situations. Well, here it is, the CDO Wash looking upstream at East Wilds Road in Catalina. Trying to please everybody here, no matter what your preferences are.

Hiked out to the Sutherland Wash yesterday, arriving about 3 PM to take these docuphotos for you.   These were taken near the horse crossing that leads to the “Rusty Gate” and the Coronado National Forest boundary on the east side of the Wash.

Had not seen the Sutherland Wash this big before, in person.  Was much higher, though, during the September 8, 2014 event, as deduced from debris piles, when 4-5 inches fell in 3 h.

DSC_2567 DSC_2563 DSC_2562

 

Yesterday’s cloud

It was pretty much the same one all day I think.   We begin our cloud soliloquy with an unusual sighting of pure Stratus, present before the rain moved in again.

7:49 AM. Like a wall painted with Seattle gray paint, available at most fine hardware stores.
7:49 AM. Like a wall painted with Seattle gray paint, available at most fine hardware stores.  That is the appearance of true Stratus, and we had that yesterday after dawn.  Some fog, too, drifted through.  Remember, when its on the ground its called, “fog”, while when its above you the same thing is “Stratus.”  Estimated ceiling here, 100 feet.
DSC_2533
1:08 PM. In the afternoon the Stratus clouds began to break up at times, providing peek-aboo looks at Samaniego Ridge, which was kind of cool. Remember, that the Stratus clouds were not the ones precipitating, but rather the a layer of “Nimbostratus” above them was. However, as you know, a drop falling into a layer of Stratus clouds does not evaporate while it falls through them, AND, can even get bigger if some floating cloud drop can’t get out of the way (those larger than about 20 microns in diameter). So, to continue an educational stream here, while Stratus clouds, and Stratocumulus clouds may not produce precip beyond drizzle, they CAN help increase rain totals when they are present because raindrops are not evaporating when they fall through them, and raindrops may even get larger and the rainfall amount be more than otherwise due to the collection of some of the cloud droplets!

 

4:14 PM. Its STILL raining! Unbelievable for someone who thought this Nimbostratus layer would rain out and die in place. The low clouds were completely gone, swept away by a dry north wind.
4:14 PM. Its STILL raining! Unbelievable for someone who thought this Nimbostratus layer would rain out and die in place.   This is a really good shot of that layer that produced the rain that fell into lower Stratus and Stratocumulus clouds for most of the day.  Some connections between the two did occur in the heavier rain areas,  The low clouds were completely gone by this time, swept away by a dry north wind.
5:15 PM. As the Nimbostratus layer lifted, eventually to Altostratus opacus, if you really want to know, frosty The Lemmon came out showing that the snow level had declined during the day.
5:15 PM. As the Nimbostratus layer lifted, eventually to Altostratus opacus, if you really want to know, frosty The Lemmon came out showing that the snow level had declined during the day.

You may wish to pleasure yourself with another and very unusual occurrence of fog right now (7:02 AM) coming out of Tucson, heading toward Marana, south Oro Valley.   Very pretty scene this miniute.  Heading out now to capture on film.

The End

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.